Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Issue: 1   Editor: Nyxxie


Farewell Sabin! Sean
Accounts aren't the only thing Bootleggers lost during the chaos period at the end of the last round. Sabin also took this opportunity to retire from the Elite Guard after five long years of being on the staff. The decision was met by shock and controversy and in this article we will take a look back at his time on the Help Desk and reflect on how others felt about him.

In Sabin's retirement thread, he said that he was retiring after getting a new job in the government, so let's open this article by wishing him luck with that in the future! Sabin admitted that he wouldn't be able to give the game "the time and attention it deserves as an Administrator." He then went briefly into his history on Bootleggers, talking about the crews he was part of (Young & Dangerous and The Regulators). He was promoted to Moderator "Within hours of the reset which occurred on October 19th, 2004" and was asked to join as an Administrator two years later. Sabin closed his retirement thread with a summary of his controversial decisions and left us with this advice: "In the end, I hope it's not my mistakes which define my time here, but my triumphs. I have never cheated, nor been corrupt in any way."

Upon hearing the news, the players of Bootleggers were absolutely gobsmacked. After all, Sabin was the longest serving member of staff besides BSF2000 himself. Unfortunately, due to all the confusion and the reset, the Buzz was unable to get any replies from Sabin's actual thread, but we were able to make a topic in the Game Forum earlier this week asking for players to reflect on what they thought of Sabin and his retirement. The general response seemed to be that no one could replace Sabin with Altrozero saying "Questioning who could replace him as coder if anyone could? Huge loss for bootleggers!" Some players, however, accused Sabin of corruption when Mackin stated "He kept making up rules to get my crew banned" and went on to hold Sabin responsible for ruining the Kill feature. JDM and MrLarkin were agreed that Sabin made a massive contribution to the game, but MrLarkin said "He simply didn't care what players thought and did what he (and BSF) thought was best for the game." After this statement, though, MrLarkin said that Sabin did have a lot of dedication to Bootleggers and called him "the grease that kept the wheels turning." Finally, we asked Nyxxie what she thought about Sabin's retirement and she said "I wish Sabin good luck as a player. He'll need it!" So the general idea seems to be that Sabin made a massive contribution to Bootleggers and it will be noticed in the immediate future. Despite accusations of corruption and favouritism flying around, almost everyone seems to be agreed that Sabin did a lot of work.

At the last minute before submitting the article, we were able to catch up with Sabin himself to have a chat. The interview was very long and we tried to question him on every area we possibly could. The first question we asked Sabin was what his fondest memory of being in the Elite Guard was. He responded with "Probably the day I was made Admin." He told us that he was receiving a lot of flak around that time and it was good to see that even though the players felt he was unworthy, BSF2000 felt that he deserved a position as Administrator. The next thing we asked was who the best members of the Elite Guard were to work alongside. He told us that he worked alongside 5litre for a long time and that he "filled the role" of Administrator wonderfully. He then said that towards the end of his time on the Elite Guard, VooDooDoll was great to work with. He said "She's intelligent, rational, motivated, professional yet glib at times; generally she reminds me of myself as a Moderator." He finished by thanking the entire team for the opportunity he had to work with all of them. When asked what his plans were for the future, Sabin ensured that he could be a dominant force and simply said "I'll be around" which sounds fairly mysterious! We then asked quite a personal question. Regarding BSF2000 as a boss, Sabin said "he has managed to keep Bootleggers viable for over six years, so he must be doing something right!" Moving on from that, we quizzed him on his favourite crew. He said that his favourite was The Deadly Alliance "back when LukkyB actively played." He stated that the old The Deadly Alliance was a crew built on "real respect." So congratulations to them! A compliment like that from an ex-Administrator is something to be proud of. Sabin's biggest regret was when he caused the rollback earlier this year due to something as "simple single missing minus-sign." He told us that that it was "by far the most embarrassing" incident to happen to him. As many players loved the Mags and Sabin shows on the old BootCast, we then asked him what he thought about the decision to scrap the BootCast. He blamed the lack of talent of the DJs and the fact that he wasn't able to invest enough time into it for the BootCast's failure. Sabin seemed to be delighted when we asked him about his time on the BootCast. He told us that it was "probably the most fun I had in all my time on Bootleggers." He thanked Mags for allowing him to express an "asshole" side to himself in a harmless way and get out of the "robotic persona" he was often in because of his Adminstrator duties. To close the interview, we asked Sabin about how he felt about two features that he is credited for; the implementation of the new Kill system and Stock Market. He was happy with the way both features have turned out and is glad that they now challenge players more and require more strategy to use. He said that he hopes BSF2000 is able to carry on the Kill system where Sabin left off (as he assured us it was a work in progress).

So that concluded our hour-long interview with the ex-Administrator! It's been a roller coaster of a time, we're sure. We at the Buzz humbly wish Sabin the best for the future and would like to sincerely thank him for ALL his efforts on Bootleggers throughout the last five years. Thank you!