press, player and team interaction poll

alrighty then, i am intrigued how the gamming community see these features in the game and what they basically think of them in their current state.

a) i´m a big fan. i like the features and think it all works very well. the way the questions are set up is well made and enhances my gamming experience. realistic enough to enjoy.

b) i think it should be toned down so it is not so influencial. maybe it even needs a total overhaul, because in reality i don´t want to see the feature totally disappear. maybe it can influence a few players, but let´s try to make it more realistic.

c) get rid of it. it is just pointless features and i would rather not bother with them. it´s simply unrealistic.

personally, i voted for b). i am a little in two minds over these features, so it would be nice to hear what others think

BIG from me

A, but a little bit of B too.

Interactions with press and players have a large effect in real life, so I think it's important to represent that in the game. One thing I will say, however, is that it can have too large of an effect on performances, morale etc.

I never used to do press conferences, but I have an almost 100% record for them nowadays, and I've noticed a massive improvement in performances.

Player/board interactions are good as you can make players change their minds, learn new moves, ask for money, etc. Press conferences and press interactions in general I just ignore. Conferences are just too repetitive clicking the same answer 95% of the time. I just let the ass man do it. And I couldn't care less what some CPU manager says before or after game. I never respond or initiate any comment, waste of time. I just thrash them in the match and that's all that counts.

Overhaul. There may be loads of questions for press conferences, but it feels like I've only ever seen about a dozen of them. Make it more interesting, make it possible to say different things to the press as you do to your players, and it'll probably be a bit more popular.

The questions/answers might be repetitive in their wordings - the effects are not, which is far more important. I'll vote for YES, PLEASE, as clearly SI are on the right track at the very least. Now with every player, staff member, journalist, manager and person essentially being there into the game world to interact, bond or break up with, SI are slowly approaching a level of role-playing depth previously unheard of in an offline football management game. Even if this might still not be as developed as older features, such as the match engine, there is some seriously interesting stuff in there that screams to be developed further throughout the coming years.

Criticism were criticism is due - but sometimes some of the criticism directed towards the game makes me wonder what management games people have been blessed with all along. I want them too. ;-)

I'd get rid of press conferences all together but I like the player and team interactions.

I'd get rid of press conferences all together but I like the player and team interactions.

that would put you a little in the overhaul category. i agree to a degree, i wouldn´t mind if press conferences were more or less excluded in the lower leagues where it would resemble more the real world. it could be an interresting feature if it is a game of some importance. like derby´s, or big matches, maybe those relegation battles. i don´t think the same 12 questions for everymatch is really that appealing, maybe have a different set for the occasion you are in or something.

I think generally it's along the right lines, but I'd like to see everything a player says be answerable in some way.

An example of this is that I recently beat Villa 3-1 as Arsenal, but Nasri wasted some chances in the 1st half and got told he was 'disappointing'. He later moaned about the team talk, but at no point was I able to respond to this. The press conference instead first asked me why RVP was poor in front of goal, and then asked what I though of his excellent performance!

I think it's a decent start, but there needs to be a lot more options to choose from, especially team talks and press interaction. I think there's a good number of options in player interaction, I just wish they weren't greyed out all the time!

I think it's a decent start, but there needs to be a lot more options to choose from, especially team talks and press interaction. I think there's a good number of options in player interaction, I just wish they weren't greyed out all the time!

yeah, i noticed that too. it is a little strange that you include something just to make it unavailable

I think its a good feature, and it is a part of a football managers role, so it does need to be included.

The problem I have is it does get very repetitive, and I find myself scan reading the questions and answers as I know them already.

Its a good start, but might prove difficult to refine into!

My feeling is that FM11 has taken the emphasis away from something with thousands of options (tactics) and placed it on something with six (morale).

Especially as Second from top or second from bottom are almost always the correct response.

I think the game is stronger for having for having the mental aspect in there but it's too important and would need to be a lot, lot, lot more complex to be realistic or challenging.

I went for a) because well I'm a fan!

