The cult of Football Manager is very real. Despite nominally being a series of spreadsheets, statistics and basic role-playing mechanics, Sports Interactive and SEGA's best-selling series has a devoted core audience whose passion is comparable only to...well, football supporters. At least they get to see the un-silhouetted faces of the players they're obsessed with. It's well documented that Football Manager players become completely wrapped up in the idea of being a pretend Premier League gaffer, and it's even suggested that the game is sort of addictive. That might be an exaggeration, but it's certainly true that people will do some absolutely bonkers things when they're playing FM - or use the game for some insane ends. Every aspect of Football Manager can apparently inspire strange behaviour, from the role-playing element of "getting in the head of a manager" to the streams of statistics you're expected to parse to the isolation and sleepless nights that accompany trying to select the perfect squad, customising with hand-made players and mods downloaded off the internet. Some go a lot further than just exhibiting an ungainly amount of knowledge about the South American lower leagues, or mucking up work deadlines in favour of playing one more game. Some attempt to break the game for more of a challenge, or allow the things on screen to spill over into their real lives. Here are the ten weirdest things people have done with Football Manager.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
