Sunday, November 28th, 2010
Issue: 57   Editor: NVIDIAldarion


The biggest spree Bootleggers has ever seen! Poisonous
We at the Buzz think that the best and simplest way to show the gargantuan nature of this spree, the biggest in our combined memory, is by showing some statistics:
  • Deaths in the past 24 hours: 1,700 (confirmed)+
  • Bullets used in the past 24 hours: 5,000,000+ (approx)
  • Money drop in the past 24 hours: $14,000,000,000 (approx)
  • Total players: 33,720
    Alive: 19,851 (58.87% of players)
    Dead: 13,799 (40.92% of players)


So nearly half of the game players are now dead and money has nearly halved, the first question that sprung to our mind was who was behind these attacks. Seemingly there were five crews involved; The Family, The Triad, Event Horizon, Komodo, and Virtual Reality. We contacted the bosses of each of these crews (that we could find) but due to the underground nature of some of the crews, and the timing of the shooting in relation to the Buzz publishing (the night before!) we have yet to receive responses from all of them. BettehB aka Betty, Boss of Event Horizon, was one who got back to us. She told the Buzz that “EH did none of the organizing nor was the idea ours. We supplied 4 shooters.” When pressed regarding at whose request she supplied the shooters, she refused to reveal any more than that they were “friends”. So EH weren’t behind the complex planning of the attacks and seemingly nor were Virtual Reality. That left the three underground and therefore most difficult to contact crews, when contact their bosses proved difficult we tried to get answers by messaging all of the shooters but this method proved fruitless; seemingly they had other things to do.

We then changed tack and messaged the three members of the crew Manual Reset when it appeared on the statistics, and this proved more successful.

QuasiMoto, Boss of the crew told us that the attacks were organised as a collaboration by the bosses of the aforementioned crews, mainly The Triad as for some the time needed to organise was just too much, he told us “Some of them didn't participate... because the job of organizing it all was too big.” He added that bullets had been saved in such mass simply as bosses, after they were “involved had a close dialogue [with other crew bosses]” told their “Shooter's and members where told earlier to save up [bullets] for an upcoming event.”
QuasiMoto also filled us in the logistical and financial nightmare the shootings were to plan and implement, for a start the sheer number of shooters, “about 15 shooters started at the exact same time.” Adding, “Then some late arrives joined in making it a total of 21 shooters, if I’m not wrong”. With 21 shooters firing continuously for up to 12 hours at a time, searches had to be certain to be correct, making 8-12 hour searches for each and every target a necessity, QuasiMoto told us that “Each shooter used around 50 mill on searches” so with 21 shooters he assured us that, at the very least “it was a total of 1 bill in search money.” So without the cost of over 5,000,000 bullets, this spree cost the crews involved more than $1,000,000,000- 1/30th of in game money, before the shootings. At least picking targets didn’t take too much effort, we were told targets were listed, and simply “Just everyone [the shooters] could find, ended up there.” QuasiMoto ensured us, however, that of the chosen targets “a lot survived because of 6 banned shooters.” These banned shooters, in fact, caused a lot of controversy. TheCoon summed up a lot of public anger when he said “I figure they aim for a lot of duping money holders. It is pathetic that there are so many. But they do it with shooters of which quite a few get banned? Kinda takes the whole point away.” Of the 21 shooters, six were banned leading to the suspicion that bullet and money exploits were used and many wanted a rollback and/or revivals of accounts killed by the shooter. We cannot comment on the nature of the bans, however as they are confidential and between the Elite Guard and the banned player although speculation is rife that they were banned for being bankers, an offense made bannable a few years ago for “not using an account as intended” aka to play the game although the shooters are feeling aggrieved and accusing Moderators of being “afraid of game balance and coming up with unfair ban reasons”.

This seemingly random method of picking targets provoked a lot of public anger, with a number of players unhappy with accounts being killed for no reason as they fear it is bad for the game and may demotivate people from playing; ShanghaiBlue told us in our game forum topic, “The many players that were not happy with the game aren't given any reason to even bother to come back.” Adding that “New players who build up from scratch got wasted for nothing and can't be bothered to start over again when you get killed for nothing.” El_Torro echoed previous thoughts, saying “The shooting was just plain shit. Made a few shooters look really great. But with a lot of victims, the game dies. Players who were/are can consider quitting.” It does seem highly likely that with nearly 2,000 accounts killed that some of them simply will not return to the game. Especially in current times when people seem to have a much more negative outlook on the game than in the past, “I guess this is the end of big BL.. Not a lot of players will feel the need to get back up after this.” Modigliani summed up. Others however, were full of praise for the shooters actions, exclaiming how they can “finally call Bootleggers a Mafia game!”

Only time will tell how much this shooting harms or heals the game.

So we know who and what. But why? “The motivation was to challenge BSF, and the structure of the game.” QuasiMoto told us, “But also we hoped to hit our enemies money holders and shooters.” Certainly by killing over 1,700 accounts the probability of hitting money holders is good, and $14,000,000,000 out of the game will have helped increase the value of their money somewhat. So I think we can safely say that their secondary objective has been achieved. However, as for the success of their primary aim, who can say? BSF2000, as ever, was unavailable for comment. Many however believe that this was the push over the edge by players to try and force BSF into resetting the game, and hopefully restoring the life some players say is missing from Bootleggers of late. “The shootings were an attempt at a semi-manual reset.” CopperLand speculated, “Obviously they were still targeting foes which are still out there but by doing so they have added on to the rationalization that Bootleggers has now become a one sided affair. They have killed what little hope many of the small down players which make up the majority of the game by the way had. Now it seems that the shooting was the final straw for most innocent bystanders and they have chosen to quit and stop taking the game seriously.” A rather un-optimistic perspective on how the shootings may affect the game. However he is not alone in thinking that after this spree the need for a reset has been highlighted, with the balance of power in the game seemingly horrifically skewed in favour of the few and dwindling player number being given a rather large boot in the wrong direction. Perhaps, this time, BSF will have to take note of what is happening and act. We shall have to wait and see.

QuasiMoto finished our interview by telling us that “[He has] just one thing to say.” And is final thoughts were of defiance, “Anyone can challenge us. We show our faces on the statistics page every day. If only our enemies did the same we wouldn’t have a mass spree with random targets. We have the resources. So like it's written: ‘Because we can’.”

RIP to all those who have died, and congratulations on what is possibly the largest spree Bootleggers has ever seen, I am impressed to be alive.