Backing the Bantams in virtual reality

Bradford, 13 October 2012. It's an uncharacteristically sunny autumnal afternoon. Perfect for watching a game of football you might think. And I do.

Before traipsing down to the stadium to shout myself hoarse at two teams contesting a Yorkshire derby, I pop into a bar in the heart of Bradford's city centre. Packed inside the pub are passionate fans of the home side, brimming full of local pride.

Amidst the throng that clamours for a pre-match pint, at a table awaiting that heartiest of northern cuisine – a giant Yorkshire Pudding filled with beef and onion gravy – sits one supporter whose love for the Bantams cannot be questioned.

Because of him, and more than a hundred fellow devoted researchers that work for free, Sports Interactive's Football Manager series has become the UK's leading soccer simulation franchise. Every club in the Premier League, Football League and most sides in the two-tier Conference have someone assessing their players. Gamers can play the season out differently on their PCs/MACs.

Profiling Penfold

Tim's two pence

I also asked Tim how he felt Bradford's start to the season was going. Bantams fans click on the audio below to hear his thoughts.

Tim Penfold, 23, has been Football Manager's official Bradford City AFCresearcher since 2008. A Bantams fan since boyhood, Tim recalls his first match was a 3-1 home defeat to Manchester City in the old First Division (now Football League Championship) in March 1997, aged seven. He's regularly attended fixtures since 2001 and been a season ticket holder at the Coral Windows Stadium (better known as Valley Parade) for almost a decade.

How did you become a researcher for Football Manager?

Tim played the series religiously growing up. One day curiosity, coupled with his encyclopaedic knowledge of Bradford City, drove him to offer advice to developers Sports Interactive about the club's players on forums.

"I went to every home game and some away, so I saw City a lot," Tim said. A researcher role for Bradford was then advertised online, he applied and it was his good fortune that the head researcher saw his helpful comments and took him on.

What do Football Manager look for in a researcher?

"They were looking for someone who would rate the players neutrally," Tim explained. That begs the question how challenging is it to be objective?

Devil is in the details

Small touches you may not have noticed in Football Manager are also thanks to the series' dedicated researchers:

• Bradford fans wave flags or hold banners, all in an attempt to make the match engine authentic.
• Graphical minutiae even extend to former and unpopular players and coaches.
• Crowd reactions are programmed in accordingly.
• Perhaps the ultimate perk of being a researcher is being able to live vicariously in-game.
• Tim Penfold will appear as the name of a youth player artificially generated.

"It’s always tricky," was his candid answer. Tim highlighted repeated disappointments in recent seasons destroyed any pretensions he might've had about the Bantams. Further, he believes Bradford's struggles at the wrong end of the Football League have improved his objectivity if not his happiness.

And what if a team suddenly strings some good results together? Be careful about getting carried away Tim stressed – that could distort player ratings. Perhaps then a key maxim for football researchers to remember then is form is temporary, but class (or lack thereof) is permanent.

Having an eye for detail separates a good researcher from a great one. A case in point here is noting player appearances, assists, goals, etc. The good researcher pays heed to these, but as we shall see below Tim goes further.

How do you rate players for the series?

It might sound obvious, but there's no substitute for seeing players in the flesh. "The more games you see, the more you can rate a footballer," Tim continued. Going to just a few matches, he explained, would make it difficult to rate a footballer's consistency of performance for example; so seeing fifteen fixtures is a bare minimum.

Researchers receive guidelines about overall ability levels in a certain league, in Bradford's case League Two. Once he's read these, Tim detailed his tasks to me: "I have to work out who are the star players, who aren't and then the individual attributes, strengths and weaknesses".

Tim warns against doing this process the other way round: "You can end up really overrating players if you pick their attributes first… it means you don't take into account weaknesses properly and that’s an important part of the research."

Attributes for footballers in Football Manager are marked out of 20 on a world scale. Everything from shooting to shot-stopping and crossing to clearances must be assessed.

Try it yourself

Fancy being a researcher forFootball Manager?

Sports Interactive are still looking for fans of AFC Bournemouth and Oxford United amongst others to help make future games.

Because Bradford are in the fourth tier of English football that relatively low level of competition must be reflected in their players' in-game stats. If a midfielder is poor at heading for instance, a researcher would only give them a very low rating. Tim suggested no higher than four.

Statistics

Although the goalscoring charts and assists tables provided a basic guide, Tim's view is there’s more involved in assigning attributes than just glancing at these. "You might be underrating [players] because they do things that nobody notices," he added.

Tim cited the example of central midfielder Ritchie Jones and his role in City's starting XI last season: "We won one game in ten without him in the team. If you look at the other stats, he didn't score many, he didn't create many, but what he did was he kept possession."

Returning to the theme of having an eye for detail, he then recalled noticing something about the form of ex-Bantams winger Joe Colbeck during the start of the 2008-09 campaign. The then-Bradford wide player was just smashing crosses into the box for centre forward Peter Thorne rather than getting his head up and providing accurate deliveries.

This posed a problem for Tim. Goals scored were in his expert opinion down to the intelligence of the striker's movement rather than quality on Colbeck's part. It was thus down to Tim’s judgment here to ensure the assisting player creating and the striker converting the chances were both rated fairly.

Bradford City drew 2-2 with York City as we looked on. Credit: Matt Walker

Is there anything new you like in Football Manager 2013?

Tim immediately drew my attention to Classic Mode when I asked him about the series' latest release. with every new title, Football Manager has become more and more complex to play. Tim described this new option as "almost a slimmed-down second version of the game" which reminded him of some of the earlier games he played as a kid.

This back to basics simplicity was echoed in gaming industry giants IGN's review of Football Manager 2013. Tim also mentioned the new Challenge scenarios the game generates and players can also place the sordid world of transfer negotiations in the hands of a Director of Football if they so wish.

by Jamie Clarke