Playing as a Director of Football

[Ex-RoNiN]

I have recently been playing around with the idea of playing as a Director of Football, and having done some experiments, this is what I have found.

Key to this is the Holiday option. You can use it to just skip the matches, or you could put it on for a longer period of time. You can set specific transfer values for your players and have them automatically sold if that price is met. Your own personal involvement can be as involved as you like - micro-managing (essentially being almost like the manager) or letting the AssMan getting on with it, and only really intervening in, say, the transfer period or for important matches.

Choosing your AssMan becomes incredibly important, as he will essentially be 'your manager', choosing formation, motivating the team in talks, fining players, and so forth. One important aspect you have no control over if you holiday for a long time is the fining of players - if you have primadonnas in your team, it can be an issue. Also, player interactions are omitted, meaning players can get very annoyed very quickly - something that can be mitigated if you holiday only for short periods of time.

The best thing is - if your AssMan is successful, you get all the accolades! If he sux, you pay the price of course.

It is an interesting way to play the game, naturally not how it is intended, but if you are bored of all the billion clicks to get through a season, this is one way of doing it.

[Reccy]

Had a similar thinking spree about the other aspects of the game.

You play as the chairman of a club, involved in the running of the club off the pitch, stadium expansions, facilities, finances, manager hire/fire, player sales if you feel the need for cash/or "too good to turn down".
If you run the club into the ground, you could be "outted" by the fans, media, players, staff. this could also lead to huge profit to move to different clubs and process as a tycoon (if you become successful) or just a loyal fan who owns your local club with limited resources..

Obviously, this would be more of a Sims/Business Tycoon game, rather than a sport simulator.

Again, this is just the surface, and there would be alot more involved in everything and how to implement it within a game.
Kind Regards

[LazyD]

I thought I was the only one who plays that way. FM has become too complicated for me... if you played the game since CM2 like me, you know what I'm talking about

I don't want to micromanage the team, I also don't want to spend an hour to setup tactics and then half an hour every now and then to adjust it. I also don't care about 3D, I rarely even watch 2D...

I really wish they'd include an option to play as Director of Football

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Thats basically how I play the game. I have become seriously bored with watching EVERY SINGLE GAME! Or how about simply having an "assistant manager takes control of ALL games" button? We already have one for friendlies.

Then we can point out to the assistant manager the importance of competitions so he doesn't always have to field your strongest side.

[salahuddin]

I love the idea of being a Chairman, finding the right manager etc....

But could get a little boring after a whime, plus the temptation to be a Hearts style owner might be too much lol

[salahuddin]

while! not whime, sorry......

[Fabio MVP]

Every idea of being someone else in the game rather than manager sucks.

[viiralx]

Holidaying through matches is like not playing the game.. whats the fun in that.

[Kenco]

I thought I was the only one who plays that way. FM has become too complicated for me... if you played the game since CM2 like me, you know what I'm talking about

I don't want to micromanage the team, I also don't want to spend an hour to setup tactics and then half an hour every now and then to adjust it. I also don't care about 3D, I rarely even watch 2D...

I really wish they'd include an option to play as Director of Football

There is no need to do this. I set up my tactics in less than 5 minutes and have used the same starting tactic now for 19 seasons with lots of success. I use shouts in-game and occasionally change the formation if things aren't going to plan, but this takes nowhere near the time you say.

[Ex-RoNiN]

Holidaying through matches is like not playing the game.. whats the fun in that.

You know what, it's more fun than the current setup. Think back to CM01/02 - now THAT was fun! Simple tactics, simple selections, and off you went. The billions of clicks now required are just way too tedious. I know you can mitigate that by cutting down on news, handing over functionality to your AssMan, but it is still tedious to get a game started - so many menus just to start the match on matchday! Argh!

FM12 could be a winner if we could customise functionality and design the interface ourselves; or, some kind of 'arcade interface', so its more like CM01/02, and less like "Let's simulate Life". In the end of the day, it is a game. When it becomes a detailed simulation, for me the fun is over. I mean, it's football for crying out loud! Not rocket science, not my job. It's supposed to be fun.

I remember as a kid I was heavily into simulations, F16 Falcon 4, Civ series, Op Flashpoint, and all that stuff - bored now, I now have a life, family etc and games are meant to be 20-40 mins fun, not hours of simulating the movement of levers! Odd analogy but hopefully it gets the point across...

[viiralx]

I cant see myself not using all the features the game has to offer.

I can spend many many hours just setting up my team and making the perfect tactic (clicking a million times).

I actually wholeheartedly love doing everything myself.

My achievements feels oh so much more sweeter in the end.

If i want a simple game is play something else.

Well that is my playstyle and thats why I love FM.

but hey.. whatever makes you enjoy the game. more power to ya

[CrD]

I'd prefer if you could play as Ass Man though that might be interesting, where you could suggest such and such deserves to be picked for the first team, and you can only control the reserves/youth teams, but you could also suggest signings, this is something that I would be interested in, if your loyal enough when the time is right you could get the chance to manage at that club or have other clubs come and poach you away to manage them!

