''Football Manager Live'' was a
massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, alt ...
(MMO) developed by
Sports Interactive released in November 2008 for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
.
[Football Manager Live – The Official Website](_blank)
Whilst the game was subscription based, both major and minor updates were provided within the subscription paid by users. Subscriptions could be purchased online using debit/credit cards, or PayPal to play on a regular basis,
or through boxed copies, which were released in the United Kingdom on 23 January 2009. The servers for the game shut down in May 2011.
Gameplay
''Football Manager Live'' differed significantly from previous ''
Football Manager
''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 British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...
'' titles, whilst keeping the same match engine and many of their fundamental concepts.
Users were assigned to a "Game World" of up to 1000 players and created their club and filled their squad with real players, similar to
fantasy football. Players were signed via a
proxy bid
Proxy bidding is an implementation of an English second-price auction used on eBay, in which the winning bidder pays the price of the second-highest bid plus a defined increment. It differs from a Vickrey auction in that bids are not sealed; the ...
ding system similar to that of
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
with the player signing with the highest-bidding club.
[Football Manager Live: How the ultimate management sim became an MMORPG](_blank)
, ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 17 March 2008 Whilst ''Football Manager Live'' utilised a very similar database to that of Football Manager 2009, like its offline counterpart, ageing players retired and younger players were randomly generated in their place within each game world, creating an increasingly fictional environment as seasons progress.
Clubs could choose a football association based on the number of matches the user wants to play ("Casual" FAs for casual players and "Xtreme" ones for more dedicated managers) and which play times were most convenient. Each FA had its own ladder system with a premier league and several lower leagues which were linked via
promotion and relegation
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
. Matchmaking for league fixtures was done through a "resolve by" system in which users have to finish a game by a certain deadline instead of having to meet online at a specific time. If a player could not meet the deadline, an AI "assistant manager" took over their team for that match.
The game also added a
role playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal a ...
-like skill training system for users. Managers could improve their skills over time in coaching, physiotherapy, finance, scouting and infrastructure to become more specialised or to suit their style of play.
In order to manage the inflationary economics of the game, players were required to construct a stadium to accommodate several different fan bases to the club. These included die hards, devoted, families, glory hunters and corporates, each offering their own characteristics such as wealth and atmosphere. This took money out of club finances and was generally received negatively by players. The stadia and fan base profile had little impact on gameplay and had no impact on the appearance of stadia during gameplay.
Gameworlds
There were 12 Gameworlds in ''Football Manager Live''. The gameworld system was radically changed in 2010 when they were split into two types: 'Fantasy Players' and 'Returning Stars.' Previously, as a gameworld progressed over time, 'real life' players gradually aged and retired to be replaced by generated players (or 'regens'). This remains the case with 'Fantasy Players' gameworlds, but for 'Returning Stars' the gameworld is reset sporadically back to the present day.
The first gameworld, launched on 4 November 2008 was Cantona, and this was followed by 8 other worlds until the first Pro-Gameworld, Toms, was launched on 12 January 2009. Existing users were encouraged to join the first Pro-Gameworld by having the opportunity to transfer the skills that they had gained to the new Gameworld. This had not been possible when transferring worlds previously and the challenge of playing the best was readily taken up.
Gameworlds were named after real-life ex-players.
In June 2010 the 3D match engine, first seen in
Football Manager 2009 was added to Football Manager Live.
Game restructuring
On 26 November 2009, vast changes to the existing game were announced by SI. The most controversial of these changes was the announcement of the resetting of all current game worlds to their initial states, which would commence on 1 March 2010
This announcement caused controversy amongst the community as many managers were upset by the results from this decision which would include losing all progress made up until this date. SI in an attempt to make up for this action offered all current subscribers two months of free play time though this was met with relatively negative reactions.
On 18 December 2009 Sports Interactive announced that it would be extending the free time for its managers until the reset in March 2010. It was also announced following the outcry over lost skills that they would be implementing a new skills system into FML after the reset which would allow current managers to use their existing skill points after the reset. This move was met with great appreciation by the game's current subscribers. At the same time it was announced that the new version 1.4 would include youth academies and many more extras which its subscribers had been asking for many months.
References
External links
Official site
{{Football Manager Series
2008 video games
Inactive massively multiplayer online games
Live
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* ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film
* ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film
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Music
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Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Windows games
MacOS games
Products and services discontinued in 2011