My word is my bond. I'm a firm believer of the so-called gentleman's agreement. When I orally agree to a certain deal, I live up to said deal because I feel my reputation is at stake when I don't. In a community-based game like FM Live, your reputation is all you have, so therefore crucial to your success in the game. Managers deemed unreliable or not trustworthy will have difficulties signing players or getting bargain deals done.
Still, whenever I strike an agreement which revolves around trust, people seem genuinely surprised that I actually live up to my end of the deal. This means there's something fundamentally wrong with the community, when you're not able to trust another manager on his (or her, I'm not biased) word. It might even be a reason why the transfer market is not always going as smooth as it could be, some people do not live up to their promises and others become reluctant to make deals because of previous bad experiences.
The gentleman's agreement really helps when making deals. Only yesterday, I struck a deal for a Mexican wingback for 1.4 million. In exchange, two of my youths were loaned to the other side to cover for his loss of a first teamer. The guy seemed genuinely surprised when I actually accepted the first offer and promised him he could loan the second youth next season, because the auto extension of his contract was within the next 7 days.
Since the gentleman's agreement seems to be failing, I feel that either the First Option or Future Transfer clauses from FM should be imported to FM Live. Some managers are reluctant to sell during the season, but they would be willing to settle a deal once the season ends. A Future Transfer option might liven things up, as managers could really start their long term planning this way.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Google Quizzy?
Despite several people's accusations of googling answers, loads of fun were had by all involved whilst playing. In response to the googling, the average response time is below 10 seconds, which makes it almost impossible to accurately google for an answer.
Anyway, last nights final score...
1 - Nathan Pollard 30
2 - Tom Delgado 18
3 - Nick Megarity 15
4 - Alec Sora 7
5 - Abe Roddney 4
6 - Glen Fyrth 2
7 - Jocke Grundberg 1
Also, feel free to respond to the blogposts more often, possibly with new quiz questions...
Anyway, last nights final score...
1 - Nathan Pollard 30
2 - Tom Delgado 18
3 - Nick Megarity 15
4 - Alec Sora 7
5 - Abe Roddney 4
6 - Glen Fyrth 2
7 - Jocke Grundberg 1
Also, feel free to respond to the blogposts more often, possibly with new quiz questions...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Patience Is A Virtue
FM Live resembles real life in many way, even more than we realise. In real life, patience is a virtue because it makes us better people in general. This principle also works in FM Live. Patience really is a virtue and important to have, both in the real world and in the virtual Game Worlds we are in.
The definition of the word "patience" is to tolerate delay. This implies self control and forebearance as opposed to wanting what we want when we want it. Applied to FM Live, think of realistic situations where you splash your entire transfer budget and overpay considerably for a decent player, only to find out a cheaper alternative is a available only a few days later. How many times have we jumped the gun and found out it it would have been better to tolerate delay or had self control?
Also a nice one, what did we miss out on? Couldn't we have built a nice stadium with that money? Did we sell that youth player too soon or too cheap? Should we not have had more patience with that talented forward, instead of flogging him off?
Did we hurt someone else or ourselves (or our team) because of lack of patience? Did our lives just change completely just because we couldn't control ourselves? Patience is not only a virtue but a necessity for a happy exisitience.
The reason for this semi-philosophical rant is clear, I'm one of these more patient managers. This doesn't mean I don't get annoyed at times though and I need to let off some steam. I'm still pretty pissed because I had to flog off most of the U17 generation relatively cheap, instead of being able to watch them mature.
I also invested a considerable lump of cash into the acquisation of central defender Ryhor Filipenko, the tall Russian beast-man. This very morning, right before his auction ended, someone else swooped in and outbid me.
I could have gotten angry. I could have panicked. I could go out and throw enormous amounts of cash around to find a similar player. Instead, I will try my patience. Another opportunity will arise soon. Maybe not for a defender, but I am sure a more profitable situation will soon arise. Patience is my main virtue.
The definition of the word "patience" is to tolerate delay. This implies self control and forebearance as opposed to wanting what we want when we want it. Applied to FM Live, think of realistic situations where you splash your entire transfer budget and overpay considerably for a decent player, only to find out a cheaper alternative is a available only a few days later. How many times have we jumped the gun and found out it it would have been better to tolerate delay or had self control?
Also a nice one, what did we miss out on? Couldn't we have built a nice stadium with that money? Did we sell that youth player too soon or too cheap? Should we not have had more patience with that talented forward, instead of flogging him off?
Did we hurt someone else or ourselves (or our team) because of lack of patience? Did our lives just change completely just because we couldn't control ourselves? Patience is not only a virtue but a necessity for a happy exisitience.
The reason for this semi-philosophical rant is clear, I'm one of these more patient managers. This doesn't mean I don't get annoyed at times though and I need to let off some steam. I'm still pretty pissed because I had to flog off most of the U17 generation relatively cheap, instead of being able to watch them mature.
I also invested a considerable lump of cash into the acquisation of central defender Ryhor Filipenko, the tall Russian beast-man. This very morning, right before his auction ended, someone else swooped in and outbid me.
I could have gotten angry. I could have panicked. I could go out and throw enormous amounts of cash around to find a similar player. Instead, I will try my patience. Another opportunity will arise soon. Maybe not for a defender, but I am sure a more profitable situation will soon arise. Patience is my main virtue.
More Quizzing
Another quiz last night. To my shame, several questions were wrongly phrased or plain incorrect. Yes, even I am human. I am very very ashamed. I am. Really.
Anyway, the results from last night.
1 - Nathan Pollard 20
2 - Tom Delgado 13
3 - Muzzy 9
4 - Nick Megarity 7
- - William Hall 7
6 - Sean O'Connell 2
7 - Matt Legend 1
- - Volkan Ozkan 1
I do feel the need to add that Tom Delgado was comfortably leading the whole thing, before he had to leave prematurely. He would have probably been the first to reach 20, had it not been for some unforeseen circumstance which prompted him to leave.
Anyway, the results from last night.
1 - Nathan Pollard 20
2 - Tom Delgado 13
3 - Muzzy 9
4 - Nick Megarity 7
- - William Hall 7
6 - Sean O'Connell 2
7 - Matt Legend 1
- - Volkan Ozkan 1
I do feel the need to add that Tom Delgado was comfortably leading the whole thing, before he had to leave prematurely. He would have probably been the first to reach 20, had it not been for some unforeseen circumstance which prompted him to leave.
Scouting Talents Without Judging Potential
Probably one of the best and most insightful things I have read in a long time took place in a secluded part of the SI fora. It's about how you can scout top youths without the use of the judging potential skill. Potentially, if you get this right, this means you can start your academy in the very first season, when the competition for the top youngsters is less fierce.
Apparently, it's all about setting up the right filters. As the world is quickly swamped with newgen players, you can't go trawling through long lists of players, so you want to set up good filters as fast as you can to start scouting.
One of the tips I picked up, was filtering on wage. Most newgens appear with a wage demand of 200 quid. The ones with higher wages generally have a better chance of becoming better players, if they possess the proper stats as well, so filtering on wages is a smart idea.
Naturally, wages alone are not an indication of a players potential ability. It could just mean his current ability is quite high, but his development chances are limited, which means you still have nothing useful to work with.
We also have to look at certain stats. As I stated in an earlier blogpost, players with decent values for Work Rate and Determination are far more likely to live up to their PA. There's less need of splashing loads of cash on top PA players if there's not a very big chance of them living up to that potential. Looking at these two mental attributes will give you a pretty decent idea if a player will be able to live up to his potential.
One last important thing to look at was basically natural fitness. I suppose that makes sense, especially if you're in the development business for the long haul. You don't want a youth with top stats but who tires after 45 minutes of football, so it is important they have the natural fitness to develop their other physical skills.
Summing it up, these are the things we should be looking at in a filter:
Apparently, it's all about setting up the right filters. As the world is quickly swamped with newgen players, you can't go trawling through long lists of players, so you want to set up good filters as fast as you can to start scouting.
One of the tips I picked up, was filtering on wage. Most newgens appear with a wage demand of 200 quid. The ones with higher wages generally have a better chance of becoming better players, if they possess the proper stats as well, so filtering on wages is a smart idea.
Naturally, wages alone are not an indication of a players potential ability. It could just mean his current ability is quite high, but his development chances are limited, which means you still have nothing useful to work with.
We also have to look at certain stats. As I stated in an earlier blogpost, players with decent values for Work Rate and Determination are far more likely to live up to their PA. There's less need of splashing loads of cash on top PA players if there's not a very big chance of them living up to that potential. Looking at these two mental attributes will give you a pretty decent idea if a player will be able to live up to his potential.
One last important thing to look at was basically natural fitness. I suppose that makes sense, especially if you're in the development business for the long haul. You don't want a youth with top stats but who tires after 45 minutes of football, so it is important they have the natural fitness to develop their other physical skills.
Summing it up, these are the things we should be looking at in a filter:
- wages: over 200 quid;
- determination: 10+;
- work rate: 10+ (preferably even 15+);
- natural fitness: 10+.
