Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Issue: 5   Editor: Mika


Bootleggers Bars: Open For Business Frick
Over the past few years on Bootleggers, the use of 'Bars' on forums has increased. In the beginning, most of the bars were successful, reaching thousands of posts. However, today most of the bars created today are only intended to be active for a few hours, and many see the only way to keep the bars alive for that amount of time is constant bumping. Despite this, bars are being used more and more, and every-so-often a bar will become more and more popular, becoming one of those that survive weeks, maybe even months. The Buzz got in touch with several players, asking them questions on their opinions of bars.

"Bars on Bootleggers are basically a way for a group of people to get together to discuss anything that may be on their minds," said Nyxxie, stating her opinion on bars, later adding, "However, I do think that sometimes there are too many, and get out of hand, but that's what the Off Topic Forum is for." Next, we asked Nyxxie what her favourite in-game bars were. She answered, "I like the Dutch bar, I think they have done everything right in an effective bar, even if I can't read what they're typing! Also, I'd 'visit' the JDM bar occasionally."

To end our interview with Nyxxie, we asked her if she knew why BSF added the 'bars' heading on the forums drop-down menu. She replied, "I remember having a casual friendly discussion with BSF regarding bars, and how they've evolved in a positive way ever since the game had begun. Because of the popularity of bars, I believe BSF and 5litre just believed it deserved it's own category to keep things neat and tidy, which has seemingly worked."

Following our interview with Nyxxie, the Buzz decided to collect some player opinions. To begin, we asked Renz why he thought players liked the 'bars' so much. He said, "Well, I guess people just like to talk over the forums so that more than two people can participate in the conversation without having to make a specific topic for their conversation." We asked another player, Clive, the same question, and he answered, "There are a variety of reasons. Perhaps the player(s) identify with a bar topic if their nationality is in the title, or maybe the bars add an additional layer to the role playing element of the game. For me, I made the Slovenian Bar as a joke, I don't really like bar threads, but whatever the Bootleggers population find entertaining is fine by me."

"I do not I think it's fine this way, separating the forums even more," Renz send on 'Bars' getting their own category in the forums. He later added, "The forums were fine before, you didn't need to fix what wasn't broken." MrLarkin, when asked the same question, agreed with Renz, saying, "I don't think so. I don't really ever spend time in bars at all, or on the Off Topic Forum in general. I think one of the great features of a bar is that people keep it alive and have fun posting random things in there. I don't think that needs its own heading."

The Buzz then decided to ask people questions on the two most popular bars in Bootleggers: the Dutch Bar and JDM Bar. When we asked Renz what attracted him to the Dutch Bar, he said, "That's quite easy to answer, I am from belgium, I speak dutch, and it's just nice to talk in your own language on a game that's based on English. Also, you can talk there about stuff that happend in Belguim or the Netherlands, where most other people on here don't even know about." When we asked AceAdam what he thought of JDM Bar, he replied, "I like it. It's very active with various different users and it's a great way to socialise with others and make new friends. It also passes the time for me whilst i'm in jail. In summary, it's alot of fun."

Our final question asked the players if they liked the bars, and why. Sylv said, "Even though I hardly participate in bars, I think its a fun way for players to communicate. Some are really popular and players hang out there inbetween crimes and what not. Or they just get drunk and strip, maybe even have a trout fight!" Clive said, "I'm ambivalent, in some cases they're a good meeting place for people with similar interests, for example the Dutch bar, but other than that most are glorified chat topics that only survive through excessive bumping. My own bar, the Slovenian Bar being a perfect example."

This concluded our interviews with the players, and sadly, we were unable to get a comment from JDM (creator of 'JDM Bar') or Stonehead (topic maker of 'Dutch Bar'). If you would like to voice your own opinion on bars, feel free to post in the Buzz's topic on the game forum!