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| Sunday, July 5th, 2009 |
| Issue: 133 |
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Editor: MikaMania |
| The Rise and Fall of a Stat Crew |
Convalescent |
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This is the first wall of text I've written since I finished writing essays for school but I have time on my hands and I find the subject of crews quite an interesting aspect of Bootleggers culture. Many players hold a particular crew close to their heart and will relentlessly defend it in forum discussion. 'Which is the best crew' threads are rarely dictated by which crews have lived the longest, which has the most money, survived the most attacks etc. but by individuals personal favourite. Therefore I thought an examination of why our beloved crew doesn't always last might resonate with members of the community.
In years gone by crews have formed around the experience of a few and filled out with more newbie players. This was the norm back when 40 crews populated the statistics page. Back then there was a diverse mix of crews and in my opinion was much better for the community of Bootleggers. Just look at the situation now with only 15 crews, where you have to be friends with someone to get in. This leaves a lot of new players with no direction and they will inevitably find it difficult to settle into Bootleggers. But thats a rant for another day
What I'm getting at with the 15 crews we have now is that a lot of new names are appearing and disappearing quickly. The reasoning behind this I believe is that there's too much experience in these new crews and inner friction between personalities, causing players to want to go off and do different things for themselves and other crews. Sometimes crews that are established via recruiting in the forums such as The Notorious Gangsters possibly jump on to the stats too quickly without covering all bases (such as out of crew shooters/Boss+ members) and are consequently shot or insided.
Something else that Ive witnessed within a crew full of fairly new players is that for a while a good community is formed and things run smoothly but as the players slip into the grind of Bl life they become ambitious and want to break away and form other crews. The first crew is then torn apart, weakening all parties. For some small crews with limited resources the punishment of being picked off by bullet stocking underground crews proves too much and all but a name is left of the previously thriving community.
In other instances though, members are thrown together and seem to click regardless of their experience on Bl, thus forming extremely strong crews. In the case of such long-standing and experienced crews it seems to take a lot more than a few hundred thousand bullets to retire their name from the stats. Instead, crews like The Deadly Alliance and Revelation have been off the stats due to key members actually leaving the game. In addition to this, council members and bosses being called up to join the Bl staff Im sure has caused crews to become unsteady or disband. On the other hand some bosses have been known to run their crew and fulfil HDO duties, although theres no doubt this puts extra pressure on the existence of a crew, due to the importance of having an enduring experienced boss at the reigns. This is indeed another reason for the decline of some names on the stats as there have been many crew leadership changes resulting in the crew failing to stay afloat. This brings back memories of the unfortunate demise of The Legion back in 2005 when the founder and co-boss Drae quit Bootleggers having held down a HDO position for months.
Also notable is that some big crews seem to disappear suddenly along with important figures within them. Obviously this could be for any number of reasons including real life issues of players, but following the theme of this reset I think a lot of big crews disappear now due to money holders being shot and key revenue for the crew being lost. This is speculation of course but entirely possible.
Its always a sad day when a crew that youve been a member of for months, or even years in the case of The Clenched Fist for example, ceases to exist. But this isnt entirely true as there is always a dedicated following behind the well-established names, even when they leave the stats. Recently the offsite forum of TDA was brought up and this is clearly a factor behind the survival of a crew, having devoted members. It is a testament to these members and bosses that keep names alive. Even crews that have been weakened much over the course of the reset like Winter Hill Gang have returned to the stats on numerous occasions due to the persistence of certain members and their boss.
There are a variety of reasons for the fall of a crew and as I described above it can be for somewhat sketchy reasons. Despite the fact that stable crews can form out of many experienced players, I think the underlying foundation for a good crew comes with the strength of its members (newbies or not) in a community, along with having a focused, experienced and organised boss who can train up someone to replace him or her should they have to leave. Oh, and dont forget those money holders, they need to be kept safe too 
Thanks for reading,
Convalescent
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