Freekick

Freekick (also known internally simply as FK) is an online, browser-based, football management game (MMOG) developed in Sweden in 2003. Currently the game contains 174 different countries, 63 of them with its own league pyramid, and 29 different language versions (since June 28, 2008). As of July 2008, the game has over 30,000 active users, each with their own team. Freekick is currently in its 18th season and is expecting renewal of the website and the match engine.

The game is completely free to play, though there is an optional VIP to be bought by in-game purchase. VIP features include the ability to have a club logo, club match kit, a transfer assistant, and a more precise overview of the training.

Freekick is always under development, and the game developers are constantly adding new features to the game and enhancing the current ones. These additions, and proposed ideas, are accompanied by debate in the game's forums, where all users are free to make suggestions on how to make the game better and debate the propositions.

Basics
Every user in Freekick has a virtual football team of his/her own. The user has almost unlimited control over their team, as long as he plays within the economic and tactical restrictions. As a result, many different types of teams in Freekick exist. The team's type is generally shaped by the formations used, the choice of players, and the desired Little League level. Freekick doesn't have pre-set formations; the user chooses a formation by fielding different players on different positions on the pitch. The players also don't have a desired position, therefore a manager has to choose the best position for all players in the club.

Registration
All registrations must be validated by a non-automated Freekick GM. This validation period is required to prevent automated mass registrations and generally lasts a few days after the user has requested a team. Nearly always, the newbie takes over someone's old, defunct team and the team's position in the league structure with an initial set of players and a small stadium. Once in a while and much more common in smaller or newer countries, the owner will take over a "bot team," or a team in control by the server. There is no advantage or disadvantage to what type of team a player takes over; every team begins with roughly the same skill level of players. The player is then free to manage his or her squad, sell and purchase the players, define a training scheme, and so forth.

Gameplay
Freekick combines the elements of economic management, tactical options, and community interaction. To consistently win, it is necessary for a manager to utilize all three of these elements. The basic idea of Freekick is to manage a football team wisely, whether it be in buying and selling players, setting the team's lineup, or expanding the arena to the perfect size. The main tasks of a manager every week include choosing a friendly if the team is not in the national cup, setting the optimal lineups for both the league game and cup/friendly game, "pulling" a player from the team's little league and either selling, keeping, or firing that player as needed, monitoring the team's training program to track the progress of the trainees, and tracking the economic progress of the team from week to week to make sure the club is making a profit over time. Freekick is finely balanced to attract both the active managers who prefer to play every day, and casual managers who log in once per week.

During almost every Freekick week, a dedicated manager completes all of the described tasks. In addition, teams have a number of tasks that must be completed, including transferring players as needed and expanding the arena if necessary. Freekick is never-ending, but the vast majority of teams play to win games and ultimately reach the top of the league's pyramid or / and to win the International Cup and the League Cup; therefore, when a team consistently wins games at every level, or has won a treble (Premier League, League Cup, International Cup), that team has "won" the game. Managing a Freekick team to success takes patience and skill, as well as a little luck.

Freekick's game engine doesn't reward the managers who play for a long time. The match engine allows teams with better tactics and choice of players to win, and although sponsor income depends on the level of competition, a team active for a long time doesn't have any default advantage over a newbie. As opposed to the common standard of browser-based MMOG games, Freekick is not repetitive, and success isn't based on time spent in the game.

Match engine
Freekick's match engine (ME) is under constant development. In the current version, during a match, the teams will have between 10 and 15 opportunities each, depending on the tactical options, the quality of players, and some randomness. Each opportunity will be started either with a pass or a dribble in midfield. Then the player will attempt to pass / dribble / shoot from distance / drop the ball, depending on his orders. If the ball reaches the penalty box, an attacker first has to avoid the defender's tackle and then shoot to beat the goalkeeper, or pass the ball to the other attacker, or drop the ball to midfield, depending on his orders.

Every challenge is based on a duel of the two players and the assistance they receive from their team mates. The quality of performance is somewhat random, and the randomness decreases with experience. Assistance is given by the team mates, and it increases or reduces the value of the performance.

Senior league matches are played on Sundays at 12:00 CET. Matches, once completed, may be viewed live at any later moment. The result of the match stays hidden until the match is viewed.

Training
Every day, the players within a team have a chance to raise their skills. Each player may train two skills at a time, or one skill with double effect. Training days are accumulated (0.5 days for each day without training; 1 day when in double effect), and the more training days a player has accumulated, the bigger the chance of that skill raising. Players may also boost form; when in weak form or with a fully negative downtrend. No training is possible when boosting form.

Structure of the game
League pyramid
Each country has its own league pyramid. Abandoned teams in high levels of the league pyramid are not given to new players until the team demotes to one of the bottom two levels of their country's pyramid. As a result, new users begin at the bottom of their country's pyramid and have to work their way up by winning their division at each level. Each division has fourteen teams competing for the league title. When new players join, their division is randomly selected by the administrator who handles their registration application. If a player is successful enough to win their division, he or she has the opportunity to promote to the next level the following season; depending on the division level of the team, the league winner auto-promotes to the next level, the runner-up either auto-promotes to the next level or plays a qualification match against a team from the higher division, and the teams placed down to 4th place in professional leagues play a qualification match against a team from the higher division.

Seasons
Freekick matches are played once per week. League Cup is played on Tuesdays, International Cup and Shadow Cup on Wednesdays, friendly matches on Thursdays, U-21 league matches on Saturdays, and senior league matches on Sundays. Customized cups, created by the users, can be played on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Therefore, an active manager may play every day except on Monday, up to 7 matches per week, while a less active manager may choose to play only the one senior match per week.

Each team plays 13 matches per season, one against each team in the league, and the home venues are chosen randomly and affect only the income from the tickets. Each team will play either 6 or 7 home matches per season. The fixtures are chosen in a random manner.

After the season is over, playoff matches take another week to play. Teams not involved in playoff matches receive a financial compensation.

Teams generally spend the 14-week season managing their team tactically and making economic moves. Managers are responsible for scheduling friendlies, which occur during the week; though friendlies are not mandatory by any means, teams use friendlies to test their formations and players, or to have a duel with one of the rival teams. Players don't gain experience in these matches, and the club receives no income from the tickets or the sponsors. Customized Cups (CC:s) and the League Cup (LC) don't bring any experience or income either.

The off season is the most popular time to use the transfer market, as teams generally prepare for the new season and the international cups.

International play
Very similarly to real-life international play, each country in Freekick forms a National Team (usually called the NT) and a U-21 National Team (usually shortened to U-21 NT) comprised of the best players in that nation. Owning a National Team player is considered a great honor. Each country selects a manager of their national team and U-21 team through an election which takes place once per season.

VIP features
Though Freekick is free to play, the game costs money to run and requires a certain amount of income to stay functional. VIP costs roughly 25 € per year (or 8 € for a period of three months). Buying VIP will unlock several features which don't increase the competitiveness of a team, but make the game more enjoyable and easier to play.

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See Also

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