{"id":7889,"date":"2017-02-18T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2017-02-18T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=7889"},"modified":"2017-02-17T18:19:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T18:19:04","slug":"fm17-emotional-engagement-5-5-role-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2017\/02\/fm17-emotional-engagement-5-5-role-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"#FM17 | Emotional Engagement | 5 of 5 | The Role of Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

I knew a lot of people played FM. But until recently, when I began to explore the blogosphere, I had no idea how many people wrote<\/em> about FM.<\/p>\n

Stories of saves are everywhere.<\/p>\n

What explains this fecundity?<\/p>\n

Does FM, like the University of East Anglia’s creative writing master’s, attract a particularly literary set – all budding Ian McEwans or Kazuo Ishiguros?<\/p>\n

It seems unlikely.<\/p>\n

No, it’s because building narratives is fundamental to playing the game.<\/p>\n

For every FM manager who actually publishes a post, there are many more constructing their narratives orally or mentally. People conducting press interviews whilst driving to work; people inventing back stories to explain why the predecessor\u00a0left in such a hurry (‘Klopp in drugs heist’); people having cuppas with their assistant managers whilst planning the transfer strategy for the upcoming window.<\/p>\n

I quite regularly bring together my assistant manager, head physio, chief scout, and head of youth development to review the season to date, evaluate the squad, and develop an action plan. Which is inconvenient — embarrassing, even — since I always do it while soaking in the bath.<\/p>\n

You don’t have<\/em> to create a narrative. You could play the game screen-by-screen, making each decision analytically, purely on its own merits. That, though, would have disadvantages:<\/p>\n