Sunday, January 18th, 2009
Issue: 109   Editor: Mikamon


Politics on Bootleggers IAmAldarion
This week, we witnessed some sort of political explosion on Bootleggers regarding the current situation in the Middle-East. A lot of topics were made to discuss the situation, Eternal Labyrinth changed their crewname to It is Ghazza It is Palestine, and we’ve seen people doing the same for Israel . Thing is though, do politics like these belong on Bootleggers?

Political issues being discussed on Bootleggers is not a development of the last few weeks. Politics have always played a tiny role on Bootleggers. Everyone probably remembers the presidential election in the United States, just a few months ago. Back then we’ve seen a lot of discussion between people that supported either Obama or McCain. There is a significant difference though, between this type of politics and the current one regarding the situation in the Middle-East. A key difference between those two ‘types’ of politics is respect.

Whereas respect was an important issue in the politics regarding the presidential election, it totally lacks in the politics regarding the Middle-East. That is probably caused by the fact that the politics regarding the Middle-East concern a war. There is no respect for the other side in a war.

As we’ve seen, lack of respect also causes genuine hatred for people with a different opinion. We’ve seen people go completely mad just because of someone disagreeing with them. I think there’s a limit to what politics should be brought into the game, and for my part, that limit has been passed with the issue regarding the Middle-East.

This then brings us to a question: Why would one introduce politics like this to a game? It sort of ruins the game for the players. People do not play this game to be confronted with political problems and conflicts. People play Bootleggers to relax, to have fun. Apart from ruining it for other players, you might as well consider the fact that you’re ruining it for yourself. As this concerns a war, having a certain opinion implies other people have a different opinion, thus you being confronted with that other opinion. You simple cannot expect everyone to agree with you.

There is one essential thing we must not forget, Bootleggers is a game. People play this game to have fun, to relax, to enjoy themselves. As said before, people are not playing the game to be confronted with political issues. Sure, it is fine to discuss such things through bootmail, but there is no need to spoil the game for other people. There is no need for the hatred we see in the game right now, after all, we all have different opinions, yet we OC together, yet we are in the same crew. The Bootleggers community is pretty strong; it cannot be, it must not be destroyed by this.

The article then, ends with a call to all of you. Leave the politics for what they are even though that might be very hard if you’re right in the middle of a war. It’s not just for yourself, as you’re no longer being confronted with other (offending) opinions, which will probably be quite a relief. It’s also for the other players. Let’s get the fun back to Bootleggers. After all, that’s where the game is all about.