House rules refers to set of rules used in a game that only applies to games run by a specific person or organization. In a game like Front Office Football, league commissioners may set their own league rules. These rules are well known, and the commissioner has the authority to enforce these rules.
An ideal game has no need for house rules.
Since Front Office Football multiplayer has been around for a long time, the rules commissioners consider have been under discussion for a long time. Improvements in the game over the years have lessened the need for house rules, but they still exist.
I’ve asked for feedback about house rules from time to time, and what I’ve found (and this is by no means an attempt to represent all leagues) is that in FOF7, house rules are mainly used during early free agency. A couple of rules refer to minimum player bonuses, but these are relatively rare. The most common rule is that during the first stage of free agency, free agents must receive a minimum offer of a three-year contract.
Why does this rule exist? It’s well known that FOF7 players like long-term contracts, but they can be compensated for that with a large chunk of money in a one-year deal.
Is this a reasonable house rule? Obviously, if a good percentage of people who enjoy FOF7 want to play in leagues that have this rule, it’s reasonable. In the end, I’d like to incorporate reasonable rules that people enjoy.
So I set out to determine whether this is a realistic rule.
To do this, I studied a piece of the 2016 off-season. In real life, free agents of all abilities sign throughout the free agency period, but the top free agents usually sign in the first few days (first two-to-three days in most cases). In Front Office Football, the top free agents choose a stage early in signing process and usually make their decisions that stage. Weaker free agents tend to wait until later in the period.
I use this mechanism to give structure to a process that’s far too crazy to simulate exactly as it occurs (I doubt NFL GMs get a wink of sleep the second week of March).
Using an NFL.com article, I took a list of their top free agents for 2016 – players who they categorized as elite or starters with some flaws. From that list, I took every unrestricted free agent who signed in the first ten days of the free-agency period. This would be the early stages in pre-draft free agency in Front Office Football.
This gave me a list of 43 players. I then looked over the contracts they signed.
Did any sign for less than three years? Yes, eight of the 43 signed one- or two-year contracts. But there were reasons for these signings. Most were fairly old players, nearing the ends of long careers. And some, like Jason Pierre-Paul and Prince Amukamara, have something important to prove after serious injuries and signed one-year deals.
The case with older players is already in Front Office Football. I don’t really know how to simulate the injury case without adding a huge amount of code surrounding injury recovery – code that would require players to spend a lot of time reading about injuries. I won’t go in that direction for now. Perhaps when I design Front Office Football: Medical School.
Bonus money was all over the place. I think the current Front Office Football model works to properly evaluate bonus money.
Other than the older players and the injury cases, three years was on the low end. Elite free agents mostly signed five-year deals with some fours.
I think the case for incorporating a form of this house rule is justified. Here’s how it will work in Front Office Football Eight:
In stage one of free agency, if a player is asking for a four-year contract (or more), he will refuse to consider any contract of less than four years.
In stages two and three, that limit will be three years.
In stage four, that limit will be two years.
I think this change will provide a more realistic simulation of the decisions the elite free agents make.