blog thứ 10 he anh em,
Today is Thursday. And I can't do an honest blog about what's going on today, as others would get annoyed with me for doing so, but let's just say that it hasn't been my favourite day in the world, ever.

Don't worry - the game is all fine, and the demo is still coming this weekend, but if you ever get the feeling that a load of people are conspiring to annoy, that is what my day has been like (apart from a couple of very good meetings this morning).
If you didn't see it when it went live yesterday, the long version of the TV ad is now live at our youtube area, www.youtube.co.uk/sigames. I'm really proud of it, and think the teams of people who worked on it at RSA and Front Room did a really great job. A few people have asked what the music is on the trailer and it's the same music that was used in the background of the announcement video that we did, called Black Glove by Goose, who are on Skint Records. Their album is great, and well worth checking out!
Today's indepth feature look comes from Nick, Ed and Phil, and looks at the new features, that of in-game press conferences.


Press Conferences

After the release of Football Manager 2008 we sat down and started to think about how we could improve the way the manager communicates with the media. Listening to the fan-base it was clear that the distinction between what is heard by the press and what stays behind closed doors has been blurred at times. On the one hand there is the interaction system (between fellow managers and between managers and players) and on the other there are the questions and transfer speculation which crop up every now and then in the manager's inbox. What was clear to us was that we needed to develop a system which would present the manager with a more realistic and focussed approach to handling the press.

As you will see in Football Manager 2009, our approach has been to make press conferences the focal point of the manager's dealings with the media. As in real life, a press conference is the only regular opportunity for journalists from both written and audio-visual media outlets to formally pose questions to the person in charge of the football club. On a broader scale, a press conference becomes the major point of contact between a manager and the outside world.
In Football Manager 2009, there are three types of press conference: new job, pre-match and post-match. During each press conference, the manager will be given an indication of how many media sources and journalists are present. The number of journalists present will reflect the importance of the fixture; ranging from one or two local reporters for a non-league tie to global paparazzi for a European cup final.
Once the press conference is under way, as each question is posed, the journalist asking the question will be displayed, along with their employer. Every question and answer is stored in the press conference history section which is important to the flow of press conferences over the course of time as journalists will refer back to questions asked at an earlier stage and what answers were previously given.
Journalists being journalists, they'll occasionally stray off-topic. It might well be a pre-match press conference, but you can bet your life that someone in the room wants to know more about the latest rumours of unsettled players or a piece of juicy transfer gossip. That's the charm in having numerous journalists present; they've all got a different personality. Some of them will be kinder and more understanding towards you, whilst a similar number may be quite probing and less considerate.
However, for every question, there's an answer, and you've got quite a degree of flexibility in how you go about addressing what has been asked. Each question has five options from which you can choose your best-suited response, with an additional free text box at the bottom of the screen for you to add your additional comments in should you have any (and we know you will). This doesn't impact on what the media or the football world make of your answers, but it's a nice tool to aid in the immersion factor for those that want to, and can be great fun in multiplayer games!
Of course, if you don't want to turn up, you can simply send your Assistant Manager along on your behalf. There is also an option in Team Settings to get your assistant manager to handle all press conferences. If you do turn up and things aren't to your liking, you can ask your press officer to wrap things up or even storm out.


So, now you know more about that. Tomorrow's blog will come live from the Golden Joystick awards, where we're nominated for best PC game and best UK d

Well, the old age and lack of sleep have caught up with me, and I now have man flu on top of everything else.

