What word best fits FM for you?

A game - You play it and have fun with it just like every other game.

A lifestyle - It has become a part of your life, like brushing your teeth and eating. You don't play it, you do it.

Work - It's stopped being a game, sometimes you're not even having fun, but in an unexplainable way that's part of the appeal. You don't really know why you're still playing this, you might even consider it your job secretly, and not all jobs are 24/7 fun.

An addiction - You start the game even though you're not in the mood, you keep starting new saves trying to get the same buzz you got once upon a time, you could stop but you just don't want to.

A dark past - You used to play it, might've even been addicted to it, but now you're cold turkey and get off just talking about it, but won't touch it again for fear of what else in your life will suffer, e.g. studies, relationships.

A science - This is more than just a game, it's an experiment whose results must be disected over years, calculations and theories abound and new discoveries and advances are always being made. Why don't more people see this? You should be getting paid.

A time-killer - You've played it enough by now, but you go back to it if you're bored and can't think of anything else to do so go to FM out of habit.

The bane of your existence - Dark Souls and Battletoads have nothing on this. You WANT to like this, you've tried for years, but it's just too hard/complicated/time-consuming/slow/mostly boring/hard on your eyes.

The actual bane of your existence - You've lost everything, or at least the important things, you failed at college/uni and you don't have a girlfriend or wife any more, but at least you won the league title again.

An escape - You live a life as a subordinate and/or outcast, and the game allows you to be a universally loved mastermind full of money and life experiences travelling the world.

Your real job - You work(ed) for SI and by the end of development can't stand the sight of it any more, so never really play it.

Something I didn't think of.

Gonna go for the top one, though I don't really play any other games very often.

It's an escapist lifestyle addiction that becomes a science near the release of the next one.

But there is a squidgy bit that occurs around June when I've won it all for so long, and through various squad rebuilds, that there is no point to play anymore. All the records are gone. All the trophies won. All the hall-of-fames dominated. Then I stop playing totally until the next demo.

It's a very good poll and the questions are well thought out, but the whiners never miss an opportunity

It's a very good poll and the questions are well thought out, but the whiners never miss an opportunity

I removed the posts, don't see why a very good thread should be hijacked with posts that are clearly off topic

Previously it would have been a lifestyle, but so busy in the last couple of years its just a game now

Used to be lifestyle/work, so I took a year off FM to get my priorities in order. I'm back and I played 14 a lot, but it'll always be a game from now on.

I play FM because it's fun. Once it's not fun anymore, I'll do something else.

I play FM 12 when I have the time to play. I enjoy playing when I can.

What a poll!

Dear me I need to select maybe multiple options, 'Work', 'The actual bane of your existence', 'A science' and at least once a month I swear it's 'A dark past'......

It's my real job I am RL manager of Berwick Rangers it's Jan 2018 i'm in the Scottish Championship on £1k a week.

You're missing the object and context of this particular poll, there are plenty of other threads for whingeing in.

The poll doesn't ask how you see FM as a game but how you see it's effect on you.

according to steam i have 139 hours in the last two weeks.... i might need help

Yeah I hide those statistics from my gf. There should be a poll on how many hours people play.

It's an addiction obviously.

I've clocked 1156 hrs in FM14 alone.

Addiction rating in my current game: What are humans? <<- I liked that one

If there were an option for 'a dark past, went cold turkey, but thinking of touching again' then that would be me.

I bought '14 thinking I could control the addiction, but all the same old excuses came back. Determined to only play one match a day quickly spiraled to loading up at 9am and being there 15 hours later.

I will pick up '15, but this time instead of knowing I have an addiction, I will know I know I have an addiction. And play no more than an hour a day. That'll happen, sure, sure it will... all easy like. No problem, its no problem. ITS NO F****** PROBLEM!

(I wouldn't mind if SI put in self imposed time limits to the game. It would help some of us out)

Not really sure what one I fit into. I was an old CM regular, turned FML-vet who shunned the main game for those bright lights for a while. Once it died, I decided to dip the toe back in for FM11, but never quite got into it. 12 saw me return to that, and 13 saw it blossom. When 14 was released, I took about a week off work to prepare. Unfortunately, 14 just hasn't gripped me, and now I'm struggling to keep my attention or interest long enough to get to Christmas in any new save I start. (of course you wouldn't think so looking at my hours played total - as a result of it always being on whenever my laptop was, and that usually being the case while I was out at work, I must look like the game's biggest fan...) Not really sure what's happened, but I will indeed be back for 15 in the hope that it's better. At the very least, it will be for the first few months while the "shiny shiny" mindset is still there.

I guess the most apt one would be "a game" in that case. Other releases have been more of a lifestyle, as I would end up "playing" FM most of the time I was at home in some sense, even if it was just pottering about, hitting continue a few times while doing other things.

Was a lifestyle, but more of just a game now.

Definitely 'work' and 'an addiction'. The two descriptions fit my FM experience perfectly.

You're missing the object and context of this particular poll, there are plenty of other threads for whingeing in.

The poll doesn't ask how you see FM as a game but how you see it's effect on you.

Who's whingeing? Anyway 9 choices are more than one word and I didn't know which one to choose.

I wasn't addressing you Chinook, a post preceding yours has been deleted

I saw the the new FM 15 box in Asda.

It said "Best before October 2012" on the back of the box. :o

Hmm. Probably work. Never really got into 14

I saw the the new FM 15 box in Asda.

It said "Best before October 2012" on the back of the box. :o

I guess now it's literally work for me. Huh. I won't get the buzz of loading up a game in the new FM for the first time this year!

Previously it would have been a lifestyle, but so busy in the last couple of years its just a game now

Pffffffffffft!

Think 'Addicted Time-Killer' would fit the bill.

It is my real job, but I wouldn't say that I'm sick of the sight of it.. Far from it. Can't wait to get hold of FM15 and play it as a fan - so I suppose in that sense it's an addiction.

One of the cool things about being part of the test team was that there were so many new builds that the final game still felt new and fresh. Plus you play it completely differently when trying to break it or test it than you do when gunning for FA Vase glory.

The bane of my existence

So many good choices, but in the end, it is an addiction!!!! I must admit it!!!!!

For me, more like a 'Fantasy Adventure', with very emotionally involving highs and lows, legendary teams and players (I still remember an Albanian forward from my FM05 Braga side!) who live long in the memory for years to come. Just last week I was planning to leave Slavia Prague as it was time to take a step up, we retained our title with a 7-0 home win (against the team in 3rd) on the last day which I thought was a heck of a way to go out and I almost ended up staying despite the overwhelming case to go (and the fact that it had been decided for months in-game in advance) because it was a moment that I wanted to last forever.

I'd pick addiction, but having played FML, I know what real FM addiction is. Now it probably falls into the Work category.