End of an Era

1993 : I bought my first copy of what was called Championship Manager, Edited by Domark. Disk version for the Amiga.

Since that day, I bought championship manager every single year (Italian, Dutch, German, French versions, meaning buying the game multiple times as no multi leagues existed back then) and then switched naturally to Football Manager. I keep boxes and dvd boxes, all of them since 1993, a collection in a way. I have in total 27 different copies of this game!

Yesterday, I bought the 2012 version. Got home and could not install it, because of the date, but of course, because of the anti piracy and connection via steam option. I had a little time to have fun, I could not. Punished for being honest, what a system.

I’m 37 years old, for obvious reasons, kids, job, wife, activities I play less and less football manager, so buying it was closer to a ritual than anything. (I’m a psychiatrist so I know what it implies)

The only time I can play it, is when I go and visit my parents in law who live in a remote village in Brittany, France. They have no internet, meaning that I will not be able to play football manager anymore.

You say that if a ¼ of the people pirating the game would buy it, it would increase the sell by 100%.

Did you take into account the people who, tired of these protections (dvd issues on previous versions) will stop buying it? Not sure you did. What about people who do not want to use Steam? And people without internet access (I know, more and more inexistent, still). Not sure you did. The ironical part being that I’m sure an anti crack or whatever you call it will be out or is even out as I’m typing this, only disturbing the honest buyers again.

For all these reasons, after 20 years and 27 boxes, I will not buy football manager ever again, and the only reason I will activate 2012 is that I cannot return it as it has been open, again a system that affects honest people only.

Farewell, Football Manager.

A French fan, forced to wean….

why would you buy it if you could only play it once in a blue moon anyway ? and if you say you are a Psychiatrist, don't you have a work computer ? wouldn't you have 1 also at home or even a laptop ?

Once the game isregistered/authorised once on steam, you can put it onto offline mode & play it. Surely you have an internet connection somewhere where you can input the steam/product code just once into steam. You can play it anywhere in the world due to it being on Steam and not on your computer directly

It's great to hear from a long time customer, but I do feel I need to correct a couple of things in your post - please bear with me.

You aren't being "punished" - we're releasing the game on it's release date, at the same time, for absolutely everyone. The game isn't released yet, therefore no-one - at all - can play it. I am sure if you've been here a while you may recall the villification we receive when retailers break street dates and some people are playing their game earlier than others who have no opportunity to receive it. This is, quite simply, a system that treats everyone fairly by treating everyone the same. There is currently no crack available and there are no people playing the game while you aren't.

Also - internet connection is only required once, for activation - as is Steam. If you don't ever wish to use the game again, you can simply run it in offline mode - which it should default to if you don't have a connection anyway, provided you've logged in, installed, and activated. You'll be able to play the game absolutely fine when you visit your parents in law - a justification for which I have a lot of sympathy.

One last point - although you may not wish to continually play in online mode (there are some benefits to this that I won't go into here) you'll also find Steam extremely useful for downloading and installing patches - it takes the pain out of the process most effectively.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Cheers

Matt

Yawn.

Vilification not required. Will leave this open for now in case the OP has further questions. I'll close it if we start seeing vitriol, however. Cheers.

1993 : I bought my first copy of what was called Championship Manager, Edited by Domark. Disk version for the Amiga.

Since that day, I bought championship manager every single year (Italian, Dutch, German, French versions, meaning buying the game multiple times as no multi leagues existed back then) and then switched naturally to Football Manager. I keep boxes and dvd boxes, all of them since 1993, a collection in a way. I have in total 27 different copies of this game!

Yesterday, I bought the 2012 version. Got home and could not install it, because of the date, but of course, because of the anti piracy and connection via steam option. I had a little time to have fun, I could not. Punished for being honest, what a system.

I’m 37 years old, for obvious reasons, kids, job, wife, activities I play less and less football manager, so buying it was closer to a ritual than anything. (I’m a psychiatrist so I know what it implies)

The only time I can play it, is when I go and visit my parents in law who live in a remote village in Brittany, France. They have no internet, meaning that I will not be able to play football manager anymore.

You say that if a ¼ of the people pirating the game would buy it, it would increase the sell by 100%.

Did you take into account the people who, tired of these protections (dvd issues on previous versions) will stop buying it? Not sure you did. What about people who do not want to use Steam? And people without internet access (I know, more and more inexistent, still). Not sure you did. The ironical part being that I’m sure an anti crack or whatever you call it will be out or is even out as I’m typing this, only disturbing the honest buyers again.

For all these reasons, after 20 years and 27 boxes, I will not buy football manager ever again, and the only reason I will activate 2012 is that I cannot return it as it has been open, again a system that affects honest people only.

Farewell, Football Manager.

A French fan, forced to wean….

You do realise that you only have to be online once to play the game? You go online to activate it and then you're done, set steam to offline mode and play.

As for you having a rant at SI for requiring online activation, I could give you a list of hundreds of games that require the same thing as FM12, games which require you to be online to activate but not to play the game, they are not alone in doing this.

"although you may not wish to continually play in online mode (there are some benefits to this that I won't go into here)"

Where can I go to read these benefits please?

Patch updates and the steam achievements seem to be the main ones, no?

Steam is a form of DRM.. A very mild form in my opinion if you take into account all the awful DRM out there.

DRM is here to stay. Either you deal with it or stop playing PC games altogether.

its not going away any time soon.

If your pissed that you cant play a game before release.. well frankly that is your own problem..

QQing will not change things.

I'm personally very happy with the online activation this year. This will be my first year purchasing with Steam, as I've usually went out and got the game on the day of release.

It's much more convenient for me to download it via steam and I'll get to activate it at 12:01 am on the 21st . Saves me the hassle of going out to get the game tomorrow during the day, and I'll be up well past midnight tonight so I'll get to play it for a while!

I'd love to be playing the game at the mo, but as Matt says, release date isn't until tomorrow. In the past we have been spoiled, I think, by retailers who want a bigger slice of the FM 'Pie' and thus sell early to gain an advantage over their competitors, who then have to start selling as well, thus spoiling Sega and SI's plans of a nice clean launch. Well, congratulations to SI for working out a way of release that treats us all equally. Much as I'd like to be playing now, I can sign up to that.

By the Way, stirling work across the boards this morning Matt - SEGA, I hope Miles realises you need to be bought a beer for your efforts this morning !

One benefit of Steam is, if you need to /rage after a tough loss, you can vent your frustrations by plaing some Sonic and Sega All-Star Racing. I wish they still had Sonic Rally Revo on Steam, but that's a whole 'nother story.

One benefit of Steam is, if you need to /rage after a tough loss, you can vent your frustrations by plaing some Sonic and Sega All-Star Racing. I wish they still had Sonic Rally Revo on Steam, but that's a whole 'nother story.

Or even better, use your FM gear in TF2 which is also now free to play

Or even better, use your FM gear in TF2 which is also now free to play

TF2 is like watching a pack of sewer rats on acid.

Sonic is pure, clean fun. Looking forward to Sonic Generations.

just go to macdonalds for ten minutes in your lunch break, with your laptop, activate your fm then put steam into offline mode, and your all sorted.

some people just like complaining...

Scene from Step brothers

Customer " So can we play it before its release "

SI " everyone will be able to play on release "

Customer " Sooooooo does it mean we can get it early "

SI " as ive said everyone will get the same chance to play it at the same time when its released "

Customer " Soooo is that a yes or a no "

SI " Im not making myself Clear NO ! "