With the recent end of the tremendous Football Manager series Glory Hunter from DoctorBenjy FM, a void appeared in my life. Since being made redundant in January, many of my days consisted of writing, watching films, looking for work, andm for a long time, trawling through YouTube videos galore. As a fan of the Football Manager series (3-5-2 Gegenpress with Manchester United, gamechanger), following the journey made by a legend like DoctorBenjy gave me a release from the outside world.
Despite the series ending, I’ve been introduced to a squadron of fascinating Football Manager players, such as Omega Luke with his World Rotterdamination series, and Loki Doki travelling back to the 1995-96 Premier League season. However, possibly the most inspired premise I’ve seen since Glory Hunter is the aforementioned Loki Doki’s Football Manager Choose Your Own Adventure.
Inspired by the gamebooks of the 1980s, the concept involves the reader being given choices throughout the book. After setting up the story, the author gives at least two options, such as “Take the left path” or “Take the right path”, and each option takes you on a different story. The reader continually makes their own choices, which could result in a happy ending or, more likely, death. A more modern version is Telltale Games having players make decisions in The Walking Dead or their version of Batman.
In Loki Doki’s example, he begins as manager of Liverpool in the Premier League (boo), at the start of the 2019/20 season. The first choice he reveals is a pretty simple one, offering the option of two different tactics, the first being the default 4-1-2-2-1 with a defensive midfielder, two wingers and one striker. The second choice is a flat 4-3-3, pushing the two wingers into striker positions. The decision you make here will determine the rest of your season, as the next two options will be to choose between two transfer targets that suit your chosen tactic.
And that’s where the importance of your decisions take shape. If you decide to go with three strikers, your transfer options will be more attacking based, whereas if you stick to the original formation, your options will be based on the defence. How your story develops varies depending on how you approach your decisions, the motivations and beliefs you bring as a football manager. For instance, are you a diehard Liverpool fan and stick as close to Jurgen Klopp’s style as possible, or are you more like me on my first game and a bit of a bastard, trying to make all the wrong decisions on purpose? I won’t spoil whether it worked or not.
However, the different choices do help to unveil what kind of manager you are. Do you buy more strikers as Sir Alex Ferguson used to for Manchester United, or do you prefer the Pep Guardiola method of multiple midfielders? Do you stick to the experienced players ala Jose Mourinho, or do an Arsene Wenger and put the trust in the younger players? You may even get an opportunity to show ‘Big’ Sam Allardyce or Stuart Pearce as underrated tactical geniuses by incorporating some of their most shocking decisions (I won’t reveal which, though). Having played from beginning to end three times already, I’ve had different intentions each time and have yet to repeat a storyline.
When Bantam Books originally released the Choose Your Own Adventure series in the 1980s and 1990s, they published at least 184 novels, and there’s no reason why Loki Doki couldn’t achieve similar. Imagine the endless possibilities that could occur in such a series. Maybe you could take over Barcelona and get the choice of selling Lionel Messi and trying to replace him or keeping him and risking an unhappy player. You could move to PSG and decide whether to go with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe as a front two or stick to them as wingers with Mauro Icardi in the middle. Or one that interests me, a Choose Your Own Adventure: The England National Team edition. Always wondered what a classic 4-4-2 with Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford up front could do.
The major strength of the series is its ability to involve the audience. Though it’s been proven by Twitch that there’s enjoyment in watching others play, Loki Doki has been able to evolve from that. Where the original book series and the modern Telltale games worked was that they placed the decision in the audience’s hands, something Football Manager fans already enjoy by taking over their favourite teams. Here, you are presented with options and get to see the repercussions of your actions, while enjoying the story that Loki Doki takes you on. It combines the best of both worlds, enjoying someone else’s story while knowing your decisions matter as a viewer. You choose, and Loki Doki takes you on an adventure.
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