Press Conference Feedback

Overall I like the press conference feature and think it has some value in the game. However, there are a few things that need improving.

1. Some of the questions feel like a questionnaire where they make a statement and you have to say whether you agree or disagree. It ruins the illusion of a real conversation and makes it obvious you are playing a game. For example consider the following question:

You have taken charge of Portsmouth at a time when it is expected that Sylvain Distin may well be leaving the club. Do you think you will have an uphill struggle to keep him?

The answers are along the lines of (don't know the exact words other than the one I answered):

I couldn't agree more

I agree somewhat

I'm not talking about that

I disagree somehwat

I couldn't disagree more

It comes across as very clumsy. What I would expect is more along the lines of:

Once a player's head is turned it is better for the team if he goes.

We hope to keep him here, but there is bound to be interest in good players.

It's news to me. He is still in our plans.

I don't think it will be a problem.

It's just typical media lies. He's going nowhere.

There are other similar types of answers like "That's quite possible" in response to "What are your chances of success?" and "I feel it's fairly important" in response to "How important is his injury in relation to your ambitions?"

2. The follow on questions are a bit robotic, e.g. "You positive response suggests..." Who talks like that?

3. Along the same lines, the beginning of questions seem to be unnecesarily wordy, e.g. "Would you agree with the assessment that you already have an idea which players you like and those that you aren't so happy with?" What's wrong with "Do you have an idea which players..."?

4. I have been questioned about who will win the title twice by 12th September. Fair enough it remembers my answer, but I am not going to have changed my mind after three games.

5. "I think it might be a positive influence" almost never fits the question. Very odd answer.

6. There are some repeat questions in the same press conference, e.g. "What do you consider the strongest area of the team" followed by "You appear to be rather indecisive on this issue. Your positive response suggests you have confidence in your players. What do you consider to be the strongest area of the team." I thought it might be because I was evasive the first time, but the middle answer is "I am fully confident that all areas are strong and up for the challenge.

Other repeat questions are "What did you make of his performance" in relation to a player scoring a hat-trick and "How did you rate his performance" in relation to the same player being man of the match.

7. Why no questions in the new job press conference about what areas of the team need strengthening? That needs to be more than the usual five answers, e.g. GK, defence, midfield, strikers, depth in each of those areas, depth in general, not likely to strenghten, don't have the money to strenghten, need to assess the squad first. Also needs to be tick boxes rather than radio buttons as it could be more than one answer.

8. The follow up news items are very functional in their wording, e.g. "A journalist from BB Sport chose the main focus point for the conference" followed by the question. Basically we can see how the report is constructed, i.e.

Explain the manager's mood and the context of the news item

Reiterate the question that was asked

Reiterate the answer given

Speculate on the player or team's reaction to the question

No news report is written like that. It should be possible to convey all that information within a properly written report.

9. The news item only ever picks up on one of the answers, invariably the one I didn't give a text response to! If I answer 10 questions then I expect more than one answer to be quoted. If you can link the questions together, then why not the answers?

Very good post and similar to one I was going to make but I haven't had enough time to check out the conferences more than the first two.

You make some very valid points and I have noticed about it seeming to be too impersonal with answers such as 'I'd agree with that' etc.

I was asked who would win the PL, to see what happened, I said Stoke. The problem here being that I had no way to show if I was being serious or not. Fm took it as though I was being deadly serious.

Very good post and similar to one I was going to make but I haven't had enough time to check out the conferences more than the first two.

You make some very valid points and I have noticed about it seeming to be too impersonal with answers such as 'I'd agree with that' etc.

I was asked who would win the PL, to see what happened, I said Stoke. The problem here being that I had no way to show if I was being serious or not. Fm took it as though I was being deadly serious.

I was asked League 2, and said Luton - who are starting on -30, of course. Not even a "New Shrewsbury manager clearly insane" headline!

We have to admit that the frequency of the conferences is excellent. Not too many, not too few. However, some points are very well spotted. Maybe in the future versions... we could see some changes.

Yeah, the frequency is good but the choice of answers are really poor. I think there should be more variety and although there is an "extra comment" box at the bottom, it doesn't really do anything. I once typed something in there and it showed nothing :confused:

Thanks for the reply on this Nick, always nice to have someone from SI comment on good threads/ideas.

I've got to say that I was very sceptical about the press conferences when I read about them but have been pleasently suprised at how much I've enjoyed them.

Press Conferences remind me of doing a survey on the telephone.

I agree, I somewhat agree, I somewhat disagree, or I disagree.

It is just boring providing answers that don't even reflect the question properly.

Press Conferences remind me of doing a survey on the telephone.

I agree, I somewhat agree, I somewhat disagree, or I disagree.

It is just boring providing answers that don't even reflect the question properly.

As Nick said, it is a module that requires a very large workload in order to integrate in the manner it has been. It is something that in future versions will be vastly expanded upon to the degree that will see many more questions and answers, with more specific answers to certain questions.

Nick - Is the design of each module down to whomever is assigned to implement? I'm sure there is a group to approve things, but what about the original design?

Interesting - and many, many thanks for the reply (I know its not too important to be answering my silly questions during the release of FM).

Having said that...

Do you not think its difficult to design, implement, collate feedback and bug-fix modules? No doubt each coder has multiple modules to look after which places further strain on this approach. I can only begin to imagine how much of a design headache FM could be! It just appears to me that there is nobody at SI looking after the whole design (in a full-time capacity) and that its designed and implemented by the coding team. Nothing wrong with that on smaller games, but FM has been massive for years. Its a case of wearing multiple hats no?

Problem is - if you had someone looking after the design full-time, they might be completely rubbish and cause a different set of problems. Maybe a change of roles for whichever coder becomes bored of his current position first

Anyway...

A good thread and it's nice to see some feedback on the module.

Obviously as the first iteration of press conference the aim was to start with something manageable and look to expand it as the series progresses. There are some good ideas here although the implementation - and certainly a couple of the points made are ambitious - is always the tricky part. There has been a massive amount of text added to merely provide the basis for this module and that's before taking into account the trigger points and journalist ai etc. Given that our game is also translated into a dozen languages that's a lot of work and time. I haven't personally seen another management game which has attempted press conferences on this scale but I would be interested in taking a look if anyone has seen something out there.

Always keen to hear people's opinions and listen to feedback and I would like to implement as many things as possible - several things are on our to-do lists already.

To be honest most of the issues are 'just' wording - it doesn't really disguise the inner workings. I say 'just' in inverted commas because I spent some time with the media editor and I know it is massively time consuming. The depth is actually very impressive and it's good to see that you are already planning improvements for next year.