retired_dancinchick07

From my position I think SI have rather let themselves down with regards to FM08. The game is (potentially) a step forward from FM07, but in all honesty having played the game I’m rather bemused at how they have managed to cream themselves over a release which adds very little over FM07, and many of the features it does add weren’t working as intended.

Let’s consider one of the new additions – the in-depth confidence. A big enough addition to justify a whole blog to itself and sold as one of the big leaps forward.

Trouble is – it didn’t work on release. At all. The board couldn’t cope if you were overachieving, couldn’t cope if you drew a big team early on in the cup and would place unrealistic expectations on you. Fans meanwhile would fail to understand the notion of a backup player, and will lambaste a new signing sometimes irrespective of his actual form on the pitch.

The net result? An ‘improvement’ to the game that in reality only served to ruin the sense of involvement we had with our board and supporters in previous games. Previously I only needed to know generally how the board and fans felt, and this was fine – the occasional message of pleasure or disappointment from the chairman was good enough, nowadays I am haunted by the vitriolic hatred of my supporters for a loan signing who is playing perfectly well, or reminded of the terrible shame the board had with losing in the Charity Shield.

This annoys me for three main reasons. The first is that in its released state it simply made the game worse, not better. The second is that its inclusion hasn’t actually improved the game. The third is that SI chose to make a big song and dance about this feature for FM08, that would serve in all reality to be both broken and pointless.

The result for me? A large dose of scepticism towards SI, which currently looks set to make me pause for thought when FM09 is released.

Cheers
Andy

retired_amy1987tuma

Spot on, I will definitely think twice before buying FM09.

I agree it is impossible to find all the bugs. I have no problems with that.
But some of the bugs in the release version is very obvious.

How can the testing team missed the fact closing down wasn't working? How can they miss the number of disallowed goals? How can they miss the crazy transfer fees?

These are the game breakers and really, these issues popped up on the forum not long after the release. That indicate it is not some well hidden bug that requires exhaustive testing to uncover. I am somewhat skeptical that SI didn't know about these issues prior to releasing the game but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

angelina16

Having played a few versions of the game now I seem to understand how new features work.
Basically the new features will undoubtedly have their faults as they are well, NEW features and not enough data is gathered about them and so are really unpolished. So features like the new board confidence will get better in fm09 and even better in fm10 unless of course they decide to scrap it.
Basically FM is all a work in progress so that's how it works. Patches are released to fix those bugs that are too frequent or annoying and that's the kind of bugs they will always try to fix.

What I dont understand is how some things that hav been problematic before like the board selling good players for too little money when they are already filthy rich "saying the offer was too good to refuse"
So SI tweeks it with a patch and its fixed but then a new game comes out and then its the same problem allover again.

retired_dancinchick07

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Humber:
Having played a few versions of the game now I seem to understand how new features work.
Basically the new features will undoubtedly have their faults as they are well, NEW features and not enough data is gathered about them and so are really unpolished. So features like the new board confidence will get better in fm09 and even better in fm10 unless of course they decide to scrap it.
Basically FM is all a work in progress so that's how it works. Patches are released to fix those bugs that are too frequent or annoying and that's the kind of bugs they will always try to fix.
QUOTE]

I'm afraid I don't see the improvement curve in recent releases. Take the media interaction or team talks. Despite now being in their third iteration they still fall far short of expectation, and are so unpredictable that many people just ignore them entirely. Rather than allowing managers to roleplay a different type of manager (Martin O'Neil or Neil Warnock) the game forces you to never comment to the media or to play it safe during team talks (where nobody seems to really be listening anyway). Failure to do so leads to almost arbitrary punishment.

The major difference with board confidence being broken, however, is that it is a vital part of you actually being a manager. Without board confidence you'll get sacked, with broken board confidence you'll get sacked even if you're doing ok. So unlike previous 'new' features that have been unpolished (and in cases remain so) on release but can be ignored, the very crucial part that confidence plays in the game cannot be.

Personally though, I more feel let down on this issue by the fanfare that SI gave to this improvement because you would have thought that someone would have noticed that it was detracting, rather than adding to the quality of the game. So for me I feel to make a song and a dance about a broken feature is really rather poor form on SI's PR department. Still, I guess terribly over-hyped features of any product (game, car, shampoo) are a part of life.

