Feels let down by his manager's praise on his recent form

[surf]

What? I'm managing Stoke and signed Owen Garvan at the beginning of the season. I never praised any of my players before, but just at the end of the season, when we finally managed to get into a playoff spot, I decided to praise my best player for having been great all season and having played well in the last few matches. His recent form is 8-7-8-8-7. So I said I'm pleased with his recent form. Then he says that he's let down by his manager's meagre praise of his recent form. That's just stupid. Have you ever heard of a player complaining about his manager praising him in the media? Do they really think this way: OK, he only said I'm playing well, he should have said I'm f***ing brilliant? No.

Well, I just think it's a bit silly and this whole part of the game concerning manager interaction need to be redone. Otherwise, the game is really great.

[SAFCrhys_keanoFTM]

I agree mate, I had never praised any of my players before so I decided to tell hom that he played well and I got this reply back:

"Takes his managers praise with a pinch of salt due to the constant praise for not only himself but other members of the squad."

I was like, WHAT!!!

[jod123]

He wants higher praise. You obviously did not pick the highest of the available options. I think it is delighted with his recent form.

[Arkim]

It is silly that little things as such completely throw off your player's morale and cause him to go from great performances to barely even making a play in his next matches. I hope the whole player/manager interaction part of the game is improved greatly for future releases since in it's current state it's heavily flawed.

[jod123]

I agree mate, I had never praised any of my players before so I decided to tell hom that he played well and I got this reply back:

"Takes his managers praise with a pinch of salt due to the constant praise for not only himself but other members of the squad."

I was like, WHAT!!!

You get that if you praise the players too much as they get used to it and take it for granted.

[surf]

For some reason the quote function won't work on my Firefox, anyway.

"He wants higher praise. You obviously did not pick the highest of the available options. I think it is delighted with his recent form."

That's not really the point. I know that's what Football Manager wants me do say, but I just don't think it's very realistic. Oh well.

[Smac]

I hear you "surf". And I agree that it needs redoing. Why is it so hard for SI to take a softer approach with media and player interaction? The facts of your backstory (that you never praise your players) are easy to keep in the db. So you're an understated manager, and if you say anything to your players that hints of positive, they should be delighted. There's no reason why such subtleties can't be in the game, and until and unless SI mitigate their tendency to see only a single connotation for words and statements, I for one am going to keep complaining. Its 'just not good enough' SI, and it ****es your fans off when we have to guess the connotations and effects you are coding into the dialogs.

[jod123]

For some reason the quote function won't work on my Firefox, anyway.

"He wants higher praise. You obviously did not pick the highest of the available options. I think it is delighted with his recent form."

That's not really the point. I know that's what Football Manager wants me do say, but I just don't think it's very realistic. Oh well.

I disagree with you there. The whole media area does need work as it is tedious and monotonous but if I was Alex Ferguson and I said Ronaldo played well last season I think people would look on it as an understatement and I think he would expect to be given higher praise than that.

[Neji]

I disagree with you there. The whole media area does need work as it is tedious and monotonous but if I was Alex Ferguson and I said Ronaldo played well last season I think people would look on it as an understatement and I think he would expect to be given higher praise than that.

I'm going to disagree with you now

I don't think footballers think like that. If someone said about me that i'd done something well, I'd be happy to receive the praise. I'd be unhappy if I'd played fantastic and some one said 'he did alright'. I think the problem is with the wording of certain statements in FM. People can interpret them to mean different things, the Team Talks are a prime example of this.

[Smac]

I couldn't agree with you more Neji. Things like praise and blame and expectations are entirely context-specific. Yet the game only views some of these things as having context-specific effects, while others are quite binary.

Team Talks do have some decent contextuality: Praise a poor performance, or get angry at a great performance and you'll have bad results, while those same choices can work wonders in the right situation. But the media and player interaction stuff, though also contextual, lacks the necessary subtlety to even be direct.

The worst of all is the media interaction where you choose to say one thing: "I think we can take team X" and its reported in the media as "Manager Dood said he thinks "We can do alright, if we play to our best". Um, if you are quoting me, you should quote me. Not to mention that we get no real indication of whether our players take us seriously or not, till after the fact. "Joe Shmoe is glad the manager is diverting attention to another club" and "Harry Ballknockers is concerned you are praising another club".

Fine, so when do I get to sit down with my players and tell them what I really think? Argh

[jod123]

I'm going to disagree with you now

I don't think footballers think like that. If someone said about me that i'd done something well, I'd be happy to receive the praise. I'd be unhappy if I'd played fantastic and some one said 'he did alright'. I think the problem is with the wording of certain statements in FM. People can interpret them to mean different things, the Team Talks are a prime example of this.

I understand what you are saying but I don't think every footballer would think like that. And what you said here "I'd be unhappy if I'd played fantastic and some one said 'he did alright'." was my point. The praise was not enough. The media does need huge improvement in the game without doubt, though. Maybe a better way this could be incorporated is if you have 2 players that are playing well and you give one higher praise than the other but you do praise both.

[Neji]

And what you said here "I'd be unhappy if I'd played fantastic and some one said 'he did alright'." was my point. The praise was not enough.

But IMO, 'He did alright' is a totally different thing to 'He did fantastic'.

'He did well' and 'He did fantastic' are pretty similar. Obviously one is a bit more stronger but they are both clear praise, whereas 'He did alirhgt' isn't.

The thing is atm, the media options don't really represent real life, at all. We get the option of two statements which are good, one is slightly stronger than the other. We get the other extreme, two are bad but one is stronger then we get the standard 'I daren't risk upsetting my players so, no comment' option

[jod123]

I agree with you about some of the media options and on most things I go on no comment so as not to damage morale but 'I think he did alright' is praise. It is mot much praise but it is praise. We have are having arguments over the language. I don't think 'he did well' and 'he did fantastic' are similar. This is like on Irish soccer coverage once. The pundits (John Giles and Liam Brady) were arguing about Riquelme. Giles said he was a good player but not a great player while Brady said he was a great player. They both took up great as something different. I would consdier 'well' more similar to 'alright' than to 'fantastic'. But to finish this English lesson the tone of how you say it is important.

[dz47]

There is no doubt that manager/player interaction and manager/media interaction needs a massive overhaul in the next version. Remember, FM is supposed to be a management sim, as close to the real world as possible in a game. In the real world of management, man management is equally important as tactical sophistication (some might say even more important, especially outside of the best leagues/highest divisions). Yet in this ‘simulation’ there is obviously far more detail and attention payed to the tactical side, with a range of variations and sliders (even if you don’t like ‘em, at least its pretty easy to predict what changing them will do) that players can tinker with. At present though, there is nowhere near that level of detail with regard to player interaction. There are not enough options, not enough subtlety, and too much unpredictability. I for one will not be shelling out more of my hard earned (he says as he surfs the forum at work!!!) coin on FM 09 unless this ABSOLUTELY VITAL aspect of the game is massively overhauled. If SI have failed to do so they should change their marketing for the new game and give FM09 a more accurate description as a “football tactic sim”, not a “football management sim”. Enough said. I better go and do some work now!