I put this theory to the test by looking at several teams who were signing the top youths very early on in Miller Beta. Teams like the Tallinna Piraaja and AZ Bruntsfield were reknowned for picking up the youths even in season one, before JP skills were unlocked and when I look at the players they signed who turned out great, they all seem to match the profile described above. So yeah, I think this might help out a lot of people.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Inflation Of The Youth Wages
As we all know, inflation has struck our merry little Miller Game World. For those of you with no basic grasp of economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.
When the general price level rises, each unit of the functional currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is a decline in the real value of money—a loss of purchasing power in the internal medium of exchange which is also the monetary unit of account in an economy.
Translated into FM Live terms, players are becoming more expensive, in both wages and transfer sums. You have to pay more money in wage auctions and more money in transfer auctions to acquire decent players, which means less transfers are taking place.
In a post on the Developer Blog, Rob Cooper stated the inflation levels for every Game World. Miller and Coppell are on an average of 39.78%, which isn't that bad considering the fact that we've started out with 1.2 and the stadiums, which brings extra costs from the very start.
Anyway, I'm trying to look at the cause of this inflation. I think it's generally caused by people who don't know how the transfer market functions or people who are desperate to have a certain player (generally a top real-life player, someone who plays for their real-life club or a highly rated youth). They bid excessive amounts to persuade the player to transfer or the contracting club to sell.
Naturally, this causes some inbalances, as some of the wages have gone insane. The senior wages have pretty much stabilised, but the youth wages are a disaster-area. Every four star or more Potential Ability newgen that has appeared over the last month, is now earning at least 10k a day, if not more.
People fail to realise how much money this is costing them in the long run. 10k a day means 70k a week, 280k a season... For a 15 or 16 year old player, whose future is highly uncertain, as you need to nurture and develop this youngster. He won't be ready for regular first team football before he hits the age 20, so you're paying 1,12 to 1,4 million for this youth.
And let's not forget we're still not sure if the youngster can actually live up the high expectations. You're taking a huge, huge gamble when you pay wages like that to such young players, which is, in my eyes anyway, one of the main reasons for the current inflation.
I refuse to shell out these kind of excessive wages for every player, my top youths earn around 8k a day, but he's already playing regular first team football and he's developing quite nicely, with a Market Value of around 850k at the moment.
The one exception in my team is a Brazilian newgen, but his stats are so good that I don't consider him a youth player anymore, even though he is only 18 years old. He has proven that too, by getting 6.9 averages in the senior games he has played so far, in which case 14k isn't an excessive amount to pay.
Is there any way to curb this inflation of the youth wages? Can we stop this madness? Unfortunately, I don't see any way how to achieve this goal. I have actually thought this through (for a change...) and this is what I came up with.
Wage caps initially sounded like a good idea. Restrict the maximum bids. But these salary caps would be unfair, as it would be a matter who gets the maximum bid in first. Even with a more random distribution of youths time-wise, this would not work.
SI tried to hide the number of bids in the 3337 build of the Beta, but this didn't really help as people just bid high anyway to ensure they get the player. In a way, this measure was even restricting some teams. If you don't have a lot of cash, it's useful to be able to see how many bidders there are so as to decide where to spend your pennies, so in that sense it's not very friendly to weaker/poorer teams.
I considered removing all money from youth competitions, but I quickly realised most teams are not in the youth business for the prize money, since this is generally very very low and hardly worth the effort.
Most teams seem to be in it for the development of players and the chance to sell on their talents for huge fees. I have to admit that this is a lucrative business, as I have recently sold two youths for a combined value of 1,4 million quid. Since their combined wages were a mere 7k, they are cheaper than any of the newer newgens, which probably drove the price up.
Many other managers fail to realise this and they think these players only went for such excessive fees because of their superb Potential Ability. They therefore assume that signing top PA youngsters will guarantee them a lot of money in the future, when in reality it's the combination of superb PA, decent stats, chance of development and normal/fair wages that makes transfer sums sky-rocket at times.
When the general price level rises, each unit of the functional currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is a decline in the real value of money—a loss of purchasing power in the internal medium of exchange which is also the monetary unit of account in an economy.
Translated into FM Live terms, players are becoming more expensive, in both wages and transfer sums. You have to pay more money in wage auctions and more money in transfer auctions to acquire decent players, which means less transfers are taking place.
In a post on the Developer Blog, Rob Cooper stated the inflation levels for every Game World. Miller and Coppell are on an average of 39.78%, which isn't that bad considering the fact that we've started out with 1.2 and the stadiums, which brings extra costs from the very start.
Anyway, I'm trying to look at the cause of this inflation. I think it's generally caused by people who don't know how the transfer market functions or people who are desperate to have a certain player (generally a top real-life player, someone who plays for their real-life club or a highly rated youth). They bid excessive amounts to persuade the player to transfer or the contracting club to sell.
Naturally, this causes some inbalances, as some of the wages have gone insane. The senior wages have pretty much stabilised, but the youth wages are a disaster-area. Every four star or more Potential Ability newgen that has appeared over the last month, is now earning at least 10k a day, if not more.
People fail to realise how much money this is costing them in the long run. 10k a day means 70k a week, 280k a season... For a 15 or 16 year old player, whose future is highly uncertain, as you need to nurture and develop this youngster. He won't be ready for regular first team football before he hits the age 20, so you're paying 1,12 to 1,4 million for this youth.
And let's not forget we're still not sure if the youngster can actually live up the high expectations. You're taking a huge, huge gamble when you pay wages like that to such young players, which is, in my eyes anyway, one of the main reasons for the current inflation.
I refuse to shell out these kind of excessive wages for every player, my top youths earn around 8k a day, but he's already playing regular first team football and he's developing quite nicely, with a Market Value of around 850k at the moment.
The one exception in my team is a Brazilian newgen, but his stats are so good that I don't consider him a youth player anymore, even though he is only 18 years old. He has proven that too, by getting 6.9 averages in the senior games he has played so far, in which case 14k isn't an excessive amount to pay.
Is there any way to curb this inflation of the youth wages? Can we stop this madness? Unfortunately, I don't see any way how to achieve this goal. I have actually thought this through (for a change...) and this is what I came up with.
Wage caps initially sounded like a good idea. Restrict the maximum bids. But these salary caps would be unfair, as it would be a matter who gets the maximum bid in first. Even with a more random distribution of youths time-wise, this would not work.
SI tried to hide the number of bids in the 3337 build of the Beta, but this didn't really help as people just bid high anyway to ensure they get the player. In a way, this measure was even restricting some teams. If you don't have a lot of cash, it's useful to be able to see how many bidders there are so as to decide where to spend your pennies, so in that sense it's not very friendly to weaker/poorer teams.
I considered removing all money from youth competitions, but I quickly realised most teams are not in the youth business for the prize money, since this is generally very very low and hardly worth the effort.
Most teams seem to be in it for the development of players and the chance to sell on their talents for huge fees. I have to admit that this is a lucrative business, as I have recently sold two youths for a combined value of 1,4 million quid. Since their combined wages were a mere 7k, they are cheaper than any of the newer newgens, which probably drove the price up.
Many other managers fail to realise this and they think these players only went for such excessive fees because of their superb Potential Ability. They therefore assume that signing top PA youngsters will guarantee them a lot of money in the future, when in reality it's the combination of superb PA, decent stats, chance of development and normal/fair wages that makes transfer sums sky-rocket at times.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
The Demise Of A Generation...
With the wages for 15 and 16 year old players rising to absurd figures, I have decided to retire the Fortuna Aeternitas U17 team. The best five prospects, those being the ones who might realistically develop into first team assets, are added to the U18 selection, the rest of the squad will be sold in auctions starting at one pound.
I feel sad I have to break up an entire team, but with the current inflation, I don't think I can afford to replace the current U17 team come next season. Well, I could replace them, but it would either be a squad full of extremely expensive talents (10k or more wages pro player...) or cheap dross no-one else picks up.
This season, I experimented with that last option in the U17's. A team full of relatively cheap Africans and Asians was able to do okay, but not as good as the other Academy teams I have. Also, I have noticed the wages in the regions rise to well above my acceptable level as well. I refuse to shell out excessive wages (5k or more) for average players who are used to fill the squad and even more excessive wages (10k or more) for the top stars of a generation.
The current inflation of the market has prompted me to disband the U17's. This decision is effective as soon as the tournaments they are currently in, have ended. Most of the current squad members have been placed in auctions, which end Friday. I'm sad to see the lads go, but I just cannot afford to keep hold of them.
It is sad that I have to break away from the tradition of home-growing my first teamers, right at the same moment that the first Academy graduates are being induced into the first team. Players like Marko Damjanovic, Jack Cleverley, Angelo Antonucci, Carlos Amaro and Velimir Jovanovic were all part of the academy for three or more seasons, but this proud tradition of training my own youths will end in a few seasons, as there are no new Academy teams coming.
