Does anyone actually enjoy the media and player interactions?

[trevjim]

We all know how they go...

 

"Hey just wanted to praise your recent form"

 

"I disagree, I can play better"

 

"Ok no worries, look forward to seeing what else you can bring"

 

"I can't believe how you have handled this"

 

(Player morale drops)

 

Or the stupid team talks (board wants you to finish top 4)

 

"I would like us to push for top 4 this year"

 

"All players are now offended"

 

Since they were introduced they have been so tedious, repetitive and broken.

 

They were introduced to add to the immersion, but are so broken that they actually do the opposite and detract from it.

 

Even when they do work as intended, they are so boring. I know you can send your ass man but I am not sure if there are negative results for doing that?

 

That's why I always preferred FM Classic/Touch for the PC. It did away with most the bloated fluff like that.

 

I would love the option for them to be removed from the game.

 

However that's just me. Does anyone on here actually like them?

 

[Lempicka]

I like the idea of press conferences, but I feel that could be scaled back a lot. I find pre and post match conferences, with the regular pre-kick-off tunnel interview (if playing in a top league) just too much. The questions become monotonous early into a save, and then I switch off and end up just selecting the mildly positive reply (the one second from left) to every question.

It'd be great if for most matches it was just a post match conference (maybe pre-match ones for semis and finals). I'd like them to also focus more on events that have happened (e.g. sending offs, offsides, amount of injury time) and not whether a youth player deserves a new contract.

As for player interaction, it's juts not working properly in FM24. Confrontations need to be toned down. Hopefully this will be addressed when the game goes live.

 

 

[Dadecane]

The media I think is fine actually I like the variety of answers available I like that it almost never triggers annunrealistic reaction, and it brings a lot of realism, at least for me, to the game. 
 

the player interactions definitely need fixing. 

[Kickballz]

Have not been interested in that for years. Even thinking about them makes my blood boil. The press conferences can f*** off. SI, your press conferences suck. Go ahead and sue me. I don't care.

[BnadnerB]

This is why SI got rid of FM Touch from PC/laptop, more and more people would be switching over for sure.

[eXistenZ]

Didnt they said they'd addres player talks/interaction? In FM23 this is a major immersion breaker. I didnt bother with most player talks and just fined them for bad performances, as at least they didnt go apeshit.

Now with fining removed and player talks still poo apparently, no point in getting FM24. What else did they "supposudly " fixed?

[Mars_Blackmon]

Yes, I enjoy role-playing, but it could be improved logically and with more gameplay mechanics.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Mars_Blackmon

[Dotsworthy]

Press conferences/Pre-match interviews I just leave to my assistant. They are boring in real life and so are boring in FM. I would much rather this be boiled down to one or two questions per match where the answer has a guaranteed effect on player/fan morale & player/board/opposition manager relationship. 

Interactions are okay once I learned that there is a very specific way to do them, which is not ideal but prevents the level of aggravation I see on here. It still has players moaning but it's often better just to peace out at that point and leave it for a while. I think part of the problem (aside from the logic) is that most players go into these interactions blind. This is the one area in the game where you get no help from your assistant for example, which is unrealistic.

 

[nico_france]

Sames as above I leave all the media stuff to my staff, as I d'ont really care about it

Regarding the player interaction, I would have been a big fan IF the outcome of these discussions would have been really useful, but most of the time the results are the opposite of what I expect

Not game breaker for my taste, but sometimes it's annoying

[russell9]

It's getting worse every year and this year it's too annoying and has led me to discontinue playing the game entirely 

[Dagenham_Dave]

Interactions have been poor again this year, but I'd rather they focused on getting it right rather than remove it altogether, as it adds an extra dimension to the game. 

[phnompenhandy]

Never bother, but in my last save I had a certain Weegie hot-head as my assistant manager and sent him out to meet the press. He never failed to turn on his infamous hairdryer!

[Cmdr Christoff]

I find the Press/media stuff quite amusing.  I'm all for a wind-up.  However the Player interactions are still unrealistic, and I was hoping for big improvements in FM24 which I haven't seen yet.   I have more or less destroyed my current save over a stupid row with a Player that escalated to the whole squad.  It turned aggressive really quick.  Now I'm faced with another situation of a Player wanting to renew his Contract but demanding more money than is available at the Club, and I cant see a way to avoid upsetting him and the rest of the squad.   I've just managed to rebuild Morale and the Club Atmosphere, it it looks like its going to take a big hit again!  

