9 Video Games That Played With Your Emotions

The standard criticism often leveled at Football Manager is that it's nothing more than playing an Excel spreadsheet. But can an Excel spreadsheet keep you up at night, worrying about its formulas? And can it make you pretend you're being interviewed by the host of Spreadsheet of the Day? If it did, maybe you should start re-examining your life.

Football Manager is more than a spreadsheet. It's a management simulation on the surface, but dig deeper, and it's a long-form football RPG. Dig even deeper, and it could even be a potential life simulator. It all depends on how deep the player wants to go with it, and many FM players will go miles underground and end up meeting mole-people.

Such player immersion into FM even has real-world emotional benefits. Take the story of Johnny Sharples, whose obsession with a fictional footballer from his FM game called Ivica Strok, ultimately helped him come to terms with the suicide of his brother.

Strok has even gone on to become a real ambassador for CALM, using FM to help men talk more openly about depression and mental health issues.

Now tell me, can any Excel spreadsheet manage emotions like that?