The FM Library

We at the Library, take pride in being able to allow you the communuity to get just a little bit closer to others in our great comunity. This week we peek behind the twitter handle and blogger that is @rpwfm

Creator Name & what made you choose it? My name is RPWFM and I chose it as I couldn’t really think of another name! I considered going down the route of picking an obscure player position from FM such as ‘the offside libero’ or ‘the inverted half-back’ but I thought the community was pretty saturated with names like that – instead I took my own initials and stuck an ‘FM’ onto the end of it. It’s not pretty, it’s not particularly effective, but it’s a bit different, at least!

Real Name? I won’t reveal my real name as I am a teacher and don’t fancy my class finding my obscure ramblings…

Football Team? The only team in Devon that matters: Plymouth Argyle!

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!? Believe it or not, I’m not one of the standard ‘I’ve played this game since the Championship Manager days’ kind of people; rather I have only really picked up Football Manager since FM15. I’ve never been a big gamer, but couldn’t help but love playing career mode on my mate’s FIFA game. The problem was that I wanted more and heard all about FM, and since then I’ve never gone back.

Ok, you’ve been playing the game, what made you jump from “player” to “creator” and how have you found the journey? I’ve found myself more recently not really having many people to share my stories of taking Argyle to Champions League glory and my partner was sick of hearing the latest fake transfer saga, so I thought I’d take my writing skills as a teacher and try sharing my thoughts with the world!

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 natural perfectionist and love setting my backroom staff up so that I can fulfil my exact vision of how I want my team to play, so I often slowly progress through a save and am lucky to get through more than 7 seasons on my annual Argyle save. The most I’ve ever managed was 12 seasons on FM19 as non-league (and partially fictional) Central Park Rangers starting in the 15th tier of English football.

Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/down right depressing memories? That’s a tricky one, as I haven’t played FM for a long time, but I’ve always found that my favourite editions are normally based on how much I enjoy a save. For that reason, FM17 holds a special place in my heart for being the edition that I first conquered Europe with Plymouth Argyle. I took a relatively unknown young Italian winger called Vittorio Parigini (who is currently at Torino IRL) from League One to Champions League glory where he would become a club legend. It was the save where I had my favourite ever regen/newgen in a Serbian midfielder called Luka Mihajlovic who would dominate the centre of the pitch in every single match.

Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read? The first bloggers I ever came across in the community that I’ve always enjoyed reading are FM Grasshopper and VivaLaVidaFM, and I’ve always found their content diverse and exciting. More recently, I’ve loved following FM Stag’s journeyman save and From the Cheap Seats’ ‘The Nearly Men’ save with Partizan – the live Champions League final blogs have been amazing!

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. I have to give huge props to the guys who make the English lower league pyramid databases, DanFMDatabases and TheFMEditor85 are the first ones that come to mind. I love doing a save each year with a non-league local side and without their hard work, this would be absolutely impossible!

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 to completely agree with you – I spend most of my day as a teacher correcting grammar and cannot stand when writers forgot their capital letters! For me, I like to be hooked into the idea of a blog and like to read something a bit different to the norm, so I, often don’t find myself quite as invested in the popular saves such as Ajax, Athletic Bilbao, Man Utd etc. If I can learn something new from your blog, I’ll love it!

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… Right: you should click on my blog because I am a new-ish blogger who is looking to try something a bit different! In my current series, I’m trying to mix a bit of my favoured story-style with some analysis, good graphics and a bit of excitement! I am always open to advice and constructive criticism and am just happy that someone takes the time to read my rambles! I also love the idea that maybe one day someone will read my blog and be inspired to try writing themselves, too – that might be the teacher in me coming out…

And with that, RPWFM goes swanning back off to lovely Devon… Hopefully surviving all this horrible wind and rain we’ve been having. We will see you again soon