We're playing a waiting game. The release candidate is with SEGA, and they are doing the final tests before we can officially be declared finished. We're expecting this early next week, and there's little more we can do now.
Many of the team who've been doing stupid hours the last few weeks are, rightfully, at home in bed catching up on sleep. There's still lots of people manning the forts, waiting for info in case anything is found out to be wrong. And in my flu like state, I want to be at home, but am currently sitting in a video edit suite watching the various possible incarnations of the Football Manager TV ad and trailer have the finishing touches to them so that I can approve them on the spot.
There've been lots of interesting phone calls marketing and PR wise the last few days. I don't really understand why so many of these things happen so late in the day, but there are always some last minute things that come through. I look forward to sharing some of these with you next week.
Anyway, after yesterday's PSP new feature splurge, here's some more PC & Mac stuff, and the last new features to be revealed through these blogs. Next week, the blogs will be more in-depth looks at some of the new features already announced. Fear not though - there's still more to announce, and the podcast that will be out tomorrow evening (Friday) through iTunes will have some more, and some other interesting news. And next week, there'll be some other new features announced through Shortlist magazine's website over at Shortlist.com.
So, what have I got for you today?
Let's start off with preferred squad numbers. If a player has a preferred squad number, you'll now see this when you register your squad numbers for the season.
A personal favourite of mine is something really simple, but very useful. In the game, you've had the possibility for many years of adding on a percentage sell on clause for a player, but having done some research into this, many clubs now utilise a percentage of profit sell on clause. So it's only fair that we add that as an option in game too.
Another favourite is changes to the way youth compensation happens in the game. Previously, you've just paid a small fee to "steal" a youngster from another club, but this became a hot topic in the Summer with the transfer of Bostock to Spurs, so you'll find now that as well as paying an upfront fee, you'll also have to pay for first team appearances, and a sell on percentage.
There are also improved qualification rules in the game, so the more complicated rules are explained better, such as in the Asian leagues and South American leagues.
Let's take a break from new features for a minute, and answer some of the questions that have been sent through to the blog mailbox ([email protected] - but don't ask about new features please!)
Craig Green asks "When did the Football Manager 2009 experience start for you? Will you be thinking up ideas for the next version straight away, or enjoying this years creation for a while?"
Well Craig, the first properly playable code for FM2009 was around April time, although not all the features were active by then, so I started playing the game properly towards the end of June. As for the next version, we already have ideas for it, and will have the features meetings pretty soon after the release of FM2009. That doesn't mean we don't spend time enjoying it, as there won't be a playable version til April or May next year, at a guess.
Gary Thomas asks "What are the chances of turning your expertise towards a boxing manager game?". Well Gary, I'd say they were very, very slim. We've tried out a couple of other sports management titles with Ice Hockey and Baseball, and now trimmed back to just doing Football, and it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Gogotte asks "I just want to know what is your favourite/best position on the football field as a real player?". My favourite position is left midfield or left wing, being left footed and quite short. Most in SI Towers would say that my best position on the football field is either on the subs bench, or as manager. My footballing skills aren't exactly good....
Have I mentioned yet that 3 new goalkeeper attributes are shown in Football Manager 2009? First touch, free kick taking and penalty taking are now there, what with more and more goalkeepers taking free kicks and penalties, particularly in South America, they're important things to know now.
Oh, and I don't think I've mentioned roaming scouting either. Unless you specify areas for your scouts to go to, they will choose themselves where to roam, and continue to give you summaries of players that they find.
Finally for today, and for the blogs in this format, there seem to be a lot of rumours going around based on the previews about tactics changes in FM09. There will be a blog next week that will give more details on this, as the reasons behind it need to be explained properly, but some changes were made to tactics during the testing of Football Manager Live which changes the way that "arrows" work in game. What we found with FML is that people didn't really understand what the arrows did, including internally at Sports Interactive, so arrows now signify forward runs. Other tactic areas have been tweaked to make them work better to take into account this change, so you'll still find players running into channels and space, but that's more down to the players ability now. As I've said, there will be a blog explaining this all next week from the co-founder of Sports Interactive and the guy behind the match engine in the game, Paul Collyer.
Right, that's it for today's blog. As mentioned above, there'll be more new features in the podcast which comes out tomorrow, but this is the last blog for this week. Hopefully next time I'm typing, I won't be full of snot...
Cheers
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