Football Manager 2013 Video Blogs: Media

[Smurf]

[video=youtube_share;3B5M_8q8K-8]

[haunted1234]

in other words

check the "assistent attends at press conferences" box

[Smurf]

I usually leave the Assistant Manager to answer press conferences. This should be interesting. I hope I don't have to take over PC's going forward.

[Heath Matthias]

ugh, this looks terrible. YAY, MORE TIME IN THE POINTLESS PRESS CONF SCREEN!

[pigfacemonkeyman]

SI clearly listened to the many posters who find press conferences tedious..............and completely ignored them.

[SmurfDude]

I'd rather you add a button that turns press conferences off

[Keyzer Soze]

The introducing of "tones" in the press conferences it's what i call a natural and logical improvement in FM, so no big surprise there.

I hope that with tones we will get a much more variaty of questions. This is the big problem with press conferences... after half a season it gets very repetitive and kinda boring.

I know that in real life, press conferences are also repetitive, and managers awnser the same questions over and over again, the only problem is that a real manager as one press conference per week... we FM managers have 10 each day!

Because of that, it's very hard to balance PC's.

[suikoden]

Not enough substance. The whole media thing needs more continuity and immersion. There is zero immersion in media mini-game. Needs to stop being a mini-game and fully integrated with real history, consequence, utility and substance

Edit: not to mention scrutiny

Also needs to have more press stories about your own team and the movers and shakers of the league, and also the dredge of the league. If I am on a 9 match winning streak I want some news items popping up and bloggers saying how bloody brilliant I am and how my team is absolutely humming. Needs more buzz.

[SuperJackLester]

This is the only part of FM i detest. Being asked the same questions every week is just horrible. Also there's too many stupid answers which no real-life manager would ever say at a press conference. I mean tell me a manager who would tell the press that they didnt care if their new signing plays well as long as somebody else did. errrrr nobody!

I wish i had the courage to give this job to the AI but i just dont trust the little blighters.

[spankie]

FMC has press conferences removed. Unfortunately there's not much info about what else is not included in FMC.

[suikoden]

This is the only part of FM i detest. Being asked the same questions every week is just horrible. Also there's too many stupid answers which no real-life manager would ever say at a press conference. I mean tell me a manager who would tell the press that they didnt care if their new signing plays well as long as somebody else did. errrrr nobody!

I wish i had the courage to give this job to the AI but i just dont trust the little blighters.

Yes. That should be the players domain. There should be press clippings of interviews with players. That would make the game so much more immersive as a simulator. You could have a Theo Walcott press clipping of him saying how he is fine with being average if the team is doing well and how he is 'consistent in patches'. Or you could have a player in another country with their national team telling the media how annoyed they are with the club. That would be fantastic.

[hugo_rune]

As has always been the case, if you don't like this part of the game, it can be sub-delegated to the assistant manager. Tone is something I haven't quite figured out even in interactions with players, but it's clearly fun to have for anyone who likes the idea of simulating that part of managing.

[Smurf]

Not enough substance. The whole media thing needs more continuity and immersion. There is zero immersion in media mini-game. Needs to stop being a mini-game and fully integrated with real history, consequence, utility and substance

Edit: not to mention scrutiny

Also needs to have more press stories about your own team and the movers and shakers of the league, and also the dredge of the league. If I am on a 9 match winning streak I want some news items popping up and bloggers saying how bloody brilliant I am and how my team is absolutely humming. Needs more buzz.

I agree with this. But the only answers should be - or perhaps a slider

Storm Out---------Strong Negative--------Mediocre Negative----Negative----Neutral----Positive----Mediocre Positive-----Strong Positive----Passionate

Then you could get a question like:

"How do you hope your new signings play today?"

"I'm <Strongly ->Passionate Positive>"

It could be in a circle either, or a Radial Diagram or something.

[jimmertime]

In FM12 team-talks and morale were way too relevant, often more important than tactics and players' attributes. Not a fan of this RPG-like aspect of the game to be honest, especially when it's so boring and repetitive.

[tts0]

Hi SI!

Is it real? What a big improvement this is! I bet there'll be tousand of tousands of players that find it very atractive to attent to the press converences more often than ever before!

Ok.. I'm just joking; its b*******! The whole media thing should be revamped completely! I want to see some relationship between myself as a manager and some journalist representing a certan media. For example, if I am rude for journalist X at the press conference, there will be an article in "his" newspaper that talking bad things about my team etc. On the other hand, if I have a good relationship with journalist Y, he will be much more frendly and indulgent and write some superlatives about my team etc.

