Owner/Commisioner Mode for FM15

Hey all,

Would you like to see Owner Mode in the game. Would you like to be responsible for signing up Van Gal for Man Utd. I'd love to play this game as an owner, being responsible for owner issues. Instead of being the manager in game, would be nice to sit back and be the owner and if the manager doesn't deliver then give him the Moyes Chop. If you would like to see an Owner mode in this game please post some of your ideas/features you would like to see in game for FM15. Hey I don't get all day to spend on a pc and would really love to have an owner mode like OOTP.

cheers

FM Fan

The game's in the name, it's Football Manager, I personally wouldn't want to just be the owner.

There is a wishlist thread so please use that to propose new ideas. http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/306914-What-s-that-A-new-Wishlist-Thread-What-you-would-like-to-see-in-future-FM-versions. I would also say that this idea has been mentioned before and got little support from the community.

I still can't get my head around people wanting to do anything other than manage?

This topic gets brought up every 3 months, and every 3 months it makes me want to spew up. It's called Football Manager for a reason.

This topic gets brought up every 3 months, and every 3 months it makes me want to spew up. It's called Football Manager for a reason.

When it was called 'Championship Manager' were you the manager of the league?

I personally don't think that it's an awful idea - though I wouldn't want it included as an option instead of managing. If, for instance, after 30 years of management you have earned enough money in wages to retire and make a bid for a club, I think that'd be really cool. It'd give your salary a purpose, and would bring a natural conclusion to a potentially illustrious managerial career.

Can't see it ever being implemented, mind you.

Nobody has ever come up with enough features for this to look anything other than ridiculously boring.

As someone who last year discovered and fell in love with OOTP, I can totally get where the OP is coming from. However FM is a slightly different beast and being owner/GM of a baseball team is very different from being owner/chairman of a football club. I honestly don't have any real interest in playing Football Chairman. Commissioner/God mode may hold some fascination but again, playing OOTP historical sims and just letting the world play out are a very different experience to that which your average FM'er expects. Also, the new IGE gives you somewhat 'God mode' abilities.

It should be noted by those that crap all over this idea every time that whilst yes it is mentioned and knocked down frequently, surely the fact that so many bring it up must mean something?

.

It should be noted by those that crap all over this idea every time that whilst yes it is mentioned and knocked down frequently, surely the fact that so many bring it up must mean something?

It means there are a lot of people out there who haven't sat down and really thought this idea through.

This topic gets brought up every 3 months, and every 3 months it makes me want to spew up. It's called Football Manager for a reason.

In Mario Kart, you can play as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and whatnot. Yet it's called MARIO Kart.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, you can play as Sonic or Tails. Yet it's called SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3.

In Colin McRae Rally, you don't play as Colin McRae. Yet it's called COLIN MCRAE Rally.

So please stop using that argument "Football Manager has Manager in its name so one should only play as a manager". It doesn't make sense. And it gives the sense "few people ever showed support for this".

It keeps getting brought up by people, and the community bashes on the idea. Why? We're not talking about taking away features from the game, we're talking about adding. Why the hate? Whoever wants to play full-manager can go on their merry way... It's not harming your gameplay experience in any way. Besides, it's a very easy feature to implement, as it simply involves passing some control of the club to the AI (which is already coded and ready, obviously). So we're not even talking about stealing development time from "more important features" (read, things you like more).

While it sounds like a natural progression in the game (who doesn't want more power to shape their club, right?) In practice there isn't really that much you can do as an owner to make a game of it.

Sure you'd be able to hire and fire managers, sign players and contracts and go after new sponsorship deals. After that you're only really left with upgrading the stadium and infrastructure (which would be terribly boring on a text based game) and signing commercial ties with other clubs.

Sure you can have an in depth financial model to do all this with, possibly things like floating on the stock market and investments etc. But there isn't enough meat on the bones to make a mode out of it without doing the stuff the manager does as well.

One of my favourite pick up and play manager games back in the day was LMA manager. You had both worlds in theory. Had to sign sponsors, build your stadium and infrastructure, manage the team etc. It worked because I could see my stadium evolve when I built new stands and amenities. In FM you'd have "You have finished construction, your capacity is now xx thousand" which wouldn't work anywhere near as well.

The only hope for this sort of mode to ever be implemented is in classic mode, and that's if they do something like rebrand it to arcade mode and add more graphical elements to it. I don't think SI will do that though.

It keeps getting brought up by people, and the community bashes on the idea. Why? We're not talking about taking away features from the game, we're talking about adding. Why the hate? Whoever wants to play full-manager can go on their merry way... It's not harming your gameplay experience in any way. Besides, it's a very easy feature to implement, as it simply involves passing some control of the club to the AI (which is already coded and ready, obviously). So we're not even talking about stealing development time from "more important features" (read, things you like more).

How do you propose adding a completely new game mode without taking development time away from other areas?

Is it really so easy to implement? Please expand.

People bash this "idea" because nobody who ever raises it comes up with anything to do in this mode other than sack managers. For this mode to be remotely interesting there will need to be a lot more things to do which will take a big effort from the developers to implement because the role has almost nothing in common with a football manager.

