It is true that this is just a game. However, the defining features of many games can be likened to real life characteristics. Something that as an individual I began to analyse last round, and have continued to do so in this. Psychology, the mental characteristics or attitude of a person or group. It would be wrong to generalize the entire communities attitude or mental characteristics. However if a majority of the community choose to adopt a mental standpoint, it can be enough to tip the balance of power and indeed control in a certain direction, resulting in a specific outcome. There are other key factors which can also influence outcomes of course, such as publicity, for example.
I took the choice of interviewing several people, whom I would like to personally thank. It was not so much an interview as a discussion about the importance of psychology, various standpoints and contributing factors which can have affect on overall outcome. Those people were Mika, Youn and MarcOvermars. Chosen mainly due to their experience of the game over many years. I did try to contact several other people Crew Bosses and the such like however was left without response. However, on now to the main point of the article!
Last round saw certain parties 'dominate' the game. I place the word dominate in inverted commas, as in actual fact this is largely down to a users personal views as to whether these groups dominated the game, only certain aspects of the game or indeed none of the game at all. An example of one of these groups would be The Family. It is my view, that the success of The Family is not necessarily down just to organisation and planning, but also the ability the people who run the group have to manipulate other users and crews in order to benefit them in a given situation or even on occasion, complete tasks for them leading them to not have to use their own resources. This ties in slightly with the story which you can find in my other article this week, which looks at the shooting of Gustin Gang (I recommend a further read of that to fully understand what I mean here). If a leader or group as a whole does not wish to carry out a piece of dirty work themselves, it is relatively easy in the world of Bootleggers, as a perceived member of this already well-established group, to manipulate a less powerful but still adequately armed group/individual to carry out these meager tasks for you.
Why? This is where the psychological aspects start to come in to play. It can be said, and was particularly highlighted by the Moderators when I spoke to them, that each individual user will adopt a playing style and as part of this, a psychological standpoint from which they will play the game. This could be a more social aspect, a gambling aspect or indeed a killing and dominating via the perceived 'power' aspect.
Something which I believe contributed to the downfall of many groups and made it hard for any sort of resistance to mount a feasible fight-back is the lack of 'power-hungry' players out there. Many players are fixated by wealth, not the balance of power. They desire hoards of gold, to be Dangerously Rich, to own casinos and the such like. This, whether they actually pose one or not, makes them a threat to groups who wish to take power/control of the game via shooting. To reach a point such as in the last round, where ranks were able to be systematically targeted and taken out, whilst others bought safety by becoming puppet crews for perceived greater crews/groups, was able to come to fruition due to this happening over an extended period of time.
Where a group with good co-ordination and established presence within the game targets something, whether it be players or money and the resistance to this is not in the same bracket in terms of organisation or influence, the targeting group will always succeed.
However what does not help, is a further factor, brought up by MarcOvermars whilst I was talking to him. The fact is that what did the dominant parties have last round that the resistance did not? Publicity and fame. They did not seek it. Nor could they be perceived as wanting it. But they got it. This contributed to a poor mentality of the community, as continual topics went up in regards to being dominated, another shooting, more money dropped, must be Asura or The Family again etc. This fame and publicity made it even easier for crews such as the aforementioned to manipulate any other possible threats or hindrances into resources for their own use. The resistance however, which can be said was only shakily linked to Event Horizon at times, despite numerous crews popping up along the way, did not have this luxury. That is not to say, that given time to gather support and resources that the outcome would of been any different, one can only speculate as to this, however it can be said with some certainty that the result would not of been come by so easily by the power hungry groups.
The lack of focal point, point of contact or even overall leadership for the resistance is why it fell before it was even able to walk, in my opinion. There was nothing for the community as a whole to rally around. Resulting in consensus being that everyone was doomed to die from the moment they were able to rank to Boss, that is if they were able even to make it that far.
Now some of you may be wondering what the actual point of this article is. Well, it's more an oversight and insight as oppose to having a decisive 'eureka moment' purpose. Will the lessons learnt that can be said were felt across the board last round mean an alternative outcome in this? Obviously the updates to crews in particular will mean there is a different dynamic to consider in regards to the way the round develops. But as has been proven in psychology many times, often we are prone to remembering detrimental and negative events/circumstances longer and more vividly than those that were positive. Perhaps a change in this hold on what was, could change what will be.
