Deselecting 'Use Real Players'

Just wondering if this feature's been improved at all in FM12? I can remember it was poor in FM11, but haven't given it a go yet in FM12.

Just wondering if this feature's been improved at all in FM12? I can remember it was poor in FM11, but haven't given it a go yet in FM12.

Why do you think it was poor and how exactly it needs improving?

Does the feature not just change the names of all players in the game to fake names, but keeps the original attributes?

Why on earth would anyone want to not use real players? I see no gain from only having fake players in the game. Am I missing something?

Depends what you enjoy, i dont use that feature, but i enjoy FM a lot more when the real players start to retire, its horses for courses really.

Does the feature not just change the names of all players in the game to fake names, but keeps the original attributes?

Exactly that.

Has it always been like that? I seem to recall getting some extremely unbalanced results when unchecking "use real players" a few versions back

I didn't check it for the last iterations, but in earlier versions, the CAs and PAs of the players were retained, but age, nationality and sometimes position were altered (and the names, of course).

@ bolulu: After starting a few saves the game may become repetitive as you know which players to be after at the start as the good prospects who are available on the cheap and happy to join also low rep clubs are the same every time. Just think of the huge bandwith of clubs for which Bandalowski is a very good first and available window signing.

By using fake players you can avoid that, as long as the systems works well enough to actually change this (for which just changing names, and maybe age and nationality, is simply not enough).

I actually try avoiding this by usually holidaying the game for 3 years before adding myself to it as a manager.

I never use real players- doing so means my real-world opinions of them colours my judgement. If Emile Heskey was available for a transfer having just scored 35 goals in the first FM season, I don't want to be thinking "...but Emile Heskey is pants!" when considering a bid for him.

And to answer the OP, no, it isn't any better than in previous versions- certainly for the bigger names, it's still relatively simple to work out who's who with "Use Real Players" deselected- "Marco Bessa" is a Portuguese AM/S in my current game who plays for Real Madrid, with Man Utd as a favourite club (with "fake" players, no history is shown). I can't imagine who he might possibly be. *cough*

Why do you think it was poor and how exactly it needs improving?

In FM11 I became England manager in the save at the time Rio Ferdinand was captain. So when I had to decide on my captain, I had an Italian centre half who played for Manchester United as my captain... Then when I stripped him of the captaincy to give to an English player, he got annoyed at me. It just didn't make sense. Basically they use exactly the same players but change the nationalities, names and maybe a few attributes. It's so easy to tell who's who.

Why on earth would anyone want to not use real players? I see no gain from only having fake players in the game. Am I missing something?

It gets boring starting again and again in the same season with the same players, the same managers getting sacked at the same point in every season. I can't get into a long term game at the moment so I keep starting again. It's getting so boring so I just wanted a change.