Sunday, April 8th, 2007
Issue: 18   Editor: iAir


The Stock Market Crash of Bootleggers LordBaelish
After having read some very mixed thoughts in the game forum on the Stock Market, I asked myself if the feature was really worth the time and effort. There are two factors that were prominent in the player’s minds. First, older players found the amount of money made to be insignificant, falling short of the amount of money that could be made elsewhere. Secondly, newer players found the source of income helpful.

Having just started up Bootleggers a few weeks ago, I found myself agreeing with that second statement; it was indeed an extremely easy source of monetary revenue. However, is this a good feature for our game? Should we be able to throw money into the Stock Market and be assured that at the end of the day we’ll be able to sell for high? The simple buy low, sell high feature utilized seems flawed in that you’re guaranteed a return on your investment.

After reading through dozens of player’s opinions, it’s clear that the Stock Market is not living up to it’s full potential. Established players aren’t using it and newer players find it, possibly to their liking, too easy to use. But there are ways that the feature could be put to better use.

Some player suggestions from the game forum, and some of my own, include:

1. Make prices less stable. Players should be able to buy stocks and not be so sure that they’ll eventually rise by the end of the day. If we’re pretty much guaranteed the money, just give it to us and forget the whole feature all together.
2. Allow players to buy more shares. With the limit set at 150 shares, it’s hard to make more than $10,000.00, and the richer players just don’t find it worth their time. Of course an infinite amount of shares is just ridiculous, but a set amount of each company (i.e. 20,000 shares available to players as a whole) could make it more interesting and profitable.
3. Include more companies. The current list is rather short, and a new set of companies with prices ranging from a few dollars to the hundreds could make the Stock Market more diverse for a wide range of players with different wealth status levels.

Speak up, or they’ll never hear you!