Effort appeared to be little consolation this week, as community uproar flared again. A list of angry points was made as we saw a renewed 'points boycott' effort appear in the forum, due to the anger felt by the community following yet another missed deadline by BSF2000. Not only this, but after missing his first anticipated date of release, he also missed his revised date that was updated in his profile! Not doing himself any favors it has to be said. The question must be asked, where would we all be without the work that goes into maintaining the game by BSF2000, but this was not felt as users voiced their opinions. There was support for the sole Admin of the game, but it was largely drowned out by the noisy protesters. The feeling of the community towards him and the rest of the Elite Guard provides the focus of our article, as we spoke to Sky, widely regarded as the most positive asset of the Elite Guard, about all issues surrounding the communities unrest.
We kicked off our interview with Sky by asking if he empathized with the communities reaction over the most recent missed deadlines. He responded to this in an expected manner, saying, "I can appreciate the weariness people have over deadlines but I think we just need to have patience. Everyone in the Elite Guard genuinely cares about this game and wants it to be as great as it can be, and that means sometimes the plans we set need to be adjusted. So while we (including the EG) may not be happy with missed deadlines it's still a sign of progress, and I hope people can take some comfort in that." Maintaining his positive outlook on the development of the game, Sky clearly feels the additional wait for updates can be justified once they finally hit our screens. Patience is a virtue, however it is also limited and there is little that can be done when it comes to increasing that of the community, with so little being delivered while we all continue to support the game merely by logging in. With the user base decreasing on a daily basis through lack of faith and people quitting, user levels can only be deemed concerning, with little show or a turn-around in terms of the games core issues, surely things are destined to go down-hill from here?
However, returning to the issue of missed deadlines, our next question for Sky was how he felt that community opinions and faith could be changed, via the means of providing all the currently promised or pipe-lined updates? An honest answer followed, as Sky said, "I think the idea that deadlines will always get missed is now firmly implanted in people's minds and it'll take a long, long time for that idea to go away. But with any luck, the fantastic plans we've got for Crews, as well as the other updates BSF2000 has got planned, will remind people how dedicated we all are, including BSF2000. Just because he's not obviously active doesn't mean he doesn't have an awareness of what's going on in the game. He realizes he's got a bad rep and he wants to change that. But he's human, like us all, and humans are prone to making mistakes." A recognition then, that things require change before community view of the Elite Guard and their time-keeping can be changed. But with the said fantastic updates surely not to far away, perhaps there is scope for change. Whether a broken watch, or unforeseen circumstances that everyone else foresaw, the community will be unforgiving of any future delays. The time-scale for future updates to be implemented may be key in order to see a positive reaction to them. Faith wears thin, as does patience. So Sky and the rest of the team must be careful not to wear it further.
Our next question once again concerned BSF2000 and his communication with the community. This along with general information communicated to the community concerning what is going on in the game, seems to be at a loss. How does Sky feel this communication could be improved? He reacted, "I agree, though I feel that the Elite Guard is already very active in the forums, willing to engage with anyone and everyone. If BSF2000 were to do so as well that would distract from the updates that the community so desperately want to see." We hope then, that this answer confirms that BSF2000 is genuinely too busy working on the game to engage with its users. Whether you believe this to be true or not, is of course up to you! Campaigns for increased for communication have come and gone in the past with little success, and little looks set to change.
Attentions then turned to the most popular topic in the Game Forum of late. One which called for the boycotting of Points purchases, in order to try and force change. With the current amount of points in circulation this effort seemed futile, and would of been more appropriate staged at the start of the round. But even this may not of worked, as Sky gave comment regarding this topic, saying, "It's been tried before and it'll be tried again. It'll never take because not everyone is as honest as the next person. Assuming the entire population got on board and decided to stop buying points, someone would realize that if they bought a lot of points they'd be able to take control of the game in a big way. And let's be honest, even if you don't buy points from the game directly they are still a big part of game play, and if there were none in circulation the game would stop." He did however in part support the movement, as he finished, "However I appreciate the ideology of it. It's just not necessary." A clear and concise assessment of the current efforts of the community then. It has to be said there will always be those who are fueled by greed, and should this movement of caught on, the greedy would always of had the potential to ruin it.
We then turned out focus to the current level of users online. User base levels have been in decline for a year or more now, with little appearing to of been done to combat this. We questioned why this was the case, to which we got a surprising response, as Sky said, "I've seen first hand that a concerted effort has been made to attract more users. Bootleggers has been optimized for search engines to make it much easier for people to find us. But still there is a need for word-of-mouth. People sharing their promotions on Facebook would be quite helpful but understandably few are willing to do so. Advertising will definitely help but I think it's best to wait until the updates are released before we try to convince new players to hang around." So, apparently efforts have and will continue to be made to attract new players. However a large part of the increase of user levels is down to the players and community themselves. It seems to be very much a case of, tell your friends, tell your kids, tell your grandma if necessary, but a united effort to increase the users we see on a day-to-day basis can do no harm to the efforts we see in turn put in by the Elite Guard!
The interview continued with us at the Buzz asking Sky for his own personal assessment of the state of the game. Is it far from ideal as everyone can see and his response to this question did not try and shy away from this, as he said, "We've seen better. Player levels aren't as bad as they were toward the end of last round but they certainly don't come close to 2006 levels. This could be down to dissatisfaction with the state of the game but I believe it's because the players have grown up, got jobs and moved on. Many players were like me, and started playing in their lunch breaks at school. That was 10 years ago for most of us, we're not 13 anymore. We're in our 20s and we have jobs, families and other commitments which means Bootleggers doesn't catch our interests. This isn't the fault of Bootleggers. Time's just a bitch." A solution then? He continued by saying, "The only real cure is trying to capture the imagination of current 13 year olds, but with consoles, phone apps etc, their attention span is markedly shorter than ours." So in order to re-capture the magic that Bootleggers once held, Sky feels a push to attract the younger user is needed. A younger generation fueled and enthralled by technology, the best way to do this may be with the development of a mobile app. Another promised update from BSF2000 which we await.
We moved the interview on, trying to recapture a positive light. Asking Sky if he felt the game we once saw in 2006 could be brought back, to which we saw our first negative response, as he said, "No. Those were the glory days. We might come close with the Crew update but I'm a pessimist at heart and I just can't see it happening, as sad as it is to say." Clearly the glory days we saw of six or seven years ago have passed. But with the overhauls planned and perhaps the most dedicated team of Elite Guard seen for some years, it could be possible to bring glory days to the year twenty thirteen. What is Sky's vision for the next year or two of Bootleggers though? He told us, "I hope to see at least 1,000 players online but again, I doubt it. I think the Crew update and a well timed reset might help with that."
The mention of the word reset from a Moderator is one which will always spark debate and chitter-chatter within the community. So will the forecast updates also bring about said reset? We put this to Sky, who couldn't give us a definite answer, but told us, "I can't say for sure because it isn't something we've discussed explicitly but it'd be logical for the two to go hand-in-hand."
We concluded our time with Sky there. The Moderator providing answers to much of what the community asks at present with further promises. Ones which we will have to wait and see if they can be kept. However general response was positive from Sky, a sign of things to come, perhaps. Community reaction is a key to the development of Bootleggers, and while they are forced to wait for anything but failure to react to, the game will only go one way. Updates, where are you? An impossible game of speculation based hide-and-seek will continue till things appear on the users screens!
