January 31, 2008

One of the ideas tossed around when setting up our new Community Discussion forum was to hold regular interviews with members of the community. This would enable us to find out what makes them tick and how they view the community in which they participate. It’s not the most original idea ever and most sites have tried it at some point in their existence, however we hope to do things a little different by talking to a variety of people not just site staff and owners. That’s right from time to time we aim to feature ‘average’ members of the community, people who may post quietly and infrequently but who nevertheless have a valid view on FM and its internet fraternities.

Our first victim – sorry, interviewee – was mikedadude who performs an Admin role at cmfrenzy. Why mikedadude? Why not? He’s been around for some three and a half years or so, is generally well respected, is knowledgeable of the community and he’s staff at one of the UK’s biggest FM fansites. So, we set him nine questions and let answer as he felt fit.

 How long have you been a part of the CM/FM Community?

I started posting on forums and so forth in late 2004 but only became active in the admin-side of CMFrenzy in early 2006, so not very long.

- What inspired you to set up/join the staff team of a fansite?

Well it’s just a hobby for me, as sad as that may sound, and I also wanted to help out a site which had helped me out with the teenage age old issue of boredom… and the fact there was a babe of the day section helped too!

- What advice would you give to someone thinking of setting up a fansite of their own?

If you don’t continue putting effort in to it will fail. There’s been times when I have just wanted to quit the whole community all together and just say “screw it” and that’s with a large site such as CMFrenzy. So if you want to start out from the bottom, stick to it.

- CM Frenzy – the name implies that the site has been around since the days when CM was the game to own.
Tell us a little of the site’s history?

Well, CM Frenzy was first established in January 2003 but only moved to the domain in July 2003. The site started off as a project for the owner, k8oylos, to further his website skills and it just really evolved since then. Our last peak was around the CM03/04 time and after that site came close to being kind of dead but since then we’re getting more visitors than ever before. The reason we have not changed to FMFrenzy is because that domain is already taken, and besides it’s not like we don’t offer CM content anymore either.

- CM Frenzy often appears to operate outside of the Community, in so far as you rarely hear it mentioned at other sites in the way sortitoutsi, GoalKick, FMG Live etc are. Is this something that bothers the staff at CMF? Would you like to see the site be better thought of (for want of a better term) by the community?

I mean I’m sure it bothers the other staff as much as it bothers me. I see the absence of our mention as a sort of sign that we don’t have a good reputation among the other avid scene members. I have tried to improve this but it’s difficult to change people’s opinion of the site. Naturally I would like to see the site being mentioned more in community articles and so forth. What really annoys me is when sites talk about the “old dogs” and then completely ignore CMFrenzy, just pisses me off.

- Mainsite or forums? It’s the age old question of which is better and which should have more importance attached to it? Can a site exist in today’s community without a forum and vice-versa?

Mainsite – there are way too many forums out there today. Once you get your mainsite strong, add a forum but not vice versa.

- It’s been suggested that while there are currently as many, if not more sites than at any previous time, the majority of these sites are offering nothing other than an online ego massage to the owner; Fair comment? How do you assess the current state of the Community?

Well I think over the years sites have just emerged as the big peeps, you no longer have to scour thirty sites to find a tactic, or to find a guide. Now you only need to look at ten of the biggest FM fansites and you’re covered. Sites such as susie, fmglive, fmformation, fm-britain, or if you’re lazy fmportal. I think the current state of the community is fine in all honesty.

- How would you rate the current game? Will the next patch make it the game it should have been, or is it effectively unredeemable now? Which is the best CM/FM version in your opinion?

New game was a big disappointment for me, I don’t think the next patch will improve it much. I still wonder what on earth the dev team were thinking when they assumed that the default skin was user-friendly and nice on the eyes… I can only play FM08 because of third-party graphics and even then it’s not a great step up from FM07. Very disappointing.

Best game of all time would have to be CM 03/04 wouldn’t it? It just had everything you needed, hell people still play it today.

- What features would you like to see added (or removed) when FM09 is released?

I would like to see some old features added in again… Such as the “off the ball” and “on the ball” feature for tactics, and other small features that they have gradually removed since CM2. They also really need to stop so much media interaction from occurring or at least including settings, they’re so arbitrary and dull it’s unbelievable.