Future football stars start here

By Tamsin Osborne
BBC News

In Football Superstars players control just one player in a team

If you ever had the desire to live the life of a top football player both on and off the pitch but lack the real world ball skills, then Football Superstars might be able to help.

The online game combines a football simulation with a virtual world and lets players work their way up towards superstar status, earning money as they go.

After a match, players can indulge in the lifestyle of a football superstar, spending their earnings in the bars and restaurants of the virtual world.

"Football superstars is primarily a virtual world where you can take the role of a footballer from grassroots to superstardom," said Rik Alexander, boss of Monumental Games, which has developed Football Superstars.

Football Superstars places no restrictions on the sex of players

Mr Alexander said it represented a new genre of massively multiplayer online sports games (MMO).

Unlike most football games, players only control one character and play football with other characters controlled by other people, rather than computer-generated team members. Voiceover technology allows players to communicate with team-mates during a match.

"It's a football simulation but we've taken a very different approach," said Mr Alexander. "It really is just like you're playing real football - you get to control where you are on the pitch, how much of the ball you see. And your communication with other team members is critical, just like in real life."

Skill game

New players, who can be male or female, start out playing three-a-side or five-a-side games and work their way up to seven-a-side and full 11-man teams earning experience, skill, and fame points along the way. The only computer controlled players are the goalkeepers.

There are about 140 skills to be learned, although players don't get access to all of them straight away. They can also earn money, allowing them to buy the trappings of a superstar's lifestyle.

Players with more money than time can buy their way to higher levels of skill and wealth. While the game itself is free to play, purchasing a premium subscription allows players to deck out their characters in the latest suits, haircuts, earrings and tattoos that are not available to the average player.

Premium subscribers are also granted access to VIP areas of the virtual world, although some items are only attainable through playing the game. "We don't want to unbalance the game by giving people with money too much of an advantage," said Mr Alexander.

Living the life of a top player is all part of the game.

With the football stadium at the heart of it, the virtual town takes around 25 minutes in real time for characters to walk across. There are different areas to explore and some interesting encounters to be had. "You might find Maradona in a bar, who can teach you the 'Hand of God' skill," says Mr Alexander.

Premium subscribers can set up their own football clubs, which non-paying players are free to join. Members of a club meet to practise their game and devise strategies, but also to socialise and swap things. "It's like a guild in a normal MMO," said Mr Alexander.

The social side of the game has more in common with virtual world Second Life than most football games. Mr Alexander envisages this being a big attraction, allowing players to meet other like-minded people.

And these relationships might even spill over into the real world. Once the game has enough players signed up, they plan to organise some real life football games.

Football Superstars is currently in its trial, or beta, phase and aims to launch in late 2008.