Agent fees. Good or bad addition to the game?

[Coop]

I know I find them irritating. £1.7 M transfer fee and the agent won't go below 600K, or £3.8M fee and the agent won't go below 800K. It doesn't happen every time but it is annoying.

So unless work gets done on the negotiations I say it's a bad addition.

[AcidBurn]

It's realistic to have agent fees in but they are too high in my opinion, not sure if they have been tweaked or not in the latest patch. I find them annoying in contract renewals but recently I have simply offer them nothing until it is the only thing they want changing I then offer them 1k and they usually accept. In the contract renewals I got them to 1k 4 times from demanding £1.7 million, £2.1 million and twice they demanded around 500k.

[dking]

If it worked properly then it would be good, but it doesn't so it's just a gimmick and should be taken out until it can be implemented properly.

[kingjericho]

Many times they ask as much as the player, and I don't think that's right. But there are more serious issues to sort out, though.

[M.U.F.C....TSVR]

Here's an example of just how sick they made me. I was in charge of man city, got a bid of I think £80 million accepted, got his wage and everything done but the agent wanted £8.75 million fee. Max I think I could get was £7.5 million. I didnt get Torres just because of that. How pathetic?

[Praczy]

Agents are greedy ********. I think many RL managers also would prefer if they didn't exist.

[busngabb]

I read an article on a flight about Mr Zahavi a few years back. He could earn (in 2007) £5m a deal. So the figures quoted in FM aren't out of the ball park I don't think.

And the people calling it pathetic need to think. Transfers fall down at contract negotiations ALL THE TIME, so while its frustrating that you cant pull off a deal, it's also realistic. Just try making your first offer to the agent really low. Very few deals you can afford will break down because of them.

[robertcornell68]

They may well be realistic but that's irrelevant.

In FM agents are just an irritant. The game is less fun because of them and they should go.

IMO.

[rancer890]

They may well be realistic but that's irrelevant.

In FM agents are just an irritant. The game is less fun because of them and they should go.

IMO.

Losing makes the game less fun, let's get rid of that! What great reasoning to take out a feature.

And taking out a feature will never improve it. It would be just as bad the next year. They could never see how the feature would work out if we all didn't try it out this year.

Agents are a good addition and are here to stay. When board confidence was introduced in FM08 it was horrible, but it was fixed in FM09. So hopefully agents can be improved in FM12.

[CaptainPlanet]

About as much fun as a feature as press conferences.

[chob]

I quite like the agents, the only thing that does annoy me though is when the agent won't even speak to you so you can't even tempt the player with a massive contract.

[Maidel]

Agents = bad for football.

However this is a football simultator - they should be in there.

[Coentrao]

At a higher level the fees seem slightly over the top but then again they could reflect real life.

I like agents at a lower level.. you can often end up saving on the long term by offering a substantial lower wage and just chip in a higher agent fee or when competing against several clubs for the same player you can use the fee as a guarantee that you will get the player if you really want him, even if higher reputation clubs are interested in him.

[imagawa99]

Agents = bad for football.

However this is a football simultator - they should be in there.

The problem is that the game doesnt simulate common sense. For eg, when the club cant pay out anymore wages, you would expect that an agent would be aware of that and stop demanding more than is available, or as i posted before, when your trying to offer a player an improvement on his current contract, the agent will obstruct it. If agents are going to be in the game then they need to start at the very least behaving in the clients best interests. If that is too much of an ask for SI to code then they need to be removed. Agents are supposed to work for the players, not against the club, when an agent repeatedly obstructs contract negontiations, assuming the player wants to stay then he ought to be sacked. Whats the point of agents anyway? The fee they take could have been offered to the player himself, seems self defeating for the player to actually employ one in the game as it stands.

[Maidel]

Agents are supposed to work for the players, not against the club, when an agent repeatedly obstructs contract negontiations, assuming the player wants to stay then he ought to be sacked. Whats the point of agents anyway? The fee they take could have been offered to the player himself, seems self defeating for the player to actually employ one in the game as it stands.

