The TRUTH About FM23 W/ Benjy, Zealand, WTS and Lollujo

Football Manager 2023 is now out, but is it worth it? DoctorBenjy, Zealand, WorkTheSpace and Lollujo join together to discuss the situation the game currently finds itself in, the frustrations to do with the new game and what the future holds for Football Manager

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#FootballManager2023 #FM23 #doctorbenjy

[baitkin]

This is a GREAT video.
I love hearing honest opinions from people who ACTUALLY know what they are talking about, and Jack of course is also there.

[JamesLawrenceAllcott]

Great chat. Honest, fair, transparent. You should be very proud. I am

[freddie_mvp]

For me, the worst part isn't how little the game has improved over the last few years. The worst part is that things that were broken already 3-4 years ago are still not fixed. The transfer system, scouting, AI squad building, set pieces, international management and the mismatch between QME and FME results are fundamental things that should have been fixed years ago. Same as nerfing the effectiveness of gegenpress tactics or its lack of impact on stamina of the players. Interactions have been pointless and the same for ages as well now - there are no tangible consequences or gains involved with them. Finally, the game isn't decent until version 1.4 every single year - 4 months after its released! I mean, come on! They should stop developing new features and focus on fixing what they have for next year's edition.

[davidmackeown]

I'm 45 next year and have played fm for about 20 years. To see 4 content creators having a discussion about fm was brilliant. Hopefully there is more like this in the near future.

[aethelstan]

I think it's also important to highlight a growing trend of "limited features". In FM22 Deadline Day was a headline feature but limited to certain leagues. in FM23 the licenses are a headline feature but they only matter if you manage in Europe. It's not a great direction.

[OmegaLukeGaming]

Some great talking points. I feel like this is the year where creators and audiences are going to stand up and be louder about concerns on the game & I genuinely think it will be very advantageous to FM.

Think they were rather complacent this year with features. Whether they tried to do set pieces this year and couldn’t get it to work properly in time? Because it feels like one big feature was missing from this year.

Interesting what Kev said about the naming of the game. I definitely think it’s because of a business decision but he’s right completely. Doesn’t feel like a big update

[alphaguru]

We need more of these. I know it'd be difficult to get all four of you together at once so maybe monthly? I just love hearing all of your views on the state of the game

[kieranregan]

Great video. Ben, you were excellent in driving the discussion and keeping all viewpoints balanced

[alexrowe]

My opinion is since the late 2010’s I would say SI have realised 2 things (similar to EA) that:

1. They don’t have a competitor within their niche, Fifa doesn’t focus on career mode now and there’s really no other manager simulation game that competes (unless you want a basic game on a mobile etc).

2. Partly because of the first point, they have a huge cash cow and unfortunately, money talks. If they go to a game every 2 years or spend more on R&D they make less profit.

[dantaylor]

Kev- "I've played football manager for 25 years, I played it for 10% of my life"
I know Ben jokes about his age but did Kev just confirm he is infact 250 years old!? 😳

[steve]

Jack mentioning the way the stadiums look is music to my ears.
Burger vans, patio furniture and brick walls with a building on stilts for the last 5 years has been a huge bug bear for me.

He is right about the change to the stadiums about 5 years, that change weirdly took them back, I looked at 2011 graphics and they look better, , the textures seem worse in 2022.

Love their points about the gfx and catering for 10 year old pcs.

I didnt used to play the game for the gfx, 25 years and I'm more happy with text commentary, but now I expect better since 3D was forced on me, and I'm sick of seeing the same rubbish in stadiums and textures.

[smissendan]

The best thing about this years game is that it’s caused this video

[shawngillogly]

Thank you for saying this. I've been saying for 2 years that I have no problem with women's football coming to FM. But it can't be done the way the game has been done for the past few years. With minor, iterative changes that don't affect how most people see the game.

The total refusal to update International Football in a game that drops immediately prior to a World Cup was mind-blowing arrogance to me. It didn't have to be a revamp. All it had to do was include features the club game has. The ability to pick your training camps. The ability to actually scout and train your pool. Those aren't "new" features. They already exist. But they'd be something you could that would let you market, immediately before a World Cup, new, improved system of international management. "People don't play it, "

Well people don't play it for the same reason they don't play FM for the graphics: You can't. It's so bad it should be ripped from the game rather than be included as is. And you're right, when women's football gets added, that is *all* about the international game. The Olympics actually matters as a tournament in the women's game. The Cup competitions (like the Algarve) are major markers of their calendar. Much more so than any club tournament or league. There is no way international football can still be trash and women's football not be the same.

[sharpie]

The biggest thing for me is that SI keep going down the road of social media features in the game and away from managerial aspects and they need to get back to what managers actually do.

[hozonov]

For me, yearly releases are so bad that they make the Paradox DLCs model look good. SI just plays off the fear of missing out on very small changes and hope you end up buying it. But it's obviously been working until now, so yeah, I don't think it will change.

Great video btw. I'd love more conversations like this.

[treasuren]

SI have essentially taken notes from the Apple business model in that they've captured a massive user base, who are mostly satisfied, and each new iteration of their product favours minor changes to keep the large user base happy as opposed to adding too many things too quickly and risk upsetting a chunk of that user base.

[thisguyisonline]

This is how you do a 42+ minute video talking about FM. If you made a podcast like this weekly talking about how your saves were going, interesting features and so on I would listen to every episode the second it drops. Absolute screamer of a video.

[jamesmccann]

The context of Zealand having to show the game to other gaming creators is something I had not heard, nor had I thought about, but is genuinely one of the better arguments for why FM should absolutely be looking to improve the graphics ASAP. It's not an embarrassment thing, but it is a barrier to entry for a lot of people. I started playing in FM20, and I think I forgot that it was something that bothered me a bit when I initially picked up the game, but then I heard that it used to be 2D and it's come a long way, and I got over it pretty quickly and never thought about it again. But yes, include graphics sliders for accessibility. Keep the 2D in for people who don't care. But it has to improve.

[hanskraaiiikrai]

Good to see this discussion. It's obvious SI does only the bare minimimum ammount of changes to justify buying a new game, so they have a longer 'lifespan' before reaching the ''perfect' football manager game and by then changes with each installment will be small by default. FIFA does the same thing.

[DonSalvatore]

Those of us old enough to have played Championship Manager know that the game never recovered from that split. SI have been selling us the same game for over 10 years and this discussion while welcome is a decade late.