Personally I'd rather they kept their focus on the managing side of things and someone else should bring out an entirely different game called Football Chairman.

You're still thinking in manager terms where a season might take a few weeks to play. Instead of having news items every day you might get one a week that needs responding to. It would be a much longer term prospect than being a manager as you develop the club over the seasons playing maybe five seasons in the time it takes a manager to play one.

You're still thinking in manager terms where a season might take a few weeks to play. Instead of having news items every day you might get one a week that needs responding to. It would be a much longer term prospect than being a manager as you develop the club over the seasons playing maybe five seasons in the time it takes a manager to play one.

So if I take 25 hours to get through a season as a manager, you're saying it would take me 5 hours to get through one season as a chairman/owner.

What will I do in those 5 hours?

While it sounds like a natural progression in the game (who doesn't want more power to shape their club, right?) In practice there isn't really that much you can do as an owner to make a game of it.

Sure you'd be able to hire and fire managers, sign players and contracts and go after new sponsorship deals. After that you're only really left with upgrading the stadium and infrastructure (which would be terribly boring on a text based game) and signing commercial ties with other clubs.

See? That's exactly where I disagree with you! And possibly other people who bring up disagree with you too. I find it interesting and fun enough to manage everything in the club except match tactic as the game is right now.

How do you propose adding a completely new game mode without taking development time away from other areas?

Is it really so easy to implement? Please expand.

Ok, I will expand.

Football Manager could have a mode called Chairman Mode. The player would then be responsible for:

- signing the manager, the assistant manager, the physios, the coaches, the goalkeeper coaches, the sub-18 manager, the sub-21 manager, the sub-18 assistant manager, the sub-21 assistant manager, the sub-18 coaches, the sub-21 coaches, the scouts, the director of football, the director of young football

- delegating functions to the staff: who looks for and signs players for the first team or for the future, who renews contracts within the first team or for the youth team, who looks for clubs for the players the club should sell or loan, who manages the general training of the first team or the youth team, who manages individual trainings for the players, who manages the match training for the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who manages the matches of the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who does team talks for the first team

- assigning tasks to the scouts

- signing players and negotiating their contracts

- setting the squad status for each and every player

- choosing the captain and second captain of the team

I'm probably not even remembering everyting that would fit in the Chairman Mode without adding any feature to the game yet. And it's already a very complete mode by itself. I'd love to play it, honestly. There's so much stuff to control. And all we're doing right now is simply stripping off the match control from the "Manager Mode" of FM. Nothing else!

There's other stuff that could be added very easily to the Chairman Mode too.

- deciding the transfer budget

- deciding the wage budget

- deciding when to expand the stadium

- deciding when to build a new one

- deciding when to replace the match field

- deciding when to upgrade training facilities

- deciding when to upgrade recruiting facilities

- having access to the hidden attributes of the staff members (the ones you can only read through FM Genie Scout, etc)

- deciding and signing relationships with other clubs (eg the Parent/Feeder relationship, or whatever it's called)

You still think there isn't enough material for a Chairman Mode yet? You might not find it as fun as managing matches, but many people do. At least I do. And by the number of times this gets brought up, other people seem to too.

The role of a football club Chairman or Chief Executive has more in common with managing a retail outlet than it does managing a football team, for such a role to be realistic it's likely that all the areas of FM that people find interesting will be locked out from the user as they are not duties that people in those position would get involved in.

Do managers get involved in contract or transfer negotiations? It can be as interesting or as boring as you make it.

See? That's exactly where I disagree with you! And possibly other people who bring up disagree with you too. I find it interesting and fun enough to manage everything in the club except match tactic as the game is right now.

Ok, I will expand.

Football Manager could have a mode called Chairman Mode. The player would then be responsible for:

- signing the manager, the assistant manager, the physios, the coaches, the goalkeeper coaches, the sub-18 manager, the sub-21 manager, the sub-18 assistant manager, the sub-21 assistant manager, the sub-18 coaches, the sub-21 coaches, the scouts, the director of football, the director of young football

- delegating functions to the staff: who looks for and signs players for the first team or for the future, who renews contracts within the first team or for the youth team, who looks for clubs for the players the club should sell or loan, who manages the general training of the first team or the youth team, who manages individual trainings for the players, who manages the match training for the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who manages the matches of the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who does team talks for the first team

- assigning tasks to the scouts

- signing players and negotiating their contracts

- setting the squad status for each and every player

- choosing the captain and second captain of the team

I'm probably not even remembering everyting that would fit in the Chairman Mode without adding any feature to the game yet. And it's already a very complete mode by itself. I'd love to play it, honestly. There's so much stuff to control. And all we're doing right now is simply stripping off the match control from the "Manager Mode" of FM. Nothing else!

There's other stuff that could be added very easily to the Chairman Mode too.

