7. The Press Is Underdeveloped
On the vein of the press, I've also noticed that the hacks themselves represent a massive missed opportunity. Remember that in today's media-heavy world, the journalists have become increasingly important in football's landscape. However, while FM has noticed this, it hasn't gone as far as it should've. Sure, you've got your press conferences and the opportunity to produce identikit statements for a random rent-a-hack, but that's about it. The weird thing is that FM itself has pointed to a much more intriguing proposition. You'll notice when you're speaking to a journalist that a token personality description comes up, with them being described as old and devious or honest or whatnot. Yet because everything is so constrictingly scripted, you get little to no opportunity for the journalist behind the questions to shine through. It could be anyone on the other side of that interview, and frankly, I think that's a shame. So how's about this why not let these personalities come to the forefront more by actually having the journalists set the news? As it stands, it appears that you just offer out a statement and the writers publish it verbatim. Instead, why not give yourself the option to craft a press release containing information about the topic of the day, give it to selected journalists and let them interpret it as per their personality? It's no secret that clubs get into fights with journalists and have their favourite writers who get information first because of past write-ups, and personally, I think FM could really benefit from adding this behind-the-scenes press politics into the general mind-games. It's always been a facet of the modern day game, and it's about time it made it onto our PC screens.