JLlo

Hey,

I've yet to play the new FM2008 been waiting for bugs to be fixed etc. I was just wondering do San Jose Earthquakes appear in the game for the 2008 season? As it has been announced that the MLS will be expanding with the return of the San Jose Earthquakes for the 2008 season. Is this implemented into the game?

Leezoid

As with toronto last season and in FM07 SI have a licence with MLS to represent the league as it is currently, so I doubt it sorry.

JLlo

Shame. Would b good to have the expansion in for 2008 season, would b more realistic.

amplifierworship

They don't, no. I've played in the MLS twice now.

Jonny5446

Does anyone else find that this sort of thing really tempers their enjoyment of playing in the MLS?

Personally I like to play really long career games which will go through to at least 2025 sort of time and that works fine in England or Spain or wherever as you have a semblence of realism in assuming that the league structure and teams involved etc is something like it actually could be in 2025. In MLS however with it changing and expanding every year though even by the time FM comes out each year and is ready to play (ie patched) the season is all but over and in reality a whole load of rule changes and expansion teams etc are alraedy being put in place for the coming season. So in that way you start out playing and everything's already out of sync with reality.

This just gets more and more jarring as you play through into the far future as probable reality and the in game world become further and further apart.. I mean by 2025 in reality the chances are that there'll be at least 18 teams in the MLS and who can even guess at what the attendences/wages/rules etc will look like?! While in game you're still playing with 8/13 making the playoffs every year and the inaugural superliga format that's surely gonna get modified over and over again.

I'm well aware there's nothing SI can actually do to combat these problems, I mean if the MLS administration itself doesn't even know yet how things are going to be next year yet how could SI possibly know? Not to mention the massive complexity issues of trying to program in a league that is constantly changing as you play (can you imagine the bugs THAT would throw up!). I just think it's soemthing that detracts a little bit from how absolutely awesome this league is to play in otherwise. I'm not even sure if this is an appropriate place to write this but would be interested to know if anyone else feels the same way.

Come Clarity

Even though you acknowledge it, I think it's quite unfair to be disappointed with SI with regards to MLS.

The majority of other leagues around the world do not have the complexities the MLS do. While it is 'a change', it's a lot of extra work for just one league that really isn't played that much.

How many other leagues have salary caps, the designated player rule, the grandfather rule, waivers, drafts, on top of players and (future) draft picks being used as the terms when buying and selling players?
Very few, if any.

Albeit the league is young, only some 13 years old, and like it's predecessors in MLB, NFL, NBA rules and structures will likely become more stable as the years tick on. Ultimately however, the completely mind boggling concept of franchises moving from city to city will likely never enter the game.

Jonny5446

Yeah I concede everything you say.. which is why i'm NOT disappointed with SI, I just think it's something that's inherent with MLS due to it being a league in its infancy. It's still a lot of fun to play.. but I just can't help imagining how amazing it'll end up being 5-10 years down the line when the league is all completed and settled. I guess I'll just have to wait until that's the case in real life before I can get the truly awesome MLS managment experience in game

Having said that all the other stuff you mentions is what makes MLS so interesting and really different to play from the rest of the leagues in the game.

Probably best we don't even see franchise movement in game aye? Or your team being shut down due to lack of fan support like with Miami and Tampa Bay that would be REALLy annoying! ... also I do think it's ok to take a few liberties with reality in favour of gameplay, I mean the league would be a lot less fun if you had all external transfers managed centrally like in real life.

...

THE DYNAMO WIN THE PENNANT! THE DYNAMO WIN THE PENNANT! THE DYNAMO WIN THE PENNANT!!

Fire Bracelet

The league being completed is a loooong way down the road, hopefully it will be done in my lifetime.

Jonny5446

I dunno about that, you've got San Jose next year, Seattle after that then Phillie/St Louis the next. I'm actually not sure if the last two could both come in at the same time.. but if they do then that's 17 teams already 3 seasons from now... so unless you're planning on dieing really soon then you'll probably make it

I guess the real question is how many teams the league will ultimately have, FIFA are really keen on 18 teams for top tier leagues, but the MLS is an exception to every other usual rule of football so who's to say they won't go on and on adding Given that there's no promotion and relegation I'd personally love it if they ended up with an Eastern and Western both with 15 teams in, then making the playoffs would really mean something and there'd be plenty of variety

DS

The reason that SI cant put rule changes and expansions is because the league is licensed and so they aren't allowed to. Like in Australia, the A-League is kind of similar to the MLS in some aspects. For FM07 they had already programmed it for expansion and new teams getting added but then SI got the league licensed and so they weren't allowed to have that. Only thing they did have was salary cap increases and maximum squad size increases.