However I do think it needs to be more flexible with more options. Maybe for each instruction there could be more than 1 scentence (personallity/situation dependant) to try an avoid the repetiveness a little

My feeling is that FM11 has taken the emphasis away from something with thousands of options (tactics) and placed it on something with six (morale).

Especially as Second from top or second from bottom are almost always the correct response.

I think the game is stronger for having for having the mental aspect in there but it's too important and would need to be a lot, lot, lot more complex to be realistic or challenging.

I've found that, 2nd top, or 2nd bottom, everytime!

I've voted "get rid of it", because the technological advances that would be required to make this part of the game fun are probably still decades away.

At the very least, it would be nice if the number of press conferences was toned down severely.

The player interaction is also a bit meh, but no one forces you to use it. With the press conferences it's either go yourself or have your ass man wreak havoc; a third option (that has absolutely no effects, neither positive nor negative) would be much appreciated until FM comes a bit closer to passing the Turing test.

I've voted "get rid of it", because the technological advances that would be required to make this part of the game fun are probably still decades away.

Not really! The AI in various strategy games is very good and we have chess simulators out there that can beat most amateur players. The technology exists, but the way it has been implemented is miles off the mark.

Someone needs to sit down and pretty much look into the whole interaction feature - or, as I might quite meanly say, "do it properly".

Not really! The AI in various strategy games is very good and we have chess simulators out there that can beat most amateur players. The technology exists, but the way it has been implemented is miles off the mark.

Someone needs to sit down and pretty much look into the whole interaction feature - or, as I might quite meanly say, "do it properly".

This

a HUGE feature for me. Actually it's one of the features I play this game. If there wasn't one, I'd still be playing FM08

Not really! The AI in various strategy games is very good and we have chess simulators out there that can beat most amateur players. The technology exists, but the way it has been implemented is miles off the mark..

But the AI required for chess is very simple - I can program that. The AI required to pass the Turing test is not - which is why no one has passed it. Even the strategy games suffer from the same AI issues: lack of foresight, inability to react and learn etc. I've yet to play a game where the AI is even halfway human-like. Remember, upping the difficulty levels in most of these games just makes the AI stronger, not more intelligent - which goes to show how hard it actually is to program decent AI.

If we're supposed to have "believable" interactions that aren't just clicking on a few options, the players need to behave like humans and we need to be able to interact with them in that way.

Not really! The AI in various strategy games is very good and we have chess simulators out there that can beat most amateur players. The technology exists, but the way it has been implemented is miles off the mark.

Someone needs to sit down and pretty much look into the whole interaction feature - or, as I might quite meanly say, "do it properly".

Seconded!

The whole interaction portion of the game manages to be both tedious AND convoluted...

We all sort of see how the "2nd top, 2nd bottom" pattern is the least likely to have disastrous effects, but the point is we, as managers, should know what we're talking about...

You don't have the likes of Mourinho second-guessing themselves while putting on a show of a press conference or talking to his players before/during the match... Instead I suppose most of us do click on the buttons with the same feeling we'd do if we were playing videopoker...

We have a strategy in mind, but who knows what'll happen...

And that's just keeping it to the "action-->reaction" portion of interactions... Good luck if you want to REPLY to others' comments...

So to keep it short and sweet: interaction dynamics are in dire need of an overhaul, with more emphasis on actual "dialogues" instead of one-way remarks, and with a much clearer definition of cause and effect.

I've voted "get rid of it", because the technological advances that would be required to make this part of the game fun are probably still decades away.

At the very least, it would be nice if the number of press conferences was toned down severely.

The player interaction is also a bit meh, but no one forces you to use it. With the press conferences it's either go yourself or have your ass man wreak havoc; a third option (that has absolutely no effects, neither positive nor negative) would be much appreciated until FM comes a bit closer to passing the Turing test.

