Sunday, February 24th, 2008
Issue: 62   Editor: Nyxxinator


To Scam or not to Scam, that is the Question. SirAntony
Here is the scenario;

One day you wake up, have your usual breakfast of raw eggs, walk down the stairs, jump and land behind your personal computer. On to Bootleggers, another day another dollar so to say, because you have been working hard the last few weeks for your money. You have invested in establishments, gained bank profit on a daily basis, and on top of that you have been hiring yourself for OC, for the fair and square price of 75k + 30%. All of that you can do, with your rank of Respectable Don. You worked hard to get there, so it is time to profit from it.

But today is the big day, your first 10 million dollars, earned with the respective blood, sweat and tears. And than, all the sudden, a topic in the Off Topic Forum pops up. A FTS, first to send. Bored as you are you decide to click on the topic, and see something amazing.


FTS !
First to send me 5 million dollars receives 10 million dollars!
Trusted by many, don't trust, don't play !


A player known for making these games has decided to step his games up a little. You see a lot of reactions, both positive as negative, but you decide to try it out. You know that it can go wrong, but apparently the possible 5 million dollar profit makes you blind.
You sent the money, but darn me, you weren't the first one.
Frustrated you shut down your PC and walk to the shower.

All characters and events in this scenario are purely fictional

Just one of the many possible scams in the game. And watching the game forum lately, I noticed an 'disturbance in the force' (AMG, is he really that geeky?)

Few people were talking about scams as if they were everyday business, without being totally negative about it. A chance in the tendons on Bootleggers so to speak, but those people have a point right there. Back in the 1930-1940's, the mafia and other criminals surely scammed of each other, so if you look at it that way, scamming is part of being a criminal and with that, part of being a game. Scamming isn't forbidden by the game rules, so why look at it so negatively?
Sure, it will probably make you feel bad if you are scammed, but isn't that your own mistake?

I decided to throw in a little topic myself, to ask people on there views on scamming (scamming as in a trick to make a person lose money or points, in order to make yourself richer. not as in hacking people). I had interesting reactions and I would like to quote on of them, but thank all for taking the time to respond.

"Scamming can get you a lot of money in a short time. But it will also probably make you lose your account and all respect you gained by people in the game. So it is a win lose situation, you lose your account and respect you built up and possibly friends and gain some money/points. After it you can start again with a new unknown account with a lot of money making friends is much easier however if you ever get real friends again is a doubt. Building respect will cost even same time. If you look through the game there are many people with a lot of money but they don't get respected because off it. Many start acting too big and actually lose all respect again so basically if you have built up friends and respect it wouldn't ever be a good idea to scam," said one of the repliers, Razure.

So, it is a choice between high and quick profits, and losing your respect and reputation. For me the choice is simple. I would never back stab a true friend. Sure, I have been insider in several crews, but all of those were planned and executed without harming my true friends.

There you have it. In my point of view scamming is a bit un-honorable, but a very efficient way of gaining what you want.

Thanks for reading, next week there will be another article.