The FM Library

We’ve gone international on our next introducing piece, from Seattle in the wonderful United States of America, say hello to From the Cheap Seats… Oh my…

Creator Name & what made you choose it:

Our blog is titled From The Cheap Seats, because football and FM are all about passion.  It is intended to evoke that feeling of being at a match – the blind, visceral emotion that takes over, when you care so much about something – as well as the memories and friends that you make along the way, the shared experience that means far more than the result on the day. 

“Seattle Red” simply refers to where I live and grew up, the greater Seattle area, and my love for Manchester United.

Real Name:

Ian

Football Team:

Manchester United, thanks to the ex-pat British coaches I had as a kid.  The Seattle Sounders, thanks to my oldest son. (Editor – one of our librarians has painful FM19 memories of the Sounders, not only did they prevent him from getting promoted as they were his senior affiliate, they also helped get him sacked in the process as he applied for too many jobs and the board didn’t like that sort of thing..)

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!

I grew up in a different era.  In the early/mid 90s, we couldn’t watch soccer on TV here in the States with any kind of regularity.  And what we could watch was poorly executed.  Coverage of the 1990 World Cup was abysmal – we missed the only goal in the USA-Italy match because they would cut away to commercials during play! 

As a result, my first connections to the broader footballing world came through my ex-pat British coaches, VHS tapes (Hero and Tor! being my all-time favorites, for obvious reasons), and the weekly magazine Soccer America.  That is, until I got my grubbly little hands on One-Nil and Goal II from the brilliant Wizard Games of Scotland.  I don’t remember if it was for Christmas or a birthday, but it sucked me in.  All of a sudden, there were not just names in front of me, but attributes.  Stats.  I could manage a team to glory.  I could watch those ASCII icons run around all day.  And I had a narrative in my head about the individual players and “regens” that were coming through, even with the limitations of games released in that era.

I was in college when I stumbled across Championship Manager.  The cover of CM 97/98 is indelibly etched into my brain.  I don’t want to know how many hours of my college years were spent on that edition.  That’s where the true addiction took hold.  And, ever since, CM/FM have continued to be a meaningful connection for me, to the footballing world.


Ok, you’ve been playing the game, what made you jump from “player” to “creator” and how have you found the journey?

As I grew older, my priorities and responsibilities changed.  I was still passionate about FM, but was still playing it the way I had for 15+ years.  I was lurking on the SI Forums and reading what people were creating, but was losing my love for the game.

In the middle of a “this is my last save” moment during the FM 15 cycle, I decided to document a youth-academy-only save with IFK Malmo on the SI Games challenges sub-forum…and rediscovered my love for the game, sharing it with other like-minded fanatics.

From those tentative first steps, I started documenting my saves on the FMCU sub-forum and began adding the bonkers narrative that had always been in my head, finding even more like-minded fanatics along the way.

Nearly 4 years on, with the excitement I was feeling for FM 20, I decided to take the next logical step and start putting it out to the broader FM community, expecting to find even more like-minded fanatics in the process!  48 hours later, From the Cheap Seats was live.  

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 used to be a horrid micro-manager.  These days, I’m married, with 3 active kids and have a demanding job.  So I can’t do it all anymore. 

I almost always have an established 22-25-man squad, with 2 clearly-defined XIs and as many youth prospects as I can legitimately hope to develop.  Once my squad is established, I will use an IR skin to play less “important” matches, as well as the continue game timeout feature.  I delegate a fair amount to my in-game Assistant Manager who is always roped into my narratives.  (In FM 18, I was fortunate enough to get the Zlatan as my AssMan, and it was utterly brilliant in every way.)  All told, this means that I can still get through seasons on Full Fat, especially since I tend to have the game on all the time on my personal laptop, in the background when I can’t pay attention to it.

Beyond that, my writing “style” encompasses a heavy dose of narrative, with a fully-fleshed out world.   There’s a narrative arc for my manager, and a broader story to everything that is going on in the world. The reader sees that through not just my manager’s eyes (in a first-person POV), but through a wide-array of other devices.  Secondary characters, who have their own stories.  Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and other commentators on big matches.  Complete non-sequiturs.  More fake Tweets than any one person should ever admit to writing.  In one save, I even “published” an in-game fanzine, Rabona Interruptus (through a mocked-up cover), that referenced random things going on in the broader in-game world.   

