Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Issue: 19   Editor: iAir


Catch 22 SexehKate
You're sitting there comfortably in your posh leather chair, happily eating a chocolate bar, safe in the knowledge that your account on Bootleggers is a Legendary Don. Nobody would dare go near you- you've got 50,000 bullets, the best gun and protection, and millions of dollars. You're independent. You don't need anybody anymore.

All of a sudden, your Bootleggers barrel lights up. Who could that be? Its a scum. "hay m8, cn i hav a ogrinased crime pls" it reads. You promptly delete the message and click the Search All States option...

This is happening more and more nowadays. New, happy, innocent players join the massive community of Bootleggers, only to be dismissed by more experienced players and killed within 24 hours of signing up- for sport.

You see it every day in Organized Crimes, or on Crew Home pages: "You must be at least Godfather+ to apply." Basically, it comes down to this: you need experience to join an OC, you need an OC to get experience. This catch 22 situation means that few newcomers ever get past the second rank- they give up and do something healthy like cycling instead- its awful!
The problem is that very few of the respected, old-skool players remember what it was like as a scum. They don't seem to recall the days when they too were terrified of being put up onto the hitlist for sport, scammed out of their pitiful $500, or being ripped apart in the forums as a result of an innocent question. No, these Legendary Dons are much more accustomed to relaxing in their leather chair, finishing off their Cadbury something-or-other, and thinking up witty, cynical replies to an unprovoking low rank.

This, of course, doesn't apply to everyone- in my first few days of Bootlegging there were some unhelpful, one-minded beings sitting behind their glitzy computer screens, but equally there were some thoughtful, happy, and friendly people who I would be more than happy to recommend as HDOs. There were also the perverts who seemed to think I would be ecstatic to remove all of my clothing on a webcam, but a quick pressing of the "block user" button soon set them straight.

Anyway, the point of this article is to remember your roots- YOU used to be refused into organized crimes, YOU used to be deemed as just another noob, and YOU used to be scared to even post a reply to a topic in case some power-starved pre-teen the other side of the world spent some of his many points on blowing off your head.

Well, maybe not YOU specifically, but you get the idea.