I feel sad I have to break up an entire team, but with the current inflation, I don't think I can afford to replace the current U17 team come next season. Well, I could replace them, but it would either be a squad full of extremely expensive talents (10k or more wages pro player...) or cheap dross no-one else picks up.
This season, I experimented with that last option in the U17's. A team full of relatively cheap Africans and Asians was able to do okay, but not as good as the other Academy teams I have. Also, I have noticed the wages in the regions rise to well above my acceptable level as well. I refuse to shell out excessive wages (5k or more) for average players who are used to fill the squad and even more excessive wages (10k or more) for the top stars of a generation.
The current inflation of the market has prompted me to disband the U17's. This decision is effective as soon as the tournaments they are currently in, have ended. Most of the current squad members have been placed in auctions, which end Friday. I'm sad to see the lads go, but I just cannot afford to keep hold of them.
It is sad that I have to break away from the tradition of home-growing my first teamers, right at the same moment that the first Academy graduates are being induced into the first team. Players like Marko Damjanovic, Jack Cleverley, Angelo Antonucci, Carlos Amaro and Velimir Jovanovic were all part of the academy for three or more seasons, but this proud tradition of training my own youths will end in a few seasons, as there are no new Academy teams coming.
Quizzy Again
Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed a miracle tonight... Tom Delgado won something... In FML... Granted, it wasn't a tournament (or a match), but he won tonights edition of the footy quiz. The most notable absentee was mister Nathan Pollard by the way. These were the final scores.
1 - Tom Delgado 20
2 - Muzzy 13
3 - Volkan Ozkan 8
4 - Srinath Murthy 5
5 - Dan Hyde 1
1 - Tom Delgado 20
2 - Muzzy 13
3 - Volkan Ozkan 8
4 - Srinath Murthy 5
5 - Dan Hyde 1
Sob Story Numero... I Lost Count...
I think it's four or five... Anyway, my story-style advertising is working out pretty well and I decided to use my blog as a holding pen for all drafts and such... I'm not sure how many people actually read this, but this way I can always re-use my old stuff with a new name and location.
It's heart-breaking, I know... I couldn't stuff more clichées in there than I already did, but it's a good read...
August 17th 2007, just another day in Lima. Willy Pellny followed the routine practiced by thousands of homeless children in Lima every day. He took out a handkerchief, dipped it into a bottle of paint thinner, put it to his nose and inhaled deeply. Asked what he was doing, Willy replied: "Dinner."
Willy was sniffing paint-thinner to suppress his hunger and ward off the cold. An estimated 60,000 children live on the streets of Lima, and almost all are addicted to some sort of inhalant.
The city has targeted glue-sniffing as a focus for its resources, and social worker and part-time Fortuna Aeternitas scout PJ has met scores of young addicts like Willy in his work. "These are boys who should be playing games at recess and learning their multiplication tables. Instead, they're living on the streets of a slum and spending most of their time in a delirious buzz."
PJ has been supporting street children for the past 30 years, and his achievement was recognized on Friday at an opening ceremony for a new headquarters, attended by the country's Vice-President. This was due to be followed on Saturday by a football tournament for street boys, opened by rehabilitated glue-sniffers.
It was during this tournament that young Willy was scouted by PJ and recommended to the academy of Fortuna Aeternitas. Unfortunately, Willy came in at the wrong time, as Fortuna manager Merry had just decided to cancel the U17 team.
If he is sent back to Peru, he will almost certainly fall back into his old habits. Can you not spare a quid, put in a bid in the auction and save him from a future of drug abuse and extreme poverty?
It's heart-breaking, I know... I couldn't stuff more clichées in there than I already did, but it's a good read...
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Newgen Distribution and Generation A Bit Unfair?
Seeing as I consider myself a talent spotter and developer, I invested quite a lot of time into developing my scouting skills. These skills increase the amount of players you can bid for in the world by 5% per level.
Without this skill I would not be able to approach some players in order to sign them. Players you don't have the scouting skills to sign aren't visible on the player search panel. You can also click on links posted by someone else, but the approach button will be greyed out. If you hover over this button it will tell you the reason, like you don't have the required skills.
Within the scouting skill-set, there are area specific skills that improve the amount of players you can see by 5% in specific regions. Famous players can be seen by all players regardless of their scouting abilities. This means that the main benefit of scouting is the ability to find regenerated young players who enter into the gameworld as older players retire.
Now allow me to quote a piece of text from the FM Online manual.
But looking back on that decision, I can’t say it has paid off. The main reason for this is an unfair newgen distribution by the game itsself. Both in quantity and quality, the game heavily favours South America and Europe.
I’m not saying there are never any decent African or Australian newgens, but for every African four star newgen, there are six or seven South American and six or seven European newgens, so the quantity is not balanced.
The same can be said for the quality. Almost all of the top youths PA-wise are European and South American, there are barely any four or more star African or Asian youths in the game.
To a certain degree, I agree that is realism, as there aren’t that many Asian and Australian superstars, but surely Africa deserves a more worthy faith? It’s not like they haven’t produced anything decent, some of the worlds best players are African or of African descent.
In total, I feel the newgen distribution and generation isn’t quite balanced and even a bit unfair. Learning the African and Australian regions for scouting takes the same amount of time as the European and South American regions, but the pay-off is considerably less in quantity and quality of players.
The one advantage I have noticed is that the competition for these players is less fierce, because not every player is visible to all managers. Unfortunately, the moment a top African newgen appears, he is visible to everyone with five star scouting, so I would still have to shell out 20k wage offers.
Perhaps this is something that can be looked at by Sports Interactive?
Without this skill I would not be able to approach some players in order to sign them. Players you don't have the scouting skills to sign aren't visible on the player search panel. You can also click on links posted by someone else, but the approach button will be greyed out. If you hover over this button it will tell you the reason, like you don't have the required skills.
Within the scouting skill-set, there are area specific skills that improve the amount of players you can see by 5% in specific regions. Famous players can be seen by all players regardless of their scouting abilities. This means that the main benefit of scouting is the ability to find regenerated young players who enter into the gameworld as older players retire.
Now allow me to quote a piece of text from the FM Online manual.
I followed SI’s advice, as evidenced by one of my previous blog posts.If everybody has a certain skill there is no advantage in having it – think about learning something obscure such as the Oceania region scouting skill, which would give you a unique advantage.
Source: FM Live Manual
I'm changing my strategy to keep my wages low but maintain a certain level of quality. I've noticed that most these high wage players are either European or South American. Most managers have focussed their scouting skills in this region. Admittedly, it's where most talents originate from, so it makes sense too.
It also means that most managers have not bothered scouting in Asia and Africa. Admittedly, there's less talent originating from these regions, but they are there and they're still fairly cheap because they're not spotted by most managers, meaning the competition is less fierce and the wages are fairly normal.Source: my own blog
But looking back on that decision, I can’t say it has paid off. The main reason for this is an unfair newgen distribution by the game itsself. Both in quantity and quality, the game heavily favours South America and Europe.
I’m not saying there are never any decent African or Australian newgens, but for every African four star newgen, there are six or seven South American and six or seven European newgens, so the quantity is not balanced.
The same can be said for the quality. Almost all of the top youths PA-wise are European and South American, there are barely any four or more star African or Asian youths in the game.
To a certain degree, I agree that is realism, as there aren’t that many Asian and Australian superstars, but surely Africa deserves a more worthy faith? It’s not like they haven’t produced anything decent, some of the worlds best players are African or of African descent.
In total, I feel the newgen distribution and generation isn’t quite balanced and even a bit unfair. Learning the African and Australian regions for scouting takes the same amount of time as the European and South American regions, but the pay-off is considerably less in quantity and quality of players.
The one advantage I have noticed is that the competition for these players is less fierce, because not every player is visible to all managers. Unfortunately, the moment a top African newgen appears, he is visible to everyone with five star scouting, so I would still have to shell out 20k wage offers.
Perhaps this is something that can be looked at by Sports Interactive?
Alternative Advertising
I'm actually taking pride in coming up with original ways to to promote certain players I'm trying to off-load. "They" always say that sex and scandals sell. I'm not sure who "they" are, but I'm willing to test this hypothesis in a new advertisement, by including a celebrity scandal.
Here's to hoping this actually pays off...
I'm sure we've all heard of Julio Iglesias. Julio is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million albums in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music he is one of the top 10 best selling music artists ever.
While Iglesias rose to international prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer of romantic ballads and as an iconically suave Spanish gentleman, his success has continued as he entered new musical endeavors. Thus far, he has performed approximately 5,000 concerts.
Not many people know that Julio was actually quite a decent football player. In the early sixties, when he was a law student in Madrid, he briefly was goalkeeper for one of Real Madrid's youth teams; however, a 22 September 1963 car crash truncated his footballer's
career.
According to many people, Julio Iglesias has 8 children with
two different wives. However, much to the dismay of Julio, none of them have inherited his passion and talent for football. The Iglesias talent was deemed lost forever.