Take everything you say about agents in the game - then apply them to real life.

The number of agents who have caused trouble for players is uncountable - rooney, tevez, looks like we can add carrol to that list as well last night.

[TheGulls]

The agent fees are part of football however they are incorrectly represented in FM as a recent report about agency fees in the Premier League showed the figure spent on agents in the first half of the season to be considerably less than what is represented in the game.

[imagawa99]

Rooney migth be able to screw man u for extra pennys but most players arnt indispensable. And as i typed that it occurred to me, that might be the problem, if they are labled indespensable, perhaps the game is reading it literally. I always used indespensable to make it clear i wasnt going to sell a player...I guess there are going to be alot more "first team" contracts in my clubs future

[Maidel]

The agent fees are part of football however they are incorrectly represented in FM as a recent report about agency fees in the Premier League showed the figure spent on agents in the first half of the season to be considerably less than what is represented in the game.

But (until the end of this window) it has been a relatively quiet transfer market - but the game doesnt show that.

Also, most of the stats for agents wages only look at transfers, not in house contract renewals, but some might. whereas the game lumps them all together.

[celebritykiller]

I've thought about this for a while and I don't think they should be in the game. I have no problem working with them, but I feel it's a feature that IRL managers have nothing to do with and should be left in the background as an expenses addition.

[rancer890]

I've thought about this for a while and I don't think they should be in the game. I have no problem working with them, but I feel it's a feature that IRL managers have nothing to do with and should be left in the background as an expenses addition.

TBF, clubs have a director of football working but FM don't have that. If there's one thing all FM-managers like doing is building their team through signing their own players, so they will obviously have to deal with agents if the players they want have one. As long as managers are dealing with transfers then we will be dealing with agents as well since interaction with the agent is part of the contract negotiations.

[HotshotUK]

I have stop playing the game due stupid Release Clause even If I pay high Fee for Agents

I have got World Class Left back that I want to renew the contract before big club come in and Snap my players up because I have made mistake(I know it is my fault!) on Release clause of last season....

When I want to renew his contract and He did accept £75,000 a week but he want his Release Clause of £11.25 which what I have paid him last season!!!
Sound Stupid as I want put Release Clause of £30m which is acceptable for my Club!!!


I going back on Playing FM 2010 when the 3RD Patch come out and I hoping it does Fixed the Wages demand and Agents and Release Clause too!

[kingrobbo]

I hope agents gets addressed in next patch...............

[celebritykiller]

TBF, clubs have a director of football working but FM don't have that. If there's one thing all FM-managers like doing is building their team through signing their own players, so they will obviously have to deal with agents if the players they want have one. As long as managers are dealing with transfers then we will be dealing with agents as well since interaction with the agent is part of the contract negotiations.

Half true, but at the same time we don't negoatiate image rights etc. currently do we. Not everything contract related is in the game (particularly for major transfers), so there's no particular reason why agent fees have to be done by us if there's particular disquiet amongst the community about them. Agents themselves should stay ofc...

[E.Gray]

I have stop playing the game due stupid Release Clause even If I pay high Fee for Agents

I have got World Class Left back that I want to renew the contract before big club come in and Snap my players up because I have made mistake(I know it is my fault!) on Release clause of last season....

When I want to renew his contract and He did accept £75,000 a week but he want his Release Clause of £11.25 which what I have paid him last season!!!
Sound Stupid as I want put Release Clause of £30m which is acceptable for my Club!!!


I going back on Playing FM 2010 when the 3RD Patch come out and I hoping it does Fixed the Wages demand and Agents and Release Clause too!

Thank you, i have seen so many deals go down the pan because of silly release clauses that the players requires, it even sillier when we are talking about premier league players all wanting release clauses, when in real life very few have and request them.

