Sunday, February 18th, 2007
Issue: 11   Editor: iAir


Elite Guard Interview iAir
Well we've now reached the Administration of Bootleggers. This week's interview is with Sabin which was long-awaited. I hope you enjoy the questions that you, the public, sent in.

Q. What made you pick the name Sabin? ~badgerbadgerbadger~
A. Sabin is a character in Final Fantasy VI (or FF III in the US). The history, attitude, and attributes of that character describe me pretty well, so I started using it.

Q. Has the transition from Moderator to Admin been easy? How much harder is the workload? ~Broken~
A. It was a fairly natural transition for me. It was probably more difficult for those people who like to bend the rules and try to get me in trouble, since they saw that BSF saw right through their lies and their games, and saw that I do what's best for the game. The workload is much higher, because I have all my new responsibilities added to my old ones. Thankfully, I have a few more Mods to help me out.

Q. What got you into bootleggers and who is your idol if any? ~TooHawt2Handle~
A. I joined the game in May 2004 when my friend Shay (you may know her as HiddenSmile) showed it to me and several others in my gaming group. As a moderator, I wanted to be just like Annihilation. He was strict, but fair, had a sick sense of humor, and was very knowledgeable in the ways of programming and design. As an Admin, I guess I really don't have an idol, since I seem to be in a position where people look to achieve what I've done, rather than the other way around.

Q. I remember before the reset when you could just easily get a gun, buying some bullets; train your gun and kill someone. Now because of the prices, yes the game's more dupe free and no fear of inflation, but at what cost? After-all people play games for fun. ~Oddball~
A. There's an old saying: "Every game is just a way of making things hard for the fun of it." This is very true, even in the realm of Bootleggers. As players got better and better at the game, the game had to evolve so that it could continue to present a challenge. People complained that crew taxes were too high and that everything was too expensive. Yet now (as of the day I write this), we already have two Legendary Dons, the average player has almost $200,000 and over 30 points, and all ten crews seem pretty stable financially. Sure, it's difficult... but it wouldn't be a game if it weren't. I give a lot of credit to BSF2000 for striking this great balance where even after 4 months of play, there is no inflation and dupes aren't running the place.

Q. When you got 'promoted' to Admin, did it come as a surprise or had you expected the promotion? ~whitestar~
A. Part of me had expected the promotion. After all, I already had some programming access, I was working with BSF2000 regularly on new features and fixing the broken ones, I was already seen as the leader of the Mod and HDO staff, and I'd been a Moderator for almost two years... longer than any other Mod in BL history. I knew I'd earned it, and I believed that BSF2000 thought so too. But when the day came, it was a surprise to me, because I thought we were just going to making new Mods... I had no idea that I was on the schedule for promotions too.

Q. Have you every spammed someone's Inbox because they were doing so to yours? ~DonG~
A. Never. Spamming is very immature, even if the person thinks it's for a good reason. I don't even have the tools to do it, unless I just keep refreshing my browser. Besides, it doesn't bother me too much, because no matter how badly my inbox gets spammed, it only takes about 15 seconds to ban the user and delete every message they've ever sent.

Q. Will we ever see a picture of yourself in blhelp.com? ~TheSkyOrBust~
A. Maybe someday, but probably not anytime soon. As some people already know, I'm training as a professional wrestler. I'll probably get some digital pics of myself after I've made my debut (I'm not sure when that will be, as my job interferes with my training). But if and when I do get a digital pic uploaded, I'll post one on BLHelp.

Q. Do you think a player that goes by the name of 'spidah' is hawt? ~Spidah~
A. I don't know who that player is. But being the pyromaniac that I am, I could tell that person that if they are getting too "hawt", that perhaps he or she should back up from the bonfire.

Q. What do you enjoy most about Bootleggers? ~Broken~
A. Crews. I love watching crews grow and try to dominate the game. It's what makes the game go 'round.

Q. Would you ever prefer to be a normal player again? If not, why? ~NewPeeking~
A. Probably not. I think that I could probably do pretty well as a player again (I did pretty well as a player before becoming a Mod), if I were so inclined. You might think that the reason I wouldn't like being a player again is because I'd have to give up all of my staff powers. Actually, the reason is because I know virtually everything there is to know about how the game works on the inside. There is no mystery. There is no trying different strategies to see what works. I know the best strategies, I know all of the secrets... the game would not be a challenge to me, so then it wouldn't be fun.

Q. There is a lot of controversy towards the way you deal with people and rumours of you being corrupt. Do these comments ever effect the way you handle cases? ~whitestar~
A. Yes. Anyone who accuses me of being corrupt without some good reasons behind the accusation loses the privilege of my help. The same is true for anyone who gets belligerent and insulting in any other way. If you walk into any courtroom in the United States (and probably anywhere else in the world) and tell the presiding judge that he is an unfair, corrupt, evil incarnation of the devil himself... you're probably going to jail for at least one night, and your court case isn't likely to work out in your favor. This is a fact of life, especially in the 1930s. It doesn't matter to me if people like me or hate me, but I am an Administrator of the game and I feel that I at least deserve the basic level of respect that I shouldn't get insulted and falsely accused of corruption simply because someone does something stupid and gets caught.