A workable press option for me would be if a comment was automatically released on your behalf (not ass man) after the game similar to the media pundit's and the press post match summary. It's usually obvious what a player's response to a result will be. So after an expected 3-0 home win, "Vane said he was pleased after a good home win." If the goals were scored by one player then it could add. "Vane said he was very pleased with Player X's hatrick and thinks he's in great form." After an unexpected home defeat, "Vane said he was unhappy with a poor home defeat." If it's a heavy defeat then say very unhappy. Beat a side that's much better on paper then it's "Vane said he was ecstatic about the unexpected win." Just a thought.

I voted get rid of them, because my distaste them, but since I don't believe SI is going to do that (especially with Miles saying he loves them), I have no problem with tone it down and overhaul. What makes it even more boring then real life is always having answers that schedule as agree, slightly agree, neutral, slightly disagree and disagree and has people say the second choices are always the best ones. There is no dynamic sense in the responses to say it his my dream job, because of this, this and this. You don't see managers answering the responses with dozend words on his reply, but then again reading five responses that is small text is also that viable.

So not sure how to advise Si to improve it to me to have interest in Press Conferences. Perhaps it is one of those occasion that fantasy can help improve experience of game.

Seconded!

The whole interaction portion of the game manages to be both tedious AND convoluted...

We all sort of see how the "2nd top, 2nd bottom" pattern is the least likely to have disastrous effects, but the point is we, as managers, should know what we're talking about...

You don't have the likes of Mourinho second-guessing themselves while putting on a show of a press conference or talking to his players before/during the match... Instead I suppose most of us do click on the buttons with the same feeling we'd do if we were playing videopoker...

We have a strategy in mind, but who knows what'll happen...

And that's just keeping it to the "action-->reaction" portion of interactions... Good luck if you want to REPLY to others' comments...

So to keep it short and sweet: interaction dynamics are in dire need of an overhaul, with more emphasis on actual "dialogues" instead of one-way remarks, and with a much clearer definition of cause and effect.

I'm sort of reminded of 24 (the game) where there is a torture - I mean - interrogation scene, where Jack Bauer has to interrogate a suspect. He needs to keep the pressure up but not too high (otherwise they will pass out, faint, make too much noise or become unreasonable) but not too low (otherwise Jack gets nothing out of the torture - I mean - interrogation).

So we could have something similar - imagine a scene where you are sitting with your captain and some other players, as well as a club representative. Each person has a box above their head with a graph and several lines, perhaps representing things like "confidence", "morale" or "confusion". The objective is to keep confidence high (but not too high), keep morale high, and keep confusion low. The club representative indicates how you are perceived by the world. Each response you make will affect these lines, and some players might be affected more than others - Rio Ferdinand, for example, will generally not be affected too badly by negative words, but your new 16-year-old signing who has wet his pants is probably going to have mood swings all over the place.

Then we might have a box for the media, perhaps with a graph and lines for "happiness" (i.e. the manager is answering questions = ), "sceptical" (i.e the manager is dodging questions or contradicting himself = ) or "interest" (i.e. the manager is playing it safe = ).

You can pick who you want to come along - but you have to note that some players are better at speaking to the media than others, and this will make happy/upset the media as appropriate. For example, if you bring a player who doesn't think before he speaks, he could annoy the media by talking for too long (or excite them because he lets slip your latest tactics or team talk without thinking). If you bring a player who doesn't speak the language of the media the media may get annoyed as it drags the session on with a translator (although if the player is Lionel Messi in England, it will hardly matter). If you bring the same players again and again the media may get bored. If you don't bring your newest signings out the media might get annoyed. If you have a history of annoying the media they will initially start off annoyed or ask more difficult questions, and perhaps in your inbox you will get nastier stories and rumours.

This is understandably tedious so I think we should have the ability to "holiday" through the press conference, and more experienced managers are less likely to hurt the team whilst holidaying. This implies that we should know the correct option or something - so we could have something like a hovering function, where if we hover over a remark, we can have a rough idea of what will happen - and the more experienced you get, the more accurate this prediction is. Alternatively, you can send your assistant, who may have a certain style - we should also have the option to force the assistant to answer in a certain way. For example, "do not reply to any questions about Ashley Cole falling out with a member of the staff." We should also be able to get media training, which improves the predictions of each media choice.

