ManagerZone

ManagerZone (commonly abbreviated to MZ) is an online browser-based sports management game (MMOG). Developed in Sweden by Power Challenge AB (part of a group owned by Power Challenge Holdings Ltd., which is based in the UK), it was first released in a test season on September 6, 2001 and started its first full season on September 23, 2001. At present it offers users the ability to manage a team in football and/or ice hockey. ManagerZone was initially a pay to play game, but has since become free to play, though it offers the option to purchase Club Membership unlocking additional options and features as well as other one-off purchasable features.
Currently the game contains 99 different countries, each with its own league pyramid . Users from outside these 99 main countries join together in the fictional ManagerZone Country, which, aside from being a multinational league, functions exactly the same as the other leagues. As of October 2011, the game had over 500,000 active users registered.
Game Concept
Within the game all users manage their own virtual sports club - in either football, hockey or both - by training, buying and selling players, setting tactics, optimizing their team's stadium and facilities, managing their youth squad, and climbing the league pyramid. A particularly important aspect of ManagerZone that heavily favours active teams is a 'Form' system, where players must play an optimal amount of games each week in order to achieve top form and play their best. On the other hand, playing too few or too many matches a week impacts the form negatively, subsequently causing players to not play their best or even perform badly (despite otherwise being a great player). Users may only have one team at a time (though can manage both a football and hockey team simultaneously), and must also obey some simple game rules or risk being permanently suspended from the game. The players used in the game are computer generated and do not resemble any real life players, though their names do reflect the nationality they are generated for. A Swedish team, for example, will have all Swedish players when it is initially formed.
;3D Matches
ManagerZone gives all users the option to watch their games in 3D, making it one of the only online manager games to do so. More traditional 2D viewing options are also available, as is a purely text based overview of a match.
;Season and League Structure
A ManagerZone season lasts 13 weeks (11 weeks to finish the league and then a two week season break), and as of early October 2011 the game is approaching its 40th season. A pyramid league system is used, where 12 teams compete in each league group under the following promotion and relegation format:
1st: Auto-Promotion
2nd & 3rd: Promotion play-off qualifier
4th-7th: Stays in same division
8th & 9th: Relegation play-off qualifier
10th-12th: Auto-Relegation
Play-off qualifiers are held in the first week of the season break, involving groups of four teams in a round-robin tournament: three from the lower division and one from the upper division. If the upper division team finishes top of the play-off table, everyone stays in their current division. If one of the teams from the lower division finishes top however, then they are promoted and the upper division team relegated, the other two lower division teams remaining in their current division. Furthermore, at the beginning of every new season abandoned teams are moved straight to the bottom of the league pyramid, which can result in teams from lower divisions being promoted as the leagues are 'compacted'. New users are given a random team in the bottom of their country's league pyramid.
Community
ManagerZone has a variety of community features including forums in 28 languages , user guestbooks, a ManagerZone wiki, and an online magazine called The Zone that community members write themselves (including a CrewZone that the ManagerZone crew is responsible for). As of October 2011 78 countries have their own Zone magazine , with some having separate football and hockey Zones. ManagerZone also has a mailing system for users, though new users from July 2008 onwards do not receive a ManagerZone email address.
As with most online games ManagerZone has a wide range of admins: some keep the game from being unfair, some moderate the forums and keep them from getting filled with spam, some translate texts and news posts, and some write country-specific articles for their national Zone magazine.
ManagerZone also features National Teams composed of the best in game players belonging to a given country. National elections are held on the national forums twice a year, typically in January and July , and the winner chosen by the community gets to coach the national team for the term (along with one or two assistants if needed).
There are also Club Cups which pitch teams from different countries against each other, but this is mostly a premium feature with the exception of the Elite Cups, in which the best teams from each country are automatically invited to compete to become the best team in ManagerZone.
Premium Content
In ManagerZone it is completely free to play and participate in the main league, however further cups can be purchased on a per cup basis. Users can also choose to purchase Club Membership, which can be bought either via a subscription ($5.83 US dollars per month as of October 2011) or for a finite amount of time as a one-off payment (e.g. one, three, six or 12 months). This allows free access to official cups, which otherwise require the aforementioned one-off purchases, along with several other Club Member-only features.
Other purchasable features include Head2Head matches, instant matches, friendly leagues, as well as a variety of store items that can be used to customize your team's players, such as headbands and tattoos.
Notability
The game itself has gained significant popularity, spawning a number of off-site web pages that range in function from newbie guides to off-site forums, as well as player display tools and player rating sites.
ManagerZone has also supports charity services and has on more than one occasion done so, notably via Charity Cups, for example towards Médecins Sans Frontières, the Djalma Santos Football charity work for children, and most recently supporting UNICEF.
ManagerZone won the Multiplayer Online Games Directory Game Of The Month once, in March 2004

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