For now i don't see any relationships between myself as a manager and a journalists. I can say everything a the press conference and nothing happens!

[suikoden]

In FM12 team-talks and morale were way too relevant, often more important than tactics and players' attributes. Not a fan of this RPG-like aspect of the game to be honest, especially when it's so boring and repetitive.

Morale is more important than tactics and players' attributes. That is why Real Madrid's galactico projects was failing all the time. That is also why Guardiola was so successful. Sure he had an outstanding team but there are players who play so much better for Barcelona than they do with their country. They absolutely love him and it is funny that Ibrahimovic was so disgusted by all the Guardiola love. Chamakh is a good player who can score goals but his confidence was stolen by RVP and his morale went down the shisha pipe. In my mind at least, morale is definitely more important than abilities in terms of a teams' fortunes. I think most manager would take a good player full of confidence and in tip top morale and happy over a very good player acting up.

[0gris]

Press conferences will be improved, when they are removed from the game.

[trekman]

Not too sure about this feature. Like a lot of other people who find the press conferences repetitive and boring I normally just let my assistant do them. With the introduction of tones does this now mean that the assistant will have a media handling stat that we can search for? If this was included it would make the choosing of a good assistant a bit easier.

[Govnar1]

Press conferences will be improved, when they are removed from the game.

Amen to that!

[Maystor]

Can't wait to see my assistant giving illogical answers only this time in aggressive tone too

I'd be really looking forward to FMC but from what I'm seeing, it is more geared towards new players, rather than CM/FM veterans who want to play without all the fluff. I really I don't see how is adding different tones going to make these press conferences any less boring. In fact, it sounds even more tedious.

[jimmertime]

Morale is more important than tactics and players' attributes. That is why Real Madrid's galactico projects was failing all the time. That is also why Guardiola was so successful. Sure he had an outstanding team but there are players who play so much better for Barcelona than they do with their country. They absolutely love him and it is funny that Ibrahimovic was so disgusted by all the Guardiola love. Chamakh is a good player who can score goals but his confidence was stolen by RVP and his morale went down the shisha pipe. In my mind at least, morale is definitely more important than abilities in terms of a teams' fortunes. I think most manager would take a good player full of confidence and in tip top morale and happy over a very good player acting up.

while I do agree that morale is important in real football (btw the galacticos failed because they decided to do without holding midfielders like Makelele and Cambiasso ie they messed with their tactics...), imo you can't make it SO relevant in a football management simulation. In FM12 it was both easy and boring to keep players happy and motivated (esp when your manager improved his reputation), and it often felt like they would simply go and win regardless of tactics or players on the field. Personally I'd like to see my tactical tweaks, style of football and choice of players being more relevant than repetitive team-talks/media interaction when it comes to winning/losing a football match.

[cantopsych]

I completetly agree with some other posters in terms of buzz... if you think of the media, at least here in the UK (I am not so sure about other countries, but suspect its similar) and MOTD (sports tv shows in general), the sports radio shows, the press, twitter, etc *everything* is talked about, especially around a "big game" or a sending off, transfers, etc. Remember the run in to last year's title race? *Buzz* is the word and is not currently reflected enough in this game - I don't get the sense of excitement, tension and scrutiny in the game, that is virtually unavoidable in the real world. Imho it could be a really interesting and exciting aspect of the game, that could make it feel more a live and immersive.

i think this needs to be completey revamped and looked into- at the moment its tedious and I strongly suspect that most players simply avoid press cons. I hope in future releases we will see a completely overhaul of the "media".

[Rayban_DK]

I have thought a lot about how to make press conferences more interesting. The answer is perhaps rather obvious.

Press conferences should only be held, when you want to say something to the press.

Bought a new striker you want to brag about? Hold a press conference with that topic only, but instead of tedious random follow up questions, you only have to comment once and that is what you initially had to say about the newly bought striker. The media can then speculate upon that to their hearts content, taking in factors as their relation to you and perhaps the player.

Want to critizise the ref in the last match? Hold a press conference with that topic only.

Want to say X about Y? You get the picture...

Press conferences should have immediate and transparent bonuses/penalties as well.

Do your random youth striker think the pressure is becoming too much after you held a pompous press conference about signing him? You get that notice immediately after the conference, so as you can act on it. It could be something in the line of: "Your <random youth striker> have lost morale due to unwanted focus from the press."