[tezcatlipoca665]

If there was an option to remove absolutely all interactions other than pre-match, half-time, and post-match team talks, I'd use it. Sending the assistant manager to do press conferences is one thing, but the game has a metric for your media attendance, and interviewers for new management jobs point out how they're concerned with how you don't interact with the media much (if at all). I had to promise a club I'd attend upon acceptance of a job as a result. As a side note - a few days ago on a save, I was asked how I was coping with the failure of not qualifying for the Europa Conference League, and I mean, pretty well? Y'know, considering I qualified for the Europa League via league position and also won the Coppa Italia on top of that with a minus 10-point Juventus.

Player interactions don't really do anything for me either. I don't really care about telling players 'you did well in training!' every week until it stops being effective and I'm their favourite person in the world for being nice to them for 2 months. Criticizing doesn't really seem to do much either. 'You're right, I need to buck my ideas up'. Yeah, see you again with the same complaint next week.

Edited October 25, 2023 by tezcatlipoca665

[ElJuanvito]

Not me, it's all mindless clickwork. I praise my players' training every week if they deserve it, but it's still a chore.

[trevjim]

2 hours ago, eXistenZ said:

Didnt they said they'd addres player talks/interaction? In FM23 this is a major immersion breaker. I didnt bother with most player talks and just fined them for bad performances, as at least they didnt go apeshit.

Now with fining removed and player talks still poo apparently, no point in getting FM24. What else did they "supposudly " fixed?

They said they fixed AI squad building and youth development but early indications seem to suggest it's as bad as ever

[trevjim]

3 hours ago, BnadnerB said:

This is why SI got rid of FM Touch from PC/laptop, more and more people would be switching over for sure.

I did notice that. I remember the threads on here about FM touch. Each year they were getting more popular with people making the jump. The people who made the jump were typically users from the only CM days who just wanted tactics and transfers as the focus.

 

I think a lot of people initially thought FM Touch was similar to FM Mobile. But it wasn't, it was the full game, just with things like Media, Staff and Training streamlined. It ran like a dream and was close to perfect. Was gutted when it was made console only.

 

It was all the good of football manager with none of the modern tedious bloat 

[XaW]

I like the idea of it, but I don't think it works as well as it should currently. For player interactions, I think the flaw is that it doesn't feel real, the suspension of disbelief is removed when the player act too irrational to be real. Players thinking too high of themselves and being snowflakes when a manager pushes back, sure I have no problem, but the game don't do this well enough as it is. The whole interaction system can work fine at times, but it's cumbersome as well. I'm not sure how to fix it though. I think removing it wouldn't be a good idea either, as I've had many players who I've had fun conversations with and has built more immersion too. But as is, those are too few compared to the annoying ones.

As for press conferences, well I've written about it before, so I'll just link to it here.

[trevjim]

13 minutes ago, XaW said:

I like the idea of it, but I don't think it works as well as it should currently. For player interactions, I think the flaw is that it doesn't feel real, the suspension of disbelief is removed when the player act too irrational to be real. Players thinking too high of themselves and being snowflakes when a manager pushes back, sure I have no problem, but the game don't do this well enough as it is. The whole interaction system can work fine at times, but it's cumbersome as well. I'm not sure how to fix it though. I think removing it wouldn't be a good idea either, as I've had many players who I've had fun conversations with and has built more immersion too. But as is, those are too few compared to the annoying ones.

As for press conferences, well I've written about it before, so I'll just link to it here.

It's a shame that your press conference post (which is great btw and I completely agree with) was made over 3 years ago and they still haven't made any of those changes in the versions since.

[XaW]

9 minutes ago, trevjim said:

It's a shame that your press conference post (which is great btw and I completely agree with) was made over 3 years ago and they still haven't made any of those changes in the versions since.

