One of the biggest revamps BSF2000 worked on this round was the kill feature once again. This time, the shootouts have been gotten rid of and witness statements are no longer 100% true. As you can see from Poison’s interview with BSF2000, it states that up to ten witness statements can be sent out from one kill. The total number of witness statements and accuracy depends on the witness column on the search page. The lower the number, the fewer and less accurate the witness statements will be and vice versa. This means that a player can receive an entirely false witness statement accusing an innocent player of killing someone when it actually was someone else. These witness statements come with a percentage of certainty, so players seeking them may need to find more than one before confirming who the actual shooter was.
There seems to be a split verdict within the Bootleggers community on whether this is a good idea or not for the game. Some players think it’ll bring more shooting and activity to the game, resulting in more crew wars etc but on the other hand some players think it is unfair for a totally innocent player to be killed for something which they had no involvement in. This almost happened through an article I wrote last week where I reported a player named Cameback being an underground shooter for Camorra, shooting some players to over take a crew spot. According to Cameback, I was wrong and the witness statements were false. This is a prime example of how they can cause trouble, Either way, the feature is here now and doesn’t look like it will be going away any time soon.
I asked some players what their personal opinions were on the feature.
Executor stated:
The new witness statements are a good addition to the game in my opinion. It adds a bit more uncertainty to the game, a bit more ambiguity. You can potentially be blamed for something you haven't done and (with altered screenshots); there is no real 100% way to prove your innocence.
ne witness statement wouldn’t be enough for me any more. I would want at least two to be sure enough to take my revenge; and that’s where it get’s interesting too, because you might not be able to get two the same. So there’s your decision: Shoot both or choose one.
Crgshawk1 more or less agreed with Executor by saying:
I think the new WS are great - the fact that an entire crew war or feud between sets of players could be started by pure chance adds a much more realistic side to the game. When there were mafia shootings in real life would someone have definitely correctly identified the shooter every time? No. I haven't been involved in any shooting or been shot at so I haven't seen the other side of the coin though - for all I know there could be a fake WS out there with my name on it.
Youn Disagrees with the whole feature itself stating that it serves no purpose at all due to the system screwing over players who are not involved in a killing at all, he doesn’t see the reason Bootleggers would need this feature. TH12 also commented thatif innocent players aren’t online to defend a witness statement which is false, it could lead to them losing their account through no fault of their own.
This feature could make or break Bootleggers. On one hand it can boost the activity within the game by causing controversy between players and/or crews resulting in feuds or wars. But on the other hand, players may get fed up of the chance of being falsely accused of killing someone and quit. It looks like that players will need to gather multiple witness statements of the death of someone before pointing the finger at their supposed suspect and retaliating!
It doesn’t help with witness statements not being able to be sent via the escrow feature, but hopefully BSF2000 will fix this very soon to prevent fake screenshots being made. As of yet, there hasn’t been too many complaints but the game is still in it’s very early phase. We can only hope we see some more frequent shooting.