Cheers
Andy

retired_atticus_mathers

FM2008 was just a side-project to make some quick cash. FM Live was the main project and that's where all the development time was put into. This is why FM2008 is essentially a FM2007 7.0.3, a FM2007 with minimal improvements and very few (badly implemented) new features.

So, the FM2008 debacle will not have an impact on FM2009, but if FM Live does well, you can kiss a proper FM2009 goodbye. SI will have to wait out a possible prolonged success of FM Live before making the decision to support both game branches properly. Until then we're going to be stuck with half-efforts on both fronts. I expect FM2009 to be worse than FM2008 and don't expect any improvement until FM2010.

retired_pamjoseph

fm2008 is a new game. If you want more things to be improved, just write in the right thread, surely they would implement the best ideas

arman920

There are 5 devs working on FML, the only one of them who ever worked on FM is Ov Collyer who left the FM team several years ago.

You're talking throught your rectum.

retired_dchago

As it's been stated many times, different development teams worked on FM08 and FML, so the production of FML has had no effect on FM08. And I'd be happy to guess that regular FM will sell better then FM, I can't see that having an effect FM09, or any future versions either.

In response to the opening post, for how the FM08 "debacle" will effect FM09, well TBH, I don't think it will, certainly not very much. I'm sure most people on these forums have only noticed the majority of these problems because they are a members of these forums and hear about them. I know a couple of people who are playing FM08 and thoroughly enjoying it and haven't noticed any problems. They never visit these forums and are perfectly happy with the game. And it was the same with me for CM4. I never visited these forums when that was out, and whilst I could tell some things seemed a bit strange, I still enjoyed the game and didn't think it was bad at all, and that was with it unpatched. It wasn't until I joined these forums that I realised just what a bad state it was in. As I would guess that the vast majority of people playing the game will never visit these forums, then I would guess thatmany, if not most of these will never really notice the bugs, or not think much of them, so I highly dount that sales of FM09 will be effected much at all.

retired_onlinetrainer

good response. SI has monopolised the market to the point where there is no other choice of any value to consider. </BLOCKQUOTE>

The reason they have "monopolised" the market as you put it, is that they are the best! Unless SI were the best they wouldn't have been able to monopolise it! Also interesting to hear Fifa mentioned. How many patches do EA release to their games? One? Maybe two if lucky? The last Fifa I bought had more bugs than the I'm A Celebrity jungle. No patches were released except one on the day of release. The patch will come out when SI are happy with it.
I do wish you people would realise a good thing when you see it! Here we have a company who are willing to work on patches for their games, who actually listen to what we are saying (just because they may not be posting on here at the moment doesn't mean they aren't reading the forum!)
Stop wingeing for gods sake. </BLOCKQUOTE>

christ...get over it. of course that is how their monopolised the market, by being good. how else can you do it in the gaming industry??? think before you speak and get off the 'fanboy' soap box </BLOCKQUOTE>

the only thing wrong with monopolies is when someone gets big enough to buy the best programmers, equipment and basically strong arm the competition into submission.... this is clearly not the case with fm, and therefore not a genuine monopoly.... others are free to try and have tried to beat si.... with no joy...

im tired of people getting ****ed with si for realising 'buggy' games... when clearly a game so vast and full of code is bound to have bugs... I for one am grateful that SI trust its fanbase enough to let us help with the de-bugging.. and that they put so much effort with their patches and take our ideas on board.... not many other companies bother with feedback or support... be thanful and stop moaning

CorradoKid

fm08 isnt a side project, the series has been the bread and butter for years, without it they would be nothing. you dont just introduce a new product alongside it and decide to concentrate fully on that instead when you really don't know whether it will be in the least bit successful. their success has been around the main game and until that changes the emphasis will always be on it.

if anything, fmlive is the quick cash steady earning side project that will hopefully provide them with more resources for the normal fm if all goes well.

also, if anyones trying to monopolise sports games then you just have look at the double vowel company that buys up most of the licences every year, the quality of their games means they never will though. besides, can you name any game company that actually has a monopoly today? maybe you should look up what it actually means to have a monopoly on something. how can you suggest that SI have a monopoly over the football management genre when theres at least 2 other competitors hot on its heels...