[LazyD]

There is no need to do this.

yeah, if you win. For some reason, I can't get it right without spending shitload of time on tactics or using someone else's.

[LazyD]

If i want a simple game is play something else.

that's the problem, there is no other game to play. FM is the only one in this genre.

[Kriss]

What does a director of football actually do? I see some clubs have three of them

[Roady99]

What does a director of football actually do? I see some clubs have three of them

A director of football is usually employed for duties such as Youth development/Recruitment/Selling of fringe players, I dont think the role actually means anything else :|

Although the manager of the club will usually dictact whom is sold/classed as a fringe player.

[viiralx]

that's the problem, there is no other game to play. FM is the only one in this genre.

and thats why it should not be dumbed down.

[Kriss]

A director of football is usually employed for duties such as Youth development/Recruitment/Selling of fringe players, I dont think the role actually means anything else :|

Although the manager of the club will usually dictact whom is sold/classed as a fringe player.

So the OP's suggestion is invalid anyway then? As a DOF wouldn't be doing the things he suggests and certainly would have no say in who the Assman is or what he does?

[Roady99]

So the OP's suggestion is invalid anyway then? As a DOF wouldn't be doing the things he suggests and certainly would have no say in who the Assman is or what he does?

Very much so, Assis managers and backroom staff are always bought into the club via the Manager of the club, Unless they where there from the previous management and the current one wants to keep them, DOF's are meant to have no input into team sheets discipline or anything really, Tbh DOF are a glorifed scout as even when they do recruit players, The manager has the final say if they are actually aquired, Take Comoli at Liverpool for example, The main reason he was bought in was to *Help* in the aqquisition of young talent (Something a scout would do).

[milnerpoint]

You know what, it's more fun than the current setup. Think back to CM01/02 - now THAT was fun! Simple tactics, simple selections, and off you went. The billions of clicks now required are just way too tedious. I know you can mitigate that by cutting down on news, handing over functionality to your AssMan, but it is still tedious to get a game started - so many menus just to start the match on matchday! Argh!

FM12 could be a winner if we could customise functionality and design the interface ourselves; or, some kind of 'arcade interface', so its more like CM01/02, and less like "Let's simulate Life". In the end of the day, it is a game. When it becomes a detailed simulation, for me the fun is over. I mean, it's football for crying out loud! Not rocket science, not my job. It's supposed to be fun.

I remember as a kid I was heavily into simulations, F16 Falcon 4, Civ series, Op Flashpoint, and all that stuff - bored now, I now have a life, family etc and games are meant to be 20-40 mins fun, not hours of simulating the movement of levers! Odd analogy but hopefully it gets the point across...

Thats the evolution of computer games tho, its never going to be as straight forward or simple as it was years ago, these games are still there that you can go back and play. All games move forward both graphically and in complexity. Look at the difference between Golden Eye on the N64 compared to C.O.D now a days, you could say the same for all games, as we get older, they get less accessible for to us. They are not going to tone down FM, not on the PC anyway, there is FM handheld and all of the older versions for people like yourself who still want to enjoy a more arcade feeling game. Sadly in your situation you will have to accept that each year FM is getting more in depth and complex, because in todays market thats what people want, again looking at another game look at the differences in all the GTA games, from the first version with the birds eye view and limited maps to the last version that could take you forever to get anywhere. People want to control as much as possible in a game now, not just the basics like when we were all younger.

[Kenco]

You know what, it's more fun than the current setup. Think back to CM01/02 - now THAT was fun! Simple tactics, simple selections, and off you went. The billions of clicks now required are just way too tedious. I know you can mitigate that by cutting down on news, handing over functionality to your AssMan, but it is still tedious to get a game started - so many menus just to start the match on matchday! Argh!

FM12 could be a winner if we could customise functionality and design the interface ourselves; or, some kind of 'arcade interface', so its more like CM01/02, and less like "Let's simulate Life". In the end of the day, it is a game. When it becomes a detailed simulation, for me the fun is over. I mean, it's football for crying out loud! Not rocket science, not my job. It's supposed to be fun.

I remember as a kid I was heavily into simulations, F16 Falcon 4, Civ series, Op Flashpoint, and all that stuff - bored now, I now have a life, family etc and games are meant to be 20-40 mins fun, not hours of simulating the movement of levers! Odd analogy but hopefully it gets the point across...

I actually re-installed CM01/02 on my PC a few months back, for the nostalgia. I found it wasn't actually fun at all, the tactics are incredibly basic, you can win anything with 4132, nothing happens between games at all, no 3D or even 2D screen, etc.

I love the detail and complexity that FM11 brings, and it is a million times better than CM01/02 (which was great at the time, I must admit). It is more of a simulation than a game and that is a winner for me. I'm too old for games!

If you want to just click Play and get on with it, you should just go back to an older version of the game.