Now if you want to hold a press conference after that telling the media to back of their "paparazzi'ïng" of your youth striker... That's your prerogative. You could also fine the player for being a whiner - and no matter what topic you chose, you would get an immediately response about the effect, good or bad, whether its about the team, the player, the board etc- who might have been influenced.

Now... if we only had a way to ensure there is enough media related options (questions/answers/topics etc.) in the game to ensure that it doesn't get stale fast... (*cough make the game moddable! *cough).

[kensteidel]

I am looking forward to being reputed as a passive-aggessive towards journalists.

[davidbowie]

Press conferences will be improved, when they are removed from the game.

Yep. I put them on the demo, then turn them off the moment I get an entire press conference full of identical questions. It usually only takes a month or two.

I'm in 2030 in my current game and I've only done a handful of conferences. Most of the time I do them because of a specific event, but never get asked about it anyway.

[klear]

They can't simply remove press conference once they've been implemented because some people are too lazy to spend an extra 10 seconds before games to click on a few buttons.

Removing them would probably mean completely restructuring the pre/post-match build-up which would be a huge pain.

Just deal with it and stop moaning.

[davidbowie]

I deal with it by telling my assistant to do it. This module has never improved. It's just a waste of SI and the users time.

[dribbler]

I too find the press conferences tedious but at least you can crack through them in a few seconds. Importantly they actually do something useful unlike many other things in the game. We can see from the video that the same tedious questions are still there but I'm pleased that tones have been added because press conferences add to the realism of the game and shouldn't be removed. There are lots of good suggestions in this thread but press conferences should be improved and not removed.

I tentatively agree with the person who said that press conferences are too powerful compared to tactics although this is going to depend on the tactical acumen of the individual game player. But I think it's worth noting that the effect of press conferences shouldn't be reduced. We need a situation where our answers at press conferences impact noticeably on in-game morale. We need to be able to use press conferences to reduce or increase pressure and complacency. We need a situation where if you fail at either press conferences or team talks then it's going to be very tough to win matches however good you are at tactics.

I want press conferences to be quick. I want them to be important. I want lots more variety. I like the fact that journalists ask ridiculously stupid questions but I don't want to see the same stupid question more than once or twice per season. I want a situation where carefully thought out answers can give a small boost to player morale but a careless comment can have a big long-lasting negative impact.

[robertcornell68]

Mm. Longer press conferences.

Literally the last thing I wanted.

[tommonufc]

Miles, you shouldn't have bothered. No really..

These podcasts are progressively getting more and more disappointing by the day. Come Friday it'll just be a 3min segment on what the new case cover looks like.

[kensteidel]

But are you a passionate passive-aggressive motivator or a calm passive-aggressive cool dude? .

I guess I always have a "calm" tone in FM because I don't bother changing it in the conversations, unless I am trying to force a player out of the club. Would there be any advantage in being aggressive towards journalists or complainging about referees? I would rather stay out of trouble.

[trekman]

Anything at all of worth that I need to watch the video for?

Well, after all, aren't press conferences just a bit naff?

Wish there was a feature where I could have just sent my assistant to say this.

You can send your assistant to do the press conferences. Click on your club name then team policy.

[7Bestie7]

My only issue with the press questions (and it looks like it hasn't been changed) is the wording of the answers. There are times when an answer doesn't logically make sense or the wording garbles the general attitude of the reply. Saying that I'm not surprised about this part and I think it's a natural thing to do and something that should make the interaction between manager and press more realistic.

[englandmanager]

more great news

can't wait for what is sounding like the best fm in a long time if not ever

why are some people moaning, SI already announced the FMC mode

[dribbler]

My only issue with the press questions (and it looks like it hasn't been changed) is the wording of the answers. There are times when an answer doesn't logically make sense or the wording garbles the general attitude of the reply. Saying that I'm not surprised about this part and I think it's a natural thing to do and something that should make the interaction between manager and press more realistic.

Yes and this is even more of a problem in the team talks. It's difficult to know whether pleased is better than happy (OK I worked that out eventually) and lots of other choices where I'm not sure which option to select because the wording is confusing.

[jimmertime]

I tentatively agree with the person who said that press conferences are too powerful compared to tactics although this is going to depend on the tactical acumen of the individual game player. But I think it's worth noting that the effect of press conferences shouldn't be reduced. We need a situation where our answers at press conferences impact noticeably on in-game morale. We need to be able to use press conferences to reduce or increase pressure and complacency. We need a situation where if you fail at either press conferences or team talks then it's going to be very tough to win matches however good you are at tactics.