I really don't think that anyone who simply chooses '2nd top or 2nd bottom' answers without thinking has grasped how the communication modules work. As with all elements of FM, you get out of it what you put in. These tools can all be used to increase / reduce pressure at significant moments in the season and can result in fantastic performances in key matches if used carefully and logically. 2nd top / 2nd bottom might allow people to not screw things up too bad in a general sense, but it doesn't help the team deal with these key moments at all.

A little from A & B really I like it as its an essential part of modern football but I feel that It could be done differently, I imagine the problem is that SI will struggle to come up with a way that's going to please everyone if they do decide to change it. There will always be people who hate the look and feel of something

I really don't think that anyone who simply chooses '2nd top or 2nd bottom' answers without thinking has grasped how the communication modules work. As with all elements of FM, you get out of it what you put in. These tools can all be used to increase / reduce pressure at significant moments in the season and can result in fantastic performances in key matches if used carefully and logically. 2nd top / 2nd bottom might allow people to not screw things up too bad in a general sense, but it doesn't help the team deal with these key moments at all.

Maybe so, but the communication modules seem to work in mysterious and convoluted ways to the point "playing safe" and going with 2nd top and 2nd bottom is the best option for those who are playing Football Manager and not Football Motivator

How can I guess which option is going to prevent a "Balanced" striker from becoming overconfident, nervous or "just ok" before a home fixture he's supposed/expected to do well in, possibly scoring one or two?

What about a "Farily Determined" striker on a 800 minutes goal drought and with Poor morale? "I have faith"? "No pressure?" "Go out there and score FFS!"? And what to say in press conference? "nah, it's just a bad day" (the 10th in a row...) or what else?

The least about the messy Private Chats the better... Randomness of the best quality.

Actually I suspect we're supposed to keep a spreadsheet with every reaction of every player in our squad just to stand a chance of not ****ing it up big time.

If the communication modules are to stay the way they are, we'd at least use an in-depth explaination, as instinct and common sense seem to be absent in FM Universe

I really don't think that anyone who simply chooses '2nd top or 2nd bottom' answers without thinking has grasped how the communication modules work. As with all elements of FM, you get out of it what you put in. These tools can all be used to increase / reduce pressure at significant moments in the season and can result in fantastic performances in key matches if used carefully and logically. 2nd top / 2nd bottom might allow people to not screw things up too bad in a general sense, but it doesn't help the team deal with these key moments at all.

The thing is. with the number of variables in play, it is hard to assess what the effect of the interaction module is, especially as they are not linked in a comprehensible way sometimes

e.g. does a run-of-the-mill teamtalk affect morale? How do you gauge over-confidence outside of matches etc.

As such, you can't blame people for not putting in effort in,

if the result of their painstaking effort is not immediately clear,

and even worse result in what they deem as random results.

If you asked me this a year ago I would have said get rid, but now I guess I'm getting used to it I dont mind so much. Although there is always room for improvement, so I would go B.

A little from A & B really I like it as its an essential part of modern football but I feel that It could be done differently, I imagine the problem is that SI will struggle to come up with a way that's going to please everyone if they do decide to change it. There will always be people who hate the look and feel of something

I agree with this. As stated, the 2nd top or 2nd bottom response is a default get out clause most of the time. But if used properly, the response can be very influential.

Maybe so, but the communication modules seem to work in mysterious and convoluted ways to the point "playing safe" and going with 2nd top and 2nd bottom is the best option for those who are playing Football Manager and not Football Motivator

How can I guess which option is going to prevent a "Balanced" striker from becoming overconfident, nervous or "just ok" before a home fixture he's supposed/expected to do well in, possibly scoring one or two?

What about a "Farily Determined" striker on a 800 minutes goal drought and with Poor morale? "I have faith"? "No pressure?" "Go out there and score FFS!"? And what to say in press conference? "nah, it's just a bad day" (the 10th in a row...) or what else?

