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Introduction
FootieManager™ is a football (soccer) manager simulation game where you act as manager
of a football club and compete against other managers from all over the world.
Unlike Fantasy Football type games where you just choose a number of players and get allocated
points based on their real-life performance, FootieManager is a true manager simulation that
allows you to really experience what it might be like to manage a real football team.
You get to make all of the decisions about which players to play in each game and the tactics
to employ. You are also responsible for training existing players and bringing in new,
young talent through your youth development programmes.
As manager you have some influence on the teams finances and you will need to balance
the income from gate receipts and sponsorships against all of the clubs outgoings.
There is an active transfer market where you will be required to use your judgement to
bring in just the right players that will enhance your squad and sell those players that
dont fit in with your long term strategy. Fortunately you have staff members (who you will
need to first recruit) who will be able to give you some advice.
These are just some of the myriad of decisions that you will be required to make through the season.
So How Does It Work?
All you need to play the game is an email address and a web browser. Nothing is installed on your
computer (or phone or whatever you use to browse the web).
First of all you will need to register your details and a password will be sent to your email
address. After that you can log in, choose a team to manage and go from there.
The game has regular matches scheduled (usually twice a week) and your job as manager of your team
is to log in and select your best team for each match. (Note that this does not mean you need to log
in when matches are due to be played, you can select your team days in advance if you wish)
The difference between FootieManager and similar games that you might buy for your PC or games
console is the huge global scope of the game.
Rather than playing against a computer (that is normally tailored to let you win), you are playing
against other people like yourself from all over the world.
For every winner there is a loser (just like real-life).
This is a true challenge playing against other human players.
The other great aspect is that you can play FootieManager from almost anywhere. You can spend just
a little time during your lunch-break at work, from home or even on your mobile phone (if you have
a compatible phone). We hope you won't become too addicted that you have to nip into internet cafes
during your holidays!
There is also a very active message board where players discuss the game, football (of course) and
there is also a section where anything but football is discussed (from music and films to "top ten
bunny rabbit breeds"!)
History
FootieManager was conceived in March 1999 by a PhD Nuclear Physicist who,
after spending many years writing computer programs to model the internal structure of
atoms, wanted to use this knowledge to try to model something more tangible (and some might say
more difficult!). Almost 2 years went into the development before FootieManager was
made available publicly in December 2001.
The simulation started out in the true spirit of the Internet - open to all and completely
free of charge. As word spread and friends recommended friends the number of people flocking
towards FootieManager grew and grew.
FootieManager has continued to add to its complexity over the last 2 years, largely in
part to the requests and suggestions from the football fans and games fanatics who
played it. As a result of this expansion, the team behind the
game has also grown to match the demands of developing and running the game for
an ever expanding audience.
In October 2002 FootieManager Premier was launched to cater for the ever growing demands
of players. The premier version of the game which is subscription based (approx £1.70 per month)
meant that upgrades to the servers and calculation farms could be carried out
and all of the whizzy new features that were previously unavailable due to their drain on
resources could finally be made available to these players.
Traffic to the site grew until capacity was reached (several million hits per week in 2003) and performance
started to suffer. To alleviate this a new, super server was opened for the premier game players
which is available via http://premier.footiemanager.com
As the original and premier versions of the game continued to improve and expand, the complexity of the game also grew.
New players to the game were daunted by the vast array of options available to allow them
to manage their team. In May 2004, FootieManager Lite was create to address address this.
More Info
There are 3 "flavours" of the game:
FootieManager Lite
This is the introductory game aimed at new players who want to find out more about the game. It
introduces new managers gradually into the game, giving help and tutorials as the season progresses.
Features within this game start off fairly basic and are gradually unlocked as the season progresses. At the end
of the season, you are given a roundup of your teams performance after which the game is reset. This
is completely free to join.
FootieManager Standard/FreeThis is a cut-down version of the game with only the most basic features. The game is free to play and
is intended to be a mid way solution for managers who dont have the means to play the Premier game, or
who wish to try out the game before upgrading. There is no automatic reset at the end of every season.
FootieManager Premier
This is the version of the game for managers who really want to experience the true joy of FootieManager!
The premier game has all of the features (in FootieManager Lite) available to managers from the start as
well as a whole host of additional features that really sets this version apart from the rest. Unlike FootieManager Lite,
the seasons do not reset at the end you you have the opportunity to carry on managing your team from season to season, building
up from your previous successes (or recovering from your failures!)
The Premier Game also offers prizes in the form of real trophies so that you can really laud it over your
friends, work colleagues etc should you prove to have what it takes to be a real football manager!
Once you are registered you are free to choose a team in any of these games.
A summary of the differences between these games is listed here: summary
The current prizes can be seen here: prizes
You can view some of the game screens here: screenshots
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