World Basketball Manager

Last updated

World Basketball Manager
WBM series new logo.png
WBM series logo as of WBM 2.
Genre(s) Sport
Developer(s) Icehole Games
Publisher(s)
Creator(s)
  • Thanasis Triantafillou
  • Dimitris Retzikas [1]
Platform(s) Windows, Classic Mac OS
First releaseBasketball Manager
1998 (1998)
Latest releaseWorld Basketball Manager X
23 May 2019;2 years ago (2019-05-23)
Spin-offs World Basketball Manager Tycoon

World Basketball Manager (WBM) is a series of basketball management simulation video games, originally developed and published by Greek studio Icehole Games. The game began in 1998, known as Basketball Manager. In 2004, the series was renamed World Basketball Manager. The latest version, titled World Basketball Manager X was released on May 23, 2019.

Contents

Main series

Basketball Manager

Basketball Manager (1998)

The original Basketball Manager was released in 1998, created by an internal development team at Volax Interactive calling themeselves "icehole". [2] The game was designed by 2 people, who have since cited football management simulation video games, such as Championship Manager , Player Manager and Premier Manager as their main influence. Basketball Manager featured only the Greek League and 2 European tournaments, and was released for the Greek market. [3]

Basketball Manager 2000

A second, improved and expanded version of Basketball Manager was released in 2000. This version included 6 European basketball leagues (by adding the French, German, Italian, Spanish and Israeli leagues to the existing Greek one) as well as every international European tournament held at that time, while also featuring new graphics. [3]

World Basketball Manager

World Basketball Manager (2004)

With the success of the latest Basketball Manager game, the development team behind the BM project at Volax left the company and founded Metal Fin, but insisted on keeping "icehole" as the collective name of the team behind the next game's development. [2] After securing funding, which enabled developers to work full-time on the next title, World Basketball Manager was released in 2004. The game featured 65 international basketball tournaments and a total of 94 countries, making it the only basketball management game at the time to include basketball teams outside of the NBA. WBM featured gameplay inspired by football management simulation video games, such as Championship Manager , and became well-known for its realistic match simulation and challenging AI, which was based on a combination of a genetic algorithm and deterministic logic.

World Basketball Manager 2005

The 2005 version of WBM was released in 2005 in China and Germany, each country receiving its own localized version, while existing WBM players could download the game as a free upgrade. The game was practically a re-release of the 2004 version, featuring the same graphics and gameplay mechanics but with updated team rosters corresponding to the 2004/05 season.

World Basketball Manager 2007

World Basketball Manager 2007 was the third entry in the WBM series. The game received an international release on 22 February 2007, with BHV handling distribution in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while the Greek version was published by MLS in both Greece and Cyprus. [4]

The game featured an expanded database over its predecessors, with 64 national and international tournaments, 655 teams, 10.000 basketball players and 1.000 managers, although no improvements were made to the game's graphics. [5] The game further featured a new training system with 106 different training routines, improved AI, faster game progression algorithms, more realistic free agent pricing, improved player creation and career progress and a simulation of the NBA draft taking place at the beginning of every season. [4] Players could create their own manager profile and manage various club departments (including medical, training facilities and youth academy), transfers, contracts, training and actual coaching during games. A feedback system was implemented, including feedback from the press, fans, players and administration, allowing players to receive job offers from more prestigious basketball clubs and even national basketball teams.

World Basketball Manager 2008

World Basketball Manager 2008 was the fourth entry in the WBM series. Icehole added new features and improvements to the WBM formula, [6] most notably pre-season training camp selection, which influences the overall development of players for the entire season; and mid-season sponsorship contracts. [7] Other improvements include a revamped training system, allowing players to improve the team's zone defending or cohesion through training; the addition of "Form" in the players' list of attributes; an option for database size affecting game speed and realism by loading one of two available database choices; opponent scouting reports; and the ability to start a new career as a national team manager. [8]

The game introduced new leagues from Australia, Brazil, France, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Turkey, and included support for 8 languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Greek, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Spanish. [8]

