Football Manager Stole My Life

by Iain Macintosh

IM – It is?

  SM – Instability is good. Not reckless instability. You don’t want to be murdering someone with an axe one day and then acting normal the next day.

  IM – I’m not an axe murderer.

  SM – I didn’t say that you were.

  IM – I just want to clarify that.

  SM – Of course, of course. What I mean is that your personality is flexible. It’s going to be linked to greater issues of survival. If you adopted the same persona, the same characteristics, you wouldn’t be able to adapt to changing situations. If I wired you up for the day, I’d be able to show that you had spoken differently to different people, that you were acting differently, more or less confident, according to different scenarios. You’re simply adapting your personality for survival in the game. In real life, you can behave as you do because the ramifications are not especially dramatic. You’re untidy, but the world doesn’t end because of it. You’re impulsive, but I assume it hasn’t caused your life to break down in any way? But you know that if you don’t plan in Football Manager, you’ll be less likely to win and winning is what gives you pleasure, which in turn is what drives the addiction.

  IM – Oh.

  SM – It’s a reinforcement, a positive reinforcement. Your work only pays your bills, Football Manager delivers hits of pleasure. So it’s not a surprise that you’ll act differently.

  IM – This isn’t going to look good to prospective employers, is it?

  SM – It’s perfectly normal. You’re going to get more motivated by things that make you feel good than things that you have to do.

  IM – Do you think it’s a little sad that micromanaging a pretend football team gets me off more than, say, a big fat line of cocaine?

  SM – Not at all. That’s just how motivation works. It’s like the way that money motivates some and not others, it’s personal. Football Manager is what appeals to you. Not big fat lines of cocaine. Which is probably a good thing on balance, I’d say.

  IM – Ok. But is it a bad thing that I occasionally imagine conversations with my players?

  SM – No, because that’s integral to the whole experience. It’s the immersion that appeals to you, that’s what draws you in. I’ve heard of people giving speeches in empty rooms, shaking hands with doorknobs and pretending it’s a member of the Royal Family. You’re just keeping the situation alive, doing what you need to do to keep the dream going. As long as you’re not hurting anyone else, it’s fine.

  IM – What about doing press conferences in my head?

  SM – That’s fine too. In fact, for you, it’s even more normal because that’s an environment that you know well, so it’s easy for you to imagine it.

  IM – Well, this is all very encouraging. Have you ever encountered people who aren’t normal? People who have taken these things too far?

  SM – Oh yes. You have people who have seen their health fade, whose personal relations have broken down, who haven’t been able to break away long enough to do work. But these are extremes. There are always going to be some people who struggle with addiction, but that’s the same with any kind of stimulus.

  IM – Isn’t it worrying that there are so many similarities between Football Manager addiction and, say, alcohol addiction?

  SM – Addiction is addiction.

  IM – So my ‘addiction’ to Football Manager is actually a genuine, 20–year addiction?

  SM – Yes.

  IM – Wow… I think that’s actually longer than Eric Clapton did cocaine.

  SM – The health risks aren’t as great with Football Manager.

  IM – Someone should have mentioned that to Clapton.

  SM – It’s possible that his music may have suffered.

  IM – (sings) Layla. You’ve got me on my knees, Layla. Distracted from friendlies, Layla. I’m begging Darling for you to do my coaching routiiiiiiines!

  [SILENCE]

  SM – Please don’t EVER do that again.

  IM – Sorry.

  SM – [shudders] Anyway, anything like this, anything that you enjoy will get your endorphins flowing. That will amplify the positive feeling. It’s all down to cognition; whatever you believe is a positive stimulus will have that effect. Your subconscious enjoys Football Manager, it enjoys winning, it enjoys the alternative reality that you create. This, for want of a better phrase, is your drug.

  IM – Gosh. So, is admitting that I have a problem the first step to recovery?

  SM – Is it a problem? Or is it just something you enjoy? Is it negatively impacting anything in your life?

  IM – Well, sometimes my wife gets offended if she’s watching a Jennifer Aniston movie and I play it on my laptop on the sofa next to her.

  SM – Well, you’ve got a problem.

  IM – I have?

  SM – Yes, Jennifer Aniston movies are almost exclusively awful.

  IM – It’s not just me, is it?

  SM – Nope.

  IM – Every film is the same. She’s a gorgeous singleton who, for inexplicable reasons, just cannot find a man and she has a friend who is also gorgeous, but in a less obvious way, and she is mostly there to make sardonic jokes. Then she meets someone who is ABSOLUTELY unsuitable for her and they have arguments that become increasingly heated until something draws them together and they kiss, only to swiftly jeopardise the whole affair on a point of principle before a race against time brings them together forever.

  SM – I’ve actually got real work to do, you know.

  IM – Sorry.

  SM – So, Football Manager isn’t causing you any real problems? You play it up until a certain point and then you stop playing it?

