Football Superstars

In just over a year registrations for CyberSports' football MMO have risen at an incredible rate with over 250,000 signed up and 2,000 now joining every day. It's not just the players getting involved either as lucrative in-game advertising deals with the likes of Nokia, PUMA and Reebok have secured the game's future as a free-to-play fixture in the sporting calendar.

Ali Wood chatted to Steve Marshall, creative director at CyberSports to find out why Football SuperStars is scoring with the fans.

From the stats we've seen, the growth in people playing Football SuperStars over the last year has risen at an impressive rate. What's the attraction?

Marshall: Up until now, we've been pretty quiet about what we're doing, relying mostly on viral activity and word of mouth. But with our final touches in place we're making more noise about Football SuperStars.

We've seen that many of closed beta testers have chosen the FSS world to be their virtual home and spend valuable spare time within our world. Fans all over the world are extremely passionate about football and we've caught the imagination of hundreds of thousands of people by giving them an opportunity of realising their dream or simply spending time with like-minded individuals.

You say you want to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers, how are you going to do that? And do you see FSS appealing to all ages and sexes?

Marshall: We created three games and knitted them together with the lifestyle world. 'Kickabouts' are pitches scattered around where players can setup friendly three or five-a-side matches. These games may be public or private, and time or goal restricted. Players grow their key football talent by playing these games, but receive no money or fame.

'FS Club' games allow players to join one of 14 teams at character creation and play up to 11-a-side 90-minute matches competitively, teams are rated using a modified Elo system in a four-week seasonal league, allowing us to run any number of matches 24/7.

The final system is the 'Player Managed Club', which allows a player to create their own club, recruit other players and challenge other managers in player-controlled tournaments. We'll be introducing automated and seasonal tournaments as well in future updates. These games require the players to organise the matches using our in-game features but will be a significant draw.

What's next for FSS' future?

Marshall: With patches planned at least every other month and larger releases every six months, we'll introduce additional activities on the pitch and in the lifestyle world to enhance the experience. From increasing the library of animation-specific skills, such as the overhead kick, to allowing players to buy status symbols and introducing a player-run transfer system. We've years of changes planned and will continue to release them to the community as time goes by.

Do you feel at all nervous about SEGA unleashing Football Manager Live?

Marshall: Not at all, comparing Football Manager Live to FSS is akin to comparing a turn-based strategy fantasy game to a fantasy shooter. We do share some similarities, with FSS players are able to form their own teams with Player Managed Clubs, where they design their kit and recruit real people into their team, competing with them in their own leagues and tournaments comparable in many ways to a guild in MMORPGs. However, managers will be dealing with real players and not statistics, they may also have multiple squads playing at any given time.

The most successful of these PMCs will require delegated management roles to other club members, which we support with a hierarchical system. Members can be club captains, coaches and scouts each having their own role within the PMC from reviewing replays and hiring key members to ensuring that everyone on the team is training at the gym and practicing their set pieces.

Is there a danger that people will sign up and then not feel obliged to return, because they don't pay to play?

Marshall: The free-to-play aspect is a risk, but we're hoping players will be playing FSS because they love the game and find it a great place to spend their time, not because they feel obliged to persist with it due to spending hard-earned cash to buy a box.

Although it's possible to enjoy every aspect of FSS as a free player we do offer a subscription option. If you subscribe, you gain to benefit from a number of convenience features such as access to the sports centre and more locker space, and the ability to create and own a football club (free players may join an existing PMC but cannot own one).

We also leverage micro-transactions by allowing players to purchase bonds, which can be used to buy anything from exclusive clothing to being converted into in-game dollars and help with training. This is especially useful for those that do not have 20 hours a week spare but wish to enjoy the full game.

We see FSS as a service and we treat every one of our users as a valued customer. We already take every comment made about our features, new and old, seriously. Our community have been responsible for changing the game for the better and will continue to do so.

Football is a global sport with an immeasurable fan base, our dream is that FSS will ultimately become a place to not only play football, but when you aren't competing for the Football SuperStars world cup, you'll stay to get news and views, and eventually watch your favourite PMC team play from anywhere in the world.

Ali Wood