My point with that post, and still my general feeling for these things is that they should feel like they add to the immersion, not remove it. So while press conferences are usually the most boring thing I can think of in real life, in the game it would be possible to extrapolate the things that will do so. Drop all the formalities and the obvious questions and answers and pick out one or two things that matter. The other manager talked down to you or said your team was poor? Sure, a question about that would be good. One of my players being spotted at a night club the day before the game and will miss it? Of course, I would exepect it!

However, the "the dressing room seems like they are in a good mood, is that a good thing?" type questions, that will always be followed up with "but what about complacency?" question that I've had about 100 times already doesn't make it any fun. It's just a case of reading the first few words and then clicking the right place with muscle memory only. So I would remove all those types, and just have the manager respond to things that have happened that doesn't happen regularly. And don't give the manager the same question within a short time period either, as that will just be repetitive.

I think the press conferences could be very much improved, if only two things were implemented! That's max 2-3 questions per time, and don't ask the same question within a 3 month time period. Just doing those two things would make it much better. And eventually perhaps it could evolve into more contextual with more varied answers every time.

[eXistenZ]

3 hours ago, XaW said:

I like the idea of it, but I don't think it works as well as it should currently. For player interactions, I think the flaw is that it doesn't feel real, the suspension of disbelief is removed when the player act too irrational to be real. Players thinking too high of themselves and being snowflakes when a manager pushes back, sure I have no problem, but the game don't do this well enough as it is. The whole interaction system can work fine at times, but it's cumbersome as well. I'm not sure how to fix it though. I think removing it wouldn't be a good idea either, as I've had many players who I've had fun conversations with and has built more immersion too. But as is, those are too few compared to the annoying ones.

As for press conferences, well I've written about it before, so I'll just link to it here.

thats my gripe with it as well. Its extremely immersion breaking, and it also has an ingame knockon effect. Tell a player he played badly (which the game tells you aka the rating) and the response is ludicrous in way too many instances. Player unhappy etc. Now do that to a few players... 
And its not just that. The "explore other options" is equally frustrating to deal with as well. No player would tell his boss in the middle of their busiest month (usually february), while they are looking to have their best raking ever, that he wants out. At the end of the season? sure, but now, two days before we could go 6 points clear? srsly dude?

 

The alternative is just not talking to your players, which I honestly mostly did. I used the fines to let them know when they played poorly. Did I enjoy it? No, but it was a lot less hassle than dealing with bad code. And I hate it. The best FM stories are with players that made a difference for you and you remember. But 90% of the time I ignore them or tiptoe around them like freaking minesweeper...

I might seem a bit overreactive, but honestly I player FM23 a lot less than previous editionsand this was definitly in the top3 of factors. If there is no change, despite it being advertised, then why bother at this point. Better wait a year and hope Unity fixes it

 

As for press conferences, I can live with it that they are boring and pointless, as they usually are irl.

Edited October 25, 2023 by eXistenZ

[Overmars]

I like the player interactions in the sense that they offer some necessary checks and balances in the game. For example, if you sell a popular teammate then you should hear about it from your best players. I don't want to feel as if I am managing faceless robots.

That said, the interactions need to be more logical. No one should be getting upset about selling a backup who has no clout within the team.

The press conferences -- I leave those for my assistant because they are genuinely tedious.

[FrazT]

Press conferences are fine although I delegate most of them- player interactions are not and need work.

[Tfunk]

Haven't used anything related to media since they brought it out and I never will, praising and criticising is a waste of time since it can backfire, the best and easiest way to raise morale is simply just to win.

[SPE3D]

You should have done a poll 

[Icy]

- Players interactions are fine for me (IF they work fine, they need tweaking in FM24).

They add a lot for immersion and to have things to deal with during the season besides the game/tactical part. It's also realistic to deal with players issues and team dynamics. I love them (again, when they work fine) and I trust once SI fixes the current issues, they will be fun again.

- Press releases are really tedious for me yet I still do them as I don't like the side effects of sending my AM.

My main issue is that we have like 8 questions per interview that is way too much when a lot of them seem tedious are just fillers and seems to not to have effect in the game. I use them mainly to avoid over complacency in my team or to provoque it in my rivals and it works most of the time, to the point that it's maybe a bit over powered and easy to abuse once you figure out the mechanism. But for that effect, 2-3 questions should be enough. I prefer how they were in FM Touch, having them only once in a while for important games etc and just 1 or 2 questions.

