Did the current games like FIFA/PES changed your average fan's perception about football?

[Caesar2290]

You can open any thread about any player and your going to notice that 50-80% of the posts(depending on the player) are labeling him as garbage. Even after a good performance people find something to complain about.

It's easy to write it off as social media trolls, but I remember frequenting football forum in 2005-2009 and it was a different atmosphere. It was mostly positive unless the player had a mare of a performance.

So this got me thinking: what if the perception of football was changed by fans playing these games. You see players in games don't have brain farts or are caught out of position because they're napping. They're not affected by cheating girlfriends, ill parents, depression, etc. Strikers are always consistent and clinical if the player is skilled enough. You won't see RVP going on a 10 match drought in FIFA or PES at the most crucial part of the season or Rashford holding on to the ball a bit longer when everyone and their dog is yelling for him to pass because it's impossible to code.

So my question to you is do you think fans developed unrealistic expectations in part by playing these games and expecting their team to perform as in FIFA/PES where everyone is a robot and executes the system flawlessly 100% of the time?

 

[TsuWave]

When it comes to United? We've just had a lot of poor-average players recently

 

[11101]

I dont think it's anything to do with what you're saying. I don't think the negativity is down to FIFA, it's just the way the world is going.

What FIFA has changed is how people rate players. They think that if one player has a higher FIFA card than another, he is automatically a better player in all situations.

 

[Paxi]

I think Football Manager certainly had an impact — for good and bad. In regards to PES and FIFA, only a moron would compare real life to in game mechanics in those two particular games.

 

[horsechoker]

I think Football Manager certainly had an impact — for good and bad. In regards to PES and FIFA, only a moron would compare real life to in game mechanics in those two particular games.

Agreed I think football manager has had a bigger impact. People know Fifa is unrealistic due to the amount of glitches and the pace beats all game play.

 

[izzydiggler]

Football Manager was the one... everybody became an expert on every player playing in every obscure league around the world.

 

[tenpoless]

They certainly have made the fans think they know better about football. Things like positions, formations, tactics are just button press away and they can clearly see the impact and because it's so easy to achieve, the dunning-kruger effect takes in. But of course it's absolutely different in real life because players aren't robots that you can control 100%.

 

[Paxi]

Agreed I think football manager has had a bigger impact. People know Fifa is unrealistic due to the amount of glitches and the pace beats all game play.

Yeah 100 tricks then an L1 run. Though I’m only in division 3 in fifa so I mightn’t be as proficient.

 

[VeevaVee]

Not sure a United forum is the best place to observe this. We’ve clearly been watching much worse football

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I don't really see an impact. At the biggest clubs there will always be scrutiny and high levels of expectations, and our players/managers have to meet them.

In fact what I see more than before was the obsession with G+A as if its the only thing that defines a performance.

 

[Paxi]

Football Manager was the one... everybody became an expert on every player playing in every obscure league around the world.

I think that’s on the nail. A lot of people always go on how certain players are FM legends etc. I don’t play it personally but I always find it amusing.

Though, I heard there are lot of quite accurate statistics in FM, which actual professional clubs have used before which is kind of crazy.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Hey, don't bring FM and PES down to Fifa's crappy level.

 

[redflash]

Think the negativity is more to do with social media, the rise of fan channels and over analysis due to the 24hr consumption of footballing media.

Society now doesn't want to walk about what's right they want to talk about what's wrong and that is where the Internet provides the perfect platform for negativity and complaint.

It has also driven a desire for absolute and definitive opinion, because of the constant rhetoric which is provided by pundits and commentators on the sport. Player A is no good because there pass completion is on 67%....striker A isn't a 20 goal a season striker so he isn't top level....etc.

 

[Moby]

One thing these games have done is FAST = GOOD

 

[FrankDrebin]

One thing these games have done is FAST = GOOD

The odd obsession on pace/speed is definitely a Fifa thing.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Hey, don't bring FM and PES down to Fifa's crappy level.

agree

 

[Nick7]

I think that’s on the nail. A lot of people always go on how certain players are FM legends etc. I don’t play it personally but I always find it amusing.

Though, I heard there are lot of quite accurate statistics in FM, which actual professional clubs have used before which is kind of crazy.

Sports Interactive have an insanely good and wide “scouting” system for the players and ratings in the game. It’s not perfect and obviously shouldn’t be taken as gospel but it is brilliant.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

The odd obsession on pace/speed is definitely a Fifa thing.

Is it even a thing outside of England though? Germany barely have pace in their trophy winning teams, same with Spain.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I think that’s on the nail. A lot of people always go on how certain players are FM legends etc. I don’t play it personally but I always find it amusing.

Though, I heard there are lot of quite accurate statistics in FM, which actual professional clubs have used before which is kind of crazy.

Nothing wrong with fans knowing more about the game. SE do a great job with their database.

 

[Harry190]

It somehow makes people believe pace is the end-all, be-all in football. Slower defenders apparently have no value.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

The obsession with “GA” is one that annoys me. These nerds would try to tell you Wayne Rooney & Didier Drogba were not world class.

 

[duffer]

Nothing wrong with fans knowing more about the game. SE do a great job with their database.

The downside is people "think" they know more about the game because they can remember the fictional ratings players get on computer games.

I'm guilty of it as well, I used to play Championship Manager 20 odd years ago and I still think the likes of Taribo West and Julius Agahowa were great players.