The least about the messy Private Chats the better... Randomness of the best quality.

Actually I suspect we're supposed to keep a spreadsheet with every reaction of every player in our squad just to stand a chance of not ****ing it up big time.

If the communication modules are to stay the way they are, we'd at least use an in-depth explaination, as instinct and common sense seem to be absent in FM Universe

See, I don't have any of these apprehensions, fears or problems... I experiment with my team to see which actions produces which reactions from which players at which times so when it comes to "How can I guess which option is going to prevent a "Balanced" striker from becoming overconfident, nervous or "just ok" before a home fixture he's supposed/expected to do well in, possibly scoring one or two?" I know the answer

Maybe so, but the communication modules seem to work in mysterious and convoluted ways to the point "playing safe" and going with 2nd top and 2nd bottom is the best option for those who are playing Football Manager and not Football Motivator

How can I guess which option is going to prevent a "Balanced" striker from becoming overconfident, nervous or "just ok" before a home fixture he's supposed/expected to do well in, possibly scoring one or two?

What about a "Farily Determined" striker on a 800 minutes goal drought and with Poor morale? "I have faith"? "No pressure?" "Go out there and score FFS!"? And what to say in press conference? "nah, it's just a bad day" (the 10th in a row...) or what else?

The least about the messy Private Chats the better... Randomness of the best quality.

Actually I suspect we're supposed to keep a spreadsheet with every reaction of every player in our squad just to stand a chance of not ****ing it up big time.

If the communication modules are to stay the way they are, we'd at least use an in-depth explaination, as instinct and common sense seem to be absent in FM Universe

If the answers were clearcut and always the same it wouldn't be a very good game. Your relationship with the player, the nature of the upcoming match, the players current morale level, his personality, his recent form etc might all be affecting him in different ways and colour your communication with him. If he doesn't respect you, it probably matters very little what you say to him. He'll be nervous before a big match and complacent against weaker teams anyway. However, if you have established rapport and discipline, you can begin to really shape his, and the team's, performances.

Looking at individual question/answers is not the right way of looking at it anyway. You need a logical communicative strategy for the team. Preparation for the next match starts with the post-match teamtalk for the previous one. Your overall strategy options are simple (need them to play better / happy with the display / wary of complacency). Talk to the team in a consistent manner aligned to one of these basic strategies between matches and deal with individual problems as and when they come up.

The whole 'what do I say here in order to ensure I get this reaction there' missing the whole point. You need a logical, holistic communication strategy, rather than fruitlessly searching for a magic 'press A to get B' pattern.

i find press conferences a total chore, same old questions that i no longer need to read the answers to because i already know which box im going to click automatically. do love being able to talk to my players though.

I'm sort of reminded of 24 (the game) where there is a torture - I mean - interrogation scene, where Jack Bauer has to interrogate a suspect. He needs to keep the pressure up but not too high (otherwise they will pass out, faint, make too much noise or become unreasonable) but not too low (otherwise Jack gets nothing out of the torture - I mean - interrogation).

So we could have something similar - imagine a scene where you are sitting with your captain and some other players, as well as a club representative. Each person has a box above their head with a graph and several lines, perhaps representing things like "confidence", "morale" or "confusion". The objective is to keep confidence high (but not too high), keep morale high, and keep confusion low. The club representative indicates how you are perceived by the world. Each response you make will affect these lines, and some players might be affected more than others - Rio Ferdinand, for example, will generally not be affected too badly by negative words, but your new 16-year-old signing who has wet his pants is probably going to have mood swings all over the place.

There was actually a football manager game that took this approach (for team talks). It's marginally more interactive, but still gets tedious after a while. I can't help but think that "mini-games" won't work too well in FM, but it's a far more realistic option in that it doesn't require proper (=impossible) AI to work.

I'd love this side of the game to more fun, as I agree that in theory it's an important part of being a football manager! Just as being fun is in itself an important part of being a game; at the moment, clicking on multiple choice options isn't much fun after about 3 minutes.

