Change languageHere is how MZ used to be around 2003 and forward:
- Topstakes (betting for top league matches, lots of cheating);
- You had to play 5 sets of friendlies for 9 form (no games on Saturday, not sure about FLs though);
- Physio (don't remember what it used to do);
- Coaches' contract would never expire, lower salary too, hard to sign them up though;
- Could be NC without CM;
- No Mid and ENd of season bonuses;
- Cool Cup prizes, I believe there was like an Ipad or Ipod at somepoint...
- Aikaik was just a regular user and there was no express in thunder;
- League games were once a week only;
- Formula 1 option;
- No Federations;
- No world league, or youth leagues/cups;
- Almost daily 5000+ users online;
- Couldn't login because MZ servers crashed;
- Initially all league games in the world (I think) would play at the same time, I believe early 2003? MZ servers crashed often and league games delayed on regular basis;
- NO Deterioration; No way to share maxings either (yay);
- Old training field (deeply missed by me, it was so intuitive);
- Back in 2003 what set MZ apart from it's direct competition, it was better design and 2D/3D), possibly the training system too;
- Great rivalry between users;
- Each player would have a different birthday through out the season;
- Coaches didn't display age (I might be wrong on this one);
- No PowerTokens;
- There was nothing else better than CM that you could buy;
- Almost each country had it's own admin team (MA, GA, FA, RA, LA);
- There was no superdad, aurelia, civilia, theunloyalone, worstplayerever (Aussie), you know, the usual annoyances;
- No kangaroo jokes on the forums;
- Back in the day, no option to edit your own posts... (wait a sec...)
- MZ China was a different entity, a separate website from MZ; (sidestory MZ China and regular MZ join, turns out almost every freaking chinese user had a few superstars in his team, because they were able to buy them with real money, that's how it worked in MZ China, so we were all losing to Chinese teams... just as we do now... people were so pissed)
- A few times the servers crashed, and some of us could not login to arrange all the 5 sets of friendlies and the form was taking a hit, and guess what, we didn't complain like the kids today...
- The form was recalculated every Monday;
- 2003 or so, newspapers/blogs etc would write articles about MZ, it was revolutionary
- Most countries had an active THe Zone;
- Before China joined, Sweden teams had the most advantage in the game, due to more and older users and better pool of players as well as money... the game initially debuted in Sweden only.
- The crew (no Thunder, aik, poweder back then) back in 2003 changed the sim mid World Cup, just before Sweden played quarters or the semi-finals, and somehow, Sweden's coach managed to find the right tactic and win the world cup.
- You had to pay to view 2D and later 3D, but friends could give you the link to watch your own games... (they were smart, but we were smarter lol)
Enough for now.
Football
Football » English » ManagerZone talk
Views: 1791 Posts: 59
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
mikexvi - 26-09-2021 22:36Thought this thread deserved a little bump for the 20th MZ anniversary. Also can we bring back car prizes?
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
civilu - 28-09-2021 10:58mikexvi wrote:Thought this thread deserved a little bump for the 20th MZ anniversary. Also can we bring back car prizes?
Probably not, the Chinese and the pandemic ruined that also, with their components crisis...
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
chucky06 - 28-09-2021 13:13Ahhh they were the days indeed, a lot of memories right there!
-I remember the English MA back then Steve wishhart or something like that kinda liked running the forums
- When Patrick was around too
- Anyone remember Swedish team Isidor (I think there name was) had an absolute super team and dominated the top for years.
- You could effectively play long ball tactics back in that sim too
- Many many more too
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
retribution - 25-10-2021 09:28Damn, u guys are bringing back a lot of memories.....
- Ye, i distinctly remember the "Meat wall" 4-3-3 Long balls- it actually worked fine :))
- When sending friendly match requests, the other dude could be an a-hole and only accept his home game (double requests were not a thing)
- I dont think power tokens were a thing, but you could join cups and stuff using your phone only (paypal wasn't even an option back then);
- You had to trust people and ask then in GB if a certain player was maxed or not. People would often lie just to get higher bids on them....
- Even in the Romanian 6th div you had to fight hard for a promotion (there were a lot more active users - nowadays u get promoted from 6th div to 4th div just for existing :)) ).
- There would be whole articles in "The zone" when a player would sell for more than 2-3 million euros. Nowadays this is just common.
- I remember only being able to have 3 foreign players - work permits were not a thing.
- 10 ball goalkeepers were a rare thing...nowadays even a div 4 team has 2 or 3 :))
- You actually had to drag players and coaches on the training field ( no dropdown option in player list or any of that)
- A CUP was a HUGE THING - they were actually a rare thing - today it seems there's 30.000 cups that you can join every single day.
Very cool thread, ty @aemi
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
big_green_shoe - 26-10-2021 14:14Fabkins Stadium Planner...
We all had our own MZ email address
Text message sign up - pay £1.50 to enter a cup was the only option.
College would block MZ web address so we would access via the IP address or a foregin MZ URL and change the language back to English.
I was GA with Trev and Moneybags with Bergy1 as MA - Oh the good old days when forums were busy with a full page of new threads every day.
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
ashleyhughes - 26-10-2021 14:29big_green_shoe wrote:
I was GA with Trev and Moneybags with Bergy1 as MA - Oh the good old days when forums were busy with a full page of new threads every day.
That's some names I haven't heard of for ages!!!
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
gazzas1uk - 27-10-2021 15:26andyferg88
ashleyhughes
ade-pm
big_green_shoe
brick
damnsam2003
dantoe
dwhwanderers
el_stevo_chueco
emirates2005
frankzappa
fussinger
gn
ignaas
itomo_uk
jaysargey
jla29587
jlapolo500
kingjaime
kombinator13
matttombstone
mitch1029
mosmosmos
mrbling
myfatcat
patchtuesday
rfc_thommo_rfc
robke999
smiffythebull
superman32
tammel
toma22
uncle_pedro
wardillb
welshkamikaze
whinswood378
My friends list, some old school names here :D
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Re: A history of MZ (imho)
By
andyferg88 - 01-11-2021 02:05gazzas1uk wrote:andyferg88
ashleyhughes
ade-pm
big_green_shoe
brick
damnsam2003
dantoe
dwhwanderers
el_stevo_chueco
emirates2005
frankzappa
fussinger
gn
ignaas
itomo_uk
jaysargey
jla29587
jlapolo500
kingjaime
kombinator13
matttombstone
mitch1029
mosmosmos
mrbling
myfatcat
patchtuesday
rfc_thommo_rfc
robke999
smiffythebull
superman32
tammel
toma22
uncle_pedro
wardillb
welshkamikaze
whinswood378
My friends list, some old school names here :D
Old school names indeed, just like yours.