[BossAsianMafia]

A more pertinent question is whether the implementation of agents adds anything substantial to the game?
As of right now the agent is just another layer of fees you have to pay (could have been subsumed under sign-on fee surely?)
and yet another way to jeopardize contract negotiations (granted, I have managed to save money overall by offering more agent fees but this is quite rare...)
Result? Frustration for managers.

To make matters worse, the manager has no way of influencing the hiring and firing or even the behavior of the agents,
so e.g. your most loyal player will not overrule his agent to sign a new deal and will be forced to leave the club (while being Unhappy that he's being forced out of the club ha!).

To people who said that there are agents in RL therefore the game should have it,
there are tons of things in RL that should never be implemented in the game (e.g. requiring managers to watch 90 minutes every game, watching players train everyday),
so I don't see how RL can be the primary justification of including agents.

[vb_slayer]

Agents are awesome! I'm glad they are there.

[mangelito]

Agents add to the realism, even if they are annoying.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...em/9244286.stm

This link shows the agent fees paid by EPL clubs. Seems like FM is pretty much spot on.

[jonnyp83]

all of the agents that i deal with have a fierce dislike of me as i never give them the terms they are looking for. has anyone ever gone from a fierce dislike to a happy relationship by giving a agent the contact they are looking for.

[jayahr]

Realistic addition and economically relevant irl, i.e. a good addition as such.

The 'how' may need some fine-tuning however as most new additions to FM did over the last years.

[dking]

This is just a complete joke. They need to be taken out as they don't work properly. It's as simple as that.

A player can never move again because of an agent. Example - Trying to sign Torres for Real. Real have 200million to spend, they are 800k below the wage limit but the agent wants 15million? What kind of absolute joke is that? There isn't a club in the world who can pay that, or a board in the world who would allow that. With the richest club in the world, the most I can offer an agent is around 8 million.

Yet another broken gimmick to make the box look a bit shinier. Get rid of it ffs.

[Katarian]

When I started out I did my best to remove the agent fee from every negotiation, normally by transferring some or all of that money to the signing on fee. Now I just accept whatever the agent wants to reduce the negotiation time, but I haven't played the game at a top club yet.

They are decent enough for a first try at implementing them. Currently they seem to completely out for themselves and not really acting in the interests of their clients. I really shouldn't be able to get a player to accept a wage cut by throwing extra money at the agent, I don't think that increasing the agent fee should really increase the chance of a player signing a new contract or moving to your club. Also where is the option to say that the player employs the agent so they pay him not my club? I'm naive I know . At the very least there should be some sort of interaction options that allow to blast an agent for causing talks to break down over their fee and that it has an actual affect (player sacks their agent, forces them to accept a lower fee, player/agent completely refuses to deal with you, etc...).

[lonestar190]

I always thought agent fees in real life are a percentage of the signing on fee and possibly the transfer fee. It is surprising that they are negotiated seperately as it creates the constant conflict of interest between the agent and the player he is representing.

[TSH]

Agents add to the realism, even if they are annoying.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...em/9244286.stm

This link shows the agent fees paid by EPL clubs. Seems like FM is pretty much spot on.

No, you are completely misrepresenting facts to defend the game.

The link you provided actually proves that agent fees are broken, thus agents are broken. BBC says, for example, that Liverpool paid 9m for agent fees in 2010 IN TOTAL, while in FM it's not uncommon that an agent asks 6 or 7 or 8m for just ONE transfer.

Agents is another broken feature of the game like so many others and does not work properly, like so many others.

[ozaniel]

Agent fee can be helpful. I usually increase the agent fee and decrease other payments or players yearly wage. For example, if you increase agent fee by 50 k€ and decrease players signing on fee by 100 k€, agents usually accept your offer.

[themadsheep2001]

cant say ive been forced to pay too much by agents, but the figures need to be tweaked downwards

[Sinner264]

Like most new additions SI implements, they are more of an annoyance, even game breaking, than good stuff.