[Cometdude]

Hate them.

 

I'm not against what they are trying to do, they are just horribly implemented and feel random for the most part. Problem is, I cannot see how SI can put them into the game 'properly' without them becoming a huge wall of text options.

[Viking]

The media part is boring and repetitive, just like in real life I guess. I can live with that.

The player interaction, however... I remember when Miles said something along the lines of "This year the FM players will really feel the consequences of player power" before a FM release some years ago, and sure enough, players rebelled at every and any reason. My first interaction with the team was very much like

"Hello, guys. Have some pizza. I am the new manager. My name is J..."

" We hate you!"

And then every other day we had the "Squad is unhappy"-meeting where we all sat in a big circle and agreed I am a stupid poop head. Granted, it has been tuned down after that (even though the FM24 beta seems to have it tuned up again), but player interactions still just feels broken, annoying, tedious and artificial, and I scum save the living daylights out of this game to aviod the drama.

 

 

 

[craiigman]

Hand them all over to billy gunn and just hope he doesn’t upset anyone

[anagain]

I wouldn't say I enjoy them more than other aspects of the game but I do enjoy the game more with it being a fully fleshed out world of football.

I like the fact that FM simulates more than just playing matches and buying players. There is a whole other side to football management and it is for the betterment of FM that SI don't ignore it.

That's not to say it's perfect. It can be very frustrating but it takes experience to know what will work and what won't. What interactions are going to cause problems, or have the potential to cause problems, is something you need to know. For example, I don't do team meetings to talk about our chances to win a title with the next match.

I'm a realist, so I know it is not going to be easy for SI to perfect interactions, but I'd rather see them keep trying than remove them because they're hard to balance.

 

[Zapoleon]

They aren't that big a part of the game for me. I guess they add a little bit of immersion but not much more. I think a big majority would agree those parts of the game need a revamp. 

[kiwityke1983]

In theory a great idea that should increase immersion.

In practice a broken immersion breaking mess that I increasingly do everything I can to avoid interacting with.

[janrzm]

For me it would be totally illogical not to have player interactions but that doesn't mean I don't dread them......I accept they'll always be kind of tedious but I could live with it if they were tedious and logical...... like I said the other day, I always save before.

[Novem9]

I want to play in football manager. Tactics, matches, transfers. I don't need a HR tycoon and Boring questions sim

[Malicious Penguin]

One of the things that drove me to Touch. 

Also, why is the layout for press conferences so horrendous? The acres of empty, wasted space on the screen is laughable.

[Scamander]

The important point of OP's post is that if you can't make a feature well polished enough for the majority of players, you should at least add an option to completely disable it.

Players who enjoy them can keep them on, and players who absolute do not want to get involved can turn them off. It's not like FM is a competitive multiplayer where they need to keep everyone on the same track.

The fact that they haven't implemented something like this is incomprehensible to me.

[Wizard boy]

On 25/10/2023 at 12:59, trevjim said:

We all know how they go...

 

"Hey just wanted to praise your recent form"

 

"I disagree, I can play better"

 

"Ok no worries, look forward to seeing what else you can bring"

 

"I can't believe how you have handled this"

 

(Player morale drops)

 

Or the stupid team talks (board wants you to finish top 4)

 

"I would like us to push for top 4 this year"

 

"All players are now offended"

 

Since they were introduced they have been so tedious, repetitive and broken.

 

They were introduced to add to the immersion, but are so broken that they actually do the opposite and detract from it.

 

Even when they do work as intended, they are so boring. I know you can send your ass man but I am not sure if there are negative results for doing that?

 

That's why I always preferred FM Classic/Touch for the PC. It did away with most the bloated fluff like that.

 

I would love the option for them to be removed from the game.

 

However that's just me. Does anyone on here actually like them?

 

Absolutely hate player/manager interaction. It’s just awful and has been for years but I don’t expect that to change. 

