The FM Library

It’s the weekend so it’s time for another 11 Questions and just like last week we have another newbie to the FM blogging scene and that’s Cameron FM, enjoy!

Creator Name & what made you choose it:

CameronFM – No real story behind this one really; name + FM = Creator Name! It didn’t seem to be taken so jumped on the opportunity. May look at a rebrand in the future!

Real Name: Cameron

Football Team: Glasgow Rangers

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 always remember playing LMA Manager when at primary school and football management games stuck with me since then. My first FM was FM Handheld for the PSP and finishing a 50 year save with Rangers dominating Europe; Pablo Vitti was a cheat code! From there on in I was always a Handheld player until my first wage and then the laptop was purchased and I have never looked back since! Higher exams were failed due to hours sitting on FM instead of studying, dissertations being put off because of FM – all worth it in the end!

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

Throughout lockdown and working from home, I often sat with the iPad beside me watching Twitch and YouTube videos of the current FM content creators to sort of fill the void I had with the game – I had fell out of love for it for a while. After reading a few blogs, I found myself getting gripped back on adventures and thought lets see where this goes. I have only been blogging since May, so still coming to grips with what works best, what keeps readers’ attention, but it is a challenge I do not regret embarking on!

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 is about interest. When blogging I need my save to be something that will not only be unique, but will captivate attention from others – myself included! Because of this, I like to be more heavily involved in the recruitment drive of the club, with an eye on the finances and what the potential moves are (my job does not desert me when its time for FM!), whilst allowing my assistant to focus in on the day-to-day training. However, this is something I want to get a bit more involved in so perhaps FM22 is the year to do so!

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

My stand out save was FM16 where a friend and I done a network save, and where my love for Sampdoria was ignited! We wanted to go rivals in a league but not your usual Barca/Real, Juventus/Inter/AC/, Bayer/Dortmund. So we agreed on Sampdoria/Genoa. Genoa finished in the final European spot the season before, and gave up the spot. This then went to city rivals Sampdoria who finished directly behind them in the league. Funnily enough, domestically I performed much worse than my friend; he got the sack whilst my saving grace was a quarter-final run in the Europa League! I managed to dethrone Italy’s elites the following season and we must have got through a good 9 seasons throughout the lifespan of the game!

Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read?

So many names, where to begin; I don’t want to be seen as picking favourites! Currently I have @adam_otbfm, @TheLastThrow, @FMCheapSeats are musts. However, there are plenty more brilliant content creators out there – LutterworthFox, CoxieFM, CalvFM – I could be here a while!

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. 

Although it is a side of content creation that I will most likely never get involved in, Zealand is out of the world with his pull. To be able to knock content out the park consistently as he does, with the knowledge to back it up, it really is remarkable.

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 will be honest, despite being very OCD, I find it takes a lot to make me close down a blog without finishing it. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt as I know there could be many reasons for grammatical errors in their blogs, but none more so than I am not perfect myself either! However, with that being said, if it is poorly formatted and QC done at all (you just know when this hasn’t been done) then I am more inclined to go about my day rather than finish the blog.

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… 

From East to West is going to be a series that I do not think has been tackled before in the FM Community – happy to be corrected if wrong! Starting the journey in Vladivostok and ending in Kaliningrad, gives a sense of new beginnings through managing in the lower reaches of Russia. I like to try and combine imagery with paragraphs to give an experience that suits all – some folk do like just pictures instead after all! Because of the above, it’s something fresh and unique, and that is worth checking out in my eyes alone!

Thanks so much to Cameron for answering the questions, make sure you go give him a follow on Twitter and go take a look at his fantastic blog. https://fmcameron.wordpress.com/