Instead of thinking about what to write on my gaming blog, I spent the entire weekend playing Gears of War 2 (or at least, all of my personal spare time!). Unfortunately, this leaves me with a quandary as to what to do on this blog (having said that - spending too much time playing video games isn't exactly a bad way to go!).
Hence this morning, a quick trawl of news sites to see if there was anything interesting I could talk about. Luckily for me - this showed up. Everton has struck a deal for access to the full database used by Football Manager 2009. Apparently, they intend to use the database to help them scout for new young talent.
On the face of it, this sounds ridiculous. However, if you give it some thought, it isn't as outrageous as it initially appears.
As a long term player of Football Manager, one thing which I have consistently noticed is how good the scouting in Football Manager is. There has been loads of times where I signed a hot prospect in the game for my Liverpool squad who then turned out to be a good player in real life (several years down the line of course). The other common situation is buying a good player after several in-game years and then, after several years have passed in real life, seeing that same player become a household name.
Obviously not every good player identified by the game will turn out to be good in real life - there are too many variables affecting a players performance for that to be possible. However, it happens often enough that you have to think that you may be able to find some "hidden" gems by reviewing the FM database. Admittedly, real life factors will limit who Everton could sign (for example, some 15 year old from Argentina may not be willing or able to relocate to the UK) and I suspect that the bulk of any identified players will be young players from the Championship. Still, if they can get some cheap young potential prospects who will become useful squad players in a couple of years - why not?
And this is what it comes down to. In conjunction with their normal scouts (who I'm sure would scout out the player before actually buying), this may allow Everton to identify and buy future squad players on the cheap.
4 comments:
Hmm - what additional data are Everton getting beyond what you already see via pre-game or in-game editors?
Looking at other hilarious gaming related news...check this one out...
http://kotaku.com/5088488/second-life-marriage-ends-the-way-many-real-ones-do
hahahahahaha - Yeah, I saw the post about the second life marriage ending. That was soooooo funny.
Re FM09
Unfortunately, I have no idea what additional info they get. You managed to hit the nail on the head with your question (which is also the query everyone online is asking).
Obviously, the data you see in-game would be useless to Everton as there are too many hidden stats. However, FM has always come with a data editor that allows you to see those hidden stats.
So why not just buy the game?
My guess is that Everton will get access to "live" data. When I say "live" data, I mean that the researchers are probably constantly updating the database with player information which isn't available to the public until the next iteration of FM. For people who play the game, this isn't an issue as the stats would be dependent on what happened in that game.
However, for Everton and scouting purposes, looking at stats for players as at the start of the 2008/09 season isn't particularly useful. What they need are the latest stats taking into account real life injuries etc.
In effect, the specific reference to FM09 is just for the headline and what Everton have actually acquired are the services of the various scouts used by FM.
Interesting idea. There have been rumours of people using FM for this purpose before, but this is the first official tie-up i've heard of.
BTW: on another gaming note, GOW2 looks nice - flamethrower looks like fun! Will look forward to your review when you get round to it.
Post a Comment