[TSH]

Like most new additions SI implements, they are more of an annoyance, even game breaking, than good stuff.

Old additions also remain underdeveloped and still create problem in the game. It's not only the new ones.

[AndyRich]

Good (y) Realism is the key.

[Giziar]

Good (y) Realism is the key.

What the wise poster above me said.

[the tinkerman]

andy, see if you can guess who i am, only just seen u on this forum, diddnt even know u played FM, thought u were a COD man.

[x42bn6]

Agents add to the realism, even if they are annoying.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...em/9244286.stm

This link shows the agent fees paid by EPL clubs. Seems like FM is pretty much spot on.

I did a little spreadsheet a while back that showed that Premier League clubs paid around 12% (I think it was 12%) of agent fees on transfers, and this assumed that transfers didn't include agent fees anyway and that no agent fees were paid for outgoing transfers. In other words, 12% is an upper-bound. You will get "super-agents" like Zahavi who will undoubtably take bigger cuts but these are rare.

So fees in Football Manager are miles off what they are now - I see lots of 20%-of-transfer-fee payments all over which is, quite frankly, wrong. In addition, when an agent gets angry he becomes difficult to deal with - in reality, once an agent (or any employee, in fact) starts to bring his own personal feelings into his work, his employers get shot of him. A world-class player is not expendable - but an agent most certainly is. We should see players firing agents more frequently if their own demands become a stumbling block - although an angry agent isn't necessarily bad for the player (i.e. you are offering zero commission to the agent - the player won't fire the agent because of this).

You may argue that if you own a shop and I annoy you, you will charge me extra because you don't like me. The difference is that someone is employing you to sell things in your shop, and if you ask for too much of a "cut", your employer will fire you very quickly. In other words, you cannot simply charge me extra because you don't like me.

This is unless you hold some form of monopoly - i.e. you are the best salesman in the world. In that case, that's different - you hold more cards. But this is akin to "super-agents" - and very few of those exist.

I would argue agents are realism for the sake of realism and are no fun at all. How can you use agents to your advantage? You can't! You should be able to use agents to annoy and tap-up players yourself, which is using agents to your advantage. Here, all agents do are annoy you - the most fun experience with an agent you can get is where he doesn't take any money at all, which is silly.

[dking]

Good (y) Realism is the key.

An agent asking for 15million isn't realistic.

An agent destroying his clients chances of going to the club of his dreams isn't realistic.

An agent trying to double what his client wants in wages and to then not budge or negotiate and then ruin his clients chances of going to a good club/ club of his dreams isn't realistic.

It's seriously flawed. If it gets fixed to make it 'realistic' then keep it in there, until then, get rid of it.

[mangelito]

No, you are completely misrepresenting facts to defend the game.

The link you provided actually proves that agent fees are broken, thus agents are broken. BBC says, for example, that Liverpool paid 9m for agent fees in 2010 IN TOTAL, while in FM it's not uncommon that an agent asks 6 or 7 or 8m for just ONE transfer.

Agents is another broken feature of the game like so many others and does not work properly, like so many others.

That's a fair point. I haven't managed in the top 4 leagues yet. From my own experiences with smaller leagues it seems to be ok. And I don't really defend the game at all. I thought it was one of the few things that maybe SI got right this time. But apparently not.

[Mauley]

I think the agent fees are quite unrealistic and not well replicated in the game, if it can't be dont properly then they should look to improve the system or just take it out completely. Transfer this year have become a lot harder due to agents requesting ridiculous signing on fees for players.

[robertcornell68]

You should be able to use agents to annoy and tap-up players yourself, which is using agents to your advantage.

Ah, yes. IRL agents are used to do sneaky or even illegal things. It's unlikely "tapping up" will be allowed in the game.

[dking]

An agent asking for 15million isn't realistic.

An agent destroying his clients chances of going to the club of his dreams isn't realistic.

An agent trying to double what his client wants in wages and to then not budge or negotiate and then ruin his clients chances of going to a good club/ club of his dreams isn't realistic.

