After the first season of the very scary agent experiment I think we can mostly agree that it is a popular service that has considerable demand and that the dangers and concerns were overhyped and mostly have not come to fruition.
However a new issue that I've noticed has arisen - only one agency is still standing. With the considerable barriers to entry that HO erected to ensure that it would be difficult to start and maintain an agency and that only site regulars could do so, we saw only two agencies created and one of them has already died off despite having player interest. This may be by design as a backdoor way of banning agencies but if it's not then I would suggest lowering the requirements (or at least restructuring them) to be an agent ever so slightly so that there is a bit more competition in the realm of agents. The fears and concerns about player agents that we had so much hand-wringing about are much more likely to occur if there is only one agency than if there were multiple vying for clients. HO's stated position is that agents are fine but
Right now the requirements, after a series of increasing restrictions, as I understand them are:
If HO thinks that lowers the barrier to entry too much then I would focus on strengthening Rule 9 (a restriction that makes sense) rather than taxing agencies into submission.
"But Beaver!" you shout aloud, your fingers flexing as you ready your reply. "Agents can just get a job and write media to pay for their agency fee!"
Indeed they can. In fact HO defended Rule 6 by laying out several ways to obtain $10m:
To which I ask: why in God's name do we want agents holding league jobs?? Those jobs should be open for users, especially newer ones that could really use that money to purchase equipment and improve their player. So long as there is a considerable agency fee, taking up a league job will be the best, most popular, and most efficient way of defraying that cost. As HO noted, it's more expensive to maintain a player purchasing multiple pieces of equipment per season than it is to maintain an agency so players need those jobs more than agents do.
So, to summarize, in order for HO to achieve its regulatory aims it needs to reduce or, ideally, eliminate the agency fee and perhaps look at strengthening the tenure requirement as a trade-off. Something like: at least 7 seasons as a player, at least 3 seasons holding a league job, and a player that has reached at least x TPE (800? 1000?).
7 seasons on the site as a player is just over a year in real life time - I think that's a bit excessive since users regularly ascend to more important league roles than agent (HO, GM, etc) in less time. However, it requires potential agents to have a bit more experience on site and would ultimately help them as they would have more connections and relationships through the league. I think the current 5 season requirement is fine - I highly doubt anybody is going to retire their player after 5 or 7 seasons to become an agent so this is a bit superfluous but does prevent new users from biting off more than they can chew.
3 seasons holding a league job just requires a track record of having dedication to the league beyond simply updating a player. The number is fluid, of course, as there's nothing magical about the third season but that is 6 months of regularly working to make the league better and helping it to run smoothly so it ensures that agents have a bit of a buy-in already.
A TPE requirement on a previous player goes hand in hand with the first two requirements but from a slightly different angle. If I were to implement this restriction, I'd put it high enough that a player that simply does PTs, ACs, and Trainings can't reach it and only users that had consistent dedication to updating their player as well as holding down a job or jobs and/or pumping out media in order to pay for equipment.
The three of those are all very similar and overlap quite a bit but in conjunction I think would assuage HO's concerns that someone inexperienced or undedicated would open an agency even without a $10m agency fee requirement.
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Beyond this, have there been any issues with agents in the first season that weren't covered by the first three rounds of regulations? With a new mechanic like this that, as far as I know, hasn't been implemented in this fashion in other sim leagues I think it's good to review what went well, what went poorly, what was expected to but didn't occur, and what did occur that was unforeseen and amend the rules and regulations accordingly.
However a new issue that I've noticed has arisen - only one agency is still standing. With the considerable barriers to entry that HO erected to ensure that it would be difficult to start and maintain an agency and that only site regulars could do so, we saw only two agencies created and one of them has already died off despite having player interest. This may be by design as a backdoor way of banning agencies but if it's not then I would suggest lowering the requirements (or at least restructuring them) to be an agent ever so slightly so that there is a bit more competition in the realm of agents. The fears and concerns about player agents that we had so much hand-wringing about are much more likely to occur if there is only one agency than if there were multiple vying for clients. HO's stated position is that agents are fine but
Quote:[table border=\\\'0\\\' align=\\\'center\\\' width=\\\'95%\\\' cellpadding=\\\'3\\\' cellspacing=\\\'1\\\' id=\\\'QUOTE-WRAP\\\'][tr][td]QUOTE [/td][/tr][tr][td id=\\\'QUOTE\\\'][!--QuoteEBegin--][i]f not regulated, we have the potential for an agent to benefit one team for their own sake, rather than focus on what best benefits the principal.Having 2 or 3 agencies to choose from would undoubtedly be better for the principal and would weaken the power of an agent to influence the landscape of the league according to their own bias/machinations.