I really don't think that anyone who simply chooses '2nd top or 2nd bottom' answers without thinking has grasped how the communication modules work. As with all elements of FM, you get out of it what you put in. These tools can all be used to increase / reduce pressure at significant moments in the season and can result in fantastic performances in key matches if used carefully and logically. 2nd top / 2nd bottom might allow people to not screw things up too bad in a general sense, but it doesn't help the team deal with these key moments at all.

This is exactly why I hate press conferences with such a passion, they're just far too tedious and time consuming for me to want to personally engage in them directly but far too powerful in their effect to be able to trust my ass. man to do them, so finding myself in a 'between a rock and a hard place' situation in the game.

If the answers were clearcut and always the same it wouldn't be a very good game. Your relationship with the player, the nature of the upcoming match, the players current morale level, his personality, his recent form etc might all be affecting him in different ways and colour your communication with him. If he doesn't respect you, it probably matters very little what you say to him. He'll be nervous before a big match and complacent against weaker teams anyway. However, if you have established rapport and discipline, you can begin to really shape his, and the team's, performances.

Looking at individual question/answers is not the right way of looking at it anyway. You need a logical communicative strategy for the team. Preparation for the next match starts with the post-match teamtalk for the previous one. Your overall strategy options are simple (need them to play better / happy with the display / wary of complacency). Talk to the team in a consistent manner aligned to one of these basic strategies between matches and deal with individual problems as and when they come up.

The whole 'what do I say here in order to ensure I get this reaction there' missing the whole point. You need a logical, holistic communication strategy, rather than fruitlessly searching for a magic 'press A to get B' pattern.

The issue that it is perceived as an "press A to get B" method is a suggestion that the whole module is flawed - it's difficult to get into, although not necessarily difficult to do (in the sense that it's difficult to know exactly what you need to do, but once you know what you need to do, it is fairly easy to pick your options).

I don't believe we should need to put deep, deep thought into these things, with the ability to be rewarded if you do choose to undergo deep, deep thought (rather like enabling the advanced tactics).

press conference should not, have soo much on an influence.

where as player interactions should.

perhaps they should make it optional, whether you want to include press conferences or not.

As the interaction is so rigid it gets ridiculously boring very quickly. I appreciate it could take a massive amount of time to get it anywhere near life-like so for the time being I suppose it will have to do. The main thing for me is the press conferences and team talks; the options available are so repetitive but have such a massive influence on the team and results (team talks specifically).

I would like to see an overhaul of the entire system really. Not expecting it any time soon though.

As the interaction is so rigid it gets ridiculously boring very quickly. I appreciate it could take a massive amount of time to get it anywhere near life-like so for the time being I suppose it will have to do. The main thing for me is the press conferences and team talks; the options available are so repetitive but have such a massive influence on the team and results (team talks specifically).

I would like to see an overhaul of the entire system really. Not expecting it any time soon though.

I'm pretty sure that team-talks have a "massive influence on the team and results" in real-life...

I like the interaction system in FM11 now, yes it took a bit of getting to grips with but once you do it's well worth it! Just like any other game you need to use trial and error to discover what works and what doesn't.

a few basic examples:

Press conference -

"I expect us to take the game" - get beat - don't do it again! "I expect us to take the game - storming performance - do it whenever you can!

"I agree he is in fine form" - can't hit a barn-door for 3 months - don't do it again! "I agree he is in fine form" - hat-trick - use it as often as you can!

team-talk-

"pick up where you left off!" - poor performance - don't do it again! "pick up where you left off!" - storming performance - do it as often as you can!

"expect a performance!" - "playing nervously" - don't do it again (or maybe not in such a high pressure game - it is relevant). "expect a performance!" - storming performance - do it as often as is relevant...

etc...

you don't know how your players will react until you try it... try it, remember what happened, use it again if good, don't use it again if bad - simple! Once you know how your players react to various events you know how to motivate, pressurise, de-pressurise and encourage them... but you need to find out first!

you don't know how your players will react until you try it... try it, remember what happened, use it again if good, don't use it again if bad - simple! Once you know how your players react to various events you know how to motivate, pressurise, de-pressurise and encourage them... but you need to find out first!

