Welcome everybody to Soccer 101, the show in which we delve deeper into the topics, the questions, the issues that

might confound or confuse or in this case entertain.

I am Taylor Rockwell.

Today I'm joined by Mr. Graham Ruthven.

Graham, it's a show 31-ish years in the making.

We're talking the FIFA video game.

Hello, Taylor.

How are you?

Are you as nervous as I am about not coming across as a boomer

when talking about computer games today? Do they still call them computer games? That

term in itself feels a bit boomery. I would say video games. And even that is probably

boomery. Oh man, we are old. I am more nervous because I think I like the FIFA franchise.

I enjoy playing video game soccer. There are people who have made genuine careers out of it,

lives out of it, livelihoods out of it. And I have a feeling if we don't cover it well and do it full

justice. Some people might be angry, Graham. I feel like we risk

enraging the nerd masses. Do you have a same level of fear about this one? Well, the thing is,

I was part of those nerd masses for FIFA is the thing I lost about three years of my life to as a

teenager. So I was part of that world. I've kind of fallen out of it the last 10 years, although I still

buy it. Most years, I certainly bought it this year because it was rebranded to something

else. We'll talk about that later on. But yeah, something that I have a certain degree of

familiarity to it. It was a big part of my life for a period. So let's start there. What's your first memory of FIFA?

What's the first game you're playing? What's the first console? What year are you first

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