Unreasonable Behavior at Forty Paces

We've been having a couple of lively discussions in different threads about unreasonable behavior in its various forms so I thought it might be a good idea to concentrate all of the sturm und drang...erm, conversation in one place. To oversimplify, I think the FM community may be broken down into two large groups: let's call them the Army of Fun and the Army of Reality. The former wants a simpler, more casual game with few or no gamebreaking turns of events. The latter favors a deeper environment with more detail and flavor even at the cost of the occasional ulcer-inducing disaster. This is not meant to imply that there's no overlap, just to identify some core beliefs. So...

Issue One. Let me start off with a simple example that's just occurred in my long-suffering lower league career with poor, benighted Chimney Corner in NI2. Two years ago, my hopelessly inept youth system brought in a seemingly typical 16-year-old rookie who has inexplicably blossomed into a serious talent. He's now 18. He's not a wunderkinder (I'm pretty sure) but his atts are rocketing upward in spite of part-time status, mediocre coaches and a dreadful training ground. So naturally I'm trying to get him to sign full-time, not least because even a reasonable full-time salary will still be peanuts at this stage. But here's the rub: he steadfastly refuses. Now, returning to the theme of our thread here, I think this is pretty damn unreasonable. With full-time status and training, he'll be able to quit that stupid part-time bicycle-messenger gig, progress even faster footballogically and, within a couple more years, quadzipple his salary with a team about four levels up. But, no, this moronic slacker refuses to act in his own best interest. I want to smack him smartly about the head and shoulders. Repeatedly. Before concluding, I should point out that, as one of those realism idiots, I completely accept this in game terms. But the questions I pose to the Great Unwashed Multitude are these:

Does this constitute unreasonable behavior? Does this constitute a bug? If so, should the code be rewritten to prohibit such nonsense? Would you edit this fool's data file? Consider your answers carefully, mes enfants.

We've been having a couple of lively discussions in different threads about unreasonable behavior in its various forms so I thought it might be a good idea to concentrate all of the sturm und drang...erm, conversation in one place. To oversimplify, I think the FM community may be broken down into two large groups: let's call them the Army of Fun and the Army of Reality.

As for your situation - I'm guessing NI2 is full of semi-professional and amateur teams (a mixture - Wikipedia is inconclusive). So I am not sure if he will accept, as semi-professional youngsters may still wish to go into education, because a semi-professional career may not pay as much in the future. We see this occasionally, even at top clubs (Oliver Gill, former Manchester United trainee, quit football to study at University, presumably because he didn't fancy playing lower-league football for the rest of his career and his dad's connections probably open up better doors for him).

Committing to semi-professional implies that he can only have "half a job" on the side - not everyone would be willing to commit to such an arrangement, with less job security combined.

So it would really depend on how much money you are offering him, and whether silly things like reputation get in the way. If you are offering him a pretty decent amount, he might accept - what is "decent" really depends what that salary is relative to your team, the league and various reputational things.

Bug-wise, the inability to tell a player of his talent means that you cannot sway his mind. At 16, he could arguably turn professional and then quit if he doesn't enjoy it (a few years professional football looks good on anyone's CV at that age). However, it would impact his schooling.

I'd be curious to see what percentage of NI youngsters in NI2 turn professional, and that would baseline any ideas.

I forgot a detail. He's now 18, he came in two years ago at 16. I'll correct the OP.

Maybe he's going to law school or med school or something, his mama won't let him give that up on the off chance of a career in footy!

Maybe he wants to be a poet when he grows up. Don't fence him in.

Maybe he's unambitious - or maybe VERY ambitious and is holding out for an offer from a better club.

I found on mine that even my remotely good players (which could play in L1) won't request a move or want to move until you're at least in BSP when they realise that they ACTUALLY can move.

Or maybe he's in the Army/RAF..