- deciding the transfer budget

- deciding the wage budget

- deciding when to expand the stadium

- deciding when to build a new one

- deciding when to replace the match field

- deciding when to upgrade training facilities

- deciding when to upgrade recruiting facilities

- having access to the hidden attributes of the staff members (the ones you can only read through FM Genie Scout, etc)

- deciding and signing relationships with other clubs (eg the Parent/Feeder relationship, or whatever it's called)

You still think there isn't enough material for a Chairman Mode yet? You might not find it as fun as managing matches, but many people do. At least I do. And by the number of times this gets brought up, other people seem to too.

Large tracts of what you've written there though (the bold parts) isn't part of what the chairman would do - or if it is, the chairman is only involved in the final contract stages, which is hardly very interesting for most people.

The italic part that i highlighted is simply an option to TAKE AWAY big chunks from what is already a rather limited functionality. (and actually, a lot of it is stuff the chairman wouldn't be the one to delegate in the first place)

Ok, I will expand.

Football Manager could have a mode called Chairman Mode. The player would then be responsible for:

- signing the manager, the assistant manager, the physios, the coaches, the goalkeeper coaches, the sub-18 manager, the sub-21 manager, the sub-18 assistant manager, the sub-21 assistant manager, the sub-18 coaches, the sub-21 coaches, the scouts, the director of football, the director of young football

- delegating functions to the staff: who looks for and signs players for the first team or for the future, who renews contracts within the first team or for the youth team, who looks for clubs for the players the club should sell or loan, who manages the general training of the first team or the youth team, who manages individual trainings for the players, who manages the match training for the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who manages the matches of the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who does team talks for the first team

- assigning tasks to the scouts

- signing players and negotiating their contracts

- setting the squad status for each and every player

- choosing the captain and second captain of the team

I'm probably not even remembering everyting that would fit in the Chairman Mode without adding any feature to the game yet. And it's already a very complete mode by itself. I'd love to play it, honestly. There's so much stuff to control. And all we're doing right now is simply stripping off the match control from the "Manager Mode" of FM. Nothing else!

There's other stuff that could be added very easily to the Chairman Mode too.

- deciding the transfer budget

- deciding the wage budget

- deciding when to expand the stadium

- deciding when to build a new one

- deciding when to replace the match field

- deciding when to upgrade training facilities

- deciding when to upgrade recruiting facilities

- having access to the hidden attributes of the staff members (the ones you can only read through FM Genie Scout, etc)

- deciding and signing relationships with other clubs (eg the Parent/Feeder relationship, or whatever it's called)

You still think there isn't enough material for a Chairman Mode yet? You might not find it as fun as managing matches, but many people do. At least I do. And by the number of times this gets brought up, other people seem to too.

Signing all those staff members - I do this already as a manager and doesn't take long at the start of the game. Then you sit back for at least 3 years until you renew their contracts. Nothing to it.

Delegating functions - again, you do it once at the start of the game, takes minutes and you never have to do it again.

Signing players/offering contracts/squad status - already part of the manager's job, takes a few minutes per season.

Choosing captain - surely a manager's job? Nevertheless, takes about 2 seconds per season to click confirm.

Deciding transfer/wage budgets - twice a season job, wouldn't take long, surely?

Deciding when to expand/build a stadium - once every 10/20/100 years depending on size of club

You will do all this stuff on the first day of the game, it might take between 30 and 60 minutes and then you are done until the January transfer window where you click 2 buttons to confirm new budgets and then bang, it;s the end of the season. This one goes alot quicker than the first as you've already assigned all your roles, delegated functions and all staff still have 2 or 3 years left on contract so it will fly past and you will have nothing to do again.

A Football Chairman game would be better incorporated with a Tiger Woods PGA Tour game than FM since it has more in common.

Football Manager could have a mode called Chairman Mode. The player would then be responsible for:

- signing the manager, the assistant manager, the physios, the coaches, the goalkeeper coaches, the sub-18 manager, the sub-21 manager, the sub-18 assistant manager, the sub-21 assistant manager, the sub-18 coaches, the sub-21 coaches, the scouts, the director of football, the director of young football

Sure you could sign some staff, I would argue that some should be the managers responsibility though.

How often do you hire staff? maybe say once every three seasons on average.

- delegating functions to the staff: who looks for and signs players for the first team or for the future, who renews contracts within the first team or for the youth team, who looks for clubs for the players the club should sell or loan, who manages the general training of the first team or the youth team, who manages individual trainings for the players, who manages the match training for the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who manages the matches of the first team or sub-18 or sub-21, who does team talks for the first team

Training is nothing to do with the chairman so that leaves signing players which is maybe what 3/4 per transfer window.

- assigning tasks to the scouts

Not really the chairmans job again but even if it is there is 5 minutes of my time gone.

- signing players and negotiating their contracts

Already covered above.

- setting the squad status for each and every player

Managers job.

- choosing the captain and second captain of the team

Managers job.

I'm probably not even remembering everyting that would fit in the Chairman Mode without adding any feature to the game yet. And it's already a very complete mode by itself. I'd love to play it, honestly. There's so much stuff to control. And all we're doing right now is simply stripping off the match control from the "Manager Mode" of FM. Nothing else!

