The realism factor.

[endlessxcircle]

With FM having turned into this constant pursuit of realism, especially in more recent years, its come at the detriment of creating a game that both encourages new people to pick it up, but to also hold onto long time players that cut their teeth during the more simplistic CM or early FM days. There's no longer anything casual about the franchise, it literally has crossed over into becoming a fully fledged job in its own right if you're wanting to get maximum from it.

As someone that's dropped the game many years ago, although have tried on several occasions to get back into it, I recently went back to playing CM 01/02 (and a little CM 03/04 in fairness) again and it kinda struck me just how much more immersive the older games were. Sure, they didn't have the fancy 3D matches (personally prefer 2D anyway), the overload of stats, the player and media interaction, or just the whole detail of the present day versions, but that was kinda the beauty of it - It allowed the player to be imaginative. That's now entirely lost. The game was also far more user friendly, not only in its ability to pickup-and-play but also with the UI navigation. This allowed new users, or those who could only play here and there whenever they had a spare moment, the possibility of still being able to indulge in a meaningful career and save.

I downloaded the FM24 demo to check it out yesterday, after the monotonous task of creating my manager, delegating virtually everything humanly possible outside of first team dealings and transfers, and getting through two pre-season games, I shut it down. I felt like I was doing admin at an office job with the sheer amount of inbox material you have to sieve through constantly, not to mention people interaction you still have to engage in despite delegation. The game ironically, despite its increased detail, feels less about managing than ever before. And that's with looking beyond long term niggling issues a user still has control over despite it falling well outside of the scope of a manager. 

Sure, the older titles don't have all the bells and whistles but what they did have was the core of what the game was always meant to be at heart, while retaining a more user-friendly experience in the process. Maybe this is a pointless ramble, but I hope that SI take a little note with FM25 and the new engine that's forthcoming and use the opportunity to seriously consider that they don't need to jam every possible detail they can into the game. Believe it or not, sometimes less is actually more - even in a game that looks to simulate football management. You might find those, such as myself, who feel pushed away from the modern releases, along with newcomers, may feel more encouraged to get back into, or pick up, the game again. 

 

[Dagenham_Dave]

And yet, there's thousands more people playing this year's game than ever played the old Champ Mans. It's more popular than ever. Go figure. 

But extra detail and extra realism isn't for everyone which is one of the many reasons it was such a poor decision to get rid of the FM Classic mode that was first introduced in FM13, which basically gave the casual player that more old school experience while still keeping things up to date. For those few years where FM had both the main game and Classic mode as part of the one package, it catered for everyone. I'm still bitter they made such a poor decision to, first of all, rebrand it 'Touch' and secondly, to separate it from the main game as a standalone. It was always doomed from that point on. Yes, you can still access it other ways now on other devices, but it's not the same. 

 

[Brother Ben]

25 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

And yet, there's thousands more people playing this year's game than ever played the old Champ Mans. It's more popular than ever. Go figure. 

But extra detail and extra realism isn't for everyone which is one of the many reasons it was such a poor decision to get rid of the FM Classic mode that was first introduced in FM13, which basically gave the casual player that more old school experience while still keeping things up to date. For those few years where FM had both the main game and Classic mode as part of the one package, it catered for everyone. I'm still bitter they made such a poor decision to, first of all, rebrand it 'Touch' and secondly, to separate it from the main game as a standalone. It was always doomed from that point on. Yes, you can still access it other ways now on other devices, but it's not the same. 

 

I miss classic/touch on the PC too.  Not so much for single player but for online multiplayer I found it perfect

[endlessxcircle]

3 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

And yet, there's thousands more people playing this year's game than ever played the old Champ Mans. It's more popular than ever. Go figure. 

But extra detail and extra realism isn't for everyone which is one of the many reasons it was such a poor decision to get rid of the FM Classic mode that was first introduced in FM13, which basically gave the casual player that more old school experience while still keeping things up to date. For those few years where FM had both the main game and Classic mode as part of the one package, it catered for everyone. I'm still bitter they made such a poor decision to, first of all, rebrand it 'Touch' and secondly, to separate it from the main game as a standalone. It was always doomed from that point on. Yes, you can still access it other ways now on other devices, but it's not the same. 

Well yeah, that's not particularly surprising given the game was far less accessible and promoted back then when compared to now. There's probably also more players these days that abandon the game after a month or two, or struggle to invest the hours necessary to get real value out of the modern versions. The fact CM 01/02 for example still has an active and avid community speaks volumes for a game that's now 20+ years old.

Extra detail and realism wouldn't be as big of an issue if it was implemented better for one, instead it's come at the expense of several factors that make for an smooth, immersive and truly enjoyable experience. While SI's decision to bin off Classic Mode was terrible, and an even worse one as you said was to rebrand it to Touch and seperate it altogether, it still didn't quite hit the sweet spot IMO. I'd like to think they'll do more moving forward to include the more casual player, or those who just want to have that more classic experience within a modern day setup. 

[BnadnerB]

Agree with everything said above.

I think its a general thing that people have less time than ever (unless you’re at Uni or retired etc), hence why so many people are into Switch games rather than PS5/Xbox.

Touch 24 on the iPad is enough for me currently, kinda tempted to get it on a laptop so I can customise the game but the idea of the full game is bleurgh