Old-&-New-Interface

Following the relaunch of Soccer Manager Worlds, we are going to offer our existing community the choice of which interface they wish to use, week commencing 7 December.

This means that whilst we continue to make improvements to the new interface, existing managers can revert to the old interface for a set period of time. If you do choose to revert to the old interface, you will still experience the other changes that have been made. You can read all about the changes here .

This will allow our existing community time to get used to the new interface before the old one is phased out permanently on 11 January 2016. If you would like to offer feedback on the new interface to help improve it for all of our community, please visit our forum.

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SM-Worlds-Relaunch

We are happy to announce the relaunch of Soccer Manager Worlds to celebrate our 10th anniversary and it contains some exciting updates and we’ll start with the biggest.

New Match Engine

A new Match Engine has been introduced to Soccer Manager Worlds.

So what does this mean?

It means that better results are obtained with modern formations and player ratings have an exponential value in a match, so the best footballers in the game will perform even better for your team.

Additional formations such as 4-2-3-1 narrow and 4-4-2 narrow diamond have been added along with some improvements to the effectiveness of certain existing formations.

Also, player position compatibility for certain formations is now more realistic, making match days more strategic. For example only DM(L/R) and M(L/R) can only play the wingback role perfectly within formations such as 3-5-2 and D(L/R) will not play as well in a 3 man defence.

We have removed some Player / Team Instructions / Styles. For example one option that we have removed is “Men Behind Ball” which is the same as “Mentality Defensive”.

The new Match Engine includes more realistic match statistics such as possession, corners, shots and player match ratings.

We believe that the new match engine will enhance your matchday experience due to it being more in-depth and providing a greater test of your management skills.

New User Interface & App

We have added a slick new design for the desktop that gives the game a modern feel. The new user interface has been developed with the help of feedback from our community. This redesign has been  done in tandem with our new app so that the interface of both is the same and this will help when you switch from one platform to the other.

SMFA

We have made several revisions to the SMFA as we have introduced a new system to help prevent in-game cheating.

Revised Attendances & Stadium Building

Based on our communities feedback, we have made several changes to attendances and stadium building. Smaller clubs and those coming up through the divisions will now receive higher attendances and have their stadium capacity increased (to a far higher level) to reflect their league standing.

The maximum capacity of 24,000 is being lifted because we want attendances to be more dynamic and based on your success. This means your fan base will dictate any increases to your stadium which will be made by your Chairman at the start of a new season. It will not cost your club any money as the Chairman will pay for this.

So how will fan bases work? Well, each club has a set fan base when a Game World is created. This fan base could increase over a period of time dependent on your success. However, the fan base will never increase to more than the highest fan base within your league. Likewise, just as a fan base will increase, it can also decrease if your club is underachieving.

We believe that this will be a welcome change because it is one that you, our community, have been asking for.

Game World Economies

There are several improvements that will affect the economy of your Game World. We’ve been working on these areas for the past few months. Prior to that we’ve spent considerable time reading all of the feedback on the forum, twitter, Facebook and via email.

There’s a lot of differing views on the subjects of squad sizes and player hogging and we’ve taken this into account when working on our changes. We also believe that the changes we’re making will help to improve the SMFA and reduce cheating.

So what exactly are our changes?

The algorithm for calculating a player’s value has been changed to include the player’s potential rating and any concerns they may have, as well as what was taken into account before: rating, age and position.

Player’s with concerns will see a substantial decrease in their value, the higher the level of concern the greater the decrease in value. This should help smaller clubs pick up better players for cheaper than their maximum value and the club they are leaving will receive a substantially lower fee when they hand in a transfer request.

Player values will be the same for all clubs when looking at the same player. Players are also worth the same when included in part exchange deals. There is no longer one chairman valuing a player differently from another.

Player wages are being drastically increased for better players, this should help stop player hogging and force people to sell top players they are not using.

Player concerns can no longer be bought off. There will remain 5 levels of concern and they will run 3 times a season, meaning a player would finally leave a club after 1.5 seasons, at a substantially reduced value.

Selling a player to an external club in the Game World now only has a 7 day transfer ban.

Finally you can no longer set players to Unavailable to Transfer or set a Minimum Fee because we want to encourage interaction between managers.

Feedback

We’d love to hear your feedback with regard to our relaunch so please feel free to tweet @SoccerManager or message us on Facebook.

