[BPS]

Lots of issues have been raised, some that don't admit to simple solutions.

But I want to underline one problem that seems to play a part in a number of the issues people have raised: Markus is trying to use the price of free agents to solve a couple of problems at a single time. Because of this, it appears the free agent system often fails to solve well any of these problems it is designed to solve.

In my opinion, the price of free agents should be used for one thing only: getting the free agent the most money possible and having the player end up on the team willing to pay the most for the player. Period. Full stop.

This is a very difficult thing to accomplish in a game as complex as OOTP.

But Markus also seems to be using the price of free agents to sop up extra cash (from the league as a whole or from a couple of wealthy GMs). But this is something that appears to be causing problems.

Yes, some folks says Markus is merely introducing something about "supply and demand"...but it needs to be remembered that demand for free agents is NOT based on the GMs have, but on the money they are willing to pay for free agents (which might be far below the money they have).

That is, just because I have $1 million in the bank this does not mean I'm willing to pay $500 for a lawnmower I (and other reasonable people) think is worth $150. If the price for the lawnmower is set at $500 (because a wealthy person just entered the store), the quantity demanded will be zero despite the fact he has lots of money to spend. This is what some people sometimes experience in the game with free agents.

I appreciate the discussion in this thread and it gives people lots to think about.