The FM Library

Welcome back and say hello to our newest/oldest member of the 11 questions club. We’re confused enough already, so we’ll let them get on with explaining a bit more about themself, r4vjez.

Creator Name & what made you choose it? I first started as thefmveteran and i have been around for all the years Football Manager has come out. But as i am also a gamer on the PS4 i decided to use the same handle on all platforms and thus i ended up with r4vjez.

Real Name? Ralph

Football Team? Ajax, Inter and Arsenal

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 managing days began with Sensible World of Soccer. This was a game where you could buy and sell players but you had to play the actual matches yourself. After that it was Championship Manager and eventually Football Manager. Over the years this game has developed itself as a wintergame for me. During the spring and summer i am outdoors a lot but during the fall and winter i play a lot of Football Manager.

Ok, you’ve been playing the game, what made you jump from “player” to “creator” and how have you found the journey? During the past years i’ve had a few blogs myself but i had to shut them down due to several private reasons. I’ve written a few articles for Merry Guido over on Strikerless but i’ve always had felt the need to have something for myself. Writing up my Football Manager stories has always been something that i have done since i started playing managing games.

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.. For me it really depends on the story i want to tell so the level of detail will vary each save/story. The focus will be on different areas in each story and thus i play the game differently. Next to that also the amount of free time i can put into Football Manager is an important factor. But when it comes to Football Manager most of the time i divide tasks between myself and the assistant manager. I do this to create enough time to spend on the important bits and pieces for my savegame and the story i want to tell.

Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/down right depressing memories? Football Manager 2010 and Football Manager 2017. I’ve had really good games in these editions with Stoke City, Hannover 96 and Oxford United. Especially the Oxford United save is one i will be remembering for quite some time. I’ve managed to lead this team from the Vanarama leagues all the way to Champions League victories and beyond.

Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read? At the moment there is so much good content coming out which makes it hard to keep track of everything. But people need to keep there eyes on Merry Guido, FMHeathen, Lutterworth Fox, FM Stag and bustthenet. Sorry to those that i did not mention but all of the above are deffo content creators you need to follow!

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. Well for me all the people that bring out proper content are amazing. From the database creators to DF11 for their facepacks. Without all of them our beloved game would be less fun to play!

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… For me it is all about the fact that i need to be intrigued by the content. If i am not interested then i can’t be bothered to keep on reading.

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… Because you know you want to!

And with that, we’ll allow Ralph to return to his little hidey hole and carry on enjoying FM. And we’ll see you next time!