I want press conferences to be quick. I want them to be important. I want lots more variety. I like the fact that journalists ask ridiculously stupid questions but I don't want to see the same stupid question more than once or twice per season. I want a situation where carefully thought out answers can give a small boost to player morale but a careless comment can have a big long-lasting negative impact.

I wouldn't want press conferences and teamtalks to be that important. Example: disappointing first half ends 0-1 probably because I 'failed at press conference'. Halftime teamtalk 'I'm not happy' makes your players some sort of immortal gods and they go out and win 4-1, without a single substitution or tactical tweak. Happened more than a few times to me in FM12. Not much fun or skills involved if you ask me.

Would prefer to make the difference for my team in other ways tbh.

[Heath Matthias]

I guess I always have a "calm" tone in FM because I don't bother changing it in the conversations, unless I am trying to force a player out of the club. Would there be any advantage in being aggressive towards journalists or complainging about referees? I would rather stay out of trouble.

Exactly. Nobody is going to bother changing the tone. I am going to set it to aggressive though when commenting on who should win player of the year, lol.

[suikoden]

while I do agree that morale is important in real football (btw the galacticos failed because they decided to do without holding midfielders like Makelele and Cambiasso ie they messed with their tactics...), imo you can't make it SO relevant in a football management simulation. In FM12 it was both easy and boring to keep players happy and motivated (esp when your manager improved his reputation), and it often felt like they would simply go and win regardless of tactics or players on the field. Personally I'd like to see my tactical tweaks, style of football and choice of players being more relevant than repetitive team-talks/media interaction when it comes to winning/losing a football match.

Sure having a Makelele player can't hurt but it was the lack of leadership from managers after Vincent del Bosque got sacked after winning the title that caused Real Madrid to fail so badly. One player would have made them competitive in the chase for titles, but considering the disarray at the club even a holding midfielder wouldn't have won them trophies their talent pool warranted. Also during that time, there was only a handful of players at top clubs which made everyone think a holding midfielder of the Makelele type so important. Most teams weren't using an anchorman. Real Madrid won a title under Capello with a dual destroyers despite the talent he had. Just shows how important team cohesion and morale is.

Arsenal doesn't even have a defensive midfielder but they are playing very well due to the good feelings around the club. You could also argue in the failed era at Arsenal that just passed, the club had outstanding talent and a wonderful tactician in Wenger, but the players lacked steel and were liable to collapse. Also explains why Ferguson is such a good manager and is able to overachieve with seemingly weak squads. He is a canny manager but isn't exactly a revolutionary tactician. It is his ability to spot talent and cultivate it under a fantastic environment. I like the games interpretation of morale. A young player with bad morale isn't going to develop. A top team with high morale can push through for a win despite playing poorly. Maintaining high morale isn't easy after the first patch which I liked but everyone complained so they tweaked it in the last patch to make it a bit easier. If they made maintaining high morale harder, as they should, the benefits are very tangible and would be more realistic than not.

Also in real world football, it is somewhat rare that tactical tweaks in-match make a profound difference in a game. More important is how you set up initially and make changes from there. And I also feel it is too easy to outsmart the AI. I make tweaks all the time ingame and my team always invariably end up steam rolling the opposition. I also do not get why you think your style of football and player selection is having less of an impact than your team talks? Can you clarify? Are you saying your style of football and choice of players work or do they not work (and team talks carry the slack)?

[S8_Blade]

Press conferences are so tedious and repetitive. I'd love it if you could just turn them off like how it was a few years ago.

If you make your assistant attend them all doesn't it affect the squad morale or something?

[kensteidel]

Press conferences are so tedious and repetitive. I'd love it if you could just turn them off like how it was a few years ago.

If you make your assistant attend them all doesn't it affect the squad morale or something?

I guess that depends on his attributes in squad management, motivating, as well as hidden attributes (temparament, media handling, if i remember correctly).

[VonBlade]

They can't simply remove press conference once they've been implemented because some people are too lazy to spend an extra 10 seconds before games to click on a few buttons.

And therein lays the problem. It's ten seconds. We don't need to read them. We know the questions we'll get, the order they'll arrive in, and what the options are. Looking at the video indicates this is exactly the same.

Although I also see the news article has really been revamped because now is says "Manager x <tone> said <something you've read a billion times before>". What a whopping change ._.

