[Suggestions] Presenting the Media

[YKW]

I don't think the media in the game will ever feel "real" unless it starts being presented to me in a way that mirrors real life more directly. I think there are two elements to this: 1. How it looks, 2. What it is/What it is about.

Over the years I have created loads of stupid things like adverts for Gillette with my newgen's face in, an album cover for my squad's cup final song, and so on and so on. Here are some other examples of similar things created by a guy called Jonny Gabriel, and you have to check out his site before continuing reading this. http://jonnygabrielregens.blogspot.co.uk/

In Jonny's examples, some of which I've put below, he has mimicked a real life outlet directly. For legal reasons (even though other games copy twitter exactly, etc) SI would need to create some fictional outlets that just appeared to the eye as very similar. The companies that sponsor clubs in the game i.e. "An electricty provider" should be given fictional names and logos (obviously moddable,) and the existing media should also have it's corresponding logos.

Premise

The game should use the faces of Newgens (among other things) to generate media from templates.

The Social Media Tab would become just 'Media,' and would have a simple summary of the current level of media interest in a variety of issues involving me or my club (for example "winning streak," or "manager sacking?") in the style of the Scouting Knowledge bars.

If the Media Interest bar for a certain topic got to a certain level, then select bits of media about me and my club may start appearing in the 'World and Nation Media' subsection, which would have a couple of Jonny Gabriel style media items to represent the biggest stories in football right now.

Even if my club had no sufficient media interest to appear in the World and Nation Media, I could still view it at all times to keep up with the latest stories.

Templates Examples

1. A red and white Video Tube site

2. A blue and white social media site

3. A basic red-top format and a basic broadsheet format

4. A basic advert/billboard format

5. A basic SSN style pundits with a Breaking News Bar format

6. A basic "Press conference" format, (one or two people at a table in front of microphones, e.g for new signings.)

 

For the fake Youtube items I would see something a bit like Jonny Gabriel has created for his game below. The title and view counts are self explanatory.

Linked to the title would be a 'Scene,' in the big red rectangle. The scene would be one of a number of things that would all use Newgen people in the relevant shirts etc. For example one of the Scenes would be a fanTV interview setup like above, with relevant titles being any of the comments from the existing social media section "We shouldn't contemplate selling Player!" or "It's time for Manager to go!" The view count would represent the overall popularity of the video as well as the like count showing roughly how much agreement there was with the sentiment (with exceptions.)

Other Scenes could be:

- Random newgen fan in their room doing a vlog. Possible titles off the top of my head could be "My new song for Player X" or "What Manager should have done against Team Y." etc

- On pitch moment featuring either a collection of players in a relevant kit or a single player celebrating, etc. Possible titles could be "Player X best goals and skills 22/23." or "Team Y: The Giant Awakens," (after a landmark win), or "Player Z HORROR tackle on Player Y," etc etc. Or similarly you could have a player on a stretcher with the title about him missing a certain cup final etc.

-Training Ground scene featuring a certain team, titles could be "CLUB X Official| Last training session before Milan!" or "CLUB X Official| Player Y officially returns to training."

- Or a scene showing a long retired player on the pitch, with the title being a tribute to that player as a legend.

 

For the fake twitter , there are a lot of VERY interesting possibilities.

Firstly, look at this piece of genius, again by Jonny Gabriel:

The first Social Media "Character" that should be introduced is some kind of statto like OptaJoe. When the Champions League final is about to happen, the game should pick an interesting statistic and have the "Statto" character tweet it in the World Media section, like above.

Secondly, a large part of this idea is the game "playing along" with me that it is real life. What better way to do this than by having Football Manager referenced within the game? Here are a couple of examples that go along with the above which I've hastily created.

Every year around October/November the odd tweet from Miles should appear hyping the release of that year's version of FM. He may say other things as well, and what exactly that is should be up to him and take the form of an easter egg.

Also along these lines, at some point in the future (if you are successful enough) you should get a news item inviting you to have a conversation with Miles, which starts a typical FM conversation in which he asks you if you would like to appear on the cover of the upcoming edition of FM. If you say yes then at some point Miles will tweet the cover of FM that has your face on it. One of the options when responding to Miles should be "This is real life, not Football Manager, and I take my job too seriously to accept your offer." The FM game cover then automatically goes to whoever your most disliked manager is at that time.

Sometimes the best FM newgen of that year would be a Cherno Samba. Anyway, If not FM Scout, then why not give some in-game publicity to the SI affiliates? Have Guide To Football Manager tweet about advice for playing the game, and have the link direct to their current site.

Another thing that is badly needed is players and ex-players tweeting. To save time here you can actually not bother translating anything out of more than one language. I would like it if I signed a Japanese mega-star who spoke no English and then saw this in the World Media

 

The next one was the Newspapers. The template would consist of something that appeared like an existing newspaper, again with space for a picture or "scene" and a headline. Use the name world play that is already in the game, and the existing media headlines as the basis for these. The "scene" would usually be a match situation, but could be a particular player after a spectacular performance, or if he has a big transfer being rumoured.

In the case of Newgens, let the front pages be accessible through scandal. For example the "scene" being a picture of a particular player with "censored" written across the eyes. Very hasty example:

Another possibility is some kind of fake wikipedia. This is another clip from Jonny Gabriels regens, which is how he has recorded his champions league run.

 

Perhaps imitating this exactly isn't possible, but I find this picture really compelling. I can really imagine browsing my FM world in this format, just because it feels real.

Another element that could suit the Wiki format is Biographies. They are already dynamic and change as the game goes on, and again I think they would look good if they were more like the page I saw when I searched for Mourinho/Klopp etc on Wikipedia.

As a silly idea, why not have certain humiliating situations like a big defeat or a front page scandal trigger a tweet come up saying "Has anyone read Johnny Gabriel's wikipedia page recently? HAHAHA" at which point when you read your wikipedia page (biography) it is filled with stupid information that mocks you by mentioning the recent humiliating events. Alternatively, if you were to do something amazing like win your country the World Cup, then a similar tweet would come up and this time your wikipedia page (biography) would be filled with Chuck Norris facts with your name in place of his.

I can see how that last on isn't really about the media but it's still interesting imo.

[David_H1997]

This is far too complex for SI to include all of this in. Press conferences and social media definitely do need some work, but not until those and the more pressing issues (pardon the pun) have been looked at first should this sort of thing be considered, imo.

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.