 

[hungrywing]

FM is how everyone who knew that Camavinga is a good tackler knew that Camavinga is a good tackler.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Sports Interactive have an insanely good and wide “scouting” system for the players and ratings in the game. It’s not perfect and obviously shouldn’t be taken as gospel but it is brilliant.

They get more wrong then they get right to be honest. I remember my United career on FM16 James Wilson became my number 9 & Rashford was released & ended up in league 2. Kante was a big standard average Championship midfielder too.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

The downside is people "think" they know more about the game because they can remember the fictional ratings players get on computer games.

I'm guilty of it as well, I used to play Championship Manager 20 odd years ago and I still think the likes of Taribo West and Julius Agahowa were great players.

True, but the payoff is net positive. This place was a lot of fun 15 years back but the level of football discourse, for example, has only gone up. Of course there is stuff like twitter and tiktok to dumb people back down.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I think Football Manager certainly had an impact — for good and bad. In regards to PES and FIFA, only a moron would compare real life to in game mechanics in those two particular games.

Yes agreed - FM has been very influential particularly when you start seeing random role descriptions popping up in a debate like regista, libero, deep plying playmaking (support) . The truth is, it's great because it enables debate and as long as you don't take yourself too seriously, it's all fun and the more exposure to different tactics and a real football database (as in you can actually get to know of new players although you have no idea of their real ability) is only positive.

 

[Kentonio]

They get more wrong then they get right to be honest.

This is true. I started a new game of FM21 and in the first season Man Utd won the PL.

 

[Paxi]

Nothing wrong with fans knowing more about the game. SE do a great job with their database.

I agree.

 

[Paxi]

In regards to FM, I think it’s popularity played a part in the micro stats that people obsess over these days.

I think it’s good, to a degree, but I’d still say the eye test is my trusty old friend.

 

[DJ Jeff]

It made people really really overrate anyone with a bit of pace and ball control from 2008-2012 ish.

 

[FatTails]

Yes. Pace >>>>> all other attributes combined.

 

[JB7]

Agreed I think football manager has had a bigger impact. People know Fifa is unrealistic due to the amount of glitches and the pace beats all game play.

People do know it’s unrealistic but they still label players in the same way. They want rapid players in through the door & absolute hate players like Maguire who aren’t deemed quick enough.

 

[BusbyMalone]

I’m not sure if it’s that big of a deal. I don’t see much on here that would lead me to believe that people are making an argument and using Fifa or PES to back them up. I often see it as an insult that people throw around if they happen to disagree with a take, but other than that, I don’t know. As for the pace thing, I mean pace is a massive asset, that’s why it’s often talked about more than almost any other trait. It's not everything, of course, but if you have it, then even if you're limited technically you're going to cause some issues for the opposition.

These conversations often skew to the negative, but there’s a huge positive to these games, too. Younger people are generally a lot more knowledgeable about footballers around the world, who they are, where they play, and where they came from. And while looking at a card on Fifa isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to analyzing a player, it does give you a good general overview of said player. More so in something like FM than Fifa or PES, to be fair. FM is famous for its detail. They really do delve into the minutiae of players and are sometimes a great tool to use when it comes to looking at emerging talents that haven’t broken through yet. So yeah, a lot of positives to these games too.

 

[Oranges038]

The downside is people "think" they know more about the game because they can remember the fictional ratings players get on computer games.

I'm guilty of it as well, I used to play Championship Manager 20 odd years ago and I still think the likes of Taribo West and Julius Agahowa were great players.

Funny how you remember players differently because of the game. I won the League and Champions League with Boro on FM, had a 34 year old Fernando Couto as the mainstay at the back. He is still a legend to me, a truly great defender, as was Stuart Parnaby.

 

[vodrake]

They get more wrong then they get right to be honest. I remember my United career on FM16 James Wilson became my number 9 & Rashford was released & ended up in league 2. Kante was a big standard average Championship midfielder too.

To be fair, there probably is a world in which Rashford is playing in League 2 and Kante is in the Championship. So much about football is just potluck when it comes down to it.

Relatedly, I think that's one thing that has come from video games, the idea that everything in football is preordained. Every player has a hard set "potential" that determines whether they are good or bad and this cannot change. A "low" potential player can never achieve anything, whilst a "high" potential player is guaranteed to have a successful top level career.

The number of "guaranteed world-class" players we've seen come through the youth ranks who are now milling their trade in the lower divisions or in weaker leagues abroad, whilst the kids everyone turned their noses up at are having solid premier league careers is probably pretty spectacular by now. So much comes down to luck and mentality, and that's pretty hard to roll up into a "potential" level.

 

[Vidyoyo]

1v1 me

 

[flappyjay]

I swear pace is more useful in real life than on fifa nowadays. I don't take those games seriously but I also learned on that same game that you can't win games against other proper opponents with a midfield like Pogba, Bruno and VDB. You will get ran through like you would in real life. When I was a kid I admit that I took the player ratings seriously.

 

[Withnail]

Hey, don't bring FM and PES down to Fifa's crappy level.

Have you played PES 2021?

 

[L1nk]

In regards to Transfers, Football Manager has absolutely destroyed any normal persons view of that process without a doubt.

 

[Vidyoyo]

Have you played PES 2021?

Is that the newest one? Admittedly I only play against friends online but it's probably the most fun one I've played in years.

I find FIFA too fast and my old brain can't keep up.