Someone needs to go away, delete the questions XML and start again.

Oh and refusing to answer a question isn't being cagey!! Learn your freaking adjectives SI. Goddam.

[dribbler]

I wouldn't want press conferences and teamtalks to be that important. Example: disappointing first half ends 0-1 probably because I 'failed at press conference'. Halftime teamtalk 'I'm not happy' makes your players some sort of immortal gods and they go out and win 4-1, without a single substitution or tactical tweak. Happened more than a few times to me in FM12. Not much fun or skills involved if you ask me.

Would prefer to make the difference for my team in other ways tbh.

Although you think you're disagreeing with me I think we actually agree but maybe I didn't express myself too well. Let's say you and I are both managing the same club:

(a) I am bad at press conferences and you're an expert. Result is I get 10-15 fewer points at the end of the season.

(b) I am bad at team talks and you're an expert. Result is I get 10-15 fewer points.

© I'm dreadful at tactics compared to you so I get lots fewer points...and far more than 10-15 points if I'm especially useless.

I think the press conferences and team-talks should have a meaningful impact but I'm not trying to say that tactics don't matter.

I'm saying that when you go into the press conference you should be sweating because they'll throw tricky and unexpected questions at you and it'll be hard to know how to react. And if you mess up there will be serious consequences.

[kensteidel]

Oh and refusing to answer a question isn't being cagey!! Learn your freaking adjectives SI. Goddam.

To be fair, isn't this down to the personality of the journalist? Jounalists in FM often have a personality tag that more or less tells you whether he will give honest or exaggerated representations of your answers. And some of them are more or less liars.

[jimmertime]

Sure having a Makelele player can't hurt but it was the lack of leadership from managers after Vincent del Bosque got sacked after winning the title that caused Real Madrid to fail so badly. One player would have made them competitive in the chase for titles, but considering the disarray at the club even a holding midfielder wouldn't have won them trophies their talent pool warranted. Also during that time, there was only a handful of players at top clubs which made everyone think a holding midfielder of the Makelele type so important. Most teams weren't using an anchorman. Real Madrid won a title under Capello with a dual destroyers despite the talent he had. Just shows how important team cohesion and morale is.

Arsenal doesn't even have a defensive midfielder but they are playing very well due to the good feelings around the club. You could also argue in the failed era at Arsenal that just passed, the club had outstanding talent and a wonderful tactician in Wenger, but the players lacked steel and were liable to collapse. Also explains why Ferguson is such a good manager and is able to overachieve with seemingly weak squads. He is a canny manager but isn't exactly a revolutionary tactician. It is his ability to spot talent and cultivate it under a fantastic environment. I like the games interpretation of morale. A young player with bad morale isn't going to develop. A top team with high morale can push through for a win despite playing poorly. Maintaining high morale isn't easy after the first patch which I liked but everyone complained so they tweaked it in the last patch to make it a bit easier. If they made maintaining high morale harder, as they should, the benefits are very tangible and would be more realistic than not.

Also in real world football, it is somewhat rare that tactical tweaks make a profound difference in a game. And I also feel it is too easy to outsmart the AI. I make tweaks all the time ingame and my team always invariably end up steam rolling the opposition. I also do not get why you think your style of football and player selection is having less of an impact than your team talks? Can you clarify? Are you saying your style of football and choice of players work or do they not work (and team talks carry the slack)?

oh of course Real madrid's success wasn't about defensive midfielders per se. I feel they were vital for the tactical balance of that team though, as RM already featured lots of gifted attackers, so yes the galacticos were a flop mostly for tactical reason if you ask me (this and the fact that some supposed galacticos like Beckham were vastly overrated).

I'd say team chemistry and cohesion rather than 'morale' are very important for a succesful team. Maybe in FM players' personalities/tendencies and staff attributes could have a bigger impact on that rather than those repetitive press conferences and teamtalks.

I've had many successful seasons in FM12 and won lots of trophies, and I did manage to achieve that playing a style of football I enjoyed. Problem is, as long as you keep your players happy and motivated (and it becomes so easy to do as your manager reputation grows) tactics and even players' attributes don't have much of an impact on your team's success.

[Lawlore]

This is a missed opportunity, and for me, a massive let down, because there is potential for the media to play a bigger part in the game. It looks like it'll continue to be an annoyance, rather than something which contributes positively to immersion and the game's depth. Worth the risk of sending an AssMan who might screw up your squad's morale? Maybe.

