Is football manager a realistic representation of real life ?
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Is Football Manager 2008 a realistic representation of real life football? The answer is yes and no. The game possesses both realistic and unrealistic elements. It would be impossible to achieve the much desired 100% realism of real life football, for a number of reasons. But what are the realistic and unrealistic elements of this much loved game which boasts its status as the most realistic football simulation management game to date.
It’s accepted that the transfer aspect of the game could indeed become extremely life-like. We’re all too familiar with stories of players going for ridiculous amounts of money. Unrealistic, huh? Well is it really? Football in real life is growing in regards to money and profit. Manchester United was reported to receive a total of $95 million pounds for winning the Premiership and the Champions league. This shows the extent of money that is given to football clubs. Football is increasingly becoming a business. So in real life, we’re to expect some seemingly unrealistic transfer prices, just as we do in Football Manager. I believe that Sports Interactive know about some of the seemingly unrealistic transfers, but aren’t doing much about it because we constantly see players selling for much more than most will value them in real life. For example, Michael Carrick was sold to Manchester United for 18 million pounds and many criticised United by saying he was vastly overpriced.
The game play of Football Manager 2008 is as controversial one. In this year’s addition, extra time was a big issue and for some it still is. People often complained of the overtime given in extra time. What I mean by that is, extra time is 5 minutes but will go for 8 or 9 minutes. This is a problem that can be easily addressed however. The AI may seem unrealistic and extremely annoying, but it is realistic. The AI shows elements of luck. There’s a lot of luck whether it goes our way or not. This is just like in real life football.
The general management of the game has also been criticised with some features regarded as pointless, such as manager wage. The reason people criticise managers wages is because “we can’t do anything with it”. Well, of course not. But neither can the players, it’s there to make the game more realistic as it all affects the financial aspect of the game. Injuries has also been criticised with some claiming there are too many injuries. This may be the case, but it is not un-representative of real life football.
Players’ stats are often criticised and appear to be extremely unrealistic. Unfortunately this is often the case. But it’s extremely hard to judge a players ability and put it into statistic form, because a footballers talent is a hypothetical construct, meaning it can’t be measured directly. So this is up for interpretation and SI can get it wrong. SI also isn’t able to scout every footballer in the world so presumably make educated guesses.
In essence, Football Manager is not 100% realistic because it can’t be. It’s not as realistic as the game can achieve in realism, either, but it’s a progression. Overall I find Football Manager 2008 to be a relatively realistic representation of real life football. It does have its flaws and things can be tweaked to improve the general game play and the realism. Hopefully Football Manager 2009 will be a step further to achieve the maximum amount of realism a game simulation can achieve.
Helium Apocalypse on 18:28; 8 September 2008 
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