But ladies and gentleman, I have unearthed the truth. I have found an unknown Iglesias son, one who has inherited his father's football talent. Born out of an affair with a Brazilian beach soccer beauty was a son who was unknown to the world so far.
I present to you: Germán Iglesias. Every bit the suave gentleman his father is, he will almost certainly pull huge crowds of screaming young girls to the stadium.
Please take a chance on young Germán, who just wants a realistic chance to live his fathers dream of becoming a professional football player. Wouldn't you give the lad a chance? If not for his obvious talent, why not for his smooth looks and his ability to charm the female fans?
Here's to hoping this actually pays off...
Friday, May 22, 2009
Could This Be My Season?!
I have a dream... Well, I have several dreams actually and some don't include beer and naked women... Some include visions of unrivalled success and stacks of silverware... And this might just be the season in which I can make my dream come true...
Let's have a look at why I am so optimistic, which is not a natural state of mind for me... I'm still in the World Youth Cup. I am currently in the quarter finals, but I have beaten every other side still in the tournament. The current draw looks like this. (Note: I added their current position in the youth rankings)
Kampong (6th) vs The Jakswans (36th)
Griffin FC (2nd) vs Never Walk Alone FK (46th)
Fortuna Aeternitas (10th) vs Gimp Athletic (40th)
Manchester Utd (15th) vs The Leeds Knights (22nd)
I stand a very realistic chance of reaching the next round, and after that... Who knows what might happen, it's the knock-out stage of a major tournament... Anything can happen, but I am giving myself a very decent chance.
I'm also still in the U21 Game World Cup. Having beaten the #1 in the youth rankings in the previous round, I hope the team can build on this momentum. I'm currently in the quarter finals and the draw looks like this.
Fortuna Aeternitas (10th) vs Bradford City (56th)
BB City (58th) vs OutKasts (21st)
Club Atletico Boca Juniors (116th) vs Manchester Utd (15th)
Angels Advocate (20th) vs The Leeds Knights (22nd)
Even when the rankings don't mean a thing in a knock-out competition, I am the highest rank left in the tournament. Realistically, I should be able to progress here and cause some damage in the next round as well.
Finally, the Miller Game World Cup. Again, I am in the quarter finals, and this is what the draw looks like in there...
Terrible Towelies (47th) vs Fortuna Aeternitas (31st)
JK Tallinna Piraaja (1st) vs The Reds (6th)
Mumbai Town XI (10th) vs Canisius (42nd)
FC J-Ilves (4th) vs The Leeds Knights (17th)
I'm not a clear favorite in this tournament, but as I stated before, anything can happen in a knock-out...
So with a dose of uncharacteristic optimism, I think I have a pretty decent shot at two UFFA competitions and I'm an outsider for one. Maybe, just maybe, I will get lucky before Murphy's Law kicks in and prepares me for a rude awakening.
Let's have a look at why I am so optimistic, which is not a natural state of mind for me... I'm still in the World Youth Cup. I am currently in the quarter finals, but I have beaten every other side still in the tournament. The current draw looks like this. (Note: I added their current position in the youth rankings)
Kampong (6th) vs The Jakswans (36th)
Griffin FC (2nd) vs Never Walk Alone FK (46th)
Fortuna Aeternitas (10th) vs Gimp Athletic (40th)
Manchester Utd (15th) vs The Leeds Knights (22nd)
I stand a very realistic chance of reaching the next round, and after that... Who knows what might happen, it's the knock-out stage of a major tournament... Anything can happen, but I am giving myself a very decent chance.
I'm also still in the U21 Game World Cup. Having beaten the #1 in the youth rankings in the previous round, I hope the team can build on this momentum. I'm currently in the quarter finals and the draw looks like this.
Fortuna Aeternitas (10th) vs Bradford City (56th)
BB City (58th) vs OutKasts (21st)
Club Atletico Boca Juniors (116th) vs Manchester Utd (15th)
Angels Advocate (20th) vs The Leeds Knights (22nd)
Even when the rankings don't mean a thing in a knock-out competition, I am the highest rank left in the tournament. Realistically, I should be able to progress here and cause some damage in the next round as well.
Finally, the Miller Game World Cup. Again, I am in the quarter finals, and this is what the draw looks like in there...
Terrible Towelies (47th) vs Fortuna Aeternitas (31st)
JK Tallinna Piraaja (1st) vs The Reds (6th)
Mumbai Town XI (10th) vs Canisius (42nd)
FC J-Ilves (4th) vs The Leeds Knights (17th)
I'm not a clear favorite in this tournament, but as I stated before, anything can happen in a knock-out...
So with a dose of uncharacteristic optimism, I think I have a pretty decent shot at two UFFA competitions and I'm an outsider for one. Maybe, just maybe, I will get lucky before Murphy's Law kicks in and prepares me for a rude awakening.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Newgen Renaissance?!
Or not, but the title is certain to draw some attention... As the latest Miller build was installed yesterday morning, I got a pleasant surprise when I did my routine survey of the newgens. For the past week or so, I hadn't noticed anyone remotely decent appearing and all of a sudden, there were like 20 or more five star newgens in the Game World, all 15 or 16 years old and almost without any exception with superb stats.
It seemed like SI were making up for a barren week of barely no decent newgens by showering us with lovely new talents. The abundance of players would ensure that almost every team would be able to sign one or more of these precious young talents.
At that moment, when witnessing the abundance of youthful talent, the mercantile part of my brain kicked into overdrive. I was figuring out how many of these gems I could snap up without facing bankruptcy. In the end, I decided to stay away from anything South American or European, since most people have focussed their scouting there. I opted for two Koreans, a Japanese and two Ivorian newgens, gambling on the fact that most people had not developed their scouting skills sufficient to see these gems.
Sticking 10k bids on the lot of them meant I had not much left, but I really wanted them and I couldn't see how many other users had made bids for them. Sticking a 10k bid on a five star newgen is a calculated gamble in Miller, where some newgens go for much much higher wages, though these guys are mostly European or South American.
I decided to invest my remaining cash into some other guys who I thought would fit my academy teams rather nicely, before logging of to do some work around the house and prepare for the evening quiz in Miller. I was very content with the new situation, even if it did look a bit peculiar that SI pumped so many newgens at once into Miller, instead of gradually releasing them to ensure a more fair distribution.
As I subconsiously feared, this whole situation was too good to be true and during a chat in the lobby, SI's Rob Cooper burst my bubble by stating there was a problem with the newgens that would have to be fixed. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who was a bit disappointed. When the new 2333 build had installed and I logged back in, I found the following message waiting for me...
Deep down, I had expected this. Naturally, that didn't stop the more opportunistic side of me from sobbing and being jealous at the few managers who had managed to snare one of these top players, but that's just human emotions.
As I pondered the situation further, I realised that SI had probably done the right thing. As they said themselves, Miller was designed to be a realistic test environment for the 1.2 build. The realism would be compromised if they had allowed the new situation to run its course.
Alternatively, I could already see the casual weekend managers going into a frenzy when it turned out this was a one-time wonder and they had missed it. The amount of angry mails towards the poor mods (Andrew, Jeremy, Simon, Alec and myself) would have probably swamped us with quite a bit of work, explaining what went down and all.
All in all, the short-lived newgen Renaissance was nice for as long as it lasted, but it was probably unrealistic and would have distorted the balance of Miller. SI took the right actions by fixing the newgen code and removing the bids of the other players.
Looking at the bright side of it all, at least they fixed the code so we have new talents to fight over every day... I wonder if the new code in 1.2 will make the wages drop or go up even higher... I suppose that's something for another day...
It seemed like SI were making up for a barren week of barely no decent newgens by showering us with lovely new talents. The abundance of players would ensure that almost every team would be able to sign one or more of these precious young talents.
At that moment, when witnessing the abundance of youthful talent, the mercantile part of my brain kicked into overdrive. I was figuring out how many of these gems I could snap up without facing bankruptcy. In the end, I decided to stay away from anything South American or European, since most people have focussed their scouting there. I opted for two Koreans, a Japanese and two Ivorian newgens, gambling on the fact that most people had not developed their scouting skills sufficient to see these gems.
Sticking 10k bids on the lot of them meant I had not much left, but I really wanted them and I couldn't see how many other users had made bids for them. Sticking a 10k bid on a five star newgen is a calculated gamble in Miller, where some newgens go for much much higher wages, though these guys are mostly European or South American.
I decided to invest my remaining cash into some other guys who I thought would fit my academy teams rather nicely, before logging of to do some work around the house and prepare for the evening quiz in Miller. I was very content with the new situation, even if it did look a bit peculiar that SI pumped so many newgens at once into Miller, instead of gradually releasing them to ensure a more fair distribution.
As I subconsiously feared, this whole situation was too good to be true and during a chat in the lobby, SI's Rob Cooper burst my bubble by stating there was a problem with the newgens that would have to be fixed. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who was a bit disappointed. When the new 2333 build had installed and I logged back in, I found the following message waiting for me...
