Sunday, November 14th, 2010
Issue: 55   Editor: oSean


COLUMN: In His Shoes Noir
BSF2000.

Users say he's lazy, greedy, idiotic, ungrateful, and unprofessional. Nyxxie and 5Litre stepped down from their position in the Elite Guard in protest of his inactivity. Bootleggers is crashing to a halt, yet BSF doesn't seem to care. He gets a torrent of abuse every single day. However, just for once, I'm going to step into his shoes, because I’ve been hit with the question: “Are we really being fair on BSF?”

I am in the midst of coding my own online game. I hope this doesn't get edited out, as I think what I am about to say is very relevant to the content of this column. Besides, I will not mention what the game is called. For all intents and purposes, let's pretend that what I am about to say is purely hypothetical.

I started taking an interest in coding at the age of 13, where I started designing the layout and content of my game. It was all a prototype, just text and images with no interactivity and no database, but it took a hell of a long time to get right. It was only at the age of 18 that I started learning the necessary programming languages to actually turn my IDEA into a GAME. This means that I spent the best part of 5 years coding a mere shell.

Using PHP and SQL, I am slowly bringing my game to life. VERY slowly. Okay, I've got plenty of other stuff keeping me busy and slowing me down, but I'm still not expecting to have a fully working game until the end of next year. Countless hours of laborious coding, on top of 5 years enhancing the design of my website, totals a LOT of work.

Now I doubt that BSF codes as slowly as I do, but he still spent a LOT of time coding Bootleggers. Other administrators have helped quite a bit, but ultimately most of the coding is down to BSF. After this massive investment of time and energy, BSF has no obligation to do any more work on the game. Users voluntarily sign up, users accept the Terms of Service which is easily accessible for all to read, and users continue to purchase points, knowing full well that in terms of gameplay and design, their point-purchasing won't make the slightest difference to their experience.

They cannot then complain about BSF’s activity (or lack of). As long as their points are verified within a reasonable amount of time, and so long as they were not misled at any point during the purchasing process, point-purchasers haven’t a leg to stand on.

Non-point-purchasers have even LESS metaphorical ammo to work with. Bootleggers is a FREE online GAME, which you have merely registered for. Your email address is confidential and is kept safe. You aren’t spending a cent on the game. You aren’t getting viruses or malware on your PC and you aren’t being inundated with advertising or pop-ups. Bootleggers could just be one big picture of BSF flicking the V-sign at you, and all you could reasonably do is mutter discontentedly to yourself.

BSF has been branded as lazy- and that’s the kind word- but I don’t think it’s fully justified. BSF did a LOT of work... only he did it before you even registered for the game. That old guy walking down the street, picking up his pension and booking his holiday? Sure, he does no work NOW, he’s pretty much useless for our economy, but he worked hard all his life, and now he’s living the dream. He’s earned the right to simply not work again until his dying day. He doesn’t have hundreds of pubescent kids telling him to “get a fcukin grip & do sum work on thj gamne” because he’s DONE his work on the game, so to speak. My poor attempt at an analogy.

Hobbies, creativity, enthusiasm- these are temporary things. How many of you have quit Bootleggers, rejoined, quit, rejoined? Or started playing the piano but quit after a couple of weeks? Or started writing a book, or writing a song, or building a lego sky-scraper, but have it never come to fruition because you simply lose interest halfway through?

I like to think that if I give up on my game halfway through coding it, or, like BSF, can’t be bothered to fix any bugs or add any new features, users would understand that, frustrating as it is, I am entirely in my rights to leave the game forever. BSF has an obligation to verify points as long as people keep buying them, but that is as far as his responsibilities need EVER go.

Of course, the question remains as to whether that is as far as his responsibilities SHOULD go. The question we have to ask is: what is BSF's job? The community is split as to whether he is the owner, or the manager. If he is the manager of Bootleggers, then fine, I admit it, he sucks. He's inactive, unresponsive, and thoughtless.

If, however, he is merely the owner of the game, then he does the job superbly. After all, being the owner entails nothing more than... owning the game. There is no other obligation. He can be as active or as dead as he likes, and he'll still be a 24-carat, top of the range, world-class owner. As could be his brother, his cousin, or his hamster. Of course, if he is merely the owner, then we can consider the moderators as his mini-managers. They log on regularly and ensure the smooth-running of the game. If they're happy to do it for free and for no gratitude from the owner, then that's up to them.

There is no doubt that the game is going downhill. I’ve only been here a few months this reset, and even in the short time I’ve stayed, morale has plummeted, friends have quit, staff have resigned, and key features (such as crews and roulette) have become useless. It’s a real shame. But clearly, BSF doesn’t consider it worth the effort to make any more changes or improvements, and that’s the way it is.

Recently, a topic appeared in the game forum entitled ‘Open letter to BSF’. It basically gives BSF a credible opportunity to sell his game to somebody who claims he will take Bootleggers in a new direction. BSF has received criticism for not responding to the topic, but think about it: why would you? People are still buying points, people are still lining BSF’s pocket, and although he COULD sell his website for a tidy sum, at least this way he has a regular source of income in exchange for the amount of time it takes to verify points.

You want change? Stop buying points. Everybody. Cut off his source of income. After a few weeks of taking his wallet hostage, BSF will be forced to take action, resulting in one of three possible scenarios:
1. BSF realises that people want change, and he won’t get paid anything else until they GET change. He kicks into action and starts coding all the features and fixing all the bugs that users have been asking about for months.
2. BSF decides to sell the game while it is still worth something, and Bootleggers as a game falls into somebody else’s hands, the start of an exciting new era for Bootleggers.
3. BSF realises that he is now making a loss after server costs etc, and closes the site down.

Whatever happens, BSF doesn't deserve the flack that he's been getting. He didn't sign a contract to keep updating his game, or even to log in once in a while and respond to a forum topic. He has coded this game for people to enjoy, yet they are never satisfied. It's the equivalent of smacking your auntie for giving you $10 for your birthday when she has $11 in her purse.

We ALL remember better times on Bootleggers, and whether the recent downturn in game quality is down to BSF2000 is open to debate, but even if it is, who are we to hurl abuse at the game's creator? Maybe BSF’s enthusiasm for Bootleggers will return. Who knows? But it is not our place to criticise. Maybe, just MAYBE, BSF has earned his holiday.