It's seriously flawed. If it gets fixed to make it 'realistic' then keep it in there, until then, get rid of it.

I'm a the point where this scenario is now a game breaker for me. I can't do any business with the top players in the world because of agents. I can't sign them no matter how rich I am.

What a complete mess this version of FM is, and we've had two patches already.

[Riffraff]

I feel agents are kind of pointless to be honest.
In exchange for higher fees when signing a players you get instant contract negotiations and an occasional message in your inbox saying a particular player might be willing to sign for your club.

It's bearable in lower leagues, where agents (if a player has one) demand very little but I imagine the fees become a pain in high rep leagues. When spending £20 mil on a player you don't really consider the extra 3 or so mil you will have to pay the agent.

Overall I don't think the existence of agents in the game has been justified sufficiently. There is some potential there however: eg. influencing agents to convince their clients to sign for other clubs.

[dking]

I feel agents are kind of pointless to be honest.
In exchange for higher fees when signing a players you get instant contract negotiations and an occasional message in your inbox saying a particular player might be willing to sign for your club.

It's bearable in lower leagues, where agents (if a player has one) demand very little but I imagine the fees become a pain in high rep leagues. When spending £20 mil on a player you don't really consider the extra 5-13 or so mil you will have to pay the agent.

Overall I don't think the existence of agents in the game has been justified sufficiently. There is some potential there however: eg. influencing agents to convince their clients to sign for other clubs.

Fixed it for you.

When trying to sign a player the agent wouldn't accept below 9.75million. He asked for around 15 million to start with. When I did finally get the contract accepted, they came back, the offer was laughed at and they refused it. Bear in mind I was managing the richest club in the world, I offered 230k a week in wages, and 9.75mill in signing on fees for player and agent. I could offer no more.

It's not just a problem with agents, it's also a problem with player wages, but thats a whole new issue.

[safcrhys]

You can make the game less enjoyable by adding more realistic things, I hate press conferences and dealing with agents to be honest.

[dking]

I just added 900million to Reals transfer budget, and I can't offer more than 8million in agent fees. I offered a 50% of the profit to the player sell on clause (maximum), 2.75million for team of the year (maximum), 275k in appearance fees (maximum) and so on and so forth. The agent would not go below 12.75mill, apparently he no longer likes me because I wouldn't give into his ridiculous demands.

To say it's flawed is an understatement. This whole thread should be in the bugs forum.

[Coop]

I just added 900million to Reals transfer budget, and I can't offer more than 8million in agent fees. I offered a 50% of the profit to the player sell on clause (maximum), 2.75million for team of the year (maximum), 275k in appearance fees (maximum) and so on and so forth. The agent would not go below 12.75mill, apparently he no longer likes me because I wouldn't give into his ridiculous demands.

To say it's flawed is an understatement. This whole thread should be in the bugs forum.

That's shows me that it is even worse than I thought.

You can make the game less enjoyable by adding more realistic things, I hate press conferences and dealing with agents to be honest.

It would be nice to have an option at the beginning of the game to play without these. Leaving press conferences to your Assistant Manager doesn't work.

[Dekker2]

The agents get a cut of a player's regular salary too: so money that goes to the player will still partially go to them. They do like the lump sum that comes with a transfer, but that wouldn't de-rail a superstar move - negotiations often break down, yes, but that's over wage demands: an agent who ruins a contract negotiation over his agent fee is so clearly self-interested that he's going to get fired, or cut out of the deal,
whereas, an agent who persuades his client that they should hold out for higher wages appears to be looking after his client even if he's just as much trying to boost his own commission.

Agent fees should be there to keep agents friendly to you so that
1. If you and another club are competing for a player, and both match his wage demands, the agent will favour you
2. The agent will not offer the player around to other clubs too much, and not be too much of a jackass come contract renewal time.

