14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to narratives that fans can talk about around the water cooler, my go-to experiences tended to be role-playing games, especially those created by BioWare, and I can still remember spending entire evenings simply talking about Baldur’s Gate II and about character development.
Now, while I still play the new Dragon Age: Inquisition from time to time, most of my stories about video games are linked to Football Manager 2015 and I get so involved and emotional that some friends entirely misunderstand the nature of the experience.
I have shown them the actual game that generates the narratives and they questioned how a title that seems so dry can create so much passion and so many surprising twists.
I found myself struggling to explain them that Football Manager as a series was no longer only about numbers and clever tactical placement, but has become an almost role-playing experience with a lot of character and depth.
The best part is that all of them are emergent and that almost none will reappear if the gamer chooses another team or another management style or makes a few different initial choices.
A sample of moments from Football Manager 2015
There was the time when both main Liverpool strikers limped off injured in the long term in one match and Samed Yesil stepped in to become my main attacking threat, attracting offers from Bayern and Barcelona in three years.
Then, there was the time when Coutinho asked for the transfer, I accepted an offer from Southampton and I was then terrorized by the player each time we met in a match, creating chances for his new team at a rate he never delivered under my management.
My long-term rivalry with Jose Mourinho, which brings out the worst from my manager character, has been one of the defining elements of the championship for the past three years.
My brother chose to bring Fulham back to the Premier League and has since managed to qualify for the Champions League on a fraction of the budget I enjoy.
Football Manager 2015 does not transform the way the series behaves, but it subtly shifts the emphasis once more from tactics to interactions and I love the results that can be created, which might explain why I have already logged more than 50 hours with the title and do not plan to abandon it anytime soon.
