The FM Library

In our 2nd piece about the bloggers of the FM Community we have gone internal and focused on one of our Librianians – he’s from the North, and he loves to write about historical tactics.

1.   Creator Name & what made you choose it:  StratMan Gaming. Mainly because I totally suck at creativity. I decided to just mash together Strategy and Management gaming as that’s what I play the most and went with that.
2. Real Name : Alex Parkin
3. Football Team: Sheffield United
4. Talk me through your FM journey – where does it start? When was the moment that you first clicked on that little icon – and when did you realise that you couldn’t stop! My first FM game was 2008 but I’ve been playing football manager games since wayyy back on the PS1. Not sure why but I’ve always preferred them to games like FIFA I think the lack of direct control over my team makes the success so much more fulfilling when it happens. 
5. Ok, you’ve been playing the game, what made you jump from “player” to “creator” and how have you found the journey? The decision to become a ‘creator’ came quite recently around April 2018 after I shared a screenshot of winning Serie A as San Marino Calcio on Reddit. I got discussing the save with a few people on there and that made me want to share a lot more of the save with people. At first, it was a little overwhelming as I had no clue where to go in order to share my writing but once a few people advised and guided me its been really fun.
6. What’s your style of play? Within the library we have a couple of guys who plough through seasons letting the Assistant Manager’s do the vast majority of stuff, mainly getting into the late 2060’s trying to complete bizarre and random challenges, but we also have guys who are very much into the finite detail and will manage every aspect and would consider a save done after 5 or 6 seasons. Where do you fit within the scale? There is of course, no incorrect answer.. I’m a mixed bag with how hands-on I get. I have no interest in the media side of things and I delegate almost all of the training and match prep to my ass however when it comes to scouting, transfers, tactics and contracts I like to have pretty much total control. In general, I do try and play the game fairly quickly as one of the more satisfying parts of the game to me is watching the world develop and change from the real one.
7. Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/down right depressing memories? Probably my favourite save was my San Marino Challenge from FM17. Some of the youth players from that save are amongst my favourites of any FM game and reaching the semi final of Euro 2032 is up there for biggest FM achievement in my eyes. There was one particularly heartbreaking youth player I got in this save as well. He was an Italian/Sammarinese striker who was absolutely phenomenal. Unfortunately, he chose to play for Italy and then at the age of 21 refused to sign a new contract at all and left on a free transfer to Barcelona who had knocked me out of the Champions League in 3 of the last 5 seasons! He won the Golden Boy award while he was with me twice as well.
8. Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read? For me its FM Newby, Lutterworth Fox and Cookie FM for starters. That is way too short of a list though!
9. Who within the community, seriously impresses you – produces the type of content that you just think “Wow, I couldn’t even contemplate producing stuff to at that level. This can be across any format of creation. I would definitely say, Chilled Moose. The quality of face packs, graphics and custom databases are astounding pieces of work and are a level above those seen in the base FM game.
10. What puts you off reading other creators blogs – what makes you click that “X” button in the top right of the page. For me it’s using the correct grammar for team names – I saw a blog about 18 months ago where the blogger named his opponent as oxford united and not Oxford United – I’m still angry about this… Poor grammar and construction of writing. Not that I’m a grammar nazi just if the piece gives me a headache while I’m trying to read it I’m not going to stick around to figure out what’s going on! Proofread it back to yourself would be the best piece of advice I could give to someone who is just starting out with writing about FM.
11. Ok, final question.. I have 5 minutes and I have a list of blogs in front of me – In 100 words, why should I click on your blog? Not sure I’ll manage 100 words but…….I would like to think I provide a humorous (and often Simpsons reference filled) insight into how I play FM as well as football in general. If I do experiments I try to avoid the ones that are done to death and when I write about FM I try and do it in a way that won’t have been done much before (for example my FC Europa challenge from last year) so my pieces are a little more unique from other stuff. Hopefully, that does it justice.

And on that note, the Stratman drops the mic, and starts planning his next piece.. Write well my friend, write well…