If you are unable to access your account for an extended period of time, you can go on vacation. At the profile page you can put your account into ‘vacation mode’. During the vacation mode you cannot be killed, however you will be unable to access your account until the time is up. You cannot go on vacation if you are on the Hitlist and if you killed someone you need to wait 24 hours before you can enter the vacation mode. This vacation mode is some sort of safe zone. This week our Nation Don, RGT, decided to enter this fancy safe zone, because of real life issues. He entered the vacation mode after failing a kill on Eggers and, of course, after the 24 hours. He did abuse a feature? Did nothing happen because he is the Nation Don? This week we at the Buzz witnessed a lot opinions about this event, but what about the entire ‘vacation feature’? Do we really need it?
Failing a kill is bad for your health, especially when you fail to kill a Legendary Godfather. A Legendary Godfather is quite a decent rank, which means you are risking your life with failing a kill. After 24 hours RGT entered the vacation mode. For the record, Eggers was already killed when RGT entered the vacation mode. According to the rumours on the Game Forum, RGT went on vacation because of real life issues. It is not our job to ‘judge’ his reason for going on vacation, but what if he went into vacation mode just to prevent from being killed? According to Mika, the vacation feature is intended for when you are unable to access your account for a period of time. Using the feature in any other situation is considered abuse. That means if RGT went on vacation just to prevent being killed it is marked as abuse, however it is extremely hard to prove that someone did not go on vacation and only used the vacation feature as a safe zone. We continued our interview with Mika and asked him what exactly would happen if a certain user claims to be on vacation, but is actually just spending time with his/her dog at home. Mika stated: ‘‘Without evidence to the contrary we do not doubt what a user says or does. For as far as my personal opinion goes: you claim to go on vacation but instead go and enjoy your Xbox, your girlfriend, the outside world or whatever for two days and have tricked us into thinking that you are on vacation? Congratulations. If you have not been killed yet but there are people who want you dead then they will get you when you get back’’. Personally I agree with Mika; if someone wants you dead, it is only a matter of time before you are lying on the graveyard. An interesting saying, because I believe that makes the vacation feature very pointless.
The whole point of the vacation feature is securing your account. As stated before, if someone wants you dead, it is just a matter of time before they kill you. You want to hide yourself for 30 days? That is fine, because they will eventually get you after these 30 days. Why would you want to secure your account if you get attacked after these 30 days anyway? Again, we continued our interview with Mika and asked his opinion about this matter. He replied: ‘‘Because of the idea of it happening while you are away without giving you a chance to secure your funds by sending them away. Say that you are part of a crew and are going on vacation. Everything may be fine when you leave, but a week into your vacation someone decides to wipe your crew. Had you been there, you might have been able to see it coming seeing you would have been aware that your crew had pissed certain people off. Because of this, you decided to buy points and send the remainder of your money away/store it in a swiss bank account or do whatever to make sure it would not be lost upon your death. But, because you were away and unable to access your account you were unable to do this. You are dead, and you lost everything. Now, repeat this scenario, only the vacation feature is there. As a result, you survived the wipe because you were on vacation and when you come back you find out that your crew has been wiped. You may still be killed not too long after you get back, but this time around you have time to send your money away and minimize your losses’’. A true legit point, however these events will only occur when you are in a crew. When you are crewless the only persons who determines your health is yourself and your possible killer. It is pretty hard to see a kill coming, right?
What if you are going on vacation for quite a long period? Let’s pretend that there is no such thing as the vacation feature. What would happen if you did not have the ability to secure your account and you are not part of a crew. Actually, not much would change. As a crewless player you have no idea when you are about to get killed. Same story for when you are in a crew, but being in a crew is, technically, a bigger risk than being crewless. Why would you need the ability to secure your account? Who is going to kill you if you did not log in for a few days? Being killed sucks, but it is part of Bootleggers. I believe the vacation feature is not necessary at this moment and I also believe some players do not have the right to use the current feature. Racist much? Maybe.
Being a State/Nation Don is dangerous as these positions have a maximum capacity. There can only be one nation Don and nine State Dons. What if you were a State Don, with enough experience for becoming Nation Don, and the Nation Don goes on vacation for 30 days? In the meanwhile you have to wait for these 30 days and otherwise you might have killed the Nation Don to take that well-earned position. Same goes for the State Dons. What would happen if a Legendary Don has enough experience for becoming State Don and all State Dons would go on vacation? As the lovely uncle of Spiderman once quoted: ‘‘with great power comes great responsibility’’. But that is not it, I believe the current ‘cool down timer’ of 24 hours is way too low.
After you shot a certain player you have exactly 24 hours to cool down. After these 24 hours you have the ability to enter the vacation mode. 24 hours?! What if you get shot and you get killed? First of all you have to get a witnessed statement. Once you got a witness statement you need to verify it, because there is no 100% accurate witness statement before you verified it. If you use the cheapest detective for that it will take you approximately 12 hours. That means you have 12 hours left. Maybe a friend of yours wants to shoot your killer? Well, that friend of yours also needs to locate your killer. Again, use the cheapest detective and it takes 10 hours. Two hours left only? I believe that 24 hours is way too low. I think 72 hours is much better. That is three days?! Well, you always plan your vacation, right?!
The vacation feature, useless or definitely needed at Bootleggers? I believe it is not needed in the current form and I also believe the current form is unfair for various players. Does my opinion really matter regarding this subject? Not really, but we at the Buzz would love to read your opinion! Please share your opinion of the vacation feature below and we might write another column about this interesting feature!