This is the point though - it's so predictable and rigid! There are fewer than 10 options to choose from with regards to team talks. If you use anything other than "for the fans", "good luck" or "you can win today!", you get a negative performance in my experience. It's especially fun to see your team talk feedback and 90% of your players don't GAF what you say!

And yes, I understand team talks have an effect in real life, but if my manager said to me "pick up where you left off", I'd have forgotten his words by minute 1 or 46. I would expect my manager would always 'expect a performance' from me too. Again, if he said that, it would be forgotton within minutes. I don't feel like anything I can choose would realistically motivate players, I just choose the option which I know my players will react best to. It's so pointless and boring, but if you don't do it you end up getting crap results.

What would be your opinion of One Question Press Conference option? What does it mean, basically what the name indicates, an option that makes Press Conferences where the media makes you one question and then Press Conference is over.

Sure it is unrealistic and I may even say fantasy thing, but it could limit the boring of several questions and could make the questions less repetitive, but it could maintain the feature to be use by those the find Press Conferences boring. So the feature is used by both sides.

I just think the press conferences need a bigger range of questions and answers, much bigger in fact. I see where you're coming from with the one question thing, but that'd be a bit pointless for me. The option to turn them off altogether needs to be there too.

The best thing for me (assuming they're staying) would be if we only got (or could choose to only have) press conferences for "important" games - which would depend somewhat on the club you're at. e.g. before a game with two relegation candidates or teams vying for promotion; against club rivals; for cup games. But please not for 40 league games a season + cup games. It's too much dross.

This is the point though - it's so predictable and rigid! There are fewer than 10 options to choose from with regards to team talks. If you use anything other than "for the fans", "good luck" or "you can win today!", you get a negative performance in my experience. It's especially fun to see your team talk feedback and 90% of your players don't GAF what you say!

And yes, I understand team talks have an effect in real life, but if my manager said to me "pick up where you left off", I'd have forgotten his words by minute 1 or 46. I would expect my manager would always 'expect a performance' from me too. Again, if he said that, it would be forgotton within minutes. I don't feel like anything I can choose would realistically motivate players, I just choose the option which I know my players will react best to. It's so pointless and boring, but if you don't do it you end up getting crap results.

"didn't seem to be listening" doesn't mean that they weren't... neither does "nothing specific noted"

It's definitely NOT "predictable and rigid" as you seem to believe. Some players will respond to "pick up where you left off" or "expect a performance" home or away, regardless of opposition or occasion, etc... others will have a howler at any time and then there are those who will respond "some of the time", maybe at home, maybe away, maybe in big games or against lesser opposition. The trick is to figure out which of your players is which and use it to maximum effect. It's much more rewarding seeing your striker bang in a hat-trick because you picked the right game to "expect a performance!"

I don't mind press conferences but there's a couple of questions there that i think that are not working as they should :

1) You are playing a very hard away game(like Barcelona or Real Madrid) and you answer something like "i think we have to be realistic that it's going to be tough for us" which leads to the journalist asking if we don't have confidence in our team.. if i'm playing a minnow and i'm going to the Camp Nou i'm not going to exactly tell that i'm expecting a good result, i think this one might be slightly broken.

2) When a player is injured and you have to name a backup, i don't know what's the criteria on this if it's the squad status or reputation but i'll often name a player that have been a starter for many games on that particular position and i get ridiculed for my choice and the player himself thinks he's not worthy of being picked..

sort of hate bringing this back to life when it's 3 pages down, but I had to add something that I couldn't because I'd been naughty, lol.

Anyway... I voted it needs an over haul. I don't think there is a way to make press conferences fun, nor do I think they should be completely yanked. It's basically impossible to make press conferences what they 'should' be because there are FAR too many things that need to be taken into consideration, it simply would not be possible to tie it all in for something so minor.

