Manager-Mania

Manager-Mania (also known internally simply as MM) is a free online, browser-based, football management game (MMOG) developed in Argentina. You can also pay for "Premium" subscriptions to obtain extra features.

Users register for a team, and when their application is approved a new club hires them to be their manager. Managers have to control the club's economy, negotiate with the Board, set tactics, train the youth and professional squad, transfer players on a transfer market, present the team stars at a press conference, etc.

History

At January 17, 2008 the creators decided to release the game after 2 years of development. The first 2 months they had an online Beta version where users could only get a team by invitation. At march of that same year the registrations were open to everyone.

Currently the game is present in 80 different countries, each with its own league pyramid, and 11 different language versions (since July 15, 2008): english, spanish, portuguese, croatian, chinese (simplified), polish, romanian, finnish, italian, german and dutch. Since July 2008, the game had over 4,800 users, each with their own team.

Game Overview

* In Manager-Mania, the match viewer is designed in Java, and it is a very good tool to see how the players perform on a match, according to the tactic a manager had set.

* It is possible to design new tactics: Users can decide where to place each player, both in defense positions and attack positions. They can also tell the players which actions to take at set plays: corner kicks, free kicks, penalties, etc.

The countries with more managers are Brazil, Argentina, Romania, China, England, and Italy, among others.

Game Basics

The season starts with a brief period of Pre-Season, where users must decide and negotiate agreements with several parties. First, the board will make you an initial proposal based on aspects like your squad value, your previous season performances, and other factors. They can negotiate this proposal for a week, and this will decide things like how many player sign-ins they can do, the club budget for the season, and the cups and league aspirations.

The users must get in shape their squad. During this week, they should organize friendly matches to get players to the best possible physical form before the first league match. It is vital to start the season with the team having the best possible physical form.

When Pre-Season finishes, managers should try your best to even or better the board proposal agreed for the season.

The club has some trainers that help you improve the squad training performance. Trainers can be hired by accessing a trainer transfer market. Same thing happens for players: There is a Player Transfer Market where managers buy and sell team players.

Users can also customize league, cup & friendly match tactics. All league matches are played with a League tactic, all cup matches are played with a Cup tactic, etc. Matches can be watched LIVE using a Java Web Start 2D Match engine. There are also match statistics to analyze the match performance of all players.

Every season each team participates in the national league and in cups. Every manager can accomplish their objectives using their own playing style.

In order to accomplish a successfull performance as a manager, the users have to find a balance between these factors: the players, the economy, the press, the Board, and the youth academy.

When a user gets a team, the Board gives him a warm welcome. The manager is hired by a club that has about 40 players, a stadium with enough facilities to fulfill the minimum league requirements, and a minimum staff of trainers. The players can be field players or goalkeepers, and each has several skills: speed, stamina, shooting, headshooting (these last 2 are divided in accuracy and power), tackling, marking, short passing, long passing, penalties, experience, form and morale. If they are goalkeepers, they also have "goalkeeping" and "goalkeeping for Set Plays". Each skill is quantified in "balls", and they go from 0 balls up to 10 balls (10 being the best possible quality achieved on a specific skill).

According to the creators, players also have "hidden" attributes which make each player unique.

In order to have a nice economy balance at the club, a manager has to take under consideration the income and the expenses. The income is formed by sponsor income, player sells, and the fans ticket income. On the other hand, expenses are divided between player sign-ins, player and trainer salaries, and stadium maintenance.

In case a club does not fulfill the stadium requirements for a specific tournament (leagues, national cup, etc.) the team has to play all matches at the Manager-Mania stadium, paying the corresponding rent.

The training is the most important part in order to succeed on the game. If the youth players come up to be team stars, they could be sold on very good money, generating good income for the club.

The youth academy has 10 youths every season. Youth players gain balls faster than professional players.

The Economy

At the "Transactions" section managers check out the club's income and expenses. Club assets, and a graph showing the evolution in the last weeks, are also shown. A curve is going down as weeks go by would indicate that the club is loosing money. On the other hand, a growing curve shows a good financial health for your team.

The ticket sale is, generally speaking, the most important source of income. Other incomes for the club are sponsors, stadium banners and shirt sponsors.

At the "Financial Report" section managers can monitor and analyze the team's income and expenses week after week. There will also be pie charts that let you point out specific transactions that may be of your interest in order to manage a balanced economy.

It is important to handle the club's finances with responsability so as to always have available cash. If your decitions make the club loose money, the Board will make less money available for next season's budget and you will have less cash at your disposal.
By generating strong income, the budget for next season is guaranteed to be higher than the current season's.

The Board

The Board will be asking you at the beggining of every season (Preseason period) about your plans for the team.

You will have an Initial Proposal. After analyzing it thoroughly, you can change this Proposal using your best manager instincts. They will answer you more than once over that week, so be ready to receive counter-offers. When the Board wants to tell you something, the Board icon at the center of the screen will turn yellow. This means that a new Proposal has arrived for you to analyze it. Take your time and try to do this the best you can. Your answer will decide the future of your club for the entire season, changing the gameplay and management experience season after season. You will have time to answer a Proposal for that whole week.

Remember that the possible answers are three and only three. When you pick one, the Board will think about your choice and will perform a counter-offer later.

The Stadium

It is strongly recomended that you improve your Stadium as the game goes along, since this will seriously affect the club's economy.
National leagues and other important tournaments have different minimum stadium requirements that must be fulfilled in order to be able to host their games: Stadium Capacity, Pitch level and Light.
If a stadium does not meet these requirements, matches will be played at the Manager-Mania Stadium, which will add rent expenses for the use of the facilities.

The Training

All of your team players come to the club everyday to get some training.
You can tell them the specific training area where you want them to improve their skills. This is done at the 'Training' section.
If you want to train the senior squad, you must click on the 'Senior Squad'. Same happens for the youths: If you would like to tell them where to train, you need to click on 'Youth Squad'.
You will see the training pitch with all of your players inside it. Drag & Drop the players to the training area you want them to be. If you move the mouse cursor over them, you will see the player's skills. If you click on any of them, the view will change to notes you have been taking on that specific player (this is only for Premium Users). Click on any of them again to return to the SkillView. If you double click on any of them, a new window will open showing that specific player's information.

Most of the training areas have 2 skills that are related to each other:

* Speed & Stamina
* Set Plays & Penalties
* Marking & Tackling
* Ball Control & Agility
* Passes & Long Passes
* Headshooting Power & Headshooting Accuracy
* Shooting Power & Shooting Accuracy
* Goalkeeping & Goalkeeping (this skill is for Goalkeepers only)
* Psychologist
* Rest

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See Also

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