Yep you've sure filled in maybe 10-15 minutes for me there.

- deciding the transfer budget

One minute job twice a season.

- deciding the wage budget

One minute job once a season.

- deciding when to expand the stadium

Five minute job maybe what every five seasons.

- deciding when to build a new one

Five minute job every 25 seasons at most.

- deciding when to replace the match field

One minute job once a season.

- deciding when to upgrade training facilities

Five minute job every five? seasons.

- deciding when to upgrade recruiting facilities

Five minute job every five? seasons.

- having access to the hidden attributes of the staff members (the ones you can only read through FM Genie Scout, etc)

To do what with???

- deciding and signing relationships with other clubs (eg the Parent/Feeder relationship, or whatever it's called)

Five minute job once a season and thats if you chop & change, if not it could be once per save.

You still think there isn't enough material for a Chairman Mode yet? You might not find it as fun as managing matches, but many people do. At least I do. And by the number of times this gets brought up, other people seem to too.

Well I'm sure it will keep you busy for a few minutes from time to time inbetween pressing the space bar a gazillion times.

I could go through every single "task" that people have put up, but others have already done that better than I could, so...

You still think there isn't enough material for a Chairman Mode yet? You might not find it as fun as managing matches, but many people do. At least I do. And by the number of times this gets brought up, other people seem to too.

Yes. I still very much believe that there is nowhere near enough material to put together a Chairman mode that wouldn't be extremely tedious. There's a reason this gets shot down every single time it gets brought up - because it's not a very good idea. The fact that it keeps getting brought up doesn't make it a good idea - it just means that a lot of people have had the same stupid idea. It's a very niche, minority thing, and no-one has managed to persuade me, or given a killer feature, that it would be even half good.

The big question for SI is would it sell more copies of the game?,they've just got to make the position interesting for those who are hopless at tactics/and all the rest of it and just get a manager in hire @fire when needed,the people who would probably be interested in this wont be on this forum of course!

I already play in management mode. It is the only way I enjoy FM. Here is what I do and why...

1) I play FMC

2) I download a few different tactics from the Steam workshop.

3) My job is to buy and sell players in order to create a team that fits the tactics that I have downloaded.

4) On game day, I use the quick pick option to set my starting 11. I do tinker with the lineup though - change starters to who I want to see out there, rest guys, etc.

5) Instant result all games.

6) Go on vacation until the next match. (I will move day by day if I am working on transfers and through the entire offseason).

I hire/fire my staff, I make board requests, etc... I like doing everything but planning/playing matches.

I am sure I am in the minority here, but I prefer to move through seasons as quickly as possible. I have no interest at all in creating a tactic, watching for managing a match, or dealing with the day to day minutia. I love playing from a high level and building teams to reach whatever goals I have for them.

It would be great if the developers incorporated this into an option, but I know it is unlikely and I have a setup that emulates this anyway.

It's a feature I've wanted to see implemented somehow but one I understand why people wouldn't want it. I'd quite like the idea of you decided how to run the club.. Are you a chairman who lets the manager do everything, or are you a chairman who interferes, makes suggestions on who to play and who to sign etc.. Could work in Manager mode too, Chairman asks to speak privately to say he wants you to play xxxxx in the upcoming game or wants xxxxx to be a permanent fixture in the squad this season, etc.. After all, there are more Chairmen coming into the game who dictate things and over-rule managers (so it is believed).

OP and other supporters of the 'owner' idea - there's an app-based game called Football Chairman. It's not got real names or a great deal of depth, but you do get to run a club and can go from way down the pyramid to the top, using in-app purchases if you really, really want. I have it. It's not a bad little game. But nor is there a great deal to it. You hire the manager, set the budgets, develop the ground and decide who stays and goes on the playing front (probably much more than you would do IRL, as it's either the manager's or DoF's job).

In the end, you whizz through a full season in about 5-20 minutes, depending on how much you faff about and whether you allow the matches to run at normal speed or just skip to the result. After a little while, you find you're no longer paying that much attention to what's going on. Apart from sacking the boss and appointing a new one, there's nothing much to do outside of monitoring the balance sheet and upgrading stuff if and where possible.

It's not dull, but it does have a limited lifespan and it's just not worth SI spending months working on it, let alone honing it so that it meshes with the FM-based side, when 99.9% of players either wouldn't bother in the first place or would get about 3 weeks playing time out of it before getting bored and moving on.

@Kenco, cougar2010, forameuss

I get what you're saying, and it makes sense. And to an extent I agree with you. However, there's something you need to understand too - I do want my seasons to take 15 - 20 minutes. I want to skim through seasons. I have a job (with great responsibility), and getting home to play FM:

- filled with drama-queen players that ruin the squad harmony because they overreact to an interaction / team talk that actually makes sense, or

- spending 15 - 20 for each match of a season with 40 matches (plus a gazillion domestic cups, and european competitions)

- biting my nails and wondering if the slight tactic change I make will fix the result or make it even worse...

it's just a no-no, sometimes.