Hello folks,
As you may have noticed over the last couple of days some extremely rubbish, and some extremely good youngsters have been generated, with little or no players in between. This is down to a bug in the player regeneration code which has now been fixed. However, in the interests of keeping the game world balanced, and so ensuring that this world is as close to th live worlds as possible (to ensure fair testing) we have rset the player's PAs to where they should have been before.
Those players who were on trial will remain on trial, but all bids on players have been removed. Those players who have been signed on full contracts remain on full contracts because, by a bizarre twist of fate, they are all at least as good now after the fix has gone in, as they were before, so congratulations to you guys who have snagged a bargain!To everyone else, there are now plenty of regens available to buy with reasonable PAs, and plenty more incoming in the coming days, happy shopping!
Cheers,
Rob
Chief player Progression Breaker
Deep down, I had expected this. Naturally, that didn't stop the more opportunistic side of me from sobbing and being jealous at the few managers who had managed to snare one of these top players, but that's just human emotions.
As I pondered the situation further, I realised that SI had probably done the right thing. As they said themselves, Miller was designed to be a realistic test environment for the 1.2 build. The realism would be compromised if they had allowed the new situation to run its course.
Alternatively, I could already see the casual weekend managers going into a frenzy when it turned out this was a one-time wonder and they had missed it. The amount of angry mails towards the poor mods (Andrew, Jeremy, Simon, Alec and myself) would have probably swamped us with quite a bit of work, explaining what went down and all.
All in all, the short-lived newgen Renaissance was nice for as long as it lasted, but it was probably unrealistic and would have distorted the balance of Miller. SI took the right actions by fixing the newgen code and removing the bids of the other players.
Looking at the bright side of it all, at least they fixed the code so we have new talents to fight over every day... I wonder if the new code in 1.2 will make the wages drop or go up even higher... I suppose that's something for another day...
Finally Another Quiz
It has been a while since the last quiz night, but I found some time last night and we had another football quiz in the Lobby of Miller. Seriously, there's nothing like a good football quiz to get the community feeling growing... We even got some of the SI staff to participate, so I call that a successful tool.
Oh, if you do decide to have a quiz, don't invite Nathan Pollard, he's too good for the rest of the mere mortals... Seriously, he knows everything... He really should get out more ;-) Just kidding Nathan, congratulations with winning the quiz... Again... ;-)
The final standings were as follows.
1 - Nathan Pollard 31
2 - Volkan Ozkan 11
3 - Tom Delgado 8
4 - Nick Megarity 5
5 - Ken Bishop 1
. - Mike Fuller 1
. - Graeme Kelly 1
. - Rob Cooper 1
. - Ionite Alex 1
. - Sean O'Connell 1
. - Paul Hills 1
Oh, if you do decide to have a quiz, don't invite Nathan Pollard, he's too good for the rest of the mere mortals... Seriously, he knows everything... He really should get out more ;-) Just kidding Nathan, congratulations with winning the quiz... Again... ;-)
The final standings were as follows.
1 - Nathan Pollard 31
2 - Volkan Ozkan 11
3 - Tom Delgado 8
4 - Nick Megarity 5
5 - Ken Bishop 1
. - Mike Fuller 1
. - Graeme Kelly 1
. - Rob Cooper 1
. - Ionite Alex 1
. - Sean O'Connell 1
. - Paul Hills 1
The New Newgen System
Apparently, the latest 1.2 build has a few nice and pleasant changes in store for us, especially regarding newgens and signing these newly created little wonders. Allow me to talk you through all of the new options.
First of all, when a player is signed on trial, his visibility to other users on the player search page remains subject to their scouting skills. This means that if you are no good at scouting for example South Americans, you won't be able to see South American trialists. A nice move forward from the old situation. Now it actually pays off to trial players to see if they fit your squad, since it doesn't necessarily mean you expose them for the whole GW to bid on.
Secondly, the first bidder in a wage auction is now informed of any second bidder making a bid, which balances out the fact that the second bidder was either notified or can see clearly that at least one bid has been made. This relates to recent changes to hide the number of bidders in a wage auction. Ergo, you can't go trawling through the list to see which player has the most bids on him.
Some managers used this method to find good players, even without the Judging Potential tool. In all fairness, this was a pretty effective tactic, but it was very harsh on the guys who did have Judging Potential and invested time and effort into getting that skill.
In the new situation, you can't see who else made a bid, which also makes it harder to determine the height of the bid. Are you really the only one that bid? Can you afford to go low or should you lock down your money for 24 hours in a high stakes bid for a player that may or may not even be worth the effort. Life's all about decisions and this latest addition has just made everything more interesting.
I also noticed that newgens are released on random times. They're no longer released into the Game World at midnight GMT, they are released in batches, all day long... In my honest opinion, that's more fair towards all the users in the Game World, especially considering the many different time zones people are in.
How this will affect the Game World in the long term is hard to say right now. The new build has only been effective for less than a day. After the first wage auctions end tomorrow, we can see if the wage wars for newgens will intensify or not...
First of all, when a player is signed on trial, his visibility to other users on the player search page remains subject to their scouting skills. This means that if you are no good at scouting for example South Americans, you won't be able to see South American trialists. A nice move forward from the old situation. Now it actually pays off to trial players to see if they fit your squad, since it doesn't necessarily mean you expose them for the whole GW to bid on.
Secondly, the first bidder in a wage auction is now informed of any second bidder making a bid, which balances out the fact that the second bidder was either notified or can see clearly that at least one bid has been made. This relates to recent changes to hide the number of bidders in a wage auction. Ergo, you can't go trawling through the list to see which player has the most bids on him.
Some managers used this method to find good players, even without the Judging Potential tool. In all fairness, this was a pretty effective tactic, but it was very harsh on the guys who did have Judging Potential and invested time and effort into getting that skill.
In the new situation, you can't see who else made a bid, which also makes it harder to determine the height of the bid. Are you really the only one that bid? Can you afford to go low or should you lock down your money for 24 hours in a high stakes bid for a player that may or may not even be worth the effort. Life's all about decisions and this latest addition has just made everything more interesting.
I also noticed that newgens are released on random times. They're no longer released into the Game World at midnight GMT, they are released in batches, all day long... In my honest opinion, that's more fair towards all the users in the Game World, especially considering the many different time zones people are in.
How this will affect the Game World in the long term is hard to say right now. The new build has only been effective for less than a day. After the first wage auctions end tomorrow, we can see if the wage wars for newgens will intensify or not...
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
They Said It Would Never Work...
They were sceptic about my ideas. "You can't be the Diane Fossey of newgens," they said. They may have had a point there, since I am not female, but I meant that in a metaphorical way... Anyway, they also said my new marketing campaign wouldn't work...
Looking back on recent developments, it's GLOATING TIME... Since the FML motto is "play, win, rub it in," I intend to do some rubbing... Allow me to start off with the bit I find the most important bit, the newgens.
Earlier, I promised to get to the bottom of the whole newgen-affair. Over the past week, the number of 16 year old newgens coming into the game world has decreased. The quality of said newgens has also decreased, as I am yet to find a newgen with a PA over 1.5 star. There are a few semi-decent newgens in the age category 17-19, but again no-one with really high PA.
I promissed to harass and annoy if necessary to find out what happened. Apparently, the good people at SI are very customer-friendly and no harassing or annoying was needed. All it took was one forum topic and a wee bit of patience. This was the reply I got by SI's Rob Cooper.
At the moment in Miller only 3.9% or so of players are under 18, whereas ideally the game would like this to be closer to 10%. This means that the game is creating more youth players. However, at the moment it is only creating 50 per day. I hqave recently made a change to this code so it can create more players per day if necessary so you should see a sudden burst of new regens arriving soon! Source: SI Games forum
People said I couldn't pull it off, that I couldn't get to the bottom of this... Well, I could and I did, so teehee, in your face, et cetera. The newgen situation should improve in the near future, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but it will improve. I came, I saw, I nagged, I got what I wanted... Without nagging even...
Now about the second topic of gloating. My new style advertising campaign is currently enjoying a 66.67% success ratio. The current bid on Salvador "Sal" Lahera is 70k, whilst Brazils new Dunga Clodoaldo will probably go for somewhere over 400k. I haven't had any bids on Alain Bell, but he wasn't in auction in the first place.
Either way, that's a pretty decent success ratio, not even counting the countless positive responses of people responding I had written a nice ad or I had made them smile. Goodwill goes a long way in a community like FML, so yeah, it does work, even when you don't sell your players (and I sell my players as well as scoring goodwill...).
So yeah, I feel I have the right to gloat. For now. Just for a short while. Until I have to think back about my beloved Fortuna anyway... But that's the topic for another blog post.
Looking back on recent developments, it's GLOATING TIME... Since the FML motto is "play, win, rub it in," I intend to do some rubbing... Allow me to start off with the bit I find the most important bit, the newgens.
