Extra-Curricular School Football Manager Club

Afternoon Si Games,

I work at a Secondary Academy in West Yorkshire and after several conversations with a colleague about how our whole free time for the last 20 or so years has been dedicated to the life changing game series that is the Football Manager series we have come up with the idea of an after school (extra-curricular) Football Manager club. As a school we already deliver what I believe is an unrivalled extra-curricular programme however we believe that the introduction a "Football Manager Club" would be like the ultimate deadline day signing (think Suarez to liverpool or Torres to Chelsea, ok maybe not Torres!)

We feel as a school that the introduction of “Football Manager Club” could have a substantial impact on students inter-personal and educational skills (Geography, Literacy, Maths, Business etc.) We have already started planning what we believe will be the countries first extra-curricular Football Manager club for 20 students (including champions league style team draw and manager of the month / season competitions). There is some funding (I have been told it is very limited) in place to fund new extra-curricular clubs so I am asking if there is any way you (SI Games) could help myself get this dream off the ground and help produce the next generation of World class football managers!

Any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Also if you are a member of the world wide public please feel free to comment on the matter with any ideas you may have.

Are you a teacher?

What exactly would you want SI to do?

Hi Kenco,

I am a pastoral manager (very similar role to that of a head of year). Do you think the idea has legs?

See if they can offer any support, advice, educational opportunities etc and obviously a discount on 20 copies / downloads of the football 2015 or offer a way in which we may run it on 20 computers from the minimum amount of licences.

There's a contact us at the bottom of the forum - you might get a better response using that.

Thanks Eugene that is really useful to know! I first contacted SEGA and they said I needed to start a post on here as they could not help me as they only deal with technical issues.

Kargs,

Can you explain in what way this would benefit SI games?

See if they can offer any support, advice, educational opportunities etc and obviously a discount on 20 copies / downloads of the football 2015 or offer a way in which we may run it on 20 computers from the minimum amount of licences.

If kids want to join an FM after school cluv, then it's likely they already own the game so they can bring in ther own copy.

Or try hotseat play on one computer.

At the end of the day, I can't see the educational benefits.

I believe It will benefit SI Games through inspiring students to possibly work in the games industry and possibly for SI Games, provide SI games with a chance to hear / work with young people who's opinion is really useful for games companies. Also why does it always have to be what companies will get out of things, just think about what students will get out of the experience!

Unfortunately quite a lot of young people don't have the finances to be able to buy a computer game let alone a computer to play it on so this is an experience for students to experience something that a lot of people take for granted. It will also help start new friendships and make students interact with other people they may usually not been comfortable with.

Also from an educational point of view it will help students learn in various different ways. It will strengthen basic maths skills through budgeting, use of different units of money and percentages when it comes to possession etc. It will improve English reading and writing skills through the literacy which underpins the core of the game. Basic geography skills will be improved especially when looking at playing / buying players from clubs in different countries. That is just to name a few.

I am wanting to play a network game where students take charge of their own club as this will promote communication between players. The idea is that we get students aged 11-13 involved as it will have a greater benefit to them because I agree that it wouldn't have much of an educational impact on older students.

Also coming to think of it after playing the game for one hour students who can afford to play the game at home would more than likely go out and buy it.

It would take a better person than me to play the game for only an hour a week if they had the opportunity to play it more!

If kids want to join an FM after school cluv, then it's likely they already own the game so they can bring in ther own copy.

Or try hotseat play on one computer.

At the end of the day, I can't see the educational benefits.

You'd be surprised. I've used knowledge gained from the game innumerable times in my job (managing a team of people) and social life. The game actually makes for great analogies.

i think it would be a great idea why don't you create a database using the editor of one league and 20 or so teams (the amount of students at the club) and play in that league so students would play against eachother

Don't get me wrong. I think it's great for children learning, however, I don't see why SI would do this?

Don't get me wrong. I think it's great for children learning, however, I don't see why SI would do this?

Good press/PR/Marketing? Make sure the youth is getting addicted? Hoping other schools will follow and therefore multiply the before mentioned effects?

Sounds like someone wants 20 copies on the cheap

Sounds a bit meh to me. You can say that it'll teach you things, but there's probably better ways to teach maths/geography etc, by actually teaching them, rather than relying on a tenuous link in some game.

I mean if there's interest, great, and it'll probably go down really well with the pupils, but struggling to see much benefit beyond being a social club. Certainly not enough benefit for SI to get involved.

I don't want 20 copies on the cheap. I need 20 copies on the cheap or a way to play the game on 20 computers for as cheap as possible!

All students involved will receive their full complement of excellent education throughout their usual school day however as it will be an extra-curricular club (after school for one hour a week) students will be engaging in a way to further develop certain educational and interpersonal skills without them even possibly knowing it! I also think that this would be a really fun way to enhance core life skills as well.

I am by no means asking students to come out of any subject during the school day to play Football Manager!

That would be absolutely ludicrous and would put myself out of a job!

I really hope SI Games are a little more optimistic and open to outreach work than some people seem to suggest that they may be!

Maybe you will just have to create your own football manager game!

For what it's worth I think it sounds a decent idea especially in terms of helping kids make friends, particularly ones who maybe find it difficult to socialise

I remember Maxis (before it would bought, chopped, and dissected by EA) doing something similar to this in the early 90s with their first ever SimCity game. Hopefully, you're able to get your school club up and running!

I think it sounds brilliant. Let them each create their own team in the editor and give them all the same starting bank balance etc and have your own 20 team network game premier league. Maybe someone from the editors hideaway would help you out and set up your own league for you so there's no relegation or promotion and you can play one season a semester or something.

There's a lot more to geography than knowing that Nicosia is in Cyprus. As for English, the OP has a number of grammatical / literacy errors which need addressing before spending too much time on FM.

I can see it could help a bit with maths and the social side of things.

I think it sounds brilliant. Let them each create their own team in the editor and give them all the same starting bank balance etc and have your own 20 team network game premier league. Maybe someone from the editors hideaway would help you out and set up your own league for you so there's no relegation or promotion and you can play one season a semester or something.

If SI get behind this I will happily create a league system specifically for this sort of project. I've got plenty of experience on the editor so I can guarantee it will be good.

Thanks Kenco if I am successful in getting this off the ground I may be taking you up on that offer.

Steam offer a cybercafe program which might be of use to you, though there doesn't seem to be any real details about it listed anywhere and not even sure if FM is one of the included games or not.