Press Interviews: Why Bother?

[phd_angel]

Besides the poll above, would you like to add any insights on your stance towards press interviews? What impact do they have in fostering your club or your own career? Cheers.

[koikingu]

Media interviews are basically cheap boosts to dynamics and/or opportunities to mess with rival team dynamics. For the 10 seconds they take once you know the answers, they're worth doing.

[Platinum]

I think you could change some of the options here. I do them 100% of the time but I don't love doing them. I do them because that's what a manager does and I can help improve players morale/get them motivated for a match, but I don't love it, Im pretty much neutral.

Edited July 13, 2021 by Platinum

[Brother Ben]

For me it's immersion and realism. 

To be honest i'd like to see more of a penalty for not doing them.  I can't think of any managers who have refused to do press conferences every time ever keep their job 

[Grifty]

I do the ones where it's relating to a player I like or can boost morale.

I've only ever done one Champions League preview interview, never done pre-match or tunnel ones and I'm not bothered about the manager of some Swedish 2nd division club who just got sacked who came through my youth system and played 0 games 20 seasons ago.

[Baodan]

It's quite the oversight to assume that peoples interest in the press conference module matches their level of participation. 

[Speedyol]

Very often all the answers are wrong, or I would like to answer something else. That goes for team talks and most interactions too. And its the same questions and answers in fm19 and fm20.  think they should add more options, even if they keep the 5 avaliable answers, they should have 20 answers total and only 5 show up using context to help. And also every journalist has a name and yet they all formulate the questions and sentances identical, they should have a bit of varaity.

Right now I just click the second answer without reading the questions, its always a good answer.

[dolph11]

If they weren't so tedious, repetitive and sometimes nonsensical or contextually insignificant, I'd probably do them. I just think think they need a massive overhaul, along with player interactions, and they could be a fantastic part of the game. 

[WizbaII]

7 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

For me it's immersion and realism. 

To be honest i'd like to see more of a penalty for not doing them.  I can't think of any managers who have refused to do press conferences every time ever keep their job 

What y'all need to understand is that doing a press conference in the FM game is not actually communicating with anyone. It's not a real press conference. If it was a real press conference, I would be resigned to the fact that it's just a boring part of my job as a manager. But I'm not gonna to a press conference so I can talk to imaginary fans. If I attend a FM press conference, the only real fan there is me. Having a fake press conference where I'm talking to computer fans and computer reporters doesn't mean anything to me. If you wanna use FM to fantasize about talking to actual, real, fans, that's fine, as long as you're not trying to force me to play the game the same way as you by suggesting SI should levy penalties for not attending press conferences, and etcetera. I don't tell you how to play the game and it should go both ways.

I don't think it's bad to try to simulate a lively fan atmosphere, to simulate player's feelings and desires, to simulate the dressing room and squad hierarchy,  how players feel about training and such, even simulating fake fan Twitch stuff is okay because it adds a bit of immersion. But forcing me to actually go to a press conference so I can have a "conversation" with a computer is a bit too much for me.

I use FM to fantasize about the game of football, and that's enough for me. The beauty of a video game is you get to simulate the parts that mean something to you, and ignore the rest. I like immersion and realism, too, but only when it comes to the actual game of football. SI clearly understands that, and that's why you can delegate things to your staff. Once reporters start getting on the football pitch during the match, then I will be interested in having them simulated.

 

6 hours ago, Baodan said:

It's quite the oversight to assume that peoples interest in the press conference module matches their level of participation.

I think Baodan said it perfectly, and I'm appalled if so many people fall into such a simple trap that there is only one way to play the game or you're not doing it right.

[Icy]

They are fun the first couple of seasons, after that you have already seen most of the answers and it becomes boring.

[ajsr1982]

Boring and repetitive, just like in real life. I skip them all.

[Brother Ben]

16 hours ago, WizbaII said:

What y'all need to understand is that doing a press conference in the FM game is not actually communicating with anyone. It's not a real press conference. If it was a real press conference, I would be resigned to the fact that it's just a boring part of my job as a manager. But I'm not gonna to a press conference so I can talk to imaginary fans. If I attend a FM press conference, the only real fan there is me. Having a fake press conference where I'm talking to computer fans and computer reporters doesn't mean anything to me. If you wanna use FM to fantasize about talking to actual, real, fans, that's fine, as long as you're not trying to force me to play the game the same way as you by suggesting SI should levy penalties for not attending press conferences, and etcetera. I don't tell you how to play the game and it should go both ways.

I don't think it's bad to try to simulate a lively fan atmosphere, to simulate player's feelings and desires, to simulate the dressing room and squad hierarchy,  how players feel about training and such, even simulating fake fan Twitch stuff is okay because it adds a bit of immersion. But forcing me to actually go to a press conference so I can have a "conversation" with a computer is a bit too much for me.

I use FM to fantasize about the game of football, and that's enough for me. The beauty of a video game is you get to simulate the parts that mean something to you, and ignore the rest. I like immersion and realism, too, but only when it comes to the actual game of football. SI clearly understands that, and that's why you can delegate things to your staff. Once reporters start getting on the football pitch during the match, then I will be interested in having them simulated.

