Sunday, January 9th, 2011
Issue: 63   Editor: AnotherAldarion


COLUMN: My view on Bootleggers vanish
Since 2005 I've been an active BL player, and I think that the game has seen a whole lot of evolution during this time and I'm sure that every veteran of this game shares my opinion. When I say ‘evolution’, I obviously mean all the upgrades the game has known, but I also mean the mentality and gameplay of the players. The BL-maffiaworld has altered a lot, in a dangerous way, but also in a pleasant and lively way.

As long as I can remember, there has been the Crimes page. Always the same mafia-like ways to gain money. Wherever you travelled, the crimes stayed the same. I must say, after a while, this page became very monotonous, so I was very pleasantly surprised when recently, and also very suddenly, an updated Crimes page appeared on my screen. More businesses to exploit, more locations to play the villain, more aspects to reckon with. In short : more variety. That is, in my opinion, exactly what this page needed; a refreshing update. Crimes are a very important aspect in this game, so they should be updated regularly.

A page that has practically remained the same, is the Auto Burglary page. Apart from the images that have somewhat changed, the page has generally remained the same for quite a few years. Personally I find this somewhat unfortunate; that it is still those same cars that can still be stolen, in the exact same way they could be five years ago. I ask myself : why are there cars suchs as the Comet and Stutz? The only cars that are being used, are the Phaeton, Duesenberg and Beauford, in Organized Crimes. Sometimes a Police car, but this car is very rare. A Starpegasus, because of its cheap price, is used to escape with, after killing someone. All the other cars are as good as not utilized, and are, in my eyes, useless. I think that, with a good upgrade, this page could be something much better.
This also applies to the Arm Wrestling page. This has really not changed one bit : no pictures, no new features, nothing. I think that it will be much more amusing and varied to play BL, if tf the Arm Wrestling page gets an update. The way it is now, should just be the base of something much bigger, in my opinion.

I’m a mission-player. I love doing them, it’s an extra challenge in the game. It used to give a lot more rewards though. Nowadays people, including me, are not doing the missions anymore, because it takes a lot of time and, for the time it takes, gives not enough profit. When I started BL, it was all about doing missions. Penny Duesys were asked for in the classifieds, people asked others to bring booze to Cali. That has reduced a lot in time, and I really hope that a solution to this will be found. Like, for example, new missions.I am not the first one who asks for an updated mission-page, a lot of players share my opinion.Also, it has come to my ears that ex-EG member Nyxxie claims that she has presented BSF with a full set of new missions. I always loved doing missions, so it would be a pity if they got even more neglected.

What has always been an amusing event to do in my BL-life, is gambling on the casinos. Although there is always a lot of money involved, won or lost, it is and stays fun to do if you don’t know what to do. I am an occasional gambler, but I know there are a lot of people who make gambling their main activity; from morning till night on the casinos. It does not surprise me that, in those cases, a lot of money gets lost to the casino holders.
For me, the chips upgrade was something that took time to get used to, though.
Of course, gambling with chips is more realistic, but, in my opinion, it’s not really practical. However, like I said, it takes time to get used to.
Although you have a lot of chips, your wealth status can still be ‘Lower Class’, which gives a very distorted picture of the amount of money you actually have. Especially when gambling on a Roulette; you don’t know how many chips the holder has, which makes it harder to win the casino. I thought that BSF promised a wealth status update for Roulette holders, but maybe that update will come later.
It has also its advantages, like i said, the realism, but I think it will gain its full potential advantages when all casinos start working with chips, which won't be long anymore.

Bootleggers is a mafia game, and that gets proven now more then ever. There is very clearly a group leading the game, and a lot of players have become the victims of that. People get shot if they become a possible thread to the leaders. I got killed also a few times. Does this make the game less fun to play? Or is this the challenge BL has been waiting for? There will always be leaders and victims. It’s the choice of the victims to do something about it, because the leader is just fine with his situation. In all those years that I’ve played the game, I’ve always enjoyed situations like this. I was always the victim, but that didn’t matter. I joined rebellions, got killed again, and again, and eventually the leaders got overwhelmed by other crews. That’s the game.
And, of course, there are always players who think it’s not fair that they are in the victims shoes. The best thing they can do, is wake up and do something about it. If a reset happens, after a while the same situation will occur. That’s the whole point of this game, leadership, backstabbing, dominating, .. That’s why I think the situation now is beautiful. This is mafia at its best!

In all the years that I have played Bootleggers, I have realised that the game with all its crimes, cars, killings, crews, and ups and downs is just a game. I dared to forget that sometimes.