Bullets have always been a crucial and imperatively important aspect of Bootleggers. Most days we hear them firing from the guns of angry players, keeping up appearances, building reputations or sending a message to those who wronged you. Whatever we do to gain dominance these small metal friends are there with us. Being such an instrumental part of the game therefore it seems fitting that to obtain some can cost you a serious amount of cash but is this how everyone feels? Should the prices be higher or lower? The Buzz went to have a poke around for some answers.
Our first question was whether or not those with the bullet factories felt the price was right. We tracked down ShitneyBeSquatting boss of The Phoenix Rebellion and owner of New York bullet factory (current bullet price $140) to get her opinions of the current average bullet price.
"Personally, I think some are too high. Riserva's price is about right, more affordable then what is out there now." This would correlate with Shitney's prices being lower than that of most others currently. Skinwalker, Boss of J.A.I.L. and owner of Pennsylvania bullet factory, agreed with Shitney that the prices were too high currently. The price of J.A.I.L.'s bullets was $100 each matching that of Riserva. Skinwalker added "It is getting close to the point/bullet exchange rate with the current points price. On the other side, people keep buying the bullets.. Obviously the BL community doesn't think it is too high." Indeed even in the most expensive factories there are rarely any bullets remaining by the end of the day. It would seem that bullets, being such an important part of the game, will always be bought whatever the price. Skinwalker went on to say "As you see the Bullet factory of J.A.I.L. is not as high-priced as the others, as we are not interested in gaining the highest profit with the BF. When we bought it we promised the community to keep the price acceptable for everyone and we will keep doing that in the future."
Not all the Bullet Factory owners felt the same however. bmoneyV2, the owner of Illinois bullet factory with a current bullet price of $150, said "some people think they are too high but i don't have a problem with them, bullet factories are the best properties on the game so its right that the owners make big profit from them" We asked if he felt that the higher prices of bullets are justified by the higher risk of being shot whilst holding them to which he replied "spot on, theres big risk with bfs so there has to be big money involved". I myself attempt to match the Padrinos Palacebullet price to those of the other factories (current price $150). Many people felt that there is enough choice between prices so that if you wish to pay less then you can wait for those with lower priced bullet factories to produce them which will take you longer but save you money.
We were also interested to see what people thought the recent drop in point price might do to the average bullet price. In this case the response was fairly unanimous. a6k, owner of Michigan bullet factory (current bullet price $155), said "The drop in point price wont effect the bulletprice. The drop in pointprice is simply the result of a large drop in the total momey in the game. That might effect the bulletprice, but the demand is still large, so I think the bullets will maintain its current price for some time". Everyone agreed with this even if some were not happy. One anonymous bullet veteran said that they would like to see a drop in the bullet price to match the drop in point value.
As we moved on to find a couple more bullet factory owners to ask we walked past the Elite Guard broom cupboard and found Sky sleeping inside. We prodded him awake with a broom and told him we'd like to ask some questions about bullet prices. He rather aptly replied "Fire away". We asked him first of his opinion of the current average price of bullets to which he replied "There seems to be a one-way trend in bullet prices. As the economy grows the prices increase, but when the total game cash falls the prices don't decrease. This is obviously not ideal for poor or new players. Obviously the EG controlled factory goes some way to making things easier for new players but our price is dictated by the average price of the player owned factories so even our price can be unfair." Indeed the issue of new players who wish to shoot was raised by a few others but there are missions which can help them on their way. We went on to ask Sky his thoughts about the bullet price relative to the point price. "In an ideal world yes but Crews are out to make a profit from their factories, so I can understand from their point of view why lowering prices would be counter intuitive." Many crews use Bullet Factories as their primary incomes and as such you can understand that the risk of holding one is outweighed by the profit that they bring.
The final question we wish to ask our esteemed group of bullet fabricating friends was whether or not a rise in bullet price would make life just that little bit harder for underground crews. a6k told us "Of course it will affect them, but I think thats not their main problem at the moment. Lots of crewless accounts are being shot every once in a while. Its hard to stay unnoticed as an UG banker/shooter these days.Also some UG crews mainly use points to shoot, o they wont be affected at all. They even benefit from the current point price. If their bankers didn't get shot of course". Ghyslaynev5 co-boss of The Priory and current owner of New Jersey Bullet Factory ($155 per bullet) said "Yes how higher the prices how much more money you need to buy bullets.
The way to kill some one will be more expensive." Finally our green coated friend Sky said "I'm not sure UG crews need to worry about surviving, as by their nature they can be anonymous. More they should worry about being unable to drop or inside crews to claim spots. If they can't afford bullets, then they can't claim a Crew spot, and if they can't claim a Crew spot they can't get a cut of bullets from a factory." This is an important point that should the bullet price rise sufficiently that it becomes much harder for the average player to shoot someone we could see the rate of crew wipes fall in the future. With this we thanked our band of bullet selling soldiers and shut the door to the Elite Guard broom cupboard.
Bullet Factories have always been a source of controversy not just because of who the owner is or who claims perceived ownership of a factory but also the price these owners choose to sell them at. We shall watch closely as the these prices fluctuate and the factories change hands.