Sometimes I just feel like taking it easy. Playing FM in a relaxed way. FM feels progressively less and less relaxed. You get 2 or 3 consecutive bad results and suddenly your job stability is "Insecure". It doesn't matter if you won the Champions League with Chesterfield the last year, suddenly you're a loss away of getting fired almost without a warning. Many times I get those results after spending almost an hour each match, carefully examining

- tactics,

- the weather,

- the length and width of the field,

- the field condition,

- the tendency of this referee to show yellow / red cards,

- the morale of my team,

- the morale of their team,

- who played in my team well the last time they played,

- who played unwell,

- why they played well / unwell (most of the times I find no plausible reason anyway)

- who should get a chance to play now before they start moaning about match time and screw up the squad harmony (baby-sitting, hooray!)

- the recommendatins hidden in the training reports of every player, and cycling through each staff member's training report for each player

- obsessively visiting the staff meeting screen to find recommendations that only last 1-2 days and magically disappear afterwards

- and on, and on, and on...

The thing is, my definition of TEDIOUS is different from yours. My definition of tedious is going through ALL this match in, match out. Your definition of tedious seems to be not going through this and having considerably less things to freak out about at the same time.

I don't think there's a right and wrong answer to what should be considered tedious. It's a matter of preference. What is wrong, though, is to assume everyone wants to play the game the same way you do. I want to play the game in a more casual fashion, at least sometimes. The overwhelmingness of the nightmare-of-simultaneous-concerns I described above makes me flinch before double-clicking the Football Manager shortcut on my desktop screen. Sometimes I don't feel like going through all this pain again. All I want to extract of the game is the fun... And to me the fun part is the part that is less unforgiving in FM - everything except match management.

OP and other supporters of the 'owner' idea - there's an app-based game called Football Chairman. It's not got real names or a great deal of depth, but you do get to run a club and can go from way down the pyramid to the top, using in-app purchases if you really, really want. I have it. It's not a bad little game. But nor is there a great deal to it. You hire the manager, set the budgets, develop the ground and decide who stays and goes on the playing front (probably much more than you would do IRL, as it's either the manager's or DoF's job).

In the end, you whizz through a full season in about 5-20 minutes, depending on how much you faff about and whether you allow the matches to run at normal speed or just skip to the result. After a little while, you find you're no longer paying that much attention to what's going on. Apart from sacking the boss and appointing a new one, there's nothing much to do outside of monitoring the balance sheet and upgrading stuff if and where possible.

It's not dull, but it does have a limited lifespan and it's just not worth SI spending months working on it, let alone honing it so that it meshes with the FM-based side, when 99.9% of players either wouldn't bother in the first place or would get about 3 weeks playing time out of it before getting bored and moving on.

I understand your point of view. And it makes sense to me. Yeah, maybe what I'm looking for isn't FM after all. I feel FM does have a brilliant chance to provide a more casual and easygoing gameplay experience, though. It's by far the most accurate, thorough and detailed football management game nowadays. No other game hassuch a complete database of real players, coaches, managers and whatnot. But yeah... It's made to be thorough. Maybe taking (or offering) a more easygoing route is against the game's core idea / philosophy.

I like this thread very much. It's been a terrific discussion of ideas so far.

I'm going to try it soon, I haven't tried it yet. I can't convert a normal savegame to classic mode, can I?

I already play in management mode. It is the only way I enjoy FM. Here is what I do and why...

1) I play FMC

2) I download a few different tactics from the Steam workshop.

3) My job is to buy and sell players in order to create a team that fits the tactics that I have downloaded.

4) On game day, I use the quick pick option to set my starting 11. I do tinker with the lineup though - change starters to who I want to see out there, rest guys, etc.

5) Instant result all games.

6) Go on vacation until the next match. (I will move day by day if I am working on transfers and through the entire offseason).

I hire/fire my staff, I make board requests, etc... I like doing everything but planning/playing matches.

I am sure I am in the minority here, but I prefer to move through seasons as quickly as possible. I have no interest at all in creating a tactic, watching for managing a match, or dealing with the day to day minutia. I love playing from a high level and building teams to reach whatever goals I have for them.

It would be great if the developers incorporated this into an option, but I know it is unlikely and I have a setup that emulates this anyway.

Same playstyle here. I don't care much about tactics. I am more into the financial aspect of the game and developing players, rushing through seasons.

To all others I would like to add that it is extremely common for lower foreign leagues that the chairman is responsible for a lot of duties an english manager would have like signing players and negotiating contracts.

Finally to all haters of our playstyle what is your efing problem if the game offers variation? I think its not the idea that is stupid, but the haters that are loud and selfish.

OOTP and FM model very different sports. An owner and GM only mode makes sense in OOTP because who the actual manager of a Major League Baseball team is doesn't make much difference in results on the field over the course of an entire 162 game season. All of the good decisions and mistakes that different managers make more or less even out over that many games. It makes perfect sense that in OOTP players who don't want to bother with on field management don't have to. They can instead focus on the far more important aspects of building a baseball franchise. It also makes sense because of how many games there are in a real baseball season. Managing every single game in OOTP takes a lot longer than it does in FM.