World Basketball Manager 2009

World Basketball Manager 2009 was the fifth game in the WBM series. This version added 22 new tournaments, raising the total number to 89, with 852 teams, 10.000 basketball players and 1.000 managers. [9] New features and improvements included an improved match algorithm and revamped interface, overall improved control of the player's club financial situation with the ability to issue demands to club Administration, a number of bonuses for managerial achievements, such as team-building and cohesive make-up of club rosters, improved transfer algorithms and the ability to cancel time-outs during games. Furthermore, Icehole included two more languages (Serbian and Turkish), raising the total number to 10, while also reaching an agreement with IQ Publishing to handle distribution of the game in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. [10]

On 9 September 2009, Icehole announced a free mini-game based on the EuroBasket 2009 tournament in Poland, featuring all 16 participating teams (as well as all European national teams already featured WBM 2009). The game featured two game modes (a Tournament mode for teams already qualified for the tournament, and a Qualification mode for all other European teams) and a new data editor for players to make changes to the teams' rosters. [10]

World Basketball Manager 2010

World Basketball Manager 2010 was released as a free upgrade of the series' previous installment. Adding no new features or mechanics, the 2010 version would update all tournament formats to their 2009/10 status, expanding the game database even further to include over 12.500 players, 1.400 managers and 975 teams. [11] It was also the first in the series to be made available on Steam. [12]

This would become the standard format for WBM games for the next 5 years (with season 2015 being the last update the game received), until the release of World Basketball Manager 2. Another free mini-game, this time based on the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, with a similar premise to the EuroBasket 2009 edition, was released in September 2014, featuring all 24 participating teams, tournament venues, drawn Groups and national team rosters. [13]

World Basketball Manager 2

On February 2, 2017, Icehole announced the release World Basketball Manager 2, a new entry in the WBM series and the first game of the franchise to be available on Mac. [14] Development on the game had started in 2013, with the game's release being planned for the summer of 2014, but after an unsuccessful Indiegogo campaign to raise 25,000€, [15] the game was delayed until its 2017 release date.

WBM2 marked the departure of the series from its previous text-based visual presentation, introducing a new visual 2D match engine, an improved and more legible user interface as well as a number of improvements in the technological area and AI. [16] The game's database included over 13.500 players, 1.100 basketball teams and more than 100 Club and National Team tournaments, while the game featured support for 12 languages upon its release. [14]

World Basketball Manager X

World Basketball Manager X is the latest game in the WBM series, released on May 23, 2019 for Microsoft Windows, with a MacOS version following in 2020. WBMX is based on the WBM2 engine, introducing several improvements and updates over its predecessor. [17]

Other games

Spin-offs

World Basketball Manager Tycoon

On June 4, 2013 Icehole Games announced the release of the series' first (and to this day, only) spin-off title, World Basketball Manager Tycoon. The game is a departure from the strict management simulation format established by the other WBM games, instead opting for a mixture between the former and a tycoon game experience. [18] In July 2014, Icehole announced that the game would receive a physical release in Poland, distributed by IQ Publishing.

WBM Tycoon features over 100 national and international competitions, 1000+ clubs (including national teams), 12.500+ basketball players and over 1200 managers, sharing the same database and match AI with the regular WBM game series. [19] Maintaining much of the managerial aspects found in the previous games, WBM Tycoon players are further tasked with successfully building and maintaining a basketball franchise through business ownership as an entrepreneur. This includes managing the club's finances, facilities and team overall winning form.

Licensing

Due to the absence of any licensing, each WBM release includes "unofficial" league, club, player and manager names, with clubs either using obvious city names (such as Barcelona being called "Barcelonia" or "Regal Barca"), nicknames (such as AEK Athens being called "Enosi"), or misspelled names (such as the Miami Heat being called "Muami Hiat"). [20] However, a community-maintained database has been created by fans of the game, called the Real Names & Images Project, [21] which includes real team logos, player and manager photos, more than 9600 real names of basketball players, 650 actual team names and 1000 actual manager names from 194 countries. In order for the database to be updated every season, the users have created a network of researchers who update and make the data available for download through an unofficial, but condoned by Icehole Real Names Patch.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Championship Manager</i> Video game series

Championship Manager is a series of football-management simulation video games, the first of which was released in 1992.

A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport, whilst others emphasize strategy and sport management. Some, such as Need for Speed, Arch Rivals and Punch-Out!!, satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been popular throughout the history of video games and is competitive, just like real-world sports. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, and are updated annually to reflect real-world changes. The sports genre is one of the oldest genres in gaming history.