Earlier, I promised to get to the bottom of the whole newgen-affair. Over the past week, the number of 16 year old newgens coming into the game world has decreased. The quality of said newgens has also decreased, as I am yet to find a newgen with a PA over 1.5 star. There are a few semi-decent newgens in the age category 17-19, but again no-one with really high PA.
I promissed to harass and annoy if necessary to find out what happened. Apparently, the good people at SI are very customer-friendly and no harassing or annoying was needed. All it took was one forum topic and a wee bit of patience. This was the reply I got by SI's Rob Cooper.
At the moment in Miller only 3.9% or so of players are under 18, whereas ideally the game would like this to be closer to 10%. This means that the game is creating more youth players. However, at the moment it is only creating 50 per day. I hqave recently made a change to this code so it can create more players per day if necessary so you should see a sudden burst of new regens arriving soon! Source: SI Games forum
People said I couldn't pull it off, that I couldn't get to the bottom of this... Well, I could and I did, so teehee, in your face, et cetera. The newgen situation should improve in the near future, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but it will improve. I came, I saw, I nagged, I got what I wanted... Without nagging even...
Now about the second topic of gloating. My new style advertising campaign is currently enjoying a 66.67% success ratio. The current bid on Salvador "Sal" Lahera is 70k, whilst Brazils new Dunga Clodoaldo will probably go for somewhere over 400k. I haven't had any bids on Alain Bell, but he wasn't in auction in the first place.
Either way, that's a pretty decent success ratio, not even counting the countless positive responses of people responding I had written a nice ad or I had made them smile. Goodwill goes a long way in a community like FML, so yeah, it does work, even when you don't sell your players (and I sell my players as well as scoring goodwill...).
So yeah, I feel I have the right to gloat. For now. Just for a short while. Until I have to think back about my beloved Fortuna anyway... But that's the topic for another blog post.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The Demise Of Fortuna
As you all know, my FML club Fortuna Aeternitas is named after real-life club Fortuna Sittard, which happened/happens to be my favourite side. Shit-kickers for life, we were/are threatened by financial difficulties and a reluctant FA. Yesterday, this message came through.
Football club Fortuna Sittard is losing its professional licence as of 30 June. This effectively bars the Limburg club from playing in competition matches next season. No appeal is possible against the decision by the Royal Dutch Football Association, KNVB, although Fortuna can ask to have the procedure reviewed by a judge.
Fortuna has been in financial difficulties for a long time, which did not improve after a failed merger with regional rivals Roda JC. Attempts to save Fortuna as an independent club all came to nothing.
The club had incurred debts of up to 5.3 million euros. A support foundation called Proud of Fortuna managed to eliminate a large part of that, leaving a debt of 0.7 million. In order to cover that last amount, the club was hoping to play a benefit match against Bayern Munich, on the initiative of former Fortuna player Mark van Bommel. However KNVB appears unwilling to grant Fortuna a reprieve.
I'm gutted. Devastated. When given the chance, I will re-name my club Fortuna Sittard Aeternitas, so the legend of the mighty yellow-greens may live on forever. Expect no FML related post by me today. I'm just not in the mood.
Football club Fortuna Sittard is losing its professional licence as of 30 June. This effectively bars the Limburg club from playing in competition matches next season. No appeal is possible against the decision by the Royal Dutch Football Association, KNVB, although Fortuna can ask to have the procedure reviewed by a judge.
Fortuna has been in financial difficulties for a long time, which did not improve after a failed merger with regional rivals Roda JC. Attempts to save Fortuna as an independent club all came to nothing.
The club had incurred debts of up to 5.3 million euros. A support foundation called Proud of Fortuna managed to eliminate a large part of that, leaving a debt of 0.7 million. In order to cover that last amount, the club was hoping to play a benefit match against Bayern Munich, on the initiative of former Fortuna player Mark van Bommel. However KNVB appears unwilling to grant Fortuna a reprieve.
I'm gutted. Devastated. When given the chance, I will re-name my club Fortuna Sittard Aeternitas, so the legend of the mighty yellow-greens may live on forever. Expect no FML related post by me today. I'm just not in the mood.
The Diane Fossey Of Newgens
For those of you who don't know who Diane Fossey was, watch the movie Gorilla's In The Mist. Gorillas In The Mist is a 1988 film which tells the true-life story of naturalist Dian Fossey and her work in Rwanda with Mountain Gorillas.
Fossey is inspired by an anthropologist to devote her life to the study of primates. Travelling into deepest Africa, Fossey becomes fascinated with the lives and habits of the rare mountain gorillas of the Rwandan jungle. She becomes so preoccupied with her vocation that she loses the opportunity of a romance with National Geographic photographer Bob Campbell.
Appalled by the poaching of the gorillas for their skins, hands, and heads, Fossey complains to the Rwandan government, which dismisses her, claiming that poaching is the only means by which some of the Rwandan natives can themselves survive. She rejects this, and dedicates herself to saving the African Mountain gorilla from illegal poaching and likely extinction. To this end she forms and leads numerous anti-poaching patrols, and even burns down the poachers' villages and stages a mock execution of one of the offenders.
You could say she was a bit obsessed by gorilla's. I'm sort of like that with the newgens in the Miller Beta Game World. You see, quality newgens are becoming sort of an endangered species in Miller. Over the past week or so, the number of 16 year old newgens coming into the game world has decreased. The same goes for 17 and 18 year old newgens.
The quality of said newgens has also decreased, as I am yet to find a newgen with a PA over 1.5 star. There are a few semi-decent newgens in the age category 17-19, but again no-one with really high PA. For over a week now, no 3 star or higher PA newgen has appeared in the Miller World.
I'm not sure why this happened, but I don't like this development. The current batch of U17's I have is pretty much average, and I can't bleed new players into the team when no decent new ones seem to appear.
So therefore I have decided to become the Diane Fossey of the newgens, only without the patrolling, burning down SI staff homes and staging the mock execution of the programmers. I will do my best to get to the bottom of this situation by asking as many people with SI as I can. Expect more updates as this story unfolds. The plot thickens...
Fossey is inspired by an anthropologist to devote her life to the study of primates. Travelling into deepest Africa, Fossey becomes fascinated with the lives and habits of the rare mountain gorillas of the Rwandan jungle. She becomes so preoccupied with her vocation that she loses the opportunity of a romance with National Geographic photographer Bob Campbell.
Appalled by the poaching of the gorillas for their skins, hands, and heads, Fossey complains to the Rwandan government, which dismisses her, claiming that poaching is the only means by which some of the Rwandan natives can themselves survive. She rejects this, and dedicates herself to saving the African Mountain gorilla from illegal poaching and likely extinction. To this end she forms and leads numerous anti-poaching patrols, and even burns down the poachers' villages and stages a mock execution of one of the offenders.
You could say she was a bit obsessed by gorilla's. I'm sort of like that with the newgens in the Miller Beta Game World. You see, quality newgens are becoming sort of an endangered species in Miller. Over the past week or so, the number of 16 year old newgens coming into the game world has decreased. The same goes for 17 and 18 year old newgens.
The quality of said newgens has also decreased, as I am yet to find a newgen with a PA over 1.5 star. There are a few semi-decent newgens in the age category 17-19, but again no-one with really high PA. For over a week now, no 3 star or higher PA newgen has appeared in the Miller World.
I'm not sure why this happened, but I don't like this development. The current batch of U17's I have is pretty much average, and I can't bleed new players into the team when no decent new ones seem to appear.
So therefore I have decided to become the Diane Fossey of the newgens, only without the patrolling, burning down SI staff homes and staging the mock execution of the programmers. I will do my best to get to the bottom of this situation by asking as many people with SI as I can. Expect more updates as this story unfolds. The plot thickens...
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Advertisement Campaign Continues
So far, I've had quite a lot of positive feed-back on my original advertisement campaign. People seem to enjoy reading my little stories. Now all I need is for them to actually start bidding for my players as well... I suppose this will happen eventually. Anyway, today's new advertisement.
This is Alain. Alain is a young Cameroon boy, born in the slums of Yaoundé. Ever since he was a young boy, he has been providing for his family after his father had died in a tragic mining accident.
Considering that he has six younger brothers and three younger sisters, this has been quite the responsibility for young Alain. Eventually, as with many of kids placed in these circumstances, he couldn’t burden the responsibility and expectations and he ran away from home.
In Cameroon’s large cities, many children live on the street. Each day, as they struggle to survive, they are exposed to violence. Young Alain watched two of his best friends die right in front of his eyes, before he was arrested by the police for shoplifting.
During his stay in a juvenile correctional facility, he discovered he was quite a decent football player. His football-skills eventually saved him, as the warden of the facility recognised his talent and helped him find a club.
After a few seasons with a local club, Alain made the big move towards Europe. He has become a more mature and level-headed person and he wants to get back into contact with the family he abandoned back home in Cameroon.
However, to do so he requires money. This money can only be gotten by either a substantial wage rise or the signing-on-fee from a transfer. His current manager is reluctant to give him a wage rise, but he is willing to transfer Alain. Would you help Alain get some money, so he can find his family?