Right now the requirements, after a series of increasing restrictions, as I understand them are:
Quote:1. Agents are not allowed to have any affiliations with teams in the NSFL or DSFLRule 9 takes care of the inexperience concern and if an agent is undedicated then that problem will sort itself out quickly. I can understand why HO didn't want the first wave of agencies to be run by new users who didn't know what they were getting into but now that we have an established agency running it's time to lower the cost to potentially introduce some competition. If someone that doesn't have a big bank wants to try out being an agent between players, let them. If they find it's not for them then no harm, no foul we're in the same exact situation we are now as one of the two original agencies closed within a season. If they find that they do like it, then great we have some competition and maybe HO can sleep a bit better at night knowing that @iamslm22 doesn't have a monopoly.
2. Agents can not have any players in the NSFL or DSFL
3. Any such agency relationship will be terminated
4. Having these things along with being an agent creates a conflict of interest, which would clearly fall under tampering
5. Any communication between and agent and GM regarding a player must include said player. Including, but not limited to: contract, trade, and general inquiries.
Basically, if an agent is talking to a GM, there must be a player included in the communication as well.
6. Each agent must have a license from Head Office to act as an agent. License fee is $10mil per season (Ultimus to Ultimus).
7. An agent may have a league job to offset costs, they may take part in Twitter. Media date=]to meet our concerns of inexperienced/undedicated users in agency roles
If HO thinks that lowers the barrier to entry too much then I would focus on strengthening Rule 9 (a restriction that makes sense) rather than taxing agencies into submission.
"But Beaver!" you shout aloud, your fingers flexing as you ready your reply. "Agents can just get a job and write media to pay for their agency fee!"
Indeed they can. In fact HO defended Rule 6 by laying out several ways to obtain $10m:
Quote:There are many ways to earn 10 million in the league, such as:
- 2 league jobs
- 1 league job and 2500 words of media
- 6000 words of media
To which I ask: why in God's name do we want agents holding league jobs?? Those jobs should be open for users, especially newer ones that could really use that money to purchase equipment and improve their player. So long as there is a considerable agency fee, taking up a league job will be the best, most popular, and most efficient way of defraying that cost. As HO noted, it's more expensive to maintain a player purchasing multiple pieces of equipment per season than it is to maintain an agency so players need those jobs more than agents do.
So, to summarize, in order for HO to achieve its regulatory aims it needs to reduce or, ideally, eliminate the agency fee and perhaps look at strengthening the tenure requirement as a trade-off. Something like: at least 7 seasons as a player, at least 3 seasons holding a league job, and a player that has reached at least x TPE (800? 1000?).
7 seasons on the site as a player is just over a year in real life time - I think that's a bit excessive since users regularly ascend to more important league roles than agent (HO, GM, etc) in less time. However, it requires potential agents to have a bit more experience on site and would ultimately help them as they would have more connections and relationships through the league. I think the current 5 season requirement is fine - I highly doubt anybody is going to retire their player after 5 or 7 seasons to become an agent so this is a bit superfluous but does prevent new users from biting off more than they can chew.
3 seasons holding a league job just requires a track record of having dedication to the league beyond simply updating a player. The number is fluid, of course, as there's nothing magical about the third season but that is 6 months of regularly working to make the league better and helping it to run smoothly so it ensures that agents have a bit of a buy-in already.
A TPE requirement on a previous player goes hand in hand with the first two requirements but from a slightly different angle. If I were to implement this restriction, I'd put it high enough that a player that simply does PTs, ACs, and Trainings can't reach it and only users that had consistent dedication to updating their player as well as holding down a job or jobs and/or pumping out media in order to pay for equipment.
The three of those are all very similar and overlap quite a bit but in conjunction I think would assuage HO's concerns that someone inexperienced or undedicated would open an agency even without a $10m agency fee requirement.
--
Beyond this, have there been any issues with agents in the first season that weren't covered by the first three rounds of regulations? With a new mechanic like this that, as far as I know, hasn't been implemented in this fashion in other sim leagues I think it's good to review what went well, what went poorly, what was expected to but didn't occur, and what did occur that was unforeseen and amend the rules and regulations accordingly.