Closing Time

Open all the doors and let you out into the world
Turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl
One last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer
You don't have to go home but you can't stay here

There were good times and bad times over the past three years but I will certainly carry many fond memories of my time with FML. I don't think many if any other game has created so much passion, frustration, happiness, sadness and rage has FML has brought me.

Much of the rage was caused by simple issues and design choices which could so easily have been avoided with a little more consideration. But despite this I did have a lot of amazing times especially pre-reset in St John.

Everyone hated 460, but I made it myself before I heard or seen anyone else playing it and spent weeks and months perfecting it with my mate. Yeah it may have been dodgy but this is my single proudest achievement since playing CM1. Going 90 games unbeaten with a tactic I made, with a team I made. (ended by a 2-legged cup tie!!)

I'll never forget the legend of Franco Brienza destroying everyone in sight until the ripe old age of 36 after being signed in season 1. Everyone in St John probably remembers my Franco obsession !

I've never played a game before where the community had a direct line to the development team. I remember discussing player wage auctions with Ov on Christmas Day year before last and receiving emails from Marc Duffy after posting various rants on here. Things like this made it obvious how much they cared about the game. I feel massively privileged for being allowed to have some input into one of my all time favourite franchises which I have played since about 1994.

But then there's the other side of it. So much more could have easily been done to make the game work but it was just never attempted. So much more could have been done on the community side of things but it so often wasn't. Accepting they were going to go with the flawed FA system I suggested some ideas for the Extra FA (or whatever it's called these days).. I emailed the orgs and mods, I posted suggestions on the forum, I emailed support, I posted suggestions on here but I didn't even get the courtesy of a response in game. Maybe they had their own ideas instead, but instead they did NOTHING for seasons then when they did it was something utterly shocking. This is what leaves me feeling bitter. Great ideas ignored as people pursued their own agenda and ego. I'm referring to GW stuff here rather than the development side of things. The only response I ever got was "we haven't got time to do this, we have lifes" - Then why the hell are you a frigging mod ?

I could dig up dozens examples of a total unwillingness to try fun things despite massive support in in the GW but it's done now. I just hope these people realise they are as responsible for the downfall of this game as SI are.

The game doesn't even need that much to work in it's current format. It needs more hooks to stay online, it needs PvE so people are around more so there's more opportunity to play games live, the FA structures need changing and seasons need to be shorter. It needs ad-hoc official competitions and leagues and special events running every day. A busy full gameworld with loads of competitions for every ability massively helps the issue with people not being able to win. They would have so many more opportunities rather than a season of being shit which lasts a whole month and has no joy.

Anyway, thanks for the memories, thanks for the hard work. Some of the mistakes are unforgivable at this point but come FM12 i'm sure all will be forgotten. You will no doubt see me raging in general discussion for FM for many years to come.

ps - In case anyone hasn't realised, the rage thing was mainly an angle to make a blog about my team more interesting. I think it went quite well :)

Time for you to go out to the places you will be from
This room won't be open till your brothers or your sisters come
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end