The narrative and day-to-day shenanigans are drawn from any number of things, usually whatever I am reading or watching.  I literally have dozens of pages of notes, with ideas jotted down – from one-liners to fully-developed stories I want to tell in-game.  I’m willing to spend months setting up a single Peep Show reference, if I think it’ll land.

The dilemma I’m facing now is how much of that narrative/secondary madness will be unleashed in the blog format, versus being kept contained on the FMCU forum.  [Honestly, I’d love to get your opinions on this, guys! – Editor – As much as humanly possible, I think anyone can write a blog that explains what has happened on the save – I enjoy reading those as well as writing my own. The true artist though will weave a web and take the reader on a fantastic journey that makes you forget your reading about a Football Management strategy game

Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/down right depressing memories?

Three versions stand out for me, each for their own reasons – CM 01/02, FM 2007 and FM 17..

In terms of a favorite save, there is no doubt – the FM 17 version of my “Nearly Men” saves. It was epic in every respect.  It had everything.  Amazing on-field success, shared between two managers – Hakan Telleus and his son, Gunnar Vikander.  I played it for 18 months, real-time, up through 2091.

There was also a detailed narrative for both managers, an entire universe of secondary characters, and a broader backstory that incorporated echoes of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere (one guy would always get these references, and it made me so happy).  Cristiano Ronaldo retired, only to star in a Portuguese prank/reality show and (later) start his own religious cult on Ibiza.  A toothless, half-insane Leeds United supporter named Bob decided that Telleus was, in fact, the Second Coming and started his own rival religious group, based in a Turkish cave.  My secondary characters were forced to hold an intervention for Telleus after he lost 2 straight Champions League titles with Fiorentina…they were only moderately successful.

The best moment from the save – one I actually go back and re-read, to this day – is the six-part transition from Hakan to Gunnar.  I planned this for months, laying the foundations for what would happen and why, and managed to pull off the bait-and-switch in the end.  Honestly, I still get choked up when I read Parts 3 and 4 – that’s how much I had invested in the narrative.  It had to happen. The time had come.  Bittersweet, in the extreme.  Part 1 begins here – don’t worry, it goes quickly.  (Telleus had just won the 2058 World Cup with Scotland, arriving back from Japan under threat from his mafiosa ex-wife, Appolonia (aka Apples…she hated the nickname).  The big question was where he would go next, if anywhere, and if he was going to retire, who would take over.  It looked like it would be one of Telleus’ two sons that Apples had raised with Emma Watson…who Telleus was now seeing.)

There was also a great moment early on in that save when my scouts were recommending a Danish player named Bjelland, which Telleus thought was a wind-up.  So, he sent the scout to Yemen, which played out over a few posts:

Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read?

Strikerless.com. Guido is inspiring on so many different levels.  I also credit him with supporting my entry into the broader FM creators scene, through promoting a tactic Telleus employed in FM 17, and with the start of the From the Cheap Seats blog.

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 – for me it’s Laura/Chilled Moose and the face packs that she produces – some serious design talent there. This can be across any format of creation.

This is the hardest question.  I could name any number of people – both on FMCU and in the broader community.  If I had to name one…it’d be Oriole, one of my collaborators at From the Cheap Seats, who writes such ludicrously-brilliant narratives over on FMCU that it makes my head spin.  It’s not just the concept, it’s his execution and commitment to doing it “right.”  I’m excited to use the blog to promote his work!

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…

I have a lot of trouble getting into YouTube and streaming saves.  My time is limited given my non-FM commitments, and reading through a save and looking at screenshots just fits better with my schedule.

…uhh…I’m showing my age, aren’t I?  Get off my lawn!

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…

You should read From the Cheap Seats because we will publish and promote stories that go beyond the (perfectly valid) first-this-happened-then-that-happened approach.  We want you to share the passion we have for our saves and football, in general.  Because it isn’t about the titles won, or the in-game accomplishments.  It is about the stories we tell ourselves.  It is about the experience.  It is about the journey, not the destination.

With that Ian goes back to the Cheap Seats and starts to plan his next epic story, as he is from Seattle, the home of Frasier Crane, it only feels right to end this…

Good Night From the Cheap Seats

The FM Library has left the building

Thank YOU!