  IM – Yes. But sometimes that certain point is 1am and I’m up again at 6am.

  SM – Well, you know what you can and can’t do. I take it that you haven’t failed to get up at 6am, that you haven’t failed to do what you’ve had to do the next day?

  IM – No. I’ve just been a bit tired.

  SM – Well, that’s fine. The point is that you’re still doing what you need to do. In fact, your brain might be thinking, ‘I had lots of fun last night playing Football Manager, now let’s do some work’.

  IM – It usually tells me to make a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich first, but yes, I see your point.

  SM – That’s fine as well. If you cut the fat off.

  IM – That’s a good tip. So basically, if it’s not a problem, it’s not a problem?

  SM – Essentially, yes. I mean, if you’re denying it to yourself and it is a problem, if you’re not meeting people, if you’re not eating properly, if you’re not doing any work, then it’s a different matter, but this isn’t the case, is it?

  IM – No! This is wonderful news. I feel like I’ve had a great weight lifted off my shoulders!

  SM – I’m happy to have helped. You know, games are often demonised, especially the violent ones, but that’s not fair. We know what they’re about, gamers know what they’re about. You do what you must to progress in the game.

  IM – What is it that sends some people to fighty games and some people to football games? Why do some people want to slay a dragon, while others just want to win a pretend trophy?

  SM – All games are about play. We don’t stop playing at the age of 12. Play is integral to psychology. It lets you rehearse, it gives you enjoyment, it lets you do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Video games are extensions of stories.

  IM – But what is it that attracts some people to fighting a dragon and some people to a statistic–loaded football database that is essentially an exercise in human resources? Surely we’d all rather fight a dragon?

  SM – Would you?

  IM – Well, yes.

  SM – I wouldn’t, I’d rather coach a football team. It’s safer.

  IM – Not if it’s Millwall. What I’m trying to say is, are there certain personality types that will be drawn to Football Manager?

  SM – No, I wouldn’t say so.
I’ve done some research on this and personality types don’t necessarily pick specific games. There’s more of a relationship with their personality and how they play the game. Do they use melee weapons or spells, are they reckless drivers or careful drivers? These traits can correlate with personality. How that relationship manifests itself is completely random. Some cautious people are reckless in games, some reckless people, like you, are cautious. It’s possible that you’re living up to an ideal that perhaps you can’t achieve in real life.

  IM – Woah. That’s pretty deep.

  SM – That’s what I do.

  IM – So, to recap: I play Football Manager because I like it and my subconscious likes it. I’m cautious because that’s what my subconscious believes is the best way to prosper, and therefore how I’ll like it more. I hold press conferences in my head because it adds to the enjoyment and the best bit, it’s not a problem because it’s not a problem. My life is still very much intact.

  SM – Precisely.

  IM – Well, that’s great. Now, can you do me a favour? Can you call my wife and tell her everything you’ve just told me?

  SM – Get out.

  GAME

  CHANGER

  How FM has altered the way

  twe think about football

  The Football Manager franchise has had a profound effect on millions of lives, enchanting and entrapping players for 20 years. However, there have also been times when its tendrils have spread from the alternate reality it creates to the actual reality it imitates.

  BALA

  CHALLENGE

  Bala Town

  Welsh Premier League

  Premier League, BALA TOWN were the very definition of ‘obscure’. At least, as commercial director GARETH MOON explains, until FM2011 was released.

  We didn’t know what was happening at first, we only knew that our website s were going through the roof and that we were getting a stream of messages on Twitter asking for our current tactics and advice on our players. Confused, we asked them where they were all coming from and they told us that we were the subject of a competition on a podcast. Apparently, the show’s presenters had challenged their listeners to take Bala Town as far as they could in five seasons on Football Manager 2011 and then report back for prizes.

  We’re only a small Welsh Premier League club in a town with a population of slightly over 2000, so to have that kind of interest was unprecedented. I’d never played the game before, but some of the younger ones around the club had, so we had to ask them what it was all about. It was very strange and the players found it very odd.

  The manager wasn’t sure about it at first, I think he thought someone was taking the mickey out of us, but once we explained it he seemed quite positive. I don’t think he’s played the game himself yet though, I think he’s got enough on his hands with the real thing.

  We thought it was all great and we invited the four winners down to the club for a day out and a guided tour. They went back and blogged very positively about their trip, which furthered the interest. We’ve had more people coming to games, especially from outside the region and there’s now a thriving Bala Town community on Twitter. They’ve even sponsored the match ball this season.

  We’ve had increased press coverage, increased merchandise sales, we’ve had producers approaching us with new products to sell online, we’ve had representatives from other clubs and even other sports approaching us, asking how we’ve generated such a buzz. It’s been amazing.

