Sunday, January 23rd, 2011
Issue: 65   Editor: ApocalypticAldarion


COLUMN: What Would I Do? BuzzPoison
Throughout the history of Bootleggers and indeed in life, people aren’t slow to complain about problems. Frankly, we’re a difficult to impress bunch and little short of perfection will receive our full and total support, even if our own work is well below such a level. I’ve always tried to keep my complaints to myself, except in certain extremes that simply can’t go without mentioning; waiting over an hour for food at a restaurant; not getting a refund on items that are clearly damaged; and in Bootleggers terms I will complain as I have done in the past when I feel members of staff are acting unprofessionally or I think peoples cheating has affected my game play. I’m afraid to say that in my humble opinion Bootleggers is coming up to one such extreme. A post and if we’re lucky a small update every six months simply isn’t enough hard work from the creator and Head Administrator of this game in my opinion, so I fear I have blended into the crowd and have joined the rainbow coalition of moaners here on Bootleggers, perhaps not in such a vocal way as others, but I’m there.

However, I know that sitting here and moaning is easy and thinking of something to do about this situation is much harder. So I’m going to attempt it, I’m going to try and step into the shoes of BSF2000 and see what I would do next if I was him right now.

Imagine if you will, and try not to worry too much about this... that I am now Poison (scary) and I’ve bought the game from BSF2000, for the nominal fee of £5, which I thought was a bargain. Just to stretch your imagination a little more, as if it wasn’t stretched enough, you’ll also have to assume that I can code.

Here’s what I would do:

Step 1-Ban all of Haters Gonna Hate and its affiliate crews
Step 1-Activity
Step 2-Quick fixes
Step 3-Feature updates
Step 4-Listening
Step 5-Marketing
Step 6-Reset

Step 1-Activity
For me, the biggest problem with how the game is managed at the moment (apart from the slowness of updates) is the lack of communication. I think that there is nothing easier to give a morale boost to players than a simple regular update on what is being done, for example in the Buzz or with a sticky on then forums. This allows players see that you I am doing something and gives them a space to suggest new ideas.

Activity is a good sign. I don’t just mean having a ‘bot’ running to keep me online all the time, but occasional forum posts. Allowing people to bootmail me, replying to help desk tickets!
This can be overdone, but provided that activity remains at a fairly low but notable level and professionalism is maintained in all posts this will provide a great morale boost to the game.

Step 2-Quick fixes
Players appreciate things being done, and I think that this game is in such dire need of a morale boost that I think that superficial and quick changes to multiple features would be necessary to act as a defibrillator to restart the heart of the game. These wouldn’t be long term solutions but would give current players something new to do, may keep them from leaving and will perhaps even attract new players. Here are a couple of ideas I’ve thought of along this vein:

Firstly, the cost of picking up casinos needs to be lowered and to vary according to which type of property it is. The fact that picking up a blackjack table and a slots cost the same is ridiculous, and something that has allowed the states page to be on its way now to gradual emptiness. I’m sure that seeing an empty states page with no casinos playable is not something any of us want to see but it is something that could become a reality unless steps are taken.
The quick fix would be to reduce and change costs to prices that would be relevant to now and varying according to property, I have laid out some rough estimates that I think would be a good starting point. I have based these on selling and point prices at the moment, as picking up a casino to make a loss on selling it is not a viable situation:
  • BlackJack- $100,000
  • Roulette- $250,000
  • Race Track- $300,000
  • Keno- $300,000
  • Slots- $750,000
  • Bullet Factories- $1,000,000 (Could possibly be raised).

    In the long term though, some sort of formula would have to be devised to work out prices to be set based on current in game money and perhaps points prices. This is something that would be more difficult to work out but would avoid the situation I mentioned above.

    Secondly, the Establishments page has fallen into disuse due to lack of updated ways of using it, the seemingly useless nature of safehouses due to power searching and the change in the rate at which the value of property rises. Establishments have not always been so unpopular as they are today, if I remember rightly last round you couldn’t buy an establishment plot for dust, due to the value of a safehouse and the speed with which the value of land grew, which I believe used to be 5%. Once the percentage was dropped to what it is today, 1% (by Sabin I believe), demand has sloped off dramatically. So to get more activity back into this feature the solution seems simple.
    I think the quick fix to this is to raise the rate at which value of land rises to at least match the federal bank rate (although I recommend 3.5% to give it a slight benefit). This will hardly affect inflation and will give people an incentive to buy properties again, and become as popular as they were last round.

    Those are just a couple of suggestions and I won’t bore you with more. But I hope you get the idea.

    Step 3-Feature updates
    I won’t go into huge detail on each of the feature updates I would make as you could be here all day but here is just an overview of a couple of features I would update, why and what I would do to them:

    1- Crews:
    At the moment being in a crew offers no benefits other than having your name paraded on the users online page, a nice colour on your profile and another forum, this needs to change. I think that the benefits need to outweigh the costs otherwise they will fall into disuse (Total Crews- 7/15 <<See). Some potential ideas that could be added to this are crew bullet factories, reduced searching times when crews declare wars and being able to select positions within crews.

    2-Establishments:
    Continuing on from above, no-one uses establishments anymore! Raising the interest rate may solve the problem short term but in the long term owning an establishment plot needs to have more uses. Hopefully with more people buying due to higher interest rates it gives the opportunity to expand the feature into a great new element to the game, either by integrating it with other features (e.g. Bootlegging) that would fit into BSF2000’s (remember the last owner of the game) integration plan or by simply making safehouses better protection and garages more profitable. Or alternatively by coming up with some new concepts, now my brain tends to fail me at this point and the way to get around this is by asking the great team of staff and players we have at the moment (see Step 4-Listening).

    3-Missions:
    Old players’ leaving is one problem this game currently faces, but another is its ability to draw in new players. I feel that one of the best ways to do this is with missions; they are the best way to interact with the game and provide a great interface for people who may struggle to get an OC and they are the newest players, missions are also a great way of teaching new players how to use aspects of the game in a risk free way- for example making their first kill. It is important, though, that they also remain relevant for older players and are a way to make more money and gain vital experience. Once again my creativity fails me here but I know for a fact that ex-Moderator Nyxxie has a comprehensive and very long list of missions ready to be put into place and I’m 10% sure that if I asked really nicely she’ll give it to me, otherwise it’s look again at Step 4-Listening.

    Step 4-Listening
    As a player I know that players have stuff to say and ideas to share. Most of them better than anything I could ever come up with.
    So this stage is all about seeing reactions to features implemented and proposed changes, ideas for new features and anything else players can suggest for improvement. Any company in the world would give their right arm to have customers proposing ideas so readily on how they can do better, so why not capitalise on it here?
    “Simples”

    Step 5-Marketing
    This game needs new players and they don’t come from no-where. Once I was satisfied that the game was in a position to be enjoyable to new players and to be able to retain them as customers I would spend some money marketing the game. Simply put, the game needs more players to be as good as it once was and they need to be directed here. We’d be lucky for them to simply stumble across the game.

    Step 6-Reset
    For me, this is an inevitable decision but one that mustn’t be rushed. A reset should come once the game is in a stable position with plenty of players, good features and a solid level of activity I would press what I can only imagine as a big red button marked ‘Reset’ and the era of Bootleggers under Poison would truly begin.

    That’s it from me then, back from imaginary Poison to plain old Poison.

    I’m sure many of you will disagree with me hugely, others will be indifferent and some might even agree. Whatever your opinion, why not submit a freelance article next week of your own ‘What Would I Do?’ It would make for some great reading and you never know, BSF2000 himself might even take on some of your ideas.