Just in case this is all new to you, I have listed the key concepts and terms I use in my game blogs. There are lots of other great sources of knowledge out there, this is far from a comprehensive list but it should be enough to understand my game.
Football Manager:
Wikipedia probably summarises the game best:
Football Manager, also known as Worldwide Soccer Manager in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager. However, following the break-up of their partnership with original publishers Eidos Interactive, Sports Interactive lost the naming rights and re-branded the game Football Manager with their new publisher Sega. The latest version of Football Manager, titled Football Manager 2020 was released on 31 October 2019 (Early Access Beta).
Google Stadia:
Again, leaning on wikipedia:
Stadia is a cloud gaming service operated by Google. It is advertised to be capable of streaming video games up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with support for high-dynamic-range, to players via the company’s numerous data centers across the globe, provided they are using a sufficiently high-speed Internet connection. It is accessible through the Google Chrome web browser on desktop computers, Pixel smartphones, supported smartphones from Samsung, Razer and Asus, as well as Chrome OS tablets and Chromecast.
Therefore, for the purposes of this game I will be utilising Google servers and essentially streaming the game to my own laptop.
Loaded Leagues:
Once you decide to begin a game on football manager, you have a selection of 53 countries across 5 continents to select from. Before Google Stadia, a reasonable specification laptop could handle between 8 and 15 playable countries. This definitely limited the possibilities within the game, but was the way it had always been and so it was accepted by players. With Google Stadia, it is now possible to load all countries and leagues as playable, ensuring a much more immersive experience.
“Journeyman” game:
There are many different ways to approach playing Football Manager. These range from simply taking over Real Madrid, Barcelona or Brazil, all the way down to a newly promoted Conference North/South team in England and everything in between. The concept behind the “journeyman” game, is to start with a minimal reputation of manager, be unemployed at the start of the game and thus, earn every job and opportunity you gain within the game with the ultimate aim of making it to the very top of world football in some way.
Coaching Licenses:
The in game levels matchup to the levels available in each country. Within football manager there are Continental A, B and C licences which relate to UEFA licences in Europe. The UEFA Pro Licence is mapped to the Continental A licence and obviously each continent’s equivalent. There are also National A, B and C licences which relate to the FA coaching licences in England. The FA Level 1 coaching licence is mapped to the National C licence and again, each country has an equivalent. The more generic names mean that it is easier to compare amongst staff around the world in game.
Reputation of Manager:
Within Football Manager, each manager whether a human user or the real life managers who have digital versions, all have a reputation out of 5*. There are 10 levels of manager reputation on the star scale and this is dynamic and affected by performance in the game. The star rating system is a graphical representation of a reputation out of 200 in the backend but this is not visible in the game. This allows for variation beyond what is graphically represented in the game and influences which teams are interested in hiring the manager. Reputation is also regionalised at the lower levels, this means that if a manager does well for a lower league team based in London, then the bigger teams in London are more likely to hire him than, say, an Italian team.
Reputation of Clubs:
Much like managers, clubs are ranked in game via the same 5* rating system as managers, with 10 levels within that. Also, this is reflected by a figure out of 200 in the backend to allow for more granularity. The reputation of the club is also dynamic and changes due to performance. This affects which players and staff are willing to sign for a club and reflects the clubs position within the game world.
Kick it in the Goal 