Football Manager has been a phenomenon in the world of online gaming since it was first established in 2005.
Sports Interactive, the developers of the title, trace their roots even further back to Championship Manager and its first instalment in 1992. Therefore, the game has enjoyed almost 30 years of success as a platform for football fans across the world.
It’s quite incredible for a game to have so much joy on the market considering that you cannot influence matters on the pitch yourself by controlling players. Unlike the FIFA series, the direct hands of results are calculated by the simulation based on the tactical decisions you make before and during the game. Although there is a semblance of control, it’s curious that a management game rather than a first-player title has been at the forefront of the market so consistently for so long.
There are a number of reasons why this unique game has sustained success, here are just a few.
Making the Impossible, Possible
We all have our favourite clubs and harbour the dream of seeing them win the Premier League or Champions League. After all, not everyone can do a Leicester City: before the Premier League 2015/16 season began, the club wasn’t considered a viable outright winner in any respect. Yet the club, who were 5000/1 in the football betting odds, went on to do the impossible.
In the real world, this type of victory is only a possibility for a handful of sides.
However, one reason people love playing Football Manager is because it encourages the idea of making the impossible, possible. It gives people the opportunity to experience that exhilarating rush of taking an underdog team, such as, for example, Hartlepool United, all the way from League Two to the top of the Premier League and the Champions League.
Amateur Scouts
Every transfer window we scream at our favourite clubs to buy this player or that one to improve the fortunes of the team. Football Manager’s vast database opens up pathways for mere gamers to scour the transfer market and pick unearthed gems to guide their teams to success.
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of picking a player from obscurity in the Georgian second tier, and for that player to become the integral cog of your drive to succeed. Due to our improved expertise, we then get on our soapboxes and claim ourselves to be the best scout in the world and bark at our teams in the real world to follow our methods. In the real world, it’s a bit more complicated.
Innovator
The great football managers all have their own unique styles. Pep Guardiola glorified the pass-heavy tiki-taka. Jurgen Klopp is renowned for going on the counter-attack, also popularised as the gegenpress. Jose Mourinho goes for the defensive tactic of parking the bus. Football Manager presents gamers with the chance to develop their own tactical genius.
Whether you like to kick teams off the park with a robust midfield or put four strikers on the pitch and score ten goals a game, there is an opportunity for everyone to become an innovator at the game they love.
Football Manager encapsulates everything we love about the game. It’s why it has been so successful and will continue to be in the future.