The reason people hate press conferences is because they're tedious and repetitive. There is a stock bank of very few questions which get old within one season, let alone on longer saves- and, international management aside, there seemed to be no indication in the video that there was any greater variation in questions in FM13. Indeed, the heralded "reporting" of tones seems to be limited to a re-wording of the final line (0:49, 1:15).

You've also got a very limited bank of responses, which does not help matters and again, does not seem to have changed. At least with changes of tones, this could've been the case (6 tones x 5 responses = 30 options), but looking at the examples in the video- as with team talks- changing the tone doesn't actually change the response itself at all.

[SmurfDude]

They can't simply remove press conference once they've been implemented because some people are too lazy to spend an extra 10 seconds before games to click on a few buttons.

Removing them would probably mean completely restructuring the pre/post-match build-up which would be a huge pain.

Just deal with it and stop moaning.

If it takes you 10 seconds then you are obviously clicking through them in a frenzy without putting any thought in to it. Or you've seen the same question umpteen times before that you know the appropriate answer off by heart. A pointless exercise in repetitiveness and tedium if ever there was one. This is one real-world dynamic which fails to transfer in to an enjoyable experience. On a scale of what's fun and what isn't, it would be on par with working as a data entry clerk.

I'm not one to moan usually, but I make exception when it comes to flat out awful features.

[CaptainPlanet]

As long as press conferences are able to be switched off in both classic and normal gameplay modes, without impacting the probability of success in matches, I don't really care.

[jimmertime]

Although you think you're disagreeing with me I think we actually agree but maybe I didn't express myself too well. Let's say you and I are both managing the same club:

(a) I am bad at press conferences and you're an expert. Result is I get 10-15 fewer points at the end of the season.

(b) I am bad at team talks and you're an expert. Result is I get 10-15 fewer points.

© I'm dreadful at tactics compared to you so I get lots fewer points...and far more than 10-15 points if I'm especially useless.

I think the press conferences and team-talks should have a meaningful impact but I'm not trying to say that tactics don't matter.

I'm saying that when you go into the press conference you should be sweating because they'll throw tricky and unexpected questions at you and it'll be hard to know how to react. And if you mess up there will be serious consequences.

I see your point and I agree that media interaction and teamtalks are a big part of a manager's success or failure IRL. Personally I think it's hard to replicate that in a football simulation in a balanced way, especially when a 'I'm not happy with what I saw in first half' teamtalk is often enough to get all your players fired-up and lead them to a dominating performance in 2nd half (seen that too many times in FM12). I feel that the whole feature has become too powerful when compared to other aspects of the game that I rate more important and more entertaining (yes, tactics!), but of course this is just my opinion

[THOG]

Unfortunately, this is one area of the game that is not going in the right direction. Press conferences are tedious and distracting. Their role in the game and the amount of time they take up should be reduced, not expanded.

This is how press conferences should be handled:

Essentially, press conferences should be like team meetings. While the option to engage in the mini-game should be given before and after each match, the player should be given a choice between playing the mini-game and selecting an option to give "platitudes and non-answers." If the second option is taken, the mini-game is ignored with no effect whatsoever (unlike sending an assistant manager). If the player chooses to engage in the mini-game, then the player should be given the option to address specific issues related to the match, opponents or players to achieve a specific effect, essentially replacing the current "talk to press" option.

To make things more interesting, SI can also introduce "questions and controversies," basically broader issues about your team that the media is talking about that could potentially affect player morale, fan confidence and owner confidence over longer periods of time (why isn't Striker A scoring, will Midfielder B move to a bigger club, is Defender C being pushed out by the manager, is Striker D justifying his transfer fee, etc.). Managers would then have a choice of seeing if these stories blow over with minimal effect or using the press conference to address these concerns and end (or if they fail, amplify) their effects. This could also help create more immersion as players could look at the "media" screen to see, in addition to transfer gossip, what storylines and controversies are potentially affecting them AND their opponents, rather than existing in a media vacuum until a reporter throws a question at them during a press conference. This would also create a platform for integrating controversies regarding fan behaviour, financial management, etc.

This would achieve a good balance between reflecting how managers actually deal with the media, providing an actual incentive for players to voluntarily engage in the mini-game and, most importantly, minimizing the amount of repetitive clicking that players must do.

The current system in which players must answer every single inane question with a sincere answer that may have potentially disastrous effects on player morale is unrealistic, time-consuming and immensely irritating.

[Heath Matthias]

Sign this guy up SI! This is a much better system!