This is Alain. Alain is a young Cameroon boy, born in the slums of Yaoundé. Ever since he was a young boy, he has been providing for his family after his father had died in a tragic mining accident.
Considering that he has six younger brothers and three younger sisters, this has been quite the responsibility for young Alain. Eventually, as with many of kids placed in these circumstances, he couldn’t burden the responsibility and expectations and he ran away from home.
In Cameroon’s large cities, many children live on the street. Each day, as they struggle to survive, they are exposed to violence. Young Alain watched two of his best friends die right in front of his eyes, before he was arrested by the police for shoplifting.
During his stay in a juvenile correctional facility, he discovered he was quite a decent football player. His football-skills eventually saved him, as the warden of the facility recognised his talent and helped him find a club.
After a few seasons with a local club, Alain made the big move towards Europe. He has become a more mature and level-headed person and he wants to get back into contact with the family he abandoned back home in Cameroon.
However, to do so he requires money. This money can only be gotten by either a substantial wage rise or the signing-on-fee from a transfer. His current manager is reluctant to give him a wage rise, but he is willing to transfer Alain. Would you help Alain get some money, so he can find his family?
Attempting Guerilla Marketing In FML
Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing tactics are unexpected and unconventional; consumers are targeted in unexpected places, which can make the idea that's being marketed memorable, generate buzz, and even spread virally.
In FML terms, it means I'm trying to divert from the standard sales pitch, which focusses on a players Market Value, stats, and attributes. Most people have stopped reading these transfer list mailings long a go, simply because they are boring.
I want to be creative and devise my own unconventional methods of promoting my players and/or tournaments. I want people to start talking about my advertisements. Creating a buzz about them will ultimately lead to people bidding on my players or entering my tournaments.
This is a new advertisement I sent out today, to promote the auction of four star Potential Ability defensive midfielder Salvador Lahera.
This is Salvador. Salvador or Sal for his friends, was a simple Spanish boy, a lad from the country-side. Ever since he was a child, he dreamt of a career as a professional football player.
Salvador was quite fanatica about this dream of his. Every waking moment was speant kicking a ball around, often much to the dismay of his parents and their neighbours, who lost many a window to Salvador and his ball.
Persistency pays off in the end though, as Salvador managed to secure a spot in the academy of various decent teams. Unfortunately, his choice in clubs wasn't always the best. Driven by a greedy agent, he chose the wrong club. He opted for a club which switched away from using proper defensive midfielders.
Now Salvadors dream of becoming a proper professional football player is in danger of extinguishing like a candle in a heavy rain-storm. Can you help him rescue his career? Are you willing to keep a young boy's childhood-dream alive?
So far, I've received only a single reply to this, but I've only just started my campaign. I will keep you updated on more results and ideas.
In FML terms, it means I'm trying to divert from the standard sales pitch, which focusses on a players Market Value, stats, and attributes. Most people have stopped reading these transfer list mailings long a go, simply because they are boring.
I want to be creative and devise my own unconventional methods of promoting my players and/or tournaments. I want people to start talking about my advertisements. Creating a buzz about them will ultimately lead to people bidding on my players or entering my tournaments.
This is a new advertisement I sent out today, to promote the auction of four star Potential Ability defensive midfielder Salvador Lahera.
This is Salvador. Salvador or Sal for his friends, was a simple Spanish boy, a lad from the country-side. Ever since he was a child, he dreamt of a career as a professional football player.
Salvador was quite fanatica about this dream of his. Every waking moment was speant kicking a ball around, often much to the dismay of his parents and their neighbours, who lost many a window to Salvador and his ball.
Persistency pays off in the end though, as Salvador managed to secure a spot in the academy of various decent teams. Unfortunately, his choice in clubs wasn't always the best. Driven by a greedy agent, he chose the wrong club. He opted for a club which switched away from using proper defensive midfielders.
Now Salvadors dream of becoming a proper professional football player is in danger of extinguishing like a candle in a heavy rain-storm. Can you help him rescue his career? Are you willing to keep a young boy's childhood-dream alive?
So far, I've received only a single reply to this, but I've only just started my campaign. I will keep you updated on more results and ideas.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Advertising In A New Fashion
I often get bored reading those standard advertisements, so I figured I'd try my luck at writing a proper one myself. Feast your eyes on this...
The new Dunga is for sale. Clodoaldo, an 18 year old defensive midfielder is now available in auction, starting at Market Value.
Like Dunga, Clodoaldo plays the anchor role in midfield extremely effectively. Many players in this position lunge into tackles and put themselves about, but Clodoaldo rarely goes to the ground to make a tackle, instead using his anticipation and timing. His passing ability is also second to none, always starting a fresh attack and rarely wasting it.
Let's just have a look at his History Stats. As you can see, Clodoaldo has had excellent averages in the various XEFA Youth Competitions. His passing percentage has always been over 80%, he barely gets carded and he's capable of scoring goals and providing assists.
You can get this player for a modest fee. The auction starts at Market Value, which means a fee of roughly 65k. For a player with such a history, he's also cheap in the wages. His wages are below 3k, which is a very low fee in today's overinflated economy, where youth players with far worse stats and far worse performances, earn double or more of this fee.
Now that is proper advertising, instead of just summing up a name, price and sometimes senior performance...
The new Dunga is for sale. Clodoaldo, an 18 year old defensive midfielder is now available in auction, starting at Market Value.
Like Dunga, Clodoaldo plays the anchor role in midfield extremely effectively. Many players in this position lunge into tackles and put themselves about, but Clodoaldo rarely goes to the ground to make a tackle, instead using his anticipation and timing. His passing ability is also second to none, always starting a fresh attack and rarely wasting it.
Let's just have a look at his History Stats. As you can see, Clodoaldo has had excellent averages in the various XEFA Youth Competitions. His passing percentage has always been over 80%, he barely gets carded and he's capable of scoring goals and providing assists.
You can get this player for a modest fee. The auction starts at Market Value, which means a fee of roughly 65k. For a player with such a history, he's also cheap in the wages. His wages are below 3k, which is a very low fee in today's overinflated economy, where youth players with far worse stats and far worse performances, earn double or more of this fee.
Now that is proper advertising, instead of just summing up a name, price and sometimes senior performance...
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Player Development; Development Theory
People have been complaining about the progression of the newgens in the Miller Beta GW. These new players are apparently not developing according to expectations. These expectations are probably based on the Potential Ability (PA) of said players.
In a way, they are right. Not all great talents live up to their reputations. Stefano Fiore, Alessandro Bernardini, there are a number of top notch newgens that come to mind when we're talking about top youngsters who are not developing as you may expect.
On the other hand, isn't this realistic? Isn't this exactly like real life? Not everyone who is dubbed a great talent actually becomes a world beating super-star. Allow me to introduce a real-life example... Denílson, full name Denílson de Oliveira Araújo, is a winger, who in 1998 became the most expensive footballer in the world when Real Betis paid São Paolo £21.5m. He was touted as a great, great talent.
Despite his obvious skill and talent, Denílson failed to live up to the high expectations. He never became the world beater everyone predicted he would become. The reason for all of this? Poor mentality... He may have had the skills, but he did nothing with them and didn't develop himself as a player... Is this starting to sound like the FML newgen scenario yet?
I think more noticeable improvements can be seen in the performance of young players if the clubs place greater emphasis on the mental side of the game. This way the players will develop a greater sense of determination, resilience and foresight. One of the reasons for this is that they will learn how to play the game in their head, eventually even compensating for poor(er) physique or technique by being smart(er) and positioning themselves well.
I've done a sweep of the top newgens in the Miller Beta world and one thing struck me. All of them had excellent mental stats, especially in the Work Rate and Determination departments. I then compared their mental stats to those of players that weren't living up to expectations. Most of those had decent mental stats, but they were lacking in the Work Rate and Determination attributes.
The conclusion is fairly easy. Players with decent values for Work Rate and Determination are far more likely to live up to their PA. There's less need of splashing loads of cash on top PA players if there's not a very big chance of them living up to that potential. Looking at these two mental attributes will give you a pretty decent idea if a player will be able to live up to his potential.
In a way, they are right. Not all great talents live up to their reputations. Stefano Fiore, Alessandro Bernardini, there are a number of top notch newgens that come to mind when we're talking about top youngsters who are not developing as you may expect.
On the other hand, isn't this realistic? Isn't this exactly like real life? Not everyone who is dubbed a great talent actually becomes a world beating super-star. Allow me to introduce a real-life example... Denílson, full name Denílson de Oliveira Araújo, is a winger, who in 1998 became the most expensive footballer in the world when Real Betis paid São Paolo £21.5m. He was touted as a great, great talent.
Despite his obvious skill and talent, Denílson failed to live up to the high expectations. He never became the world beater everyone predicted he would become. The reason for all of this? Poor mentality... He may have had the skills, but he did nothing with them and didn't develop himself as a player... Is this starting to sound like the FML newgen scenario yet?