As for team talks, I think they are sort of good but we need the whole variety of what to say available more. I don't know how many times I wanted to say a specific one for a certain situation but the option isn't given. Also they need to make player reaction to negative/positive talks based on more then just rating. Like if you're team has a close loss say a draw in a competitive match against a far weaker opponent (like a Cup match or so) but players have an average rating. Everyone knows before the match they should win, you start with a 'expect a win' talk, then you give them a negative talk for not beating a team they should have. I've had players get upset for the negative talk just because their rating wasn't bad. Just because they don't have a 5.5 rating doesn't mean they played poorly, or they wouldn't have lost most likely. So in short, More depth in team talks. I think they need more emphasis then press conferences for obvious reasons.

Now, as for Player interaction. First I liked the player interaction for the most part in 2010, 2011 screwed it all up though especially with the tutoring... sorry for whoever had the idea, but making tutoring based primarily on reputation was the worse idea I've seen yet in all the interaction systems. But tutoring has been fixed. Now some people have made comments about the interaction system being random. I've never thought it was but I agreed it could give that impression. However, I discovered and tested it in a way that proved to me it was random, if people don't believe me that's fine, SI knows who's right. But I think maybe people won't like the fact that it is random.

So what I did was I had a 19 y/o Brazilian Striker/AMC/MC really good attributes already just a bit low on determination (just an 8). His personality is listed as fairly ambitious and short term goals were 'wants to impress new manager'... great he's primed to learn. i had him starting regularly on my first team already as i was waiting for my vet striker to come off PPM training.

Now the vet is a 28 y/o USA pure striker with a fairly determined personality (determination of 15).

So the vet comes off of his PPM training and I check and sure enough he has the option to tutor the above kid. Now I saved it here to test all this out. Then I asked the vet to tutor the kid and he was game. Kid enters the conversation and he said he didn't want to, so I try convincing him with the second option, 'think you could learn a lot from vet'... thinking that's obvious choice for an ambitious kid. He still says no.

I reload so there is no time difference or anything, same players.. it's the exact same conversation. I ask the vet to tutor, vet agrees, kid says no, I try the first convincing option 'just give it a go please' and the kid accepts. Ok, fair enough kid wants to please.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid comes in and I plan to try convince option 3 because I didn't expect what did happen. The kid accepted right away, didn't need to attempt to convince him. Random right there, but that's not enough to know right.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid agrees right away again.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid agrees right away a third time.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid says no, use convince #1 (same one that worked before), kid says no this time.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid says no, use convince #1 (same one that worked before), kid says no again.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid says no, use convince #1 (same one that worked before), kid says no a third time.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid says no, use convince #1 (same one that worked before), kid agrees.

Reload... ask vet, vet agrees, kid says no, use convince #1 (same one that worked before), kid agrees again.

That's basically where i stopped because it clearly shows that it's random to a degree. Now I don't mind random results to getting tutored, no randomness makes it easy to dominate a machine. But to make the player interaction itself random really negates the entire concepts of personalities and us, as managers, try to pick people with the right personality for the team.

*shrug* My findings and my opinion on the subject... I think iit all needs an over haul but then much of the ME needs an over haul as well and I know they aren't going to stop making new 'features' to put more time and effort into these core areas but maybe gets more peoples attention.

I don't take it too seriously. Most of the time, I go with the safest, sensible options. Sometimes, when I feel like it, I'll let one loose. That makes it fun for me and worth having.

If you asked me this a year ago I would have said get rid, but now I guess I'm getting used to it I dont mind so much. Although there is always room for improvement, so I would go B.

Forget that, I'm back to Hating them. So C. And the sooner the better.

Forget that, I'm back to Hating them. So C. And the sooner the better.

LOL, have to ask what happened in your game to make you come back here and correct yourself.

lol, Just that I've asked for a few simple things and for no apparent real reason they were turned down and I seem to have to wait a year to re-ask. It almost tempts me to reload and try again when I know the consequences and after realising how random it all is..

And I got bored after my second season of the media questions before and after every game.