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SM-Worlds-Blog

I started playing Soccer Manager Worlds at the beginning of September 2011. I remember going to a barbers shop one Sunday for a haircut and overhearing a conversation between two guys who were discussing their adventures in the game. I quickly typed the keywords into Google, signed up and was hooked from the start.

My first ever club was Schalke but I didn’t last very long there before moving to Hamburg, Marseille and a couple of others before finally settling on Lazio in January 2012.

What fascinated me about the game was the realistic game play which I had never experienced before in any football manager game I had played previously.

Having league matches twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 20:00 gave me the feeling of being a real life manager and I could change tactics, play friendlies, make transfers or even scout for players between games.

Another thing that was exciting for me was that I could play against and interact with real people instead of all by myself against the computer AI.

The suspense I experienced while viewing results from the previous day’s games was simply unmatched especially when it was an important league fixture with a human rival or a cup semifinal or final fixture.

Because the game had predefined days for matches and I could play against human opponents, it had that realistic feel that other manager games simply did not have at the time which made me a staunch fan.

Not long after I started playing the game, I introduced some of my friends to the game. A couple of them signed up and soon stopped playing but the majority were hooked and we often discussed our experiences in our respective Game Worlds.

The best period of my SM experience was the time when I got almost all of my friends in our secondary school hostel to join a new Game World and we started playing each other week after week.

We spent quite a bit of time back then haggling over transfer deals and would collectively troll the unlucky person who lost heavily on the last matchday. I think it just proved that the best way to enjoy SM Worlds is to play it with friends.

It was the tail end of our seconday school days so we were only able to complete a season together but I’m proud to say that I won the league and a cup trophy that season which gave me the bragging rights.

Best Moment

My best moment was when I won the Division 1 title for the first time with Lazio with a 11-point gap over second place. It was amazing because the Game World was particularly competitive that year and I certainly didn’t have the very best players around.

The League title I won against my friends in the other Game World also counts among my best moments in the game so far.

Worst Moment

Worst moment also came with Lazio in my very first season in charge. I was in Division 2 with promotion already secured and the title within reach (I had a 9-point lead with just a few games left). But inexplicably, my team had a dramatic dip in form and lost most of the remaining games while my rival won and the worst part of it was that he was winning with very high margins (5-0, 9-1 e.t.c).

I eventually lost the title that year on goal difference and that really frustrated me so much that I quit the club immediately before returning a few months later to save the team from relegation.

I had another similarly scary experience another time which almost cost me the title but this time I was lucky the other guy drew his final game (because I also drew mine!).

To date, I have 16 trophies in four years which is not a bad return keeping in mind that I utilised only two club slots throughout that period but I have been unlucky in the SMFA Champions Cup despite reaching the final on more than one occasion.

Every now and then when I see my old friends from secondary school, they often ask “Do you still play that Soccer Manager game?”, “I do” I always say.

About the Author – Ayo Isaiah

Ayo is the Editor-in-Chief of One Shot Football. He is from Lagos, Nigeria and has been playing Soccer Manager Worlds for over four years. A staunch admirer of José Mourinho’s football philosophy, he prefers a more pragmatic approach to aesthetics.

Twitter: @O_S_Football

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What-Makes-SM-So-Addictive

I live in a small country called Suriname on the North cost of South America. In 2005 I was looking for a soccer simulation game to play online that required no installation. I was drunk in love with Championship Manager and so I wanted a soccer simulation game that I could play anywhere online. I searched the net and found Online Soccer Manager at the time. It was fun but still not the real deal.

And then, somehow I came across Soccer Manager. I don’t know if it was an ad on the internet or an ad in a soccer magazine. I can’t remember. But in 2006 I found Soccer Manager and I was sold! Soccer Manager was free and most important, it had real clubs and real soccer player names. It even had the original club logos back then.

I ended up in World Championship 18 and Boca Juniors was one of the best clubs still available because all the European powerhouses were already taken by then. Barcelona is my favorite club but since I could not get that I took Boca Juniors because i’m a big Argentina fan too.

I built the club from scratch because it was hard to sign top players. I decided to be patient and started to sign young promising talents that would be in high demand later. I must say that the Soccer Manager forum helped me a lot to recognise big talents and also magazines like Four Four Two and Goal.com came in handy.

That’s how Soccer Manager became a second habit for me. Everyday I was online searching for hot prospects and interesting players. When the rating of these talents went up I traded them for bigger players to strenghten my squad. One of my first major signings was Giuseppe Rossi and after that Mario Gomez.

