Outside the 'bubble'.

I posted this in reply to a user's idea on the wishlist thread who wanted to recommend the next manager of his club, and my response has been a long term issue I have with the game.

And to be fair, one I wouldn't know how to address.

An FM manager is (in my experience) oblivious to anything outside their own team's bubble.

Other clubs are merely positions in the table and how they play or who their best players are and what abilities they have on the pitch are rarely, if at all, on our radar.

I play currently in L2 and ok if you're playing top flight from the off there is that RL knowledge, but after a good number of seasons in the game does anyone really knows what goes on outside the 'bubble'?

I posted this in reply to a user's idea on the wishlist thread who wanted to recommend the next manager of his club, and my response has been a long term issue I have with the game.

And to be fair, one I wouldn't know how to address.

An FM manager is (in my experience) oblivious to anything outside their own team's bubble.

Other clubs are merely positions in the table and how they play or who their best players are and what abilities they have on the pitch are rarely, if at all, on our radar.

I play currently in L2 and ok if you're playing top flight from the off there is that RL knowledge, but after a good number of seasons in the game does anyone really knows what goes on outside the 'bubble'?

Yep. Part of my job to. Easy enough to do. Average rating/goals/assists. And in a split second, you have a good idea about who another teams best players are.

I do, mainly from scouting and the scout reports, but also when assessing a team before we play them.

What level of knowledge do you have, other than the stats for your next opposition?

Could you tell me all about the teams in your league in the same way the average fan can talk about RL Premier League?

If so it would be difficult to gain that understanding just from next opponent reports.

What level of knowledge do you have, other than the stats for your next opposition?

Could you tell me all about the teams in your league in the same way the average fan can talk about RL Premier League?

If so it would be difficult to gain that understanding just from next opponent reports.

I could. Not lately. My team's now that good that I don't need to pay that much attention to the other teams.

The problem overall is the speed at which we play compared to real life.

OK, but then I'd put you in a real minority. That lack of knowledge for me is an empty whole in the game. I'd love to feel a sense of rivalry with a club, but they're all just names on a fixture list with a stat based scout report failing to give a real feel about what you're up against.

Agree with Nick here, and yeah it's probably due to the speed in which we play the game, i have no idea who the best players in the world are, apart from my lad whos won the ballon d'or

The similar level of game world knowledge can be attained, the downside is it would require a level of news subscription that would overwhelm many FM'ers or just slow game progress to a level that is intolerable. The part that will always prevent many from having the same level of knowledge recall is that irl there are so many influences on our football knowledge & this includes stuff we're wrong about, in FM there are just three sources of information; Team we play against, our scouts & the news feeds which I guess many of us skip over without giving the news any real attention.

I pay a very slight amount of attention to the other clubs in the same league I'm in so I can plan ahead a little bit, but generally speaking I do fall into the own club bubble category. I'm not too bothered what happens elsewhere in the gameworld, just as long as my own club is succeeding. I've played so much FM over the years that the novelty of things like a 38 year old Messi playing for Crewe has worn off.

The guys in the SI testing team probably wish that I only concentrated on my own team, would reduce the number of bugs that I spot & they have to reproduce on my save game.

Last year, I made notes before facing each opposition. I looked at the strengths and weaknesses of each player likely to start and designed a gameplan and (more importantly) team selection around that. I got to know especially who the key players in each team were and I was genuinely excited when I got to sign a midfielder I'd admired for years! I don't go into that level of detail anymore, but I had a decent knowledge of my gameworld. It still would fall short of real life knowledge though.

My reply to the idea that was posted originally

Don't you get news items about players of the month, players of the year, goals of the month etc.?

There's also a dedicated section on Player Performances for each league, outlining the best performing players in that league for a number of stats, including, Tackles Per Game, Goals, Assists, Match Ratings, Man of the Match etc.

Maybe if these things made it to the news screen instead of having to click through them it would be good?

But you can also set your scouts to scout your league, youth leagues, other leagues and report on the best players.

Problem is, if the game was more real life to experience this then you'd spend 1 real life week playing FM and progressing 1 FM week in the game to absorb this information.

Fact is, the facts are already in the game, you just have to look for them - scout and take chances on players.

I agree with this, I often get myself into the own team "bubble", missing out on some big signings sometimes because I just don't look around enough.

I think it is mainly due to time, all of the information is of course in the game but you have to go and find it or receive the news items.

One of the main issues i'd have with this though is that you would get to a point where you would confuse the FM world with the real world, we've all done it, but you would surely begin to do it more and more??

I agree with this, I often get myself into the own team "bubble", missing out on some big signings sometimes because I just don't look around enough.

I think it is mainly due to time, all of the information is of course in the game but you have to go and find it or receive the news items.

One of the main issues i'd have with this though is that you would get to a point where you would confuse the FM world with the real world, we've all done it, but you would surely begin to do it more and more??

I remember at one time thinking Marcelo Zalayeta had played for about 3 or 4 different Premier League clubs, Everton, Birmingham, basically any team that played in blue. Reality is that he's never even played in Engand. Damn him and how he started transfer listed for about 6 FMs running.

team bubble really is happening quite a lot. however, i'd say it really depends on player. although pain to set up and full of holes, screen flow helps immensly to keep you up with leagues, turnaments, players, stats... and whole game world. after i have put some time to set it up i have all the info i want. i would encourage anyone to dip into it and try it as it really helps.

on the other hand, si should improve it so you see it in a way we are used to see these info on internet, tv or newspapers. above all this info should be presented while the game is processing so you get something to look at while you are waiting instead of "losing time" to click through it after the processing is done.

on the other hand, si should improve it so you see it in a way we are used to see these info on internet, tv or newspapers. above all this info should be presented while the game is processing so you get something to look at while you are waiting instead of "losing time" to click through it after the processing is done.

That's actually a decent idea.

On TEW games, you are presented with bios of other wrestlers, so that way you get to "know" the game world while doing nothing. On FM, this could be league tables and team/player stats for the leagues you're subscribed to.

should be on default instead of that hedious screen flow.