Sunday, February 11th, 2007
Issue: 10   Editor: iAir


Talking the Talk Broken
Power, we all want it. Reputation in this game can make or break a player and this round alone, there have been players that have proven themselves to the playing public by going out and causing destruction. We are all familiar with examples such as The Other Path’s attack on Revelation, Jordan and his shootings and the recent Casino shootings involving Lethal. These are prime examples of players who have promised us bloodshed and have not failed to deliver.

There are other players though, who are... not as successful, shall we say. They have posted a big threat on the Game Forum such as a Crew Takeover or a States Page wipe-out and then delivered nothing. The question is though, why? Why do people talk the talk, but not walk the walk? It’s no secret that players who don’t follow through on their words are often the subject of ridicule on the forums later on.

I decided to ask players on the Game Forum what they thought the reason was. Rake said “They do it to make themselves look big then they postpone the date on and on until they get killed and then make the excuse they got killed, pathetic really.” Pretty much the same view was held by LasTeR who said “It's called attention. Being in the center of attention makes people feel great, not only in real life, but also on games like this.” Schmuck had more of a direct view when he said “How the hell should we know? Unless we do so ourselves. It's just bluffing, a way to scare someone.. although it's well-known -for about 4 years- it doesn't work.”

So this opinion is pretty much shared around the Bootleggers community. Of course it feels great to be the centre of attention and be feared for a few hours at least. Some players may make a song and dance out of “frustration of being scammed and killed but not having the sufficient resources to actually kill someone.” (LasTeR) or just simply to “Scare someone” (SnoopFeatDre). However, we can’t go thinking that everybody who posts a threat on the Game Forum isn’t deadly serious, we just have to remember Lethal and Jordan to know why. We can be sure of one thing though: talking the talk but not walking the walk can turn a player into an absolute joke, such as a certain player last reset who would threaten to wipe The Regulators on an almost daily basis or the player from last round who claimed almost every casino as his.

When you think about it, making false threats does absolutely nothing but damage your reputation and make you a laughing stock. One would find that actually doing what you intend to do without mentioning it on the forums gets you a lot more respect most of the time as a no nonsense type of person. We only have to remember The Other Path's attack on Revelation to realise this.

So here’s something to remember: don’t threaten to do something that you know you can’t do. Words without actions simply remain words.