Press Conferences my suggestion to keep everybody happy.

[whilewolf2]

I think I have come up with a reasonable solution to the problem of press conferences. The problem being that there are a large percentage of players who don’t enjoy them.

Rather then have multiple screens put a scroll bar on the right hand side divide the questions into standardized topics give each topic its own expandable box, which when expanded has the usual multiple choice interface.
The important thing though is when not expanded the question topic is automatically answered with “Vague Platitude”, “decline to comment”, “deflect attention to another topic” or any phrase that means that nothing is said on the topic that could affect the players, the fans or the boards moral or expectations. Essentially a totally neutral response that changes nothing.

People who don’t like press conferences could just scroll to the bottom of the page hit continue and be done with it. Those who like the feature can expand all the boxes and answer all the questions. Others could just interact in the topics that interest them. You could even still send your assistant manager.

The one down side is the layout feels less like a dialogue then the present way of doing it, but that could be kept to some degree if the topic boxes once expanded had a continue button in them that submitted the first answer and refreshed the box with the next question and multiple choice list of answers.

[Soccer Manager]

Pretty good idea - you could have the option to select "downplay chances", or "neutral" or "expect a win" - maybe this could work more realistically by telling the assistant how you want him to answer important questions beforehand - and then sending the assistant

[nileppezdel]

I think you should have an option to not give a press conference at all, it's not like that it's forced in real life. If I constantly send my assistant, then usually my players get upset for what he said. If I attend all the press conferences, I get really bored. I'd rather do press conferences only before games I think that are important

[Lazaru5]

@whilewolf2 - I think you would find, if a poll was done of every FM player including those who don't visit forums, that your "large percentage" would actually be a "very small percentage". What you're suggesting sounds confusing at best and rubbish at worst... well, actually no, it just sounds pointless.

The press conferences work well in the main but I think there could be some tweaks to assistants answers for those who don't understand the press conferences and send their ass-man instead. I don't want any of my questions to be 'pre-answered' as I consider each question carefully and the likely effects on my team that each answer would cause.

@nileppezdel - I think you'll find that every RL manager gives several press-conferences a week.. pre-match and post-match, TV, radio and written media, new signings, new contracts, special initiatives, etc... Press interaction is a HUGE part of football management and it should rightly be a huge part of FM too...

[nileppezdel]

Well they do that if they want to. For example, Frank Rijkaard gave press conferences every 3-4 weeks at his spell in Galatasaray. I would really like that option, or they should add hundreds of different questions, answers and consequences to make press conferences less boring and repetitive

[La Furia Roja]

Well they do that if they want to. For example, Frank Rijkaard gave press conferences every 3-4 weeks at his spell in Galatasaray. I would really like that option, or they should add hundreds of different questions, answers and consequences to make press conferences less boring and repetitive

give this a try.

read over the past 20 press conferences that have been done by managers in real life before and after a match. Make a note of the questions asked and then compare them to the ones asked in FM.


I dont expect you to actually do that but my point is that in real life there are not hundreds of different questions asked about the game, there are generally very few

[nileppezdel]

Well like I said, nobody sacked Rijkaard for not giving press conferences. We should have the option too, thats all I'm suggesting

[Ego Scriptor]

@nileppezdel - I think you'll find that every RL manager gives several press-conferences a week.. pre-match and post-match, TV, radio and written media, new signings, new contracts, special initiatives, etc... Press interaction is a HUGE part of football management and it should rightly be a huge part of FM too...

They should find a way to make it fun first.

Unfortunately, since real life press interaction tends to be boring, meaningless kabuki that everyone ignores, that appears to be a difficult task.

[BiggusD]

I think the idea of having general gist-options rather than specific (but usually pointless) answers to specific (but usually pointless) questions is quite good, actually.