How I started.. Playing Sports Sims

[JDl23l 0]

Started with east side hockey manager then moved to FHM and OOTP baseball. 

[clamel 6]

OK, I better chip in. 

Try to keep it short even if the story actually goes back to 70s.  Coming from Sweden where really boardgames mostly are like Monopoly and Risk. I didn't get to know sportgames until I was in USA as a Collegestudent in the 70s. Then Strat-o-Matic and later APBA become addictive. Before that time I knew nothing about American Football or Baseball. I played the "real" football until my senior years in college, but even that game can end a career with wrong injuries. The first computer sportgames on C64 was not the way to go with sports. Then getting some early sportgames like Tony LaRussa and some forgotten NFL games on those first PCs helped a bit. But I kept on playing with cardgames on those American sports over the years until Championship Manager finally popped up on the REAL sport.  EA Sport games I always found too much arcade style in those days, still think it. Like EAs NHL,Madden and FIFA versions. You step into the shoes of the player in those games having the ball and try to emulate his moves. Crazy. I'm not Messi, never been, so I prefer Messi to handle his playing himself. I love to manage him.  

So manager games with as close to reality is my game.  OOTP and Football Manager have dominated the years but always looked for some decent games on NFL, NBA and the college versions of them. I had a look at DDS games some years back but they looked too thin. Still they have a long way to go, especially the football version ( a bit to reach FOFs deeper level I think). Latest iteration have focused a lot on how the menues are looking and the interface. The heart of the games needs to come along. OOTP went the other way I think. First the inside then a better and better interface then from pure text to 2D and some sort of 3D. I found this site when I decided to dig in on the DDS games last year.  

Nice to see the searchlight is also on several other interresting games here on GM-Games. That CT looks good and since I always followed The Kentucky Derby I just had to try out Starters Orders. Kind of nice game. Good to run a stable and just hope you get a new Secretariat. But of course I have to mod the racing schedule. Modding games are important in my plays 

Actually anything in managerstyle hits my heart, but beside the college versions I always tend to like playing historical saves and have strong feelings that the part must be present in a game. OOTP in that case is the King no doubt, but hoping to get DDS games on a nice track to get up to par.

Trying hard to update and fix the historical-file in the DDS pro football version, but running in to several doubts and problems to get it right were I like it.

 Well I said it was difficult to keep it short. LOL

 

[shane88 1]

Championship Manager and Football Manager are the games for me. I am new to the Wolverine Games myself.

[thiag 1]

My first ever contact with manager games was Elifoot 98, before this i've tried championship manager 01/02 and never looked back again.

Today i'm more fan of basketball managers, like DDS.

[Juan Antonio 0]

I was never much interested but with the covid sterted to played Football manager 2020, now 21 and think might be interesting to move to an NBA manager with all salary restrictions, trades, draft...

Looking forward to start, just got it!

[Papierene 1]

Iam playing Soccer manager games for a long time ( Football manager by sega or precessors). Now I want to start with Basketball too^^

[Invisible Witness 1]

Championship Manager 93/94 sucked me into these type of games...

Ultimate Soccer manager 98 was also pretty cool

[erNNzje 1]

Very interasting bacground stories.

 

I started with Footbal Manager 2004 and stayed with title until 2019.

Now I will try Draft Day Sports Pro Football

[Hyperboreer 1]

Championship Manager was incredible. I've played countless hours. FM probably still is, but I got less and less invested in Football (Soccer) over the years.

[the_calmeister 1]

Been playing Football manager for a decade and thought I should branch out a little.

[amueller 1]

First game for me was way back in the 80s - a soccer manager game called football manager. 

[M00N 1]

i Started with FIFA Football Manger and i rly miss it! i still pla FIFA FM 14 till this day with mods for updates and my own custom leagues.

[Pasatrj 0]

 

I ham trying to dip my toe in from  College Football now to MLB.  I know it will be a jump, but seems like fun!

