Sunday, January 10th, 2010
Issue: 10   Editor: Mika


COLUMN: View of Sixteen XVI
Columns seem to be a very popular way to express your emotions and thoughts about certain subjects lately. Therefor I want to give it a try as well. On forehand I want to make two things clear. 1) Opinions stated in this column are for 100% my own opinions and not the opinion of the Buzz and its staff. 2) I can’t and will not promise that this column will be a weekly, monthly or whatsoever article.

To get on stage, the matter Sabin, BSF2000 and Nyxxie had quite an impact on the Bootleggers community. I’ve stated my opinion many times on the forums already and will not get too much into details in here. No matter who is right or wrong, I’m getting sick of the way people handle things. This game used to be something with respect. Nowadays you get a bucket of shit thrown over yourself if you try to defend a friend. As many of you know, I’ve been Ban on Sight for over three years. It was that long basically because Sabin refused to lift my BoS status and therefore many people think I hate, dislike or even want to kill Sabin. No matter what my personal opinions of Sabin are, I’m man enough to tell you, him and the rest of the community that I have a huge respect for Sabin. Sure, he might have handled things in a “wrong” way or should have approached several things differently, but at the end of the day it comes down to that he has done great things to us, the Bootleggers community, and of course the game itself. This doesn’t mean BSF2000 does nothing. He handled the game fine the first few years, when Sabin was not around, and I’m sure the will handle the game just fine again, without Sabin. Many people say that without Sabin this game would have been offline long time ago already, but I disagree with that. If one person steps down, another person steps up; nothing depends on one person only, and if it does it’s always a person that can be replaced.

I don’t want to get in details with the comic again, at least not why it was posted and whatsoever. What I want to talk about is that the lot of the community picked Nyxxie as an easy target, once again. Sure, Nyxxie is head of the Buzz, but that doesn’t mean she does things all by herself. Like I’ve said before already, many writers have been asked what their thoughts were about the comic and if we should have posted it. I don’t care if the other writers are trying to clean themselves in the Game Forum by saying that they didn’t like the comic. For me, the ones that did that simply are here for the wrong reasons. It comes down to the fact that the lot of the Buzz writers thought that the comic was funny, not crossing lines and pretty kick ass. So, blame all of us and not just the greenie that is leading it.

To stay on a subject that involves Nyxxie, lots of people are demanding that Nyxxie steps down as head of the Buzz. Main reasons they state are that she does not enough for the Buzz itself and that we were promised less staff innervation, so basically that the Buzz should be a player to player thing. Now what do people think? Nyxxie is not a dictator in the Buzz and not everything that she wants actually happens. At the same time I hear Mika and Aldarion complaining that they work way too hard and don’t have enough time to write articles, they only get to edit articles. Now isn’t that what they actually should do? Aldarion is Head Buzz writer, so yes, he actually should be writing more and editing less. What Mika is complaining about I don’t really understand. Sure, he has lots of work to do, but that actually is what he chose for. With six Buzz writers, two of them don’t write that much, he doesn’t have to edit that much. Currently we have two senior writers as well; they don’t need to be checked and can submit their articles straight away. The official title that Nyxxie cares with her in the Buzz is Buzz Head Editor, but at the same time she overlooks the Buzz as well. She does less editing then Mika, but that is common sense. Compare it with a crew, you have a Boss and you have the council. The Boss overlooks and the Council does the shitty work. Again, common sense and it works pretty similar in the Buzz as well. So stop complaining and do what you are supposed to do.

About the player-to-player situation, what can I say about that? So far, Nyxxie doesn’t stop me from writing what I want, so it does not block me in any way either. Personally, I think Nyxxie does a good job and there is no need to replace her. Not as Moderator and not as leader of the Buzz.

To keep on going about the editing, lots of rumors going around that Nyxxie – or Mika, I don’t have a clear answer on that – edited the interview Sean had with Sabin due his retirement (or being fired, whatever you want to call it) in issue number one. I can totally understand that people are pissed about it, so would I have been when my articles were edited that heavily. Of course I know and understand that my grammar and stuff like that needs to be overlooked, but changing the context of my article is a whole different story. I got personally blamed for the edits and I should have stepped up. At least, that is what was told me to do by a few readers of the Buzz. Now, if it was my own article, of course that is what I would have done. Unfortunately it was not my article but an article written by Sean. Basically what I’m trying to say is, if the original writer of the article doesn’t step up for his own sake, who the fuck am I to stand up for his? Even after that I was told that I should have thought about the team and stick with them. Well, I’m on the lowest position on the ladder and it’s definitely not the rank that should stand up for others. Stop blaming me and start blaming the people higher on the ladder.

Written much more then I actually wanted, I do want to make an end of it right now. For now, keep on playing Bootleggers and see all of you next week.

~XVI ||