I signed many big talents that are stars today, like my number one goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (310k), David De Gea (1m), Robert Lewandowski (500k), Isco (400k), Neymar (900k) and Rafinha Alcantara (250k). My best ever signing is still Lionel Messi. And that’s how I made my club into a powerhouse within my Game World with cracks like Messi, Reus, Busquets and Alaba. After 25 seasons I have won 23 trophies. I have won the domestic league 5 times, won the SMFA Cup also 5 times and many other cups.

But what makes this game so addictive? Why do I keep coming back for more? After playing this game for almost 10 years it puzzles even me that I still enjoy it. These are the key reasons I think….

  • Realistic Game Play – Just like a real life manager you’re constantly looking for something to do for your team and club. If you’re not masterminding the tactics for the next game, you’re trying to make deals for hot players or talents.
  • The Layout – I like the easy layout. It’s simple and fast. Not glossy but authentic. For the most part I play this game on my smartphone so I love how the images open up quick when you click on the links. And the fact that I can access the desktop version easily. 
  • Transfers and Ratings – It is fun to make transfer deals. The amazing thing about this game is that if a player performs well in the real world his rating goes up in the Game World as well. He becomes a hot commodity. As if the Soccer Manger Game World is an artificial reflection of the real football world. I bet that if real life managers would check Soccer Manager now and then they would have some realistic feedback on how good or bad a player is.
  •  Matchday – You really live towards matchday. There is nothing sweeter than clicking the play button and watching your team perform. Especially when you outclass your opponent. But when you lose it spoils your mood. You have to go back to the drawing board to find out what you did wrong and what your opponent did right.

And the thing with this game is that you put so much time and energy in it, that over time you form a bond with your digital club. So much that it brings out your real emotions when you win, lose or sign your favorite player.

I start my day with football and end it the same way since I came across Soccer Manager. First thing in the morning is to check out the Newsfeed of my Game World and other developments. I simply love this game. Why? Because it acts like a digital extension of the real football world out there. And when you really really love football, you want to enjoy it in every possible way. And with SM at least I can make Messi win the SMFA World Cup with Argentina or sign Christian Benteke.

Will I still play this game when I’m 60 years old ? I think so.

About the author – Irwin Benito Maatrijk

Irwin has been playing Soccer Manager since late 2005 and is a self confessed football and Soccer Manager addict. You can find him competing in  World Championship 18.

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SM-Addict

It feels like a confession to say it, but myself and a group of young men have been playing SM for at least three years now and none of us can imagine life without it.

We are currently in the third season of the third incarnation of our league. As manager of Borussia Dortmund, I have won the Bantersliga title in the previous two seasons and all (apart from one – sorry Onix) of the managers have picked up silverware in the previous leagues, the Superbosh and the Standard League.

So far, so normal. But this is serious business, and we are devoted to it.

Devotion is certainly the word when you look at the lengths we’ve gone to for this online football management game. Dinners, trophies, dedicated Twitter accounts, video applications for vacant posts, photoshopped newspaper front pages – you name it, we’ve done it.

Before the matches even begin, the start of the league heralds the anticipated draw. Which team will we be paired with? Who’d get the comparatively weak Arsenal or Dortmund (who’ve won the last three titles by the way)? Who’d be facing each other in El Clasico? Who was off to Manchester?

The draw itself is the culmination of weeks of nerves. Mock draws are made with the results welcomed and scoffed at by managers in equal measures. When it comes to the real thing, the teams and names are paired from Kinder Egg shells, with cheers ringing out for good draws and heads slumping to the table or eyes looking to the sky questioning fate and destiny itself if the unwanted teams are plucked from the hat.

As soon as the name is drawn, the work begins. In our minds we jet out to our new homes to meet our squads. Each manager knows their targets. Each manager has a dossier compiled of their team’s strengths and weaknesses and what deals could potentially be done. The best external team, Atletico Madrid, are pillaged for their highly rated stars.

Transfer sagas are played out. Big deals fly in every direction. In incredible scenes, Messi and Ronaldo are traded for one another. Falcao is returned to Monaco on loan on the fly in a bid to sneakily secure his services permanently. Other managers notice and offers inundate the Stade Louis II. I’m offered everything including the kitchen sink for Kevin de Bruyne. It descends into chaos. But it’s amazing.

Once our squads are assembled, everything is put on hold at around 8pm on our gamedays, Thursdays and Sundays. We spend hours agonising over formations and tactics, tinkering away until we’re confident that we’ve picked the right lads to go out and get a result. Team news is announced via our managers’ Twitter accounts, often with crude photoshopping.

