Sunday, August 24th, 2008
Issue: 88   Editor: NYX2000


Are Points Taking Over? jadler
Recently I've taken hold of a cool feature in Bootleggers. The "Point". If you are unfamiliar with the concept kindly allow me introduce it to you. The point is basically like a second currency, only it's purchased with real money not game money. In addition to this, it also has incredible power when playing through most of Bootleggers. With a set number of points a player can just about buy anything and kill anyone. Seems like a decent concept though that by spending valuable points a player can buy armored cars and tens of thousands of bullets.

It seems only fair that for real money player should see real changes. But are points giving certain players an unbeatable advantage?

Lets examine a common scene...

With Points you can purchase weapons unavailable to other standard players. This basically makes you instantly stronger than a major percentage of Bootleggers out there. But wait isn't there a defense against this? Yes there is, but again unless you are willing to drop actual money for it, you have no fair way to protect yourself. This is when you start seeing powerful players rise and fall quickly, all without much actual "work" on their parts. By "work" I refer to the days of banking and stock exchange necessary to accrue major in-game cash. In addition to the hours of waiting for bullets to be produced and the following scramble to grab as many as possible.

Therefore points turn days of constant work into a few minutes and a few dollars.

Now this is not to say all players using points are reckless and uncaring, but points certainly provide an opportunity for such behavior to occur. How else can our nation dons rise and fall so fast? How can one person kill a whole crew in one day? And most importantly, are these kinds of feats open to players that can't or won't open their wallets in real life?

If you feel strongly about points please raise your voice. Together I'm sure that the great BL community can achieve a fun and fair way to revise Points into a better system. -Thanks