Interview with Stefan Muenstedt
Stefan Muenstedt
Would you please introduce yourself?
Stefan Muenstedt: My name is Stefan Muenstedt, I am 22 years old and I live in Germany at the moment. I am the head of a whole network of sites, the network is called Fifatainment and we focus on a variety of soccer sites, soccer entertainment on the net, and also soccer gaming sites, i.e. for FIFA (German FIFA Online, FIFA 4 Fans, LetsPlayFIFA.com) or Pro Evolution Soccer (PES Corner, PES Downtown, etc.). Our entire network generates up to 20 million page impressions per month.
Please give us a brief history of GFO / Fifatainment.
Stefan Muenstedt: In 1998 we started German FIFA Online (GFO) for FIFA 99, under SoccerGaming’s and GA’s network. It was one of the very first FIFA sites on the Internet … over the years, we started hosting leagues, and building other FIFA sites (like FIFA 4 Fans or FIFABOARDS, a German speaking discussion board all about FIFA). In 2002 we had developed our very own network with more than a dozen of FIFA and soccer games related websites. That is why we formed “Fifatainment” in April of 2002, so we could be our own boss with our own servers. The “Fifatainment Network” now features more than 12 highly successful websites about FIFA and other soccer games, also in other languages like English, Italian or Polski.
Who is behind GFO / Fifatainment except you?
Stefan Muenstedt: We have a whole team of extremely talented people including David Lindner, a true man of art and creativity. David and I, we are the creative brain of Fifatainment, we are designing all the webdesigns, sites, layouts, and graphics together. David has already worked for big companies like L’Oreal, Microsoft Xbox or Virgin Music. In 2004 he decided to fully join Fifatainment, and since then we had incredible ideas with incredible success. Adrian Oettl is also part of our team, he cares about all the technical things and of course without the lots of volunteers, our sites could not be that successful.
Do you play FIFA / FIFA Manager?
Stefan Muenstedt: I still play FIFA sometimes, but I would love to play it more … the time is gone for that unfortunately. We are constantly working on something, but I still play FIFA to relax, and to have some fun. It’s like a like five-minute-holiday when I play a match FIFA ;)
You are of course a football fan, what is your favourite club, and who is your favourite player?
Stefan Muenstedt: Eintracht Frankfurt and my favourite player of all the time is of course Diego Maradona.
Which football match was the best ever match you have seen?
Stefan Muenstedt: Of course Germany vs. France at the World Cup 82 semi final in Spain.
When was your first time you played FIFA.
Stefan Muenstedt: My first FIFA was FIFA 97 … I think that was in 1996 or early 97. It was a fantastic game, the menus, all the teams, the music; the goals from 40m distance :-) :-) and of course the indoor mode. Together with FIFA 98 and 99 my all-time favourite.
What do you expect from EA as a FIFA webmaster?
Stefan Muenstedt: I would also like to see EA more collaborating with its customers through platforms like our websites. I think FIFPlay.com is a perfect example how to do that, and I really have great faith and expectations in this project. Also, millions of people buy the official FIFA game every year, but only a small part really joins the world-wide FIFA community on the net. I think it would be EA’s own interest to encourage that. If their customers join a strong community and receive great support over there + many bug fixes and up-to-date downloads, they will stick with the FIFA game, but probably this has not come to their [EA] minds yet.
What do you suggest to FIFA 08 developers?
Stefan Muenstedt: First of all I would suggest that they finally erase bugs that are included in the FIFA game since 2001. It can’t be that hard, that is why it is very frustrating to see them again in every year’s new game. The biggest problem of the FIFA series that you always have only 6 to 8 months time to develop the new game for all kinds of platforms (from PC to Gameboy Advance). That is far too less and doesn’t allow any revolutionary features which are urgently needed. That is their biggest problem I guess. Oh, and remove the thousands of video sequences and bring back the referees with linesmen instead - FIFA is a soccer game! Also it should be possible to send off the goalkeepers from the field and that they cause penalties.
