Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Issue: 71   Editor: TheAldarionArmy


Buzz Social Experiment- Organized Crimes PoisonedTomato
For those of you who don’t usually read the Buzz, firstly welcome! Secondly, I’ll give you a brief introduction into what this feature is (apologies for regular readers, skip to the This Week Section if you don’t want to read this again). A few months ago, we at the Buzz decided to send Poison undercover as DonOfMafia (so no-one would know who he was and be effected by this) to test a number of things about the game; all with fairly simple basis’…. such as:

Week 1
Begging

Find it here > http://www.bootleggers.us/buzz/index.php?view=960

In this edition we tested how likely people were to give money to a beggar, and whether how you asked for money; in ‘correct English’ or in ‘lss propa spk’ (less proper speak); affected your chances of getting money.


And:

Week 2
Just how helpful are staff?

Find it here > http://www.bootleggers.us/buzz/index.php?issue=69&view=971

The latest feature of ‘A Social Experiment’ tested how likely staff were to respond to a simple in game question to see just how helpful the staff are in BootMails (BMs), the same question that was asked to ordinary players for comparison. Some interesting and surprising results.


So that was the last few weeks, and before we move on we would like to say congratulations to the winners of last editions contest as well as a well done and thank you to xvP and Mika for being the two members of staff who helped Poison when he forgot how the game worked! $2,750,000 was sent out in total prize money.

Anyway, enough of a recap...

This Week
Organised Crimes


This may seem like the most simple of the experiments, it certainly did to us at the Buzz when we were planning this little feature, but Poison tells us that you and we couldn’t have been more wrong! The state of the game is to blame for this problem; simply there are not very many Organised Crimes around to ask to join which is bad for players as well as us trying to complete a social experiment!
However, we battled through this hardship and Poison sent out some questions to people asking to join their OC. This time there were four different variables questions that a potential OC leader could have received, some based on loans, some on percentage received in an OC and some on the ability of Poison to speak English (as with Week 1).

Some facts about the account Poison was alive upon at the time, as it is fair to say that these stats may have an effect upon people’s decision:

Name- DonOfMafia
Rank- Scum
Wealth Status- Food Stamps Applicant- Middle Class (Dependent upon whether Poison was claiming to have money for the OC or not)
Message Count- 100 (approx.)

So for your delectation, amusement and downright bored interest here are the questions and the results.

Question 1- “Can I join your OC as driver, I can pay for myself and don't want a %?”

Invited Poison- 2
Didn’t invite Poison- 8



Question 2-“Hey, can I join your OC as driver please, I can pay for myself and I’ll take a low %?”

Invited Poison- 1
Didn’t invite Poison- 9



Question 3- “Can I join your OC as driver please? I’ll take 0% But I’ll need a car and some money...”

Invited Poison- 0
Didn’t invite Poison- 10



Question 4- “U alrite, i wnt 2 b in ur oc as dr? i dnt need a %.nd cn pay 4 myslf. Cn i?”

Invited Poison- 0
Didn’t invite Poison- 10



(Interestingly, like before, no-one even replied to a message written in this manner)

As you can see, the results are overwhelming and in my opinion quite surprising. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting every one of the 10 players asked to lend me the money and a car and give me a percentage, but the sheer refusal of the overwhelming majority of players (80%) to allow a scum into their OC despite the ability of the player to pay their own way and their agreement to take no percentage was shocking to me.

Where has the sense of community spirit gone from within Bootleggers?
Not that this even reflects community spirit, making money from a player joining your OC could be described as profiteering and yet that does not even seem to be an option. There was a time in the not too distant future when people would, except within occasional ranking OCs, always let a player ranked below Thug drive in their OC. And why not? The leader makes more money from the reduced percentage that was usually played (although some chose to give higher percentages), the lower ranked player was able to gain experience and the OC filled faster. Everyone won!

At the risk of sounding philosophical and risking a barrage of online abuse, I think that it is this; even more than the overwhelming, unbelievable and stubborn refusal of BSF2000 to communicate with his players and create updates, that is killing the game. The community have always survived on this game, one which has never been raining updates left right and centre, because of the fact people make friends here, help each other out and welcome each other.

Maybe you could make one small effort this week to try and bring that spirit back;
Help one player in the game forum instead of shooting them down; send some money to another player if you can afford it; try to rank up again instead of letting the game wallow and stagnate; try to join an OC; lead an OC if you can!

Maybe I hope for too much, but I can hope.

Next Week
Casinos