Op-Ed: Legendary Football Manager franchise launches FM 2012 on Friday Special

The legendary football/soccer game franchise, Football Manager, is launching its 2012 version of its game on Friday 21 October 2011.

And yes, I've already invested £29.99 in British pound sterling in order to acquire my own copy thereof. More importantly, I've played the free demo. Football Manager is a strange beast - it is by far the most popular football/soccer management game out there; and yet its yearly releases, each costing the above price or thereabouts, are little more than updates and variations upon the same theme, frankly. This year, for example, the only major variations upon last year's game, apart from the mandatory squad and stats updates, are the tone-dialogue feature, the improvements to the 3D match engine and a new layout which, however beautiful it may be, is unnecessary - change for change's sake, in other words. And yet - we keep slavishly buying the updates - why? Because there truly is something about this game. Despite it being compared to a spreadsheet game, there is something truly addictive about having leagues from every major soccer country in the world at one's disposal; leagues that can run even into the fourth or fifth tier at times. There is something incredible about this, the Encyclopedia Britannica of football games - the level of detail is just astounding, and there is a joy in either picking your favorite team and steering them to glory, or starting off unemployed and forging a managerial career for yourself - year after year after year. So yes - I've fallen for it again - but it's worth it. Football Manager's game franchise has been cited in 35 divorce cases as, presumably, the cause of said divorces - so, similarly, come Friday, if my boss and co-workers hear that I'm suddenly down with some mysterious sickness which precludes me from leaving my house and the vicinity of my computer, I only pray to God that they be the only people on earth not to be reading Digital Journal at that precise moment in time. May the force of football be with you.