I really wouldn't have a problem if SI put the mode in for those who want it. I don't see the harm, but I understand why so many are against it and don't think that its popularity in OOTP is a good argument that it belongs in FM.

The amount of people on these forums who slate others for wanting an OPTION to play the game THEIR way is astounding.

Until SI change their current philosophy and give us a lot more options on how WE want to play the game I shall not be buying FM.

I don't think I can cope with just another slight upgrade.

So for now I'll give it a miss.

I think there is a gap for a good, thorough football management game where you DO have more control over backroom stuff. It's a model that has been used perfectly fine previously for other games, taking on a much more behind-the-scenes role either instead of or in addition to the manager's role.

But I don't think the FM series is that game. The game simply hasn't been developed in that direction, and that's always appeared to be a pretty conscious choice- the emphasis of the game is on sitting in the dugout and getting results on the pitch. There are already too many features which need attention to bring them up to the same level of depth and detail as the best parts of the game- things like media interaction, player interaction, staff feedback, AI squad management etc.- to consider jerking the series in an entirely different direction, especially if it's only an option.

And let's not be blind- it's clearly something that has been discussed by SI before- the evidence is in FML, where the game did adopt much more the chairman approach. In that game, the club was your club- you were responsible for things like developing the stadium, sorting out youth academies and other concepts which are outside the remit of a normal manager, in addition to the usual matchday management. And whilst they were generally well-implemented and quite polished, they were often shallow features- it was not difficult to work out and implement the optimum strategy from the options available. Once you'd sorted out your plan, they didn't add a great deal, gameplay-wise. To bring features such as this to the main game of FM, with the depth that the rest of the game has, is not only jarring against the way the game has been developed, but also a hell of an ask to try and maintain the high standard of the rest of the game.

I think what would be much more interesting is an 'Act as GM' option like in OOTP and your old game SI, EHM.

Greetings to all,

Thank you for your input. It's nice to see peoples views. When speaking about Owner mode, Ok i'm not saying push over manager mode for owner mode but have it as an option.

I guess there is a limit to what you can do as a manager, probably beg your club board to extend funds or use funds for proper training facilities etc. As owner mode you would have more of an arm stretch as to what you can do for the club in terms of business operations. Well we are seeing in the game that if you buy a popular Japanese player and put him in your team shirt sales will hit sky high. That to me is more of a owner responsibility than a manager responsibility. Clubs do not make big money by just wining trophies all the time e.g. liverpool, it takes a vicious team with the smart brains in business to make a club grow e.g. man uniteds marketing strategies in china and the U.S. stock market. So ok now i am talking about making huge amounts of money via a club with a business strategy in mind. Let's not forget Man City, did you not realise what financial backing and operations they have to make Man City a world player now. Also taking into consideration of the new rules that uefa have intergrated e.g. Financial Fair Play. So the things I am talking about are not mainly handled in game by the manager are they ?, exactly.

Some ppl like to play the game as manager mode only and that is fair enough, others want to get really busy withe more business options in the game e.g. building great youth academeys, being tempted by huge sponsors like Nike and Adidas to be the clubs major sponsor. Or how about the sponshorip deals that come through to your team for training day or all training sessions. These are handled by the owner right, i can't see the manager dealing with the these areas. These areas are real in life and having a huge impact on clubs. Why is Barcelona being punished by Uefa and same goes with Man City, not because their manager got it wrong with FFP (Financial Fair Play). It's because the club owner or others in the club are dodging taxes and taking advantage. Again this is happening in the current FM and the only way to tackle this is the manager has to get it right with transfers or his F****, and that in real life is not true. Managers are not to blame for situations like that it's more of the upper boards responsibility. But anyways keep em coming.

The big question for SI is would it sell more copies of the game?

If they ever again tackle the now dormant German market (the DFL is giving away Bundesliga licenses again in a year or two, and due to the cancellation of the German-bred FIFA Manager there is no management game anymore), they actually might, at least some. Reason is that German players have been used to been involved into business too in their most popular On The Ball and Fifa and Bundesliga Manager games from way back in the 1980s on.

When I "switched over" I didn't miss much of it, though similar to Ultimate Soccer Manager from Sierra you didn't decide when to build a new stadium, but you could act architect yourself too, and order merchandising manually and some more. I didn't miss much of it since as described by Cougar2010, most of this stuff isn't something you do regularly, whilst others is doable in FM anyways (leaving tactics and match management to your assistant is a perfectly viable option even outside of FM Classic, in my opinion -- there is nothing the supposedly all Mourinho AI managers do that your assistant can't). But I also didn't miss much of it because things remained mostly rather shallow on top of it. Looking to sign new sponsorship deals for instance is a matter of a couple of clicks of the mouse, and rather than being a comprehensive simulation of brands competing for spots at clubs, it's just the computer spoon feeding you a few contracts to click through. Similar could be said about the club's ground that can be upgraded: Not only do buildings give totally linear and simplified advantages (say, make player development x% quicker), but a lot of that stuff is simply lost in translation when it comes to the usually shallow match simulation. Until 2011ish this was wholly to the user's advantage too, as AI managers didn't even upgrade their ground. This was never the focus of the game, which was "managing" all the same, but rather mixed in.