When the results are in, it’s straight to the WhatsApp group to discuss the night’s action. No spoilers though – wait until your opposing number has viewed.

We have an official media partner, The Bugle, which produces front pages based on the latest goings on in the league. Stirring up trouble is the anonymous Insider Twitter account, passed on in secret each season to a new manager to run. Bantersliga 365 and OptaSM have popped up too for odds and stats.

I’ve been lucky enough (or tactically astute enough) to win the league twice now, and it ranks up there with my proudest achievements. When Wesley Sneijder scored the goal that saw off Bayern and gave me an unassailable lead at the top I was in what can only be described as a state of euphoria.

That’s the thing about our love of SM. We ARE the managers. These are OUR squads. Winning is a joy, losing is a sickening punch in the gut.

SM-Addict-2

And the best part about SM is that it has brought a new group of friends together through a shared love of this game. So, at the end of each season, there has to be a coming together of managers.

We don our best suits. We make sure our ties (official club merchandise) are tied and some of us have been known to throw in a scarf or a pin badge too. On the latest occasion, one of us made a 450 mile trip up from London to attend. Now that’s dedication.

Restaurants across Glasgow have been baffled. Just why has this group of young men gathered here, and why do they have trophies? Usually they assume we’re footballers, and to be fair, two of our number do play in the Scottish lower leagues. But often we use the excuse that we coach youth teams, or just have to confess it’s all about SM.

At the dinners the first exchanges between managers usually descend into frantic transfer negotiations within seconds. We vote on player of the season. We vote for a best manager and a worst manager. There is banter, there is serious discussion and there are, of course, the trophy presentations.

The Shield is presented. The Cup is presented. Then the league trophy is presented. And no expense has been spared – these are genuine pieces of silverware.

One of the most memorable nights of my life took place in Glasgow’s Viva Brazil as the Champions League theme blared through the restaurant’s sound system and a waitress brought over an ice cream sundae in one hand, and the league trophy in the other. The other diners were bemused – I was elated.

Now, I know this all sounds ridiculous, but I assure you that 100% of this is true. We are this devoted, we are this in love with the game that is Soccer Manager. I think I speak for myself and all of my fellow managers when we say that this game has brought something amazing into our lives. We’ve been brought together as a group, as firm friends.

Now roll on our tenth season celebrations. We’re off to Dublin for a manager’s weekend. What could go wrong?

About the author – Ross Crae

Ross has been playing Soccer Manager Worlds since 2012 and is now a self confessed SM addict who competes in several Game Worlds.

twitter: @RSCrae

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Chairman-Cash-Injection

Cash injections by your Chairman have always been in Soccer Manager Worlds and they only happen at the start of a new season. However, we have changed the threshold as it was very strict. It is now more generous and gives cash injections to clubs that are in a noncompetitive state.

This is the first part of the work that we are currently carrying out to improve SM Worlds based on the feedback from our community to help improve the transfer market.

So what other improvements are we making?

Well we currently have two test Game Worlds, 238724 & 239094. Both Game Worlds are populated with members of our community who are currently giving us feedback on numerous changes that will impact on the transfer market.

The algorithm for calculating a player’s value has been changed to also include the player’s potential rating and their morale, as well as what was taken into account before: rating, age and position.

The players potential rating is the same value that is worked out on a daily cron and used in Soccer Manager 2015. As a player’s morale decreases, so does his value. This should help stop player hogging as players who are not played and develop concerns will also lose value. This should help smaller clubs pick up better players for cheaper than their value and increase that value as the player’s morale increases.

Player vales will be the same for all clubs looking at the same player, meaning big clubs can compete for players again. Thiere is a small range from the minimum bid possible and maximum bid possible. To increase the emphasis on cash in the game, clubs with more cash have a greater max cap to bid for a player.

Player as also worth the same when offering in part exchange deals. There is no longer one chairman valuing differently from the other.

Player wages are being drastically increased for better players, this should help stop player hogging and force people to sell top players they are not using.

Player concerns can no longer be bought off. There will remain 5 levels of concern and will run 3 times a season, meaning a player would finally leave a club after 1.66 seasons (f seasons are 3 months, then after 5 months).

We are continuing to listen to feedback from members of our community in these test Game Worlds and making changes based on what you have to say. After successful testing the above changes will be rolled out to all Game Worlds.

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