[Garrlor]

I'm still playing FM18, where I am relatively happy with the level of player interaction that I am forced to undergo. Generally players are easier to talk to and they don't fly off the handle for no real reason. You do get some positive/negative reactions from the squad at times but its not over the top and it at least makes sense. I owned FM19 and loved the training overhaul, but hated the constant requests for new contracts and temper tantrums when they didn't get their way. Year by year I have seen these get worse, press conferences get more tedious and other nonsense creep in. This means that I haven't gone beyond the demo versions of FM since FM19, which is telling all of itself.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

I have 800+ hours in FM23 and I am in 2050s in Hungary doing a building a nation save. And except for the early first couple years. I have 0 interaction with players an always 0 interaction with media. Ive still been able to dominate and get Hungary to #5 league in Europe.

So honestly it just becomes a waste of time and a waste of clicks. And its A LOT of clicks to interact with players. All that praise and criticize. Talking about contracts and transfers. BAH HUMBUG. Get to work no coal for you.

It doesnt do or prevent you from accomplishing anything you want in the game. Its biggest impact is if you take over a world class team without a world class manager you have placate the players the first 1-3 seasons until you bring your own type of players in.

The most I have to do is sick the Captain on someone if they wont stop pestering me. 

 

I can see why SI wanted it. For brand new players to FM it creates immersion. But there should be some kind of option to have staff deal with it all cause for long term saves it just takes to many clicks and too much time.

[tarzanofmars]

On 25/10/2023 at 05:59, trevjim said:

We all know how they go...

 

"Hey just wanted to praise your recent form"

 

"I disagree, I can play better"

 

"Ok no worries, look forward to seeing what else you can bring"

 

"I can't believe how you have handled this"

 

(Player morale drops)

 

Or the stupid team talks (board wants you to finish top 4)

 

"I would like us to push for top 4 this year"

 

"All players are now offended"

 

Since they were introduced they have been so tedious, repetitive and broken.

 

They were introduced to add to the immersion, but are so broken that they actually do the opposite and detract from it.

 

Even when they do work as intended, they are so boring. I know you can send your ass man but I am not sure if there are negative results for doing that?

 

That's why I always preferred FM Classic/Touch for the PC. It did away with most the bloated fluff like that.

 

I would love the option for them to be removed from the game.

 

However that's just me. Does anyone on here actually like them?

 

Thank you for taking the time to lay out what is the most underdeveloped and poorly implemented aspect of FM. I just lost the entire 1st team support because I criticized one player's 6.2 performance. Cautiously I might add, no throwing or kicking needed. And this was Liverpool, not Sunday league drunks. It's certainly far worse in FM24 because that's never happened before.

[gunner86]

I don’t mind the press conferences. It’s part of the managers job to sit in front of the media and face the same questions over and over again. It is a bit gamey but you can use it to manipulate both your and the opposition morale too.

It’s the player interactions where I have the issue, they trumpeted it as a big improvement this year, and I’m yet to see any difference. Except maybe less of the “I’m ok now you’ve come to talk to me” responses.

[Steve1977beyond]

be nice if you could change the ratio of them and this goes for a lot of things within the game really. Instead of either doing all or nothing (i.e. delegating), just change the ratio. i.e. press conferences before big games. before cup games after the quarter finals. That kind of thing

[Wizard boy]

2 hours ago, gunner86 said:

I don’t mind the press conferences. It’s part of the managers job to sit in front of the media and face the same questions over and over again. It is a bit gamey but you can use it to manipulate both your and the opposition morale too.

It’s the player interactions where I have the issue, they trumpeted it as a big improvement this year, and I’m yet to see any difference. Except maybe less of the “I’m ok now you’ve come to talk to me” responses.

Yes I’m not sure where these improvements are. It seems exactly the same to me. 

[Showerman]

2 hours ago, gunner86 said:

I don’t mind the press conferences. It’s part of the managers job to sit in front of the media and face the same questions over and over again. It is a bit gamey but you can use it to manipulate both your and the opposition morale too.

It’s the player interactions where I have the issue, they trumpeted it as a big improvement this year, and I’m yet to see any difference. Except maybe less of the “I’m ok now you’ve come to talk to me” responses.

basically

the media stuff is boring and repetetive irl

just dont ask me about some back up 34 year old being transfer listed by a mid table club in my divisoin just before the champions league final.