Still, I'd think there would be a market for a serious director of football/chairman game, not least because start ups can barely compete with SI's match simulation that is now fueled by well over ten years of experience and constant tweaking, as well as their player research and data being linked to it rather well. (For all the niggles and bitching about shortcomings, it is obvious from watching these (and practically any other games that ever tried and mostly failed horribly, as FIFA Manager did too), that this is all blatantly more complex than what people occasionally give it credit for.) However ideally in such a chairman/DOF game the business side of football needs to be made focus and serious sim, and not boil down to mini-games of clicking through two to three contracts spoon fed to you by the computer once a season, as has typically been the case management games that also tried to tackle the business side of footie. Would such a game be as popular as FM? Perhaps not, as the main attraction of typical management games is well understood by SI if you judge the catch phrases on the back of their covers: Can you field better than the crooks in charge? "Finally time to put your opinion to the test". Opinions on the field. In the dugout. Right there where it mattes most. Would it be fun? That is a good question. However there is an opportunity for start-ups to branch out probably, rather than competing directly with a 70+ people working full-time enterprise that, warts and all, has largely nailed the football side of things already and an experience in doing such going two decades back.

And that startup is likely your best bet on a chairman/director of football game anyway. Similar to reasons posted above, even if SI would incorporate, it's not just a matter of making things that are already into the game be assessed directly by you (chairman deciding when to upgrade the stadium/vs you deciding yourself). If stadium upgrades etc. are in your hands, there needs to be added AI for AI clubs too, the thing needs to be more comprehensive, the game re-balanced, and much more. Plus staff not working on what has always meant to be the core of Football Manager has to be assigned to those then new areas of the game too.

This can be done with an editor and having the assistant manager role representing the manager role. With this you have exactly a Football Chairman game, trying to sign players your (asst.) manager wants (or buying players of your own accord), letting him choose the tactics, deal with contracts, pick the first team, and have him take charge during matches.

This can be done with an editor and having the assistant manager role representing the manager role. With this you have exactly a Football Chairman game, trying to sign players your (asst.) manager wants (or buying players of your own accord), letting him choose the tactics, deal with contracts, pick the first team, and have him take charge during matches.

I guess the only problem with this is you're never going to get a Mourinho or Guardiola into the assistant role, and you'd never be able to properly replicate the battle for a top manager's signature (ie - Hiddink or LVG)

I guess it could possibly be run alongside FMC as another mode, where the assistant title becomes the manager title, you can only watch matches etc. There are quite a few possibilities with it but I don't know how immersive you could make it for a 20+ season save (then again I can only speak for myself).

Some cool features would be:

- Agents of managers approaching you regarding their client

- Requesting permission from other chairmen to talk approach an employed manager

- Conducting interviews with potential staff

- Selling your stake in a club and looking to buy in elsewhere

I can imagine it would be fun for some people to oversee a club going from the bottom to the top in a chairman/DoF role.

This can be done with an editor and having the assistant manager role representing the manager role. With this you have exactly a Football Chairman game, trying to sign players your (asst.) manager wants (or buying players of your own accord), letting him choose the tactics, deal with contracts, pick the first team, and have him take charge during matches.

You can negotiate and sign sponsorship deals if you let your assman control the first team?

The thing is, my definition of TEDIOUS is different from yours. My definition of tedious is going through ALL this match in, match out. Your definition of tedious seems to be not going through this and having considerably less things to freak out about at the same time.

I don't think there's a right and wrong answer to what should be considered tedious. It's a matter of preference. What is wrong, though, is to assume everyone wants to play the game the same way you do. I want to play the game in a more casual fashion, at least sometimes. The overwhelmingness of the nightmare-of-simultaneous-concerns I described above makes me flinch before double-clicking the Football Manager shortcut on my desktop screen. Sometimes I don't feel like going through all this pain again. All I want to extract of the game is the fun... And to me the fun part is the part that is less unforgiving in FM - everything except match management.

I have never said that anyone should play the game the same way I do, so that's a swing and a miss. I was just giving my opinion on the feature, same as you. The forum would be pretty boring if every argument was one-sided, wouldn't it?

Plus I think you should forget the "getting through a season in 15-20 minutes" level. Even if they brought something like this in, then to have a World with the same detail as the current one, then you would still need the same (or similar) amount of processing that the current game does. When I was running test saves for edited files, running JUST the Gibraltarian league and nothing else (around 2k players I think) it would take around 15-20 minutes to holiday a season, maybe slightly less. Add in the four or five clicks you'd have to make during the season for a GM game, then add in all the other leagues you'd want to load, and you're still looking at a few hours at best.

To be honest, your problems don't sound like you want a GM game, you just want a quicker game. You can achieve that by loading less, strategically holidaying and just missing out the bits you don't want.