But if you are offering a player everything he wants, you should be able to sign him. You should just be potentially storing up problems for yourself down the road, when your agent might persuade his client to put in a transfer request or not to renew his contract unless for a huge pay rise.

Agents shouldn't be getting more than 15% of any deal, really, unless it's a good player going in a fire sale or on a free (Kewell's agent made several million in what was only a £7m transfer to Liverpool - but Kewell was worth more than that, if Leed's hadn't been broke), and generally they should be getting maybe 5-10%

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...er-agents.html
This article claims that C.Ronaldo's agent made £5m off his transfer - the biggest transfer of all time. That's 6.25% of the 80m.

And the mangelito link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...em/9244286.stm) suggest that no club should have to pay out more than a few million a year, unless they're on a major spending spree: the biggest figure mentioned is 12.8m for Man City's whole 2009 spree- that's less than dking is getting quoted for a single transfer.

[Masterstroke]

People only don't want agents because on occasion it doesn't work in their favour

If the agents helped them buy every world class player in the world then the people complaining would be the ones who actually understnad that it doesnt work that easy

To the guy complaining that he could sign Torres because the 15 mil agent fee even at Madrid, think, would any board in the world allow such a mad fee to be paid to the agent regardless of transfer budget but on principal?

[x42bn6]

People only don't want agents because on occasion it doesn't work in their favour

If the agents helped them buy every world class player in the world then the people complaining would be the ones who actually understnad that it doesnt work that easy

To the guy complaining that he could sign Torres because the 15 mil agent fee even at Madrid, think, would any board in the world allow such a mad fee to be paid to the agent regardless of transfer budget but on principal?

Tell us then - what is one good, fun thing that comes as a result of having agents in the game, that we wouldn't have if the game didn't have agents?

If there isn't any, then is it really a good idea for a game to have this feature?

[dking]

People only don't want agents because on occasion it doesn't work in their favour

If the agents helped them buy every world class player in the world then the people complaining would be the ones who actually understnad that it doesnt work that easy

To the guy complaining that he could sign Torres because the 15 mil agent fee even at Madrid, think, would any board in the world allow such a mad fee to be paid to the agent regardless of transfer budget but on principal?

Did you read anything that I posted? Seriously, read the post again. You're trying to argue with me, yet if you had read my post properly, you would see that you're actually proving what I said and agreeing with me.

The point was that the fees are ridiculous and the richest club in the world wont pay it/cant pay it so IT'S BROKEN, it means that that player can't move clubs again because of an agent. Or do you think this is realistic and should be kept in the game? Or maybe it's just me sulking because the transfer isn't working in my favour.

This has absolutely nothing to do with agents working with, or against people. Agents are broken, and the evidence is pretty damning after what I did with Real, and you agreed with me, inadvertently.

[Coop]

Just had it again. £1.7M fee (not a listed player), and the agent won't take less than £575K, plus £100K+ signing fee. It just is not realistic.

[milnerpoint]

Tell us then - what is one good, fun thing that comes as a result of having agents in the game, that we wouldn't have if the game didn't have agents?

If there isn't any, then is it really a good idea for a game to have this feature?

i personally find the real time negotiating much more fun than it was before, the added bonuses are good for getting a lower wage although i guess they could have been added anyway, i think they make things a bit more realistic, some of the fee's the agents look for could be looked at but again it can be a very usefull tool for getting someone in on a lower wage. Its a first time addition but i think with a bit more work it will be really good. The offering players thing is something i really like, i find quite a few brilliant young plaers through that feature.

[Canabary]

I hate them when I'm dealing with youngsters, I often have to pay agents more than I pay for the player for them to accept. Drives me nuts.

Spent on Agent Fees: £58M

[x42bn6]

i personally find the real time negotiating much more fun than it was before, the added bonuses are good for getting a lower wage although i guess they could have been added anyway, i think they make things a bit more realistic, some of the fee's the agents look for could be looked at but again it can be a very usefull tool for getting someone in on a lower wage. Its a first time addition but i think with a bit more work it will be really good. The offering players thing is something i really like, i find quite a few brilliant young plaers through that feature.