Q. Let's say someone comes to you. He tells you the new name of your friend who was just killed, while your friends hasn't told anyone his new name. Next to that he names the account of your friend's brother, who hasn't logged in for like 2 months and hasn't told anyone who he was. That person also tells you he knows it because they are on the same IP. This would mean that person could find your friend anytime he would like, with whatever name he would pick. So my question is, Is there anything you could do about that? ~Serendipity~
A. No. There is no way through the BL website or service that a person can gain that kind of information unless you are a member of the Elite Guard. If the person is able to obtain that information without getting it from "my friend", then that person likely has a key logger or some other form of hacking software installed on your machine, or they have access to your e-mail accounts without your knowledge. These are things that are beyond the control of the BL Staff. If this is a problem for you, you might want to contact your local police department's internet crimes division.

Q. If you could be any vegetable, what would you be? ~Redgie999~
A. It just so happens that I don't really like most vegetables. But if I HAD to choose, I'd maybe be an ear of corn, because I hear everything even when people don't realize it. Okay, it's a lame answer, I know... but it was a lame question. What'd you expect?

Q. What is your opinion on the resignation of Harlem from his Moderator position? ~trippin~
A. I thank him for his time in service to the BL community. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Q. Do you think people would understand you more if you didn't use such big words? ~babybean~
A. Indubitably. The vexation of an extensive portion of the Bootleggers player base regarding my exceptionally verbose vernacular derives from commonplace lack of lexicographical experience on the part of said player.

Q. What is the status of your Wrestling career? ~Riserva~
A. I'm currently training during the times I'm home. Due to my job, training is progressing slowly, but I prefer it that way. I'm not in any hurry to get in the ring, because I don't want to be a green rookie embarrassing himself. I'd rather take my time and learn everything I can, gaining my experience behind-the-scenes. That way, when I'm ready I'll be phenomenal. Patience is the key.

Q. Do you feel that looking back on the game forum rules you imposed, that you have lead to a less interesting game forum? Before these new rules were implemented there were more mature discussions, and the forum was far more active, even if you were to exclude the OTF topics. Would you, or will you ever consider relaxing the rules a little, seeing as there are less people on the forum anyway nowdays. We've got enough HDOs to cope, as there will obviously be an outbreak of attempts to circumvent the rules. ~TheBigBadDawg~
A. I believe that the current state of the Game Forum is a direct result of the actions of the very players who disagree with the rules that I've posted. Personally, I wouldn't mind having some fun discussions, games, and other more-relaxed activities on the Game Forum, just like in the "old days". Unfortunately, the Game Forum had become overrun with so-called "forum whores". While we appreciate these users' interest in having fun and playing the game, OTF topics dominated the Game Forum so badly that a person with a legitimate question or concern would get their topic bumped to the second page within 30 seconds, leaving their question unanswered. This started the bumping wars... the misguided theory that spamming your own topic with smilies will allow you to be more visible and get your question answered. At the time, there was no limit to the number of smilies that you could have in a single post, and usage was excessive. It was so harsh that the BBCode interpreter couldn't keep up, and the forums would lag horribly. Eventually, the lagging forum would bog down the webserver and negatively affect people that didn't even read the forums. The forum rules are designed to allow people with legitimate questions or discussion topics to have their topics seem in the forum in which they belong, and delegate the "fun" topics to the Off Topic Forum. Although the transition was rough and there are a small group of people still resisting them, I believe it to be an overwhelming success.

Q. Do you think you acted wrong in any part of the Revelation incident? For a start, you lost at least 40% of the IRC channel over it. ~TheBigBadDawg~
A. Not at all. It's unfortunate that the crew leadership had to get involved in a personal matter between myself and two of its members. The incident basically boiled down to "Ban me, I dare you!"... so I did. I have nothing against the Revelation crew itself, nor against most of its members. Only a few members of its leadership team have gotten on my ad side and caused problems for their members. The leadership team should be ashamed of itself for doing such damage to its own crew. Also, the main channel only lost about 10 people, and has gotten more people back. IRC doesn't miss Revelation, and i don't see any reason to force them to return. But if they want to, they're more than welcome.

Q. As you may or may not be aware, the use of casino's have reached an all-time low. If you were to read the article in the Buzz Issue#10 called "Casino: a fraction of fame" it was mentioned that the low maxes are caused due to the ill-use of having them for the 'real' purpose. It was also implied that maybe there should be a new set-rule on casino's, just like the current rule on Keno's. If this decision was backed by the majority of the bootlegging public, would you consider taking this further and help get gambling back where it should be? With the better use of casino's, there is more chance of them being lost, which can alter the prices of them which can further lead to more killings. What is your opinion on this issue? ~Air~
A. I am 100% in support of people killing for casinos, whether it's because they want to own one, or because they are tired of the low maxes. Casino owners might be more apt to keep reasonable maxes if there is a strong threat of death. I believe that the primary reason for the low max syndrome is the much-slower economy than that to which many players are accustomed. As for the Keno tables, I haven't gotten a chance to chat with BSF2000 and evaluate the success of that particular modification. When we do, there will probably be a change in the way casino maxes are governed. There are a few things that we as staff can do to help ease the problem, but the biggest and most effective solution lies in the hands of the players: kill for it.