Hate player interactions, so unrealistic.

[Dadecane]

1 hour ago, Steve1977beyond said:

be nice if you could change the ratio of them and this goes for a lot of things within the game really. Instead of either doing all or nothing (i.e. delegating), just change the ratio. i.e. press conferences before big games. before cup games after the quarter finals. That kind of thing

This sounds ideal. Id like to do them before big games, rivalry games, etc. but not ever game. It would also make it less repetitive. You can somewhat do this tho, just choose to do them yourself, and on the day of the presser on games u dont wanna do it, u send assistant. 

[Lynchyy]

On 25/10/2023 at 15:27, BnadnerB said:

This is why SI got rid of FM Touch from PC/laptop, more and more people would be switching over for sure.

They still have Console Edition, which is basically Touch.

[Kickballz]

On 25/10/2023 at 19:28, XaW said:

I like the idea of it, but I don't think it works as well as it should currently. For player interactions, I think the flaw is that it doesn't feel real, the suspension of disbelief is removed when the player act too irrational to be real. Players thinking too high of themselves and being snowflakes when a manager pushes back, sure I have no problem, but the game don't do this well enough as it is. The whole interaction system can work fine at times, but it's cumbersome as well. I'm not sure how to fix it though. I think removing it wouldn't be a good idea either, as I've had many players who I've had fun conversations with and has built more immersion too. But as is, those are too few compared to the annoying ones.

As for press conferences, well I've written about it before, so I'll just link to it here.

All sensible suggestions for press conferences.

Personally I would like to see it go much further and change them from being reactive to mostly proactive. When you watch a real exchange, as people have said, they are deathly dull. So, instead just present the manager with a tree of options The player can select exactly what they want to focus on, or pick nothing and we assume it is uneventful. It is exactly what a sensible manager does anyway - if he wants to talk about something he is going to do it regardless of the questions.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Kickballz

[Scamander]

At this point I'm interested in seeing SI's evidence of players constantly whining to their teammates and managers irl.

Present the evidence, otherwise you're just making stuff up from your arse.

All the "improvements" they've made this year is more power to the players and less to the manager. Great, now every club is like PSG. I'm sure Man City players dare to whine constantly to Pep after a treble winning season.

Where's the testing? Where's the f***ing QA process? Did anyone seriously in their right minds play the product for more than a season and thought, "this is fine"?

If this is the direction SI want the game to head towards, they should rename the game Nursery Home Simulator 2024 instead.

[bielsadidnothingwrong]

Press conferences lack stakes. Pre-game, post-game, broadcast interviews, it doesn't matter, you can really say whatever you want and the biggest consequence suffered is an inbox item from your press officer with players who thumbed down what you've said. That's it. It doesn't impact their morale. It doesn't impact their game time expectations. I've only anecdotally been punished for talking down an opposition player in the prematch conference one time. 

In real life, managers' words in press conferences do matter. They drive the narratives built around their players and about their team.

Most pre-match conferences seem to be around building up headlines and narratives by the press, while post-match you see the manager giving a little debrief on what he just witnessed. This should be the case in FM. I should be able to select from an overall reaction to the result and the way we played (positive, negative, neutral) and then pick one or two key moments to stress and maybe even answer questions about. 

A bad relationship with a journo? Who cares! Nothing he writes will ever impact your career! A player moans to the press about training? Don't expect to be able to confront him about it, even though any Premier League manager would have your skin for it. 

I've long thought this game needs a more robust reputation system for managers. For example, f you consistently lose big games, that should be the thing the press asks you about every single big match until you win a big game. If you can't do it, then the media pressure will continue. There's no good reason for this game to have had such alien press interactions for as many years as it has. Think of it like a scout report for a player. Or even the manager tendencies section. If the game can tell me whether or not a coach "uses man marking" (side note: what does this even mean?), then it should be able to tell us whether or not a coach is a serial bottle artist. 

But no. Instead, in football manager, you get manager face paint, new clothes and stupid haircuts.

[Butters76]

I have started leaving everything media to the ass man. Even the halftime and post match player comments. Its such a timesink and not enjoyable at all.