I struggled to decide what to write for this issue, I had planned the World of Warcraft expansion but I want to wait on that til next month because although getting time earlier in the month to reach the level cap I've not had much to push beyond that which is a huge amount of content. Instead I'm not reviewing an individual game, but more a lack of one.
As many of you know I'm a huge Rugby fan, at the moment it's the Rugby World Cup. This isn't me about to say where are all the rugby games though, we have a Rugby World Cup 2015 game, and the occasional one of that type, we even have the Rugby Manager game on the phone that I'm now hooked on. My question is spurred on by a crisis with my Welsh lads which is a huge number of injuries.
Many of us enjoy some sport, whether like me it's Rugby or your a Football (either type) fan, maybe a Ice Hockey fan or maybe you're obsessed with the Winter Olympics. My thought kicks in along side the management game, they focus on running a team and making decisions, but they ignore a huge amount of the staff we don't see day to day.
I'll use Rugby as an example, first of all most Rugby players will be in youth/amateur leagues, but games ignore them. You have to be scouted, Scouts whilst included in most management games but you don't actually play as a scout, the medical staff, assess the injuries and make decisions. PR staff etc.
I can appreciate it's hard to translate these roles into a game, I can't imagine to many people wanting to watch virtual sport for several hours whilst you decide if a player has "what it takes" to be part of your team, or developing a player from youth over a few weeks to find out he doesn't succeed at the senior level. However it does still make me think they are too overlooked. So whilst perhaps they shouldn't be the sole focus of the game's, they could be included.
Let's take Football manager as the initial focus, you start Unemployed or Managing a team, what if you Start Unemployed but can only get a job as a Amateur or Youth coach, and you have to design training sessions based on the managements game-plan, if you succeed maybe you can get offered an Assistant Manager job and have to handle the occasional friendly or youth match etc.
I just think in all of these "management" games they should shine a line on the lesser seen roles within sport.