Women's Football Finally Breaks Ground in Football Manager 26
For years, women's football has been waiting patiently for its chance to shine on one of the most popular football video games out there - Football Manager. The wait is finally over, as EA Sports FC, a leading developer of sports games, has introduced women's teams and leagues into their latest edition.
Sports Interactive, the brainchild behind Football Manager, has taken significant strides in breaking down barriers for women's football. Chloe Woolaway, the women's football research coordinator, explains that the introduction was a long time coming, but ultimately worth it. "We knew that women's football was going to become as big as it can and that there is a space for it," she says. Gaming can be seen as this male-dominated industry, where Woolaway aims to create a space for women's football community within it.
The task of introducing women's football into Football Manager was far from an easy one. One major challenge was the lack of relevant information, which required Woolaway and her team to adapt their research methods. "We quickly realised we would have to go to extra lengths to find information that should be readily available," she notes.
As a result, the game now features over 30,000 female players across more than 300 leagues, including natural foot, dominant foot, current ability, potential ability, contract details, wage details and transfer fee. The database has been moulded around the men's game, but Woolaway's team made conscious decisions to remove certain aspects that were problematic.
One of the unique challenges was addressing cultural and social nuances. For instance, how do you represent a player who wears a hijab or has a different hairstyle? Woolaway and her team made the bold decision to remove player weights entirely, as women often experience fluctuating body weight during their periods.
Despite the complexities, Woolaway is proud of what her team has achieved. "There's never going to be an end point," she notes, emphasizing that football is ever-changing, with new clubs, players and leagues emerging all the time.
The introduction of women's football in Football Manager 26 is a significant step forward for women's sports and gaming. As Woolaway so aptly puts it, "We were just going to create a computer game... Over time it came up in conversation more and more that we were creating one of the most extensive databases in the world for women's football."
For years, women's football has been waiting patiently for its chance to shine on one of the most popular football video games out there - Football Manager. The wait is finally over, as EA Sports FC, a leading developer of sports games, has introduced women's teams and leagues into their latest edition.
Sports Interactive, the brainchild behind Football Manager, has taken significant strides in breaking down barriers for women's football. Chloe Woolaway, the women's football research coordinator, explains that the introduction was a long time coming, but ultimately worth it. "We knew that women's football was going to become as big as it can and that there is a space for it," she says. Gaming can be seen as this male-dominated industry, where Woolaway aims to create a space for women's football community within it.
The task of introducing women's football into Football Manager was far from an easy one. One major challenge was the lack of relevant information, which required Woolaway and her team to adapt their research methods. "We quickly realised we would have to go to extra lengths to find information that should be readily available," she notes.
As a result, the game now features over 30,000 female players across more than 300 leagues, including natural foot, dominant foot, current ability, potential ability, contract details, wage details and transfer fee. The database has been moulded around the men's game, but Woolaway's team made conscious decisions to remove certain aspects that were problematic.
One of the unique challenges was addressing cultural and social nuances. For instance, how do you represent a player who wears a hijab or has a different hairstyle? Woolaway and her team made the bold decision to remove player weights entirely, as women often experience fluctuating body weight during their periods.
Despite the complexities, Woolaway is proud of what her team has achieved. "There's never going to be an end point," she notes, emphasizing that football is ever-changing, with new clubs, players and leagues emerging all the time.
The introduction of women's football in Football Manager 26 is a significant step forward for women's sports and gaming. As Woolaway so aptly puts it, "We were just going to create a computer game... Over time it came up in conversation more and more that we were creating one of the most extensive databases in the world for women's football."
it's about time they gave us more rep, right? i mean, can u imagine playin as a female player and see all those female teams & players?! it's a small step but a big deal nonetheless 
. But seriously, 30,000 female players and 300 leagues? That's a lot of effort! I'm curious about how they managed to gather all that data - research methods had to be pretty unconventional 
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️. But what about cultural and social nuances beyond hijabs and hairstyles? It feels like there might be more work to do in that area 
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But seriously, it's cool to see Chloe Woolaway and her team putting in the hard work to create an epic database of female players 
. The fact that they had to adapt their research methods because there was no relevant info out there is just wild 
. Can't wait to see what other awesome changes are coming our way 
!
. But hey, at least it's about time, right? 30k female players across 300 leagues is still kinda low-key a drop in the bucket, if you ask me 
. And what's up with the hijab thing? Are we really gonna have to deal with that kind of cultural sensitivity issue in a video game now? It feels like they're just trying to be PC and avoid controversy, rather than actually making a real difference 
It's about time, right? EA Sports FC and Sports Interactive have done an amazing job introducing over 30k female players across 300+ leagues. That's a whole lotta ladies on the pitch! 
I love how Chloe Woolaway's team has made conscious decisions to remove problematic aspects, like player weights, which are often affected by periods. 
It's about time, right? I mean, gaming is still a pretty male-dominated space, and it's awesome that EA Sports FC and Sports Interactive are working to create a more inclusive world. Chloe Woolaway's team did an amazing job researching and adapting to get the women's football data just right – 30k+ female players and over 300 leagues? That's insane! 