Stock market. Does the feature still exist? Do players even use it like they did in the past? With the recent wave of updates that have been thrown at us left right and center, could this feature really be in need of some serious TLC? How many of us actually log in each day to buy new stock or even check up on previously bought ones? We at the Buzz decided to take a look into this and see what the Bootleggers community made of this feature. It seems that it isn’t as popular as it was in the past but what could be behind this?
To get an insight into this we asked several players and the responses seemed to be almost identical. Several players believed that it was dated and in much need of some serious rejuvenation. Firstly we approached a player who for some reason wanted to remain anonymous. They had this to say; ‘Stock market is way too unpredictable, I mostly have stocks crash, but have heard stories of people making millions. All luck, it's not like you can predict any trends in the economy or anything. It would be better if it was some how linked to things in the game. Points, cars, bullets, guns, protections, stuff like that. It would be an actual stock market and not just some made up companies that crash or thrive based on randomly generated numbers (I imagine that's how it's coded who the hell knows though)’ They seem to view the stock market feature in a bad light as did the majority who responded. We wanted to know more about this and what they made of it compared to how it was previously. They added; ‘I remember it when it first came out, and it is a lot different. A lot more random, and I'm pretty sure the stocks never crashed before, so you couldn't completely lose all your money.’ They also added that for it to be more successful it would need to be more realistic and some what similar to that of which we have in today’s world. That seems to make sense but could it really be implemented in such way it doesn’t have a disastrous effect on the game? This could potentially completely change the way the game is played all together but would this have a positive or negative effect on the game? They stated; ‘It'd be pretty hard to do, since it would be incredibly easy to manipulate the prices of a certain thing, therefore increasing the stock value. For example let's say there was a stock for Phaeton's. One person, or a group of friends could buy a bunch of Phaeton stock, then go around buying all of the Phaeton's and only selling them at a price they decide upon, therefore raising the stock price as high as they want, or can before ditching them all and the stock and car price completely crashing. Simple economics, but in a game like this it's 10000000x easier to manipulate a stock market set up like that than it is in real life.
To be honest though, even the coders attempting my idea would be completely baffling to me since there are so many more important fixes that need to be made. I think the stock market could be deleted and there would only be a handful of complaints.’ Fair point and exactly what we at the Buzz were thinking. A change this big would completely change the game. Maybe if the stock market was updated in such a way that it had a direct link to the game without being so easily manipulated, it could perhaps breathe some new life into this dying feature. It’s only fair that this feature gets an update that it so badly deserves to bring it up to speed with that of the others that have been recently revived.
Well, only BSF2000 and the Moderators truly have a say in what happens to the stock market. Will it remain a dull feature that the majority merely ignores or will it turn into a popular, well-visited feature that is potentially a goldmine to those that know how to use it? Only time will tell but should an update occur with the stock market, we at the Buzz will be here to bring you all the latest regarding it.