  When the new game came out, the players were straight on it, wanting to check out their stats. I think they find it quite flattering to be a part of such a global phenomenon. And then, of course, we got another surge of interest around the world as people tried to win the league with us. We’ve got one lad in America who keeps emailing to tell us his progress, letting us know that he’s got us into the Champions League.

  It hasn’t raised expectations or attracted negative attention whatsoever. It’s been entirely positive, entirely beneficial and it all stems from that Football Manager competition.

  DEMANDING

  TIMES

  Rory Smith

  Football Writer, The Times.

  Now a football writer for The Times, RORY SMITH discovered Football Manager in his teens and it helped develop his thirst for knowledge.

  My mate John, who had a computer before me, had Championship Manager 2 and as soon as I saw it, I wanted it. I was gagging for it. Finally, I got CM97/98 and that’s where it all began. I had to use the computer in my dad’s office, so I’d get my homework out of the way every night, go across at 7pm and would usually have to be dragged out of there at midnight.

  I’m a Liverpool fan, but I don’t think I ever actually played as Liverpool. I preferred to take random foreign teams. The Belgian league was as exotic as it got then, so I’d start there and see where it would take me. I did themed games where I’d only allow myself to buy Spanish players, or Croatian players, things like that. I think I was always relatively in control of my addiction, and it was an addiction, but I’ve pulled a few all-nighters in my time. Celta Vigo? I won 16 straight Spanish titles with them. That cost me a lot of nights out … and four or five friends … and at least one girlfriend, come to think of it. All the way from there to 2005, I played that and Pro-Evolution Soccer and nothing else. Then I started at The Mirror as a news reporter and a combination of the demands of my job and the game’s growing complexity meant that I lost the time to really indulge in things like preparing set-piece training programmes.

  I discovered the game when I was watching Italian football and reading World Soccer, when I’d started to discover a world of football beyond my national boundaries, and it really tapped into that. It was educational as well. Football Manager gave me an incredible base of knowledge of European football and you can see from Twitter and elsewhere that it’s still having that effect on people now. I reckon if you did a survey of all the bloggers and up-and-coming writers that specialise in South American or European football, most of them will have started out with this game.

  I do think it can be crucial in building knowledge, especially now when readers are far more demanding of journalists. There’s a basic level of knowledge, especially of rising stars around the globe, that you’re expected to have. My interest in European football came first, but my becoming literate in it can probably be attributed to Football Manager. In fact, since I stopped playing it in 2005, my wider knowledge has probably gone down.

  It does have its drawbacks. I’m occasionally berated by readers if I suggest that a certain player from, say, a Turkish league is on the shortlist of an English club. I’ll get angry tweets claiming that he’s not fast enough for the Premier League. You think, how on earth can you possibly have a well-formed opinion on a player in a league that isn’t even televised in this country? And then you realise it’s probably because he has a pace of 11 and not 19 on the latest FM.

  And sometimes, the alternative world of the game can intrude on real life. Every year, you see these names of obscure potential transfer targets popping up on the forums with whispers about impending moves from ‘insiders’. Then journalists, who don’t make things up and have to do their job, will check it out with the agent, just in case. Invariably the agent will be delighted to see his client’s name linked with the club, will happily drum up the interest and from there and – who knows? – the move might even come to pass. It’s life imitating art and it makes you wonder at how much power the makers of this game have at their disposal.

  Ultimately though, its legacy can be seen in the progress of other games. The Fifa and Pro-Evo games now have far more club and player details than they ever did before. Football Manager changed the industry and it’s helped increase an entire generation’s knowledge of the game.

  STATS

  ENTERTAINMENT

  Opta

  Simon Banoub, Marketing Director.

  For the past 20 years, Opta have made their name in statistics and marketing
director SIMON BANOUB believes that the rise of Football Manager has helped identify the market.

  I’ve been playing Football Manager since the original came out with all the made-up player names. I think its success has taken a similar path to our own. It’s gone from cultish appeal to international recognition and we’ve gone from a handful of employees operating out of one office to a multi-national company working out of offices all over the world.

  There was a time when football coverage was far more basic, when people feared what they perceived to be an ‘Americanisation’ of sport, with statistics taking over everything. We’re getting to the stage now where you’ll be laughed out of the room if you don’t understand the impact they have on the sport. A lot of that is down to this game.

  Football Manager’s strength in the early days was that it was like an early internet. While the traditional media could only offer up a few pages at the back of the paper, the game had limitless pages of information to be consumed. It played its part in laying the ground for companies like ourselves. Early sites like Sportal or TEAMtalk could come at the market with stats pages and people who had played the games weren’t surprised or taken aback by what they saw. They had that feature set in mind already, so it opened the door for a new wave of media.

  I think our inner geek, if you like, has always been there. You’ll always find people who unashamedly love the statty side of football. They’re the people who gravitate towards games like Football Manager and, in turn, towards the really in-depth things that we do.