Dear Miles

This is not a massive rant about how FM09 demo is rubbish but one or two things have hit me as a bad piece of communication

1. Tons and tons of 'what we want to see in the future Football Managers' threads have been created and most of us addicts were hoping that you would listen and hopefully take alot of them on board.. But i hate to say that it looks like our vast amount of comments have just been overlooked .... PLEASE TAKE OUR COMMENTS ONBOARD ... By the fans for the fans

2. having a tester group for the demo/game would have saved alot of hassel rather than getting many unhappy players complain.

This is not a huge rant but i just felt compelled to say something, and unfortunately it looks like i may just get a player update patch and keep playing 08.

FM09 = a downgrade compared to FM08 ( sooo farrr )

So you want them to listen to each and every one of the "tons and tons" of threads with new ideas for FM.

well obviously not them all ..... there is a final one floating around somewhere ..... flick through a few pages ... pick some out at random

IMO they did listen to us. Here's some things which we stated.

1) Regens need fixing

2) Transfer system needs fixing

3) AM feedback

4) 3D

5) Confidence needs fixing

6) PPM training

I've seen all these things being asked for and we got them. They can't put in all that we request.

well obviously not them all ..... there is a final one floating around somewhere ..... flick through a few pages ... pick some out at random

So now what you're suggesting is they sift through the threads and pick some, is that not what they have done with press conferences, 3D etc? Or is this just another example of how different people view different things as important additions, and because there's something you wanted added that hasn't been added, it translates as SI not adding anything?

I've seen all these things being asked for and we got them. They can't put in all that we request.

And if they did, no-one would have the system requirements

This is not a massive rant about how FM09 demo is rubbish but one or two things have hit me as a bad piece of communication

1. Tons and tons of 'what we want to see in the future Football Managers' threads have been created and most of us addicts were hoping that you would listen and hopefully take alot of them on board.. But i hate to say that it looks like our vast amount of comments have just been overlooked .... PLEASE TAKE OUR COMMENTS ONBOARD ... By the fans for the fans

2. having a tester group for the demo/game would have saved alot of hassel rather than getting many unhappy players complain.

This is not a huge rant but i just felt compelled to say something, and unfortunately it looks like i may just get a player update patch and keep playing 08.

FM09 = a downgrade compared to FM08 ( sooo farrr )

1 = they do trawl the forums, many of the features do come from these forums (fog of war being the most famous example). Do you want them to comment on every, or even most posts? Because, that would be unfeasible. Remember, they all have full time jobs!

2 = They do have a tester group. They don't release beta demos any more, because last time they did it one or more people (from these forums I hasten to add) leaked the demo code. So I can't blame them for not doing that anymore.

Not a direct response to the OP, but a general comment on the theme.

Too many people think THEIR vision of football manager is the right one, the ultimate game, the one FM should create. Unfortunately, several things limit SI in creating this ultimate game. 1) the ability to program so many "new" features over a mere 9 months, and more importantly 2) you will NEVER please everyone all the time. NEVER. Like Neji said, they've implemented a lot of ideas over the years.

That said, I do think that the demo has been tested by people with no eyes, no experience of previous FMs or has only been tested by the programmers who were too close to their product to see the glaring errors. Or they knew about the errors and released it early under pressure from SI's financial overlords.

This last point sounds the most plausible. How many of us work in industries where a fabulous new piece of software (say an accounts payable system) is supposed to revolutionise the way we work, only for it to be released riddled with errors because the project manager had a deadline to meet "or else"?

I've only played a few hours on the demo because I've been travelling/trying to check my specs are right, but from what I've read and seen (in those few hours) there's a lot going into the day-1 patch. At least we all hope so.

1. Tons and tons of 'what we want to see in the future Football Managers' threads have been created and most of us addicts were hoping that you would listen and hopefully take alot of them on board.. But i hate to say that it looks like our vast amount of comments have just been overlooked .... PLEASE TAKE OUR COMMENTS ONBOARD ... By the fans for the fans

They already do this.

2. having a tester group for the demo/game would have saved alot of hassel rather than getting many unhappy players complain.

They already do this.

Happy days.

I think SI do listen, but they just can't put everything into the game, they have to make their own decisions, cause a lot of people's requests are contradictory to eachother's so ultimatlely they have to rely on their own judgment.

But for instance, the press conference feature is something I have dreamed about since I first started playing the series, I even posted years ago about why I think this would be a good feature, many others wanted it too, and SI included it. Many other things they have put in too, but we can't have everything, but I honestly think they are one of the best companies for listening to their consumer that I have come across. There's not many companies where the main people involved in the company have regular communication with it's fanbase, so we should respect and appreciate the fact they do this.

The second point sounds valid, somehow maybe the injuries bug could have been eliminated before the game went gold. In my opinion though, the game is a step foward, potentially at least, injuries bug free, we have a lot of new features implemented that add something to the FM experience and which also can be enhanced in future versions.

FOOtball Manager is the best game ever :D:D

Sub, why spam everything, I hope you get banned, muppet

OP, just take a look at any other game on the market, how many fo those have had as much contact with fans and players of the game, as well as actually implementing some of our ideas. P.S. maybe they would be able to look over the majority of threads of people such as yourself refrain from duplicate threading of 'rants'

SI trawl through the wishlist and look for popular ideas. Also, the 3D decision was made after a poll that members on these forums took part in.

I actually do believe the BETA team should be expanded; maybe to the regulars on these forums, just a bit of customer testing, do it like the Authentication, you get a unique code and it only works once, then it would be hard for it get leaked.

It's an old thread that was dug up. Can we let this die now?