This month Bootleggers celebrated Christmas. Ornaments randomly appeared throughout the game and it was your job to collect as much as ornaments as possible. Between December 24th and December 26th everyone was able to trade his/her collected ornaments for game items. You could trade one fancy ornament for $250 cash or 5 bullets. Pretty boring eh? You also had the ability to trade 6,000 ornament for silver wrapped present. This amazing present included: an instant promotion to Godfather, level 20 gymnasium stats, a Thompson, a Premier tailored body armor, 100,000 bullets and $2,500,000. Woah, pretty sick eh? Well, there was also a gold wrapped present, which you could trade for an amount of 10,000 ornaments. This present included: an instant promotion to Don, level 40 gymnasium stats, the best gun & protection, 250,000 bullets and $7,500,000. Hold your breath, there is more! For 110 ornaments you had a chance of picking a silver/gold wrapped present. There was a 1-in-60 chance of receiving a silver wrapped present and 1-in-100 chance of receiving a gold wrapped present. That is what I call a damn amazing Christmas present, right?! Unfortunately not everyone was satisfied with the Christmas event. According to some players this event was outrageous and an attempt to help the lazy players on Bootleggers.
The rewards in the ornament store were surely more beneficial for the lower ranks, as they had the ability to get an instant promotion to Godfather/Don including a proper Gun/Protection and some fancy gymnasium stats. I believe most of the higher ranks already had a proper Gun/Protection and fancy gymnasium stats, so the only reward for the higher ranks were some bullets and/or money. Free stuff is always awesome, but is it unfair that these lower ranks had more beneficial rewards? I believe not, as higher ranks already have plenty more benefits than lower ranks. In the current state of the game it is extremely hard for a low ranked player to find a proper Organized Crime, as all high ranked players who are not a part of a dominating crew are getting killed. So, this was an attempts of the Elite Guard to help the weak players? The members of the dominating crews also had the ability to collect ornaments, therefore it is unrealistic to claim the Elite Guard were helping these players. For the record, it is extremely hard for a player who is not part of one of the dominating crews to reach a proper rank. With this event they finally had the chance of getting a decent rank again.
Well, having the chance to get a proper rank does not mean it is easy to earn it. According to some players it was outrageous that lazy players had the chance of becoming a high ranked player with fancy stats. I believe that statement is incorrect, as you needed to collect a huge amount of ornaments in order to get a silver/gold wrapped present. Every player had approximately 20 days to collect ornaments. This means if you collected 10,000 ornaments you had to collect 500 ornaments a day. 500 ornaments a day is madness and definitely a lot work. I believe all the players who collected 10,000 and 6,000 ornaments should definitely not be called lazy. But what about the 1-in-60 and 1-in-100 chance of receiving a wrapped present?
If you were able to collect 110 ornaments you had the ability to receive a wrapped present. A 1% chance of receiving a gold wrapped present and 1.67% chance of receiving a silver wrapped present. For the record, I believe collecting 110 ornaments was not a lot work. I have mixed feelings towards this chance of getting a wrapped present. A relatively small chance or not, lazy players were now able to become a high ranked player and have some proper resources. On the other hand, many players are not able to play Bootleggers due the dominating situation on Bootleggers. With the ability to become a high ranked account with a decent inventory those players finally had the chance of playing Bootleggers again (for only a few hours that is). Personally I was pretty curious to see how many players actually invested in those chances of getting a wrapped present, but unfortunately the Elite Guard did not give out any information regarding the event.
Whether you find the store items and ornament hunt fair or not, the impact was huge. Maybe, a bit too much. Let’s not forget that the current situation of Bootleggers is not very entertaining, so we can definitely use some entertaining. I truly enjoyed the ornament hunt and I am looking forward to the next Elite Guard event. For those who died because of the ornament hunt, please do not forget that you also had the ability to collect ornaments. Besides, being killed is part of the game, right?