Peja Stojaković Serbian basketball player

Predrag Stojaković, known by his nickname Peja, is a Serbian professional basketball executive and former player who was most recently the assistant general manager and director of player personnel and development of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

EA Sports Sports gaming brand of Electronic Arts

EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements with real commentators such as John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as FIFA, NHL, NBA Live and Madden NFL.

Football Manager is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager. However, following the break-up of their partnership with original publishers Eidos Interactive, triggered by the "fiasco" release of CM4 in 2003, Sports Interactive lost the naming rights to Eidos Interactive, but retained the game engine and data and re-branded the game Football Manager with their new publisher Sega. The latest version of Football Manager, titled Football Manager 2022 which was released on November 9th, 2021.

<i>RollerCoaster Tycoon</i> Video game series

RollerCoaster Tycoon is a series of simulation video games about building and managing an amusement park. Each game in the series challenges players with open-ended amusement park management and development, and allowing players to construct and customize their own unique roller coasters and other thrill rides.

<i>FIFA</i> (video game series) Video game series

FIFA is a series of association football video games developed and released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. As of 2011, the FIFA franchise has been localised into 18 languages and available in 51 countries. Listed in Guinness World Records as the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world, the FIFA series has sold over 325 million copies as of 2021.

<i>RollerCoaster Tycoon 2</i> 2002 video game

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 is a 2002 construction and management simulation game developed by Chris Sawyer and published by Infogrames. Released in October 2002 as the sequel to RollerCoaster Tycoon, the game simulates the management of amusement parks.

Text sims are computer or video games that focus on using a text based element to simulate some aspect of the real world. Text sims typically focus on creating as detailed a simulation of their object as possible, and therefore, other traditional game elements are often set aside in pursuit of creating an accurate simulation experience for the user. This pursuit of accurate simulation often comes at the expense of some or most audio or graphical elements. Numerous examples of soundless and graphic-light text sims exist.

Vassilis Spanoulis Greek professional basketball player

Vassilis "Billy" Spanoulis is a Greek former professional basketball player who spent the majority of his career playing for Greek Basket League and EuroLeague club Olympiacos. A 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) tall combo guard, he is nicknamed Kill Bill, V-Span, and MVP. Spanoulis was named the Balkan Athlete of the Year in 2009, the All-Europe Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013, the Vatican's World Athlete of the Year in 2013 and the EuroLeague MVP the same year. He has earned a record eight All-EuroLeague Team selections and was voted the EuroLeague's 2010–2020 Player of the Decade. He is also the EuroLeague's all-time career leader in total points scored.

<i>FIFA Manager</i> Video game series

FIFA Manager is an association football series of sports management games published by Electronic Arts. The games were developed by the German studio Bright Future and EA Sports. The game was called Total Club Manager until the name changed to FIFA Manager with the FIFA Manager 06.

Zoo Tycoon is a series of business simulation video games. The worlds focus around building and running successful zoo scenarios. The series was initially developed by Blue Fang Games and published by Microsoft Studios who later in 2001-2008 went on to create two stand-alone video games and seven expansion packs for PC and Macintosh platforms. In 2013, Microsoft Studios released a new Zoo Tycoon game, developed by Frontier Developments for Xbox One and Xbox 360. An enhanced version of the Xbox game, Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection, was released for Windows 10 and the Xbox One on October 31, 2017. Frontier Developments, the developer of the final Zoo Tycoon game, released the spiritual successor to the series, Planet Zoo, in 2019.

Construction and management simulation (CMS), sometimes also called management sim or building sim, is a subgenre of simulation game in which players build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources. Strategy video games sometimes incorporate CMS aspects into their game economy, as players must manage resources while expanding their project. Pure CMS games differ from strategy games, however, in that "the player's goal is not to defeat an enemy, but to build something within the context of an ongoing process." Games in this category are sometimes also called "management games".

<i>FIFA 09</i> 2008 video game

FIFA 09 is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released in October 2008 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 and Zeebo. It was later in November 2008 released for the N-Gage 2.0 and mobile phones.

