How to Revive Football Manager

The Football Manager community has fallen flat on its face right now. It’s completely dead. Just a few months ago there was a buzz around the place. Now, there is a terrible sense of apathy, and that’s evident from the low player counts.

Obviously, from a personal perspective, I want FM to be revived. I run a whole page around it. But also, I want a fun game that people are excited about, because I want to be able to talk to people about the game and enjoy it with them. Currently, none of my friends regularly play the game. That is an incredibly rare phenomenon, and it makes me sad, as this is a game that is made incredibly special by the shared bond and understanding players have over how the game works.

So it’s got me thinking: what can Sports Interactive do to revive the player base? How can we bring back the excitement, even if the game won’t immediately get fixed?
Here’s my plan to save the game.

Allow modders the chance to be a short-term fix to the game

We’re not naive. We know that wholesale fixes will take time, and that some changes won’t be implemented until FM27. So, in the meantime, allow modders to go crazy and offer fixes that will bring people back to the game in the short run.

At the moment, the UI is impossible to edit. Or at least so hard that the best modders are only just beginning to be able to edit it after a few months. Sports Interactive needs to make it a lot easier for modders to work their magic. Ensure the official Pre-Game and In-Game Editor tools for FM26 are fully functional and accessible. If certain UI elements are hard-coded (as was initially the case with some colours), see if an update can make them editable.

Sports Interactive shouldn’t see modders as a threat, but as key cogs in making a community dynamic. I know they’ve reached out privately to modders, but making this public as well would go a long way to show that they’re willing to be flexible to get people back on side.

In the long term, they should look to improve the platform given to modders. By FM27 or FM28, SI could introduce more formal mod support, for instance a Steam Workshop integration for sharing skins, databases, and graphical mods easily. Additionally, consider releasing a modding SDK or API for the new engine.

 

Whilst modders are fixing FM26 and bringing excitement to the community in the short term, fix the key issues for FM27 and onwards

This is what needs to change for FM27 onwards if you want to get player counts back to what they used to be.

Improve the immersion and make the game less boring. Increase data visibility and immersion: a major complaint is that FM26’s interface hides too much information, hurting immersion. Improvements have been made, but they still need to make it easier to view the entire virtual world you are in.

Reincorporate hallmarks of immersion. FM has always been as much about the broader football world as it is about your team. Some long-time touches have disappeared in FM26. For example, users noticed the Hall of Fame in FM26 omitted deceased legendary managers (like Sir Alex Ferguson or Jock Stein) who used to appear.

They have also made changes to the UI and fixed bugs which have improved the gameplay experience, but there is still a long way to go until it’s back to the UI that people were initially attracted to. It’s never too late to admit that you made a mistake and revert to the game people know and love.

 

Improve social media, transparency, and communications

People are often receptive if you explain in detail what you’re doing and keep the community in the dialogue. For example, look at the developers behind Europa Universalis. They released their game and have followed it up with weekly updates containing incredibly detailed developer notes. Thankfully, their game was good at the outset, so they had goodwill from the start.
But we need more transparency from Sports Interactive. Zealand and other creators have highlighted “institutional” issues in SI’s development pipeline, and it would help to pull back the curtain a bit. In the short term, SI could publish a post-mortem blog about FM26’s development, explaining the challenges of the new engine, what went wrong with planning or QA, and how they’re adjusting internally.
While some companies might shy away from airing this, the FM community is invested and would appreciate the honesty. This honesty could even be delivered through the conduit of influencers. Throughout the year, you could have a dedicated team of Football Manager experts, people who play it for a living, that you consult and get feedback from.

 

Conclusion

Transparency, improving the platform for mods, and fixing the UI and immersion. Simple improvements… right?!
I don’t have much faith at this point that we can get a full-scale transformation and get back to the trust levels we’ve had in previous years. But if we don’t try, then we’ll never know if it’s possible to get our game back.
What changes do you think are needed to restore faith and restore the glory days of Football Manager? Let me know in the comments section.

 

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