I’ve been playing GM games since trying out Football Manager 2012 when it came out. Instantly hooked on drafting players, developing them, controlling finances (for better or worse), and setting up formations and tactics for game day, I naturally wanted to do this in a sim of my favorite sport: football (as in American football). I’d played fantasy since I was a teen, so the marriage between fantasy and sim would surely spawn the perfect game for me.
I have spent hundreds of hours on the Front Office Football franchise, and I plan to invest in Draft Day Sports Pro Football 2021 when it comes out in a couple months. In the meantime, for the last 12 months, I’ve been playing browser based Red Zone Action.
It’s been around since 2009 and right now about 270 human run teams are competing twice a week to win their division, conference and end of the season bowl. After the season, teams are relegated, and those who make it to the bowl move up into the RZA Elite League.
The game is FREE. However, I have made sure to occasionally support it as it has rewarded me with months of having those little moments to look forward to: the draft, the weekly training results, analyzing my opponents last couple games so I can better prep my own playbook, etc. I put out the occasional press release for my team, called Tool. I have my own fanshop, I’ve upgraded my stadium to maximum seating, and after a few seasons, I’m starting to really see Tool as a growing competitor with the big guys. Maybe a couple more seasons I will find myself in Elite.
There is even a unique financial structure to the game, where each season you can either continue to build your war chest for future FA pickups or increased salaries, or you can splurge it all away- and like some that don’t think strategically about their finances, go bankrupt, lol. Something about the rewarding aspect of accumulating millions of dollars every season, while seeing others pay such heavy consequences, feeds my competitive spirit.
What works for me most is the time I spend on most days is minimal. I work all the time, but enjoy the heck out of my breaks when I can pull out my phone and see how what kind of talent my Youth Academy is pulling in. I setup the YA with it’s training schedule for the week, and that’s all I “needed” to do for the day. All completed with still time left on my break for those break room cookies calling my name.
The community is friendly, helpful, and from all over the world. This game is the best kept secret in football sims. Check it out! It won’t cost you a thing, and you’ll find yourself itching to “manage” something from your break room, your bathroom or bed- and boom! Red Zone Action will scratch that itch. See you there.