<i>Football Manager 2009</i> 2008 video game

Football Manager 2009 is a football manager simulation video game. It was released on PC, Mac and PlayStation Portable on 14 November 2008 in Europe and on 18 November 2008 in North America. As in the case of other recent releases in the Football Manager series, the game is sold as Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 in the United States and Canada.

<i>FIFA 10</i> 2009 video game

FIFA 10 is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. It was released on 2 October 2009 in Europe, 1 October in Australasia and 20 October 2009 in North America. It is available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Wii. Handheld versions of the game were also released for the iOS, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones.

<i>International Cricket 2010</i> 2010 video game

International Cricket 2010 is a sports association cricket simulation video game developed by Trickstar Games and released by Codemasters. It was released in the United Kingdom and India on 18 June 2010 and in Australia on 21 October. The game is a part of the Codemasters Cricket series preceded by the Brian Lara Cricket Series and is a direct sequel to the 2009 release, Ashes Cricket 2009.

Pro Evolution Soccer Association football video game series

eFootball, formerly known as Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) internationally and Winning Eleven in Japan, is a series of football simulation video games developed and published by Konami since 1995. It consists of eighteen main instalments and several spin-off style titles that have been released on many different platforms. The series has consistently achieved critical and commercial success.

<i>Football Manager 2018</i> 2017 football management simulation video game

Football Manager 2018 is a 2017 football management simulation video game developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega which was released worldwide on 10 November 2017 for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. The Nintendo Switch version by Lab42 was released later, on 13 April 2018. For the first time in the series, all three versions of the game, FM 18 for PC, Mac and Linux, FM Touch 2018 for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, and Football Manager Mobile 2018 for iOS and Android were all released on the same day.

Greece represents a small fraction of the global video games market, ranking 50th in a list of 100 countries in the consumption of digital products. The country has long overlooked the prospect of sustaining a video games industry, instead placing focus on retail sales of video games. In light of recent actions to encourage production and distribution of digital games, the country's emerging, but still largely fragmented games industry currently consists of over 25 active video game developer studios and several individual creators.

References

  1. ↑ Ampatzis, Konstantinos (21 September 2017). "Πώς είναι να ζεις σχεδιάζοντας video games;". www.oneman.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  2. 1 2 "icehole(c): Η συνέντευξη". 31 May 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  3. 1 2 "20 years anniversary for WBM game series". iceholeTV channel on YouTube . 2 November 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  4. 1 2 "World Basketball Manager 2007 seeking for publishers". GamesIndustry.biz . 22 February 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  5. ↑ Gryparis, Manos (February 2007). "World Basketball Manager 2007 Review by GameWorld.gr". GameWorld.gr. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  6. ↑ "World Basketball Manager 2008". IGN . Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  7. ↑ Ciabai, Calin (28 November 2007). "World Basketball Manager 2008, Finally Released!". Softpedia . Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  8. 1 2 "World Basketball Manager 2008 is looking for publishers worldwide". GamesIndustry.biz . 28 November 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  9. ↑ "World Basketball Manager 2009 is Ready and is Seeking a Publisher". IGN . 15 April 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  10. 1 2 "World Basketball Manager Euro 2009 Minigame available for free download to mark Eurobasket 2009 in Poland". GamesIndustry.biz . 9 September 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  11. ↑ "World Basketball Manager Free 2010 season update on offer". GamesIndustry.biz . 9 December 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  12. ↑ Gryparis, Manos (11 June 2010). "World Basketball Manager: Νο.1 στο Steam". GameWorld.gr. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  13. ↑ "World Basketball Manager World Cup 2014 - Free for All to Play". n4g.com. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  14. 1 2 "Icehole games has announced World Basketball Manager 2". thegg.net. 2 February 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  15. ↑ "World Basketball Manager 2 Indiegogo Campaign". Indiegogo . Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  16. ↑ "World Basketball Manager 2 PC". gamepressure.com. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  17. ↑ "What is new in World Basketball Manager X" (PDF). wbmgame.com. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  18. ↑ "Icehole launches new game title: World Basketball Manager Tycoon". corallia.org. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  19. ↑ "World Basketball Manager Tycoon - Game info". wbmtycoon.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  20. ↑ Graham, Russel (13 February 2012). "World Basketball Manager (2012): Full-screen press". snackbar-games.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  21. ↑ "World Basketball Manager Real Names & Images Project". weebly.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.