I started playing what is now the Football Manager series in the early 1990s when I played Championship Manager on my Amiga. I love the series because it allows me to manage my favourite club, and who doesn’t want to do that?
Back then, you could zip through a season in three or four weekends. That no longer seems to be the case with Football Manager 2023 or Football Manager 2024. It makes me ask if Football Manager has become too complex?
Through it could be that due to the time I spend writing, I don’t have the time to play Football Manager as I once did.
In this blog post, I want to explore whether Football Manager has become too complex and whether that complexity is a bad thing.
What is Football Manager?
Football Manager is a series of games developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The series had previously been published under the name Championship Manager, which was published by Eidos Interactive.
A new version of the game is published around October each year and features some changes and improvements to the underlying game. It also includes an updated database to reflect the current squads for each club.
How has Football Manager become more complex?
Firstly, matches seem to last longer now than they used to. I have the game to set key highlights as I want to have some opportunity to make changes, yet it still lasts longer. Some games last longer than others due to having more highlights. I want to see the highlights so I can react to issues.
Over the years, the game has added new functionality, such as team shouts, which will be removed in Football Manager 2025 as the game undergoes major changes and redesign as it moves to the Unreal engine (link to article).
The squad planner introduced in Football Manager 2023 is the other major change that brought complexity. In my review for Football Manager 2023, I was quite excited about the change as I could see the potential. Two years on, I can safely say that I hardly use it.
The game has added performance analysis to the game as it is becoming more prevalent in real football.
If you regularly play Football Manager, you can probably think of your own examples.
What is the impact of added complexity on Football Manager
Football Manager, like any other simulation game, has to walk the tightrope of being an enjoyable experience for the game player while being as realistic a simulator as possible. After all, those of us who play it are football fans who want to experience managing our team to be as realistic as possible.
You want the gaming world to be as accurate as possible while remaining playable. Keeping the game speed reasonable is one of those playability requirements for me.
Football Manager gets better as time passes. It has started to generate new generations of players, and I haven’t experienced this for a while, and I miss it. I have even written about the experience of saying goodbye to previous saves.
Another drawback of too much complexity is a steep learning curve, but the Football Manager community has plenty of guides on the web and on YouTube. I will link to our own Football Manager content.
Conclusion
As I have written this article, I have realised that it is the complexity that makes Football Manager the game it is, and if I want to experience the later game, then I need to spend enough time playing it to get there.
I want the experience of selecting my team’s formation and playing style, as well as the experience of signing new players and developing new talent, especially the respawns.
The game needs to continue supporting the delegation of jobs to the staff so that you can choose your playing style as you currently can.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how complex you think Football Manager is?
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