 

I think Baodan said it perfectly, and I'm appalled if so many people fall into such a simple trap that there is only one way to play the game or you're not doing it right.

I take your point and I think you're going to hate my next one but I involve myself in everything, the training, the press conferences, interaction with players etc but someone who does none of this can delegate the lot and still win multiple league titles.  Isn't that what FM Classic/Touch was created for?  

This isn't me telling other people how to play at all but the game must have framework that has to be adhered to or what's the point?

Look, I used to agree with a lot of what you have said but I think i'm just sick of how easy it is to be good at this game whilst making the minimum of effort

Apologies if this "appals" you.  It's all about opinions after all 

[Yuko]

I find the questions repetitive and the answers are often not very relevant. 

 

One of the most annoying features for me, though the idea is good. 

 

I prefer the old CM series media interaction* to the constant press conferences. 3 per game is too much (pre, tunnel, post), especially since tunnel interviews aren't a thing in most of the world. Also, lower league football seems to have too much media coverage in game, making the whole thing too generic. 

 

* We still sort of have this style of media posts after games etc, but media should be more indirect rather than direct. Articles, random rumours etc are all over the place in the football world but managers are only seldomly asked about them.  

[Speedyol]

well related question: Do the team talks you choose affect the players view on the match? or does it only affect their morale?. I understand all green response helps morale.

lets say in a teoretical situation: Both options "I have faiith in you" and "I excpect a win tonight" gives a green response, does it matter witch one you choose? (its only teoretical since you cannot know the effect in advance)

[Heywood JaBlowme]

I hate them. I said this earlier: There should be an FM Touch option for the full version: Only one question per PC. 

[jcp1417]

I would like them better if they were more immersive.  IRL, there are actual relationships between media members and coaches/players.  FM does replicate this a little bit by listing the journalists in attendance with their media outlet, influence, and opinion of you. Once you're in a press conference, all that goes away.  When a journalist asks you a question, their picture should be made large so it's easier to recognize them. There should be some more information shown for them such as personality and relationship. Maybe show a link for past interactions or stories that person wrote.  Currently, press conferences are too repetitive because there's little context or recognition of the people you're interacting with. 

[gunner86]

On 12/07/2021 at 11:36, Platinum said:

I think you could change some of the options here. I do them 100% of the time but I don't love doing them. I do them because that's what a manager does and I can help improve players morale/get them motivated for a match, but I don't love it, Im pretty much neutral.

I’m pretty much here to be honest. Don’t love them, do do them. They are just a tool to me. 
Yes, they’re repetitive, but same is true IRL.

I use them to build morale, build player relationships, unsettle opponents, and dig the team out after a poor performance.

[jeerinho]

I do them 100%, hence my vote as well, but not by any means enjoy it. I just do them to get the media to slowly get behind me. I think there are minor consequences if the media are distant from me.

Like someone already mentioned, I too just spam the second option very rapidly all the time. When asked to choose a player, I would choose "None of the below".

I propose bindable key shortcuts like 0-9 keys for the respective answers. It would save clicking. Users can unbind certain number keys to avoid risk of accidentally hitting the wrong key.

[Haribo1681]

I do them nearly all the time as they're essentially free boosts to morale and/or cohesion.

Personally, I'd like there to be more 'traps' or opportunities to get things wrong - they always feel to me like there's a right answer and multiple wrong ones so it can feel very robotic. I'd like there to be occasions where your answer might be received positively by some players and negatively by others, or even situations where your players are affected negatively by your incessant positivity, for example.

A bit of variety and unpredictability would make them more important and immersive, IMHO.

[Brother Ben]

2 minutes ago, Haribo1681 said:

be received positively by some players and negatively by others

I find this already happens a fair bit if you start with no badges or experience and have some really temperamental players

[swordy9320]

I do them 100% of the time because they take so little time after a few goes and it builds relationships and morale.  They are NOT fun, I don't WANT to do them and often am frustrated by how often they come around.  But the team benefits are too big to not do.

Press conferences are pointless.  You almost always click the second button from the left and everybody is happy.  They desperately need much more variety, much more randomness and MUCH MUCH more diversity in the questioning.  The pool of questions that the game picks from needs to be expanded by about 100 times.

[Heywood JaBlowme]

I like this addition to PCs. If it would pop up after the 1st question, it would be perfect. 

 

[jimbo22]

The idea of it was great before we had it. The implementation of it is poor. The same questions time and time again and many of the answers dont fit the questions correctly. One of many tasks that I give up to my staff. I dont see it changing anytime soon either.

[Daveincid]

vor 6 Minuten schrieb jimbo22:

The same questions time and time again

I'm sure that every professional footballer or coach would say the same

vor 7 Minuten schrieb jimbo22:

many of the answers dont fit the questions correctly

agree with that, at least sometimes it feels odd. Maybe it's because the Q&A does make sense in a specific language but does sound wrong in another one?

[Platinum]

7 hours ago, Daveincid said:

 

agree with that, at least sometimes it feels odd. Maybe it's because the Q&A does make sense in a specific language but does sound wrong in another one?

English is the primary language of the game and the English responses to questions are often odd/too constrained and lack context so it wouldnt be down to translation issues. However I imagine it could be worse in other languages the game supports