Nierlein OSM (now renamed to Insel OSM) is rather simple German online soccer manager that does not look very impressive, the graphic side of the project haven’t changed much since early 2000s, but is surprisingly addictive, mostly due to well developed progress of the player skills and very quickly played season.
Yes, in Nierlein OSM season takes only about a month (34 days to be exact), during which you will play... 34 league games. The game schedule consists of 2 training sessions each day (10AM and 4PM), one friendly game (6PM), one league game (8PM) and one OSM Cup (10PM). On midnight economy updates take place and whole thing starts from the beginning. Sounds rather hectic, but in practice if you look for a game in which you have something to do every day you should give Insel OSM a try.
The basic player parameters are very simple (position, age, technical skills, stamina, experience, pace, shooting skills, teamwork and tactical skills). But from that point the clever bit starts - you can teach every player every skills every day, but it takes not only time, but also money. So you have to sign a good sponsorship deal, set the right ticket price and increase the stadium capacity to maximize your incomes to have money for the training of the players. You can start with amateur players available almost for free and with poor skills (although sometimes you can spot a player with good potential), but after few weeks of right training they can push you to the top of the division.
Additional options include betting on match results from top divisions, taking credits, invest money, transfer market with auctions, hiring and firing staff - all of it does not look great, but once you take a dive into the world of Nierlein it is hard to just stop playing it. What is more you can run more than 1 club at the same time (up to 3, but each must be in different country), so you always have something to do in this game. Not to even mention that you can rename your players at any time, which makes the game much more user-friendly since you don’t have to learn the names of your players.
Since around 2010 the game wasn’t actually developed any more by the author, now exists in much smaller form (only 2 countries), but still it is surprisingly addictive piece of entertainment.