 

[ibestrugglin 1]

The NBA Live series is what got me into management games. Growing up my dad and brother used to just do fantasy drafts amongst each other to play vs and enjoying building different teams doing that led me to playing the franchise mode and since then I have always been playing them.

[c2019911 0]

Really cool post! My start was Football Manager back about 5 years ago! I started there, branched out to OOTP, and now excited to try CF21 and ProFootball 21!

[amazedbygrace86 2]

I'm guessing my first exposure to the management possibilities in sports gaming was NCAA Football on the Playstation 1. I loved doing Dynasty mode, and I'd track some of the annual stats of my key players in a notebook. As time went by, I was then exposed to games like Bowl Bound College Football, Football Manager and Out of the Park Baseball. I would say Football Manager and OOTP really opened my eyes to how fun these kinds of games can be. 

[tarvislam 0]

I started loving them from og Madden franchise and other EA titles. I've always loved strategy titles like Civ. I played sports growing up and this sort of marries my two big childhood hobbies!

[danielA1985 0]

First game was Baseball Mogul

[TheBlackraider 1]

In my case I started with FIFA Manager 08 until 11 (IIRC), then Football Manager (SI) until 2019. Pro Cycling Manager (2016/17/18/19) , NBA2K19, WWE 2K19, Madden 19/20/21 and if you consider Blood Bowl as a sim game  many years of it.

Recently I discovered DDS Pro Football and then DDS Pro Basketball.

Cheers.

[ethandubbs18 0]

I got really into FM my junior year. That's where the addiction started.

[Scotty6Arms 1]

I first played some old as dirt soccer and hockey manager games in the early 90s - can`t even remember the names as I am obviously even older... They were simple as hell but really fun. I kept playing the FIFA Manager Series over the years and was always looking for some more obscure stuff until I stumbled across greydog software, who really did some nice stuff outside of the mainstream gaming market. I come back to sports management games quite regularily because its a relaxing way to play and rage quits occur... well... not that frequently.

[madeye 0]

The first computer-based sports game I played was baseball for the Commodore 64. I don't even remember the actual name of the game, but I would sit at my friend's house for hours on end while we played. 

I LOVED sports my entire childhood. I spent countless hours reenacting games by myself in the back yard. Playing out the biggest moments from that week from my Eagles, Phillies, and Sixers. I think that imagination-based play was the foundation that led me to be attracted to GM/SIM sports games later in life.

In college I too was absolutely addicted to Techmo Superbowl. Our entire dorm floor was into it, playing various leagues in different rooms all hours of the day and night. Being a soccer player I was also hooked on FIFA. We would play full seasons forever.

After college I got away from video games for a while and got into board games. In the last decade I was introduced to several cards and dice-based sports games and got absorbed in it so easily. Then I discovered OOTP and loved it. There are so many ways you can play it and the options for historical replays was endless.

Recently discovering the DDS SIM games for college basketball and (just recently) pro football, I've had a blast with something that I never really tried - fictional sports universes. I've always used real teams and players, replaying historical seasons, following my childhood heroes all over again. But the fictional-based games have really sucked me in and I'm absolutely loving it.

[jaredkel 0]

I have always loved being a gm on either 2k or madden, but those games just dont have the features i want anymore. thats how i found out about draft day sports

[marccochadora 1]

Fifa 98 was my first Sports Game I remember. I'm from germany so Fifa and Soccer was the most important Sport/sgame. After I watched Football the first time, I started playing Madden 15 I think.

But the Manager-Mode there is very bad, and I started to get into College Football as well. This was how i stumbled across CTFM and I'm looking forward to play!

[tsmoha 1]

NBA Live 95 was one of my first sports games, beside a couple of classic (german) football/soccer management games, that are still fun to play (at times). For NBA Live 96 - that I asked to get for christmas - me and my brothers were searching our parent's house to find it prior to christmas eve. And we did - and we actually were playing the game a couple of times (secretly) and put it back, just to receive it back on christmas day.