According to the time value of money, it's not necessarily cheaper to have a higher signing-on bonus and lower wages, in the same way that you must pay "more" over 48 months than up front.

In other words, it's not always useful to reduce wages by spending more now, because they are roughly going to be equivalent anyway.

I personally don't think this really justifies an agent - SI could easily just have increased transfer fees by around 10% to get roughly the same effect without agents, which would basically have the same effect. If you want to pay more up front, this is equivalent to a higher signing-on bonus and lower wages without an agent.

[milnerpoint]

as i say i far prefer the real time negotiations, i have had no issues with agents really, i like the addition although it could do with tweaking a bit, if they just reduced some of the fee's the big players agents ask for then it would be a very good addition to the game, that really seems to be the only real issue with them at the moment, something thats easily changed.

[Dalimyr]

It's a good addition in theory, but contract negotiations (not just agent fees, but negotiations in general) could do with a hell of a lot of tweaking because the new system has highlighted some serious flaws with the whole thing. I doubt much (if any) tweaking will be done for the final patch, but it's something that really needs fixing for FM12.

[milnerpoint]

i would like there to be a conversation involved in the negotiations, you could offer a wage or a certain bonus and explain why, or there could be an option for offering a longer contact or higher wage based on performances or development again done through a conversation in the game. It could also work for explaining a wage drop for older players or if the club is in financial trouble.

[x42bn6]

as i say i far prefer the real time negotiations, i have had no issues with agents really, i like the addition although it could do with tweaking a bit, if they just reduced some of the fee's the big players agents ask for then it would be a very good addition to the game, that really seems to be the only real issue with them at the moment, something thats easily changed.

You can have real-time negotiations without agents, though.

It's just that the most-fun scenario with agents is where you encounter no issues with agents at all, which happens to be the situation where the game has no agents.

I don't really see why "frustration" is fun.

[milnerpoint]

You can have real-time negotiations without agents, though.

It's just that the most-fun scenario with agents is where you encounter no issues with agents at all, which happens to be the situation where the game has no agents.

I don't really see why "frustration" is fun.

but in reality agents exist and are a big part of contract negotiations, so they should be in the game i think.

[x42bn6]

but in reality agents exist and are a big part of contract negotiations, so they should be in the game i think.

I don't agree with that sentiment.

It's a game at the end of the day and a feature that frustrates more players on average is clearly a bad feature.

It's an obstacle, not a feature. SI need to pretty much redo agents to turn it into a feature. But then again, they need to redo the whole transfer system anyway...

[immateriaux]

I don't agree with that sentiment.

It's a game at the end of the day and a feature that frustrates more players on average is clearly a bad feature.

It's an obstacle, not a feature. SI need to pretty much redo agents to turn it into a feature. But then again, they need to redo the whole transfer system anyway...

There's a game on the XBox Kinect thing, it's a simulation, RPG type thing. An early quest has you go to the forest to collect a hat a guy dropped. You have to lift your foot up and down for thirty minutes to simulate the walk back to the forest, find the hat, then simulate the thirty minute walk back again. It's very realistic but you probably haven't heard of it as it's so thoroughly unpopular....

Any simulation game is first and foremost a game. You are, of course, completely right. There's a plethora of real life, and far more important aspects of football, not in the game but the ultimate standard has to be does it enhance the enjoyment/entertainment/challenge of the "game". If it doesn't (and personally I can't see how having randomly huge amounts of money assigned out of your budget in a way that is beyond your control can be in anyway a good thing from a gameplay perspective), then it is, as you say, a bad feature.

[looknohands]

It should be an option that can be turned on or off. I play MLS exclusively, and the league doesn't negotiate agent fees seperately from the player's contract. In American sports, to the best of my knowledge, an agent works on commission; he gets a pre-arranged share of the contract in return for his services.