@Kenco, cougar2010, forameuss

I get what you're saying, and it makes sense. And to an extent I agree with you. However, there's something you need to understand too - I do want my seasons to take 15 - 20 minutes. I want to skim through seasons. I have a job (with great responsibility), and getting home to play FM:

- filled with drama-queen players that ruin the squad harmony because they overreact to an interaction / team talk that actually makes sense, or

- spending 15 - 20 for each match of a season with 40 matches (plus a gazillion domestic cups, and european competitions)

- biting my nails and wondering if the slight tactic change I make will fix the result or make it even worse...

it's just a no-no, sometimes.

Sometimes I just feel like taking it easy. Playing FM in a relaxed way. FM feels progressively less and less relaxed. You get 2 or 3 consecutive bad results and suddenly your job stability is "Insecure". It doesn't matter if you won the Champions League with Chesterfield the last year, suddenly you're a loss away of getting fired almost without a warning. Many times I get those results after spending almost an hour each match, carefully examining

- tactics,

- the weather,

- the length and width of the field,

- the field condition,

- the tendency of this referee to show yellow / red cards,

- the morale of my team,

- the morale of their team,

- who played in my team well the last time they played,

- who played unwell,

- why they played well / unwell (most of the times I find no plausible reason anyway)

- who should get a chance to play now before they start moaning about match time and screw up the squad harmony (baby-sitting, hooray!)

- the recommendatins hidden in the training reports of every player, and cycling through each staff member's training report for each player

- obsessively visiting the staff meeting screen to find recommendations that only last 1-2 days and magically disappear afterwards

- and on, and on, and on...

The thing is, my definition of TEDIOUS is different from yours. My definition of tedious is going through ALL this match in, match out. Your definition of tedious seems to be not going through this and having considerably less things to freak out about at the same time.

I don't think there's a right and wrong answer to what should be considered tedious. It's a matter of preference. What is wrong, though, is to assume everyone wants to play the game the same way you do. I want to play the game in a more casual fashion, at least sometimes. The overwhelmingness of the nightmare-of-simultaneous-concerns I described above makes me flinch before double-clicking the Football Manager shortcut on my desktop screen. Sometimes I don't feel like going through all this pain again. All I want to extract of the game is the fun... And to me the fun part is the part that is less unforgiving in FM - everything except match management.

I understand your point of view. And it makes sense to me. Yeah, maybe what I'm looking for isn't FM after all. I feel FM does have a brilliant chance to provide a more casual and easygoing gameplay experience, though. It's by far the most accurate, thorough and detailed football management game nowadays. No other game hassuch a complete database of real players, coaches, managers and whatnot. But yeah... It's made to be thorough. Maybe taking (or offering) a more easygoing route is against the game's core idea / philosophy.

I like this thread very much. It's been a terrific discussion of ideas so far.

I'm not saying you should play the game in the way that I do - I'm saying that a Chairman mode is so far removed from football management, then it should be a completely separate game. It sounds like FM is not for you, so you should try the game KDR has recommended.

My only comment is this :

We currently have the opposite of this, with the DoF able to do all the transfer bits leaving us to focus on the match, and the DoF is so appallingly bad, so utterly without merit, that it's worse than nothing because it's actively hindering you.

So how happy would people be to flip that and buy amazing players only for the manager to play a system that utilised none of these players and saw your team plummeting down the league? Exactly.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Would love for this happen. However, AI management is pretty putrid in FM, so it doesnt really make a difference who you would hire. You can have Mourinho managing Accrington and they still wouldnt get out of the league. My point is, AI manager's stats doesnt really make any difference come matchday IMO.

Are you telling me a manager with 20 in tactical knowledge would 'outsmart' a manager with 1 in the same area if you watch the match as a spectator. No chance.

A chairman simulation is an excellent idea for those who want it.

Just not in this game. This game is about being a football manager, regardless of the semantics of the title.

There's certainly a gap in the market, but I'd be horrified if SI added it to this game.

You'd be 'horrified' if they added in this option for people that want to play it that way? Best not watch the news if I were you.

It's easy to call this an option. Would take 5 mins to code, right?

Instead of bickering, why not list what you'd want this mode to do exactly. There would have to be a lot of added detail for this to happen, imo. Too much to just add it in as an option. It should be a separate game.

Would take 5 mins to code, right?

Why don't you stick to discussing things people have actually said?

Why don't you stick to discussing things people have actually said?

Why don't you stick to answering the questions posted, rather than just picking one bit and posting a pithy reply?

Never seen the merit in this idea, and I've not seen anything here to change my mind.

Why don't you stick to discussing things people have actually said?

I did. Right after the part you quoted.

Actually, I think a Chairman mode is either going to be way too simplistic as Cougar pointed out or there would need to be so much added to make it work as a separate game mode, it wouldn't be worthwhile. Instead of a Chairman Mode, wouldn't a DoF mode be better? Would have you focusing on contracts and transfers, making use of much of the game's existing modules. Would be much easier to add in as an option.