I urge you in the strongest possible terms to never, EVER play this game.
If you value the relationships with your loved ones, if you require a job to earn the money to pay for the food on your table and the roof over your head, if you need to sleep to re-energise at the end of 5 out of every 7 days, if you value your physical and mental health, STAY AWAY.
This game will eat you alive. It will promise you the earth, but deliver only tattered dreams. The structure of our decline will follow the familiar path of the drug addict. You will log in recreationally, say the minimum 10 minutes a day, fix your team up for the next match and log out and not think about it again until the next day. You probably think you can manage to handle that.
And at first, you will . Maybe you'll win a few matches, do well in a custom cup. Eventually you'll hit the glass ceiling and start looking for information to help you progress up the tiered pyramid league sructure. You will find it, and it will get you over that hump. And then you'll believe you are on the path to simple management glory! (Intro/learning curve 2.5)
That's what we all thought once. We were so very wrong, all 35,000 of us...
But that's where it get's dangerous. Sooner or later, another hump will come along that you may not get over. But you'll just keep on trying! Managerleague is like a gateway drug. You'll start of with the best intentions but eventually it will ****you in, and soon 10 minutes a day won't be nearly enough. You'll spend an hour or so a night planning your tactics to match up against the next team to wander into your home stadium. You'll agonise over the next improvement to your stadium, whether to sell your key midfielder to pay for the repairs to the ground, whether to risk that unfit player in the cup wth a key league match coming up. You'll crave the option to be able to yell at your players. You will search high and low for a "hairdryer" button and suggest changes to the game that you think you need. You probably don't but you will demand them unthinkingly in your futile efforts to succeed. (Gameplay 2.5)
Before you know what's hit you, you are on the game more than you are of. You gloat to rival managers on the forums, get sucked into wheeler-dealings in the chat rooms and eventually find yourself meeting other managers in the shadowy corners and basement rooms of non-deleetcode drinking dens to iron out the final details of a near worthless transfer. (Fun 3)
And then your life falls apart. You are logged in constantly at work, screen minimised to avoid detection. You schedule meetings to ensure you are back at your desk in time for the 3pm game. You log on at home and just tell your family you can't spend time with them because you are working from home each night this week. There is no respite. And you will be found out. Either your boss asks what the colourful lines are on your screen and you fail to come up with a decent excuse, or your loved ones check your browsing history and discover a page where all your players have the faces of the 1955 Man City FA Cup winning team and you spent credits to make them look like that. Your Dog will be confused by the wondrous glow of your 3D team badge (appearance - 1.5).
You lose your job, your family, your house, your car, your life. You ultimately end up destitute, living in a gutter and holding a sign inscribed with the legend "Money needed to log in at Internet Cafe - Please Give Generously".
This is your future if you start playing this game. Some few, some lucky few, taste the true glory of a victorious campaign in division 1, or the league cup or the new champions league. For the rest of us, we dream of such day, but in our 30 odd seasons have tasted only bitter, bitter defeat. We are out on our ears, but like the worst of addicts, we cannot give it up. (Approval stamp -1)
It has happened to the best. It will happen to you...
Total Score - 10.5