I think more noticeable improvements can be seen in the performance of young players if the clubs place greater emphasis on the mental side of the game. This way the players will develop a greater sense of determination, resilience and foresight. One of the reasons for this is that they will learn how to play the game in their head, eventually even compensating for poor(er) physique or technique by being smart(er) and positioning themselves well.
I've done a sweep of the top newgens in the Miller Beta world and one thing struck me. All of them had excellent mental stats, especially in the Work Rate and Determination departments. I then compared their mental stats to those of players that weren't living up to expectations. Most of those had decent mental stats, but they were lacking in the Work Rate and Determination attributes.
The conclusion is fairly easy. Players with decent values for Work Rate and Determination are far more likely to live up to their PA. There's less need of splashing loads of cash on top PA players if there's not a very big chance of them living up to that potential. Looking at these two mental attributes will give you a pretty decent idea if a player will be able to live up to his potential.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Expectations For The New Season
With my recent transfer from XEFA to EEFA, I'm not quite sure what to expect of the new season. EEFA has some top notch teams in it, like Ste's Mighty Villa and Jogabonito FC. Based on the world ranking, my own team should be able to hold its own and achieve a top position, but as I have learned before, world rankings mean shit all.
I am content with the progress the team has made though. I reinforced the defence considerably. Hell, only one player from last seasons defence is still playing for my team. Only Vitaly Mandzyuk is still a Fortuna squad member. Fernando Amorebieta, Rolando, Javier Flano and Sascha Dum have reinforced our defence, whereas Sandy Paillot, Ricardo Clark and Thiago Carleto have departed, all in profitable deals.
Midfield is still a bit dodgy. I don't have a lot of depth in this line of the team. Serge Wawa is basically my only decent defensive midfielder and he's a natural defender... Paulo Henrique is the only class central midfielder, Issey Nakajima-Farran and Marko Damjanovic are either not natural midfielders or not (yet) good enough. Down the wings, Pat McCourt and Robert Flores are world class, but I have no real replacements in case of a serious injury.
Upfront, I have two able strikers. Dieumerci Mbokani is the undisputed first choice upfront. He keeps banging in the goals at all levels, so I have no need to replace him. He's still fairly young and his wages are quite normal (26k), so he really has been a bit of a bargain. Backup striker Ola Toivonen is more static, but better in the air so ideal when the team needs a targetman upfront. He's on very cheap wages (3k) but he's got an expiring contract so I may swap him for another striker of similar value.
On the youth level, I'm quite content with the progress some players have made. Christian Rapp has been promoted to backup goalie and may see some first team action this season. Marko Damjanovic has been making regular appearances this season, same as his countryman Velibor Jovanovic, who covers for Javier Flano if needed. Upfront, Angelo Antonucci has been loaned to Tom Delgado's Red Devils USA to get first team experience. Not sure if I'm going to regret that, as Tom has the nasty habit to break all his players...
I am content with the progress the team has made though. I reinforced the defence considerably. Hell, only one player from last seasons defence is still playing for my team. Only Vitaly Mandzyuk is still a Fortuna squad member. Fernando Amorebieta, Rolando, Javier Flano and Sascha Dum have reinforced our defence, whereas Sandy Paillot, Ricardo Clark and Thiago Carleto have departed, all in profitable deals.
Midfield is still a bit dodgy. I don't have a lot of depth in this line of the team. Serge Wawa is basically my only decent defensive midfielder and he's a natural defender... Paulo Henrique is the only class central midfielder, Issey Nakajima-Farran and Marko Damjanovic are either not natural midfielders or not (yet) good enough. Down the wings, Pat McCourt and Robert Flores are world class, but I have no real replacements in case of a serious injury.
Upfront, I have two able strikers. Dieumerci Mbokani is the undisputed first choice upfront. He keeps banging in the goals at all levels, so I have no need to replace him. He's still fairly young and his wages are quite normal (26k), so he really has been a bit of a bargain. Backup striker Ola Toivonen is more static, but better in the air so ideal when the team needs a targetman upfront. He's on very cheap wages (3k) but he's got an expiring contract so I may swap him for another striker of similar value.
On the youth level, I'm quite content with the progress some players have made. Christian Rapp has been promoted to backup goalie and may see some first team action this season. Marko Damjanovic has been making regular appearances this season, same as his countryman Velibor Jovanovic, who covers for Javier Flano if needed. Upfront, Angelo Antonucci has been loaned to Tom Delgado's Red Devils USA to get first team experience. Not sure if I'm going to regret that, as Tom has the nasty habit to break all his players...
Reviewing Last Season
Looking back upon the past season, I can safely conclude most of my predictions came true. My league form was decent, but nothing spectacular. We finished in mid-table obscurity, near the tenth spot. The cup was a relative success story, as we reached the quarter finals before crashing out to some AI-ridden team (damn you Agbonlahor, DAMN YOU!!!).
The bright side is that I have found a formation that works really well for the current squad. A 4-3-3 formation works very well for the current squad, as Mbokani is the ideal targetman to head home the crosses by my pacey wingers Robert Flores and Pat McCourt.
Flores is the most valuable player of the past season. He bagged an average of one goal in every three games, which is quite a respectable amount of goals. Couple that with a fair amount of assists and his improved market value to almost 900k, and you have a pretty decent idea as to why Robert Flores is my most valuable player.
I do feel Dieumerci Mbokani deserves a special mention for his impressive goals to games ratio. Including his record in friendly games, he bagged over 300 goals in an equal amount of games, scoring a very respectable average of one goal a game. Unfortunately, his record in official games wasn't that impressive, but he still made his mark on the Game World as a top notch striker.
The bright side is that I have found a formation that works really well for the current squad. A 4-3-3 formation works very well for the current squad, as Mbokani is the ideal targetman to head home the crosses by my pacey wingers Robert Flores and Pat McCourt.
Flores is the most valuable player of the past season. He bagged an average of one goal in every three games, which is quite a respectable amount of goals. Couple that with a fair amount of assists and his improved market value to almost 900k, and you have a pretty decent idea as to why Robert Flores is my most valuable player.
I do feel Dieumerci Mbokani deserves a special mention for his impressive goals to games ratio. Including his record in friendly games, he bagged over 300 goals in an equal amount of games, scoring a very respectable average of one goal a game. Unfortunately, his record in official games wasn't that impressive, but he still made his mark on the Game World as a top notch striker.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Thrill Of Gambling
As the pre-season has ended and another season has gotten underway, I finally found some time to update my blog. Mea Culpa, I should have done this earlier but believe it or not, there are things more important than FM Live.
In this blog-post, I want to address the legalised gambling within FM Live and the fun this brings with it. Although the game of FML can be fun by itself, the excitement is amplified when money or any type of wager is involved. Wage auctions bring exactly this bit of excitement.
The reason for this is quite easy. In a normal transfer auction, you enter a maximum bid and FML looks at the second highest and adds +1 to make your final bid. Wage auctions don't function quite the same way. "What you bid is what you pay," is the credo in a wage auction.
This sometimes creates awkward situations, especially when top stars are involved. Theo Walcott for example, is on a wage of 75k a day because his manager didn't quite understand the general principle of the wage auction. It was an expensive learning process, as it didn't just cost him the 1.5 million acquisition fee and the 750k signing-on-fee, but also a lot of mocking, as the second highest bid was only half that amount. Many laughs were had on his account.
Anyway, the wage auctions provide a nice and legal gambling system. Will I get the player at all? Is my bid high enough to beat the competition? Is it not too high? I don't mind overpaying by a few k, but it's rather harsh when you overpay by a lot...
Legalised gambling and for me a form of great amusement. I like the wage auctions, even when I sometimes do lose in them and even when I do feel they are responsible for crappy players having obscene wages.
In this blog-post, I want to address the legalised gambling within FM Live and the fun this brings with it. Although the game of FML can be fun by itself, the excitement is amplified when money or any type of wager is involved. Wage auctions bring exactly this bit of excitement.
The reason for this is quite easy. In a normal transfer auction, you enter a maximum bid and FML looks at the second highest and adds +1 to make your final bid. Wage auctions don't function quite the same way. "What you bid is what you pay," is the credo in a wage auction.
This sometimes creates awkward situations, especially when top stars are involved. Theo Walcott for example, is on a wage of 75k a day because his manager didn't quite understand the general principle of the wage auction. It was an expensive learning process, as it didn't just cost him the 1.5 million acquisition fee and the 750k signing-on-fee, but also a lot of mocking, as the second highest bid was only half that amount. Many laughs were had on his account.
Anyway, the wage auctions provide a nice and legal gambling system. Will I get the player at all? Is my bid high enough to beat the competition? Is it not too high? I don't mind overpaying by a few k, but it's rather harsh when you overpay by a lot...
Legalised gambling and for me a form of great amusement. I like the wage auctions, even when I sometimes do lose in them and even when I do feel they are responsible for crappy players having obscene wages.
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