I'll be quick and to the point. Paying cash towards bodyguards.

I'll be honest, I love the credit system I think it's great however at the same time when the userbase gets wiped out it makes the value of credits drop. So then it becomes "Well damn pay next to nothing and get next to nothing!"

So I was thinking this, pay $3.75 a bodyguard. Much the like the credit system once you spend X amount of dollars you get X bonus bodyguards (except no half or fractions :P).

What this would do is keep the value at like paying one dollar and getting $200,000 a credit.

To me this is a big big big win win for everyone involved. Why? Because you'll use credits for everything so buying them with IG cash won't get phased out but bodyguards are much more expensive so the value is similar.

So with the dollar proctected the admins make more money but we also all can benefit from it. The value of your credit wouldn't really drop considering you get kills, jails, and timers from it. So the key value is still there but also you get more bang for your buck towards something that is more expensive.

I'd like everyones opinions. I know its a bit different but I don't see why a simple test run could be bad. I mean if we gave it a week and we didn't like it, turn it off. It wouldn't be that difficult. Just spit balling after all this is "beta".

The point of it being as it is right now is that it prevents someone from tanking themselves up by themselves - with the credit marketplace, someone has to enable you to buy those bodyguards. Someone has to buy your product. And it should stay that way for balance concerns.

The system is in place, above all, for balance.. and to avoid ripping people off of their credits.

No-go for me.

To be fair people tank themselves up now any way so it really doesn't make a massive difference either way.

Also I'd like to point out the cost per bodyguard would go up as you rank obviously. So gangster would be double and so on, you can do the math.

However I have yet to see how it would be thrown out of balance. We will never see a full fledged reset, in a war there has to be a winner. Right? Correct.

So no matter what someone will have money to buy credits however they may not want to pay as much? Why because they know people will want to get bodyguards, MIA credits and so on and so forth.

If anything this would allow for quicker recoveries between wars. Why? Because people would comeback and be able to buy bodyguards. Then focus their in game money towards other stuff that could be more beneficial. Like helping loans with new players and such.

Hell if you're worried about the unbalance you could always do it until the game hits a certain dollar amount and credit value then turn it off. Then when the game experiences a huge war it kicks in again.

If anything this would help the game dramatically especially at the moment. Not to mention the new bg wack system. It would help with that.

>>>If anything this would allow for quicker recoveries between wars.


For the people who have the wallet outside of the game. The little guy? Not so much. The people who do have the wallet outside of the game have to rely on other people's in-game cash - And that limits said person from being hundreds of miles ahead of the other players. Lifting this regulation and letting every swinging dick with a wallet to buy at their heart's content while bypassing this measure would throw the game out of balance tremendously.



>>>Like helping loans with new players and such.


The loans that are forwarded to new players are, in comparison, so tremendously small that this doesn't even qualify as a saving factor. Most if not all new players are given the bare minimum to buy their max fill on top tier drugs. Hell, a single credit sold at today's market price would likely be sufficient for 5 new players - and we're not cranking out that kind of usage.



Also, I have to point out that if implemented that most if not all of the large scale transactions will be done mostly on these bodyguards and that the current market system would be, compared to as it is now, incredibly small as most users who spend their wallet on bodyguards will be getting them at the cheapest possible price (thug) - I'd be forecasting the market's relevance in the game as severely downplayed if you removed the tie in of game money with donation money.


In a tl;dr version, you'd be putting the power of the game within a very small select group of individuals who can ostensibly start far, far, ahead of their less fortunate counterparts than they can already do now - the difference is that they are required to, in some way, shape, or form, to convert their donation money into cash - someone always has to buy it from them. And that keeps the game in check to make sure that someone won't buy 500 bodyguards in one fell swoop because, in a sense, their protection directly stems from the current economy of the game.

If anything Syriana purchasing bodyguards other than credits wouldn't change much. Bodyguards just allow for better defense while credits allow for jailing, maxing faster and making IG cash for other stuff.

I personally do not have the "wallet" out of game but I would like to be able to do this because then instead of spending so much money on the game and getting a lot less it would protect the donation system a bit better.

Also once again you're wrong in my honest opinion. There's countless leaders that are trying to get bodyguarded up but however the member count isn't there for it in some ways. Yes there are many crews but it's like that to house as many players as possible to help in efforts to grow the game. Which goes back to, if you have more bodyguards you have a better chance to live longer.

In all honesty this is a business this wouldn't cause catastrophic results. It would simply protect the value of the RL dollar. Hell this would be helping everyone and if you're that concerned about the little guy this is a 18+ year old game. If you don't like not having money to put towards the game because someone else does you should be getting a job. Just because there are people out there willing to spend money but don't want to feel quite like it's not worth it shouldn't be "well what about the little guy" well everyone was a little guy at one point or another.

You can do this, say you have a xbox 360. Cost for one of those we'll say is $200 (thats cheap and used), now you buy like 5-10 games that's another $250-500 if you buy them new. So already you've have bodyguarded up to accounts on this game, but you spent your money on an xbox 360. So then you look at users like me, I play this game and nothing else. Guess what, I have that X amount of dollars to spend if I want to.

There's all kinds of arguments you can make but so far the only valid one has been "well what about the people without the wallet for it" which shouldn't effect those that do work and want to use this game as their "release" you could say. Where they want to splurge a little but not feel ripped off because people won't pay half decent money for bulk credits.

>>There's countless leaders that are trying to get bodyguarded up but however the member count isn't there for it in some ways.


That's because buying bodyguards was, and still is, for the most part, about hard work. Your members go day in and day out to protect you - There's a reason why your suggestion hasn't been implemented before: It'd severely but a large chunk of players at a disadvantage, which brings me to my next point:

>>If you don't like not having money to put towards the game because someone else does you should be getting a job.


Considering a VERY large chunk of the game is in their early 20s and most likely in a college, do you seriously think people would be spending the kind of cash that others do that are more solidified in their career? You simply can't compete.



>>It would simply protect the value of the RL dollar


Here's a quick lesson in economics: Inflation happens. Deflation happens. Hell, stagflation happens. However simple this economy works considering you can only spend it on only a handful of items - the value of the dollar will always be subject to the current economic climate of the game, and vice versa.



>>I personally do not have the "wallet" out of game but I would like to be able to do this because then instead of spending so much money on the game and getting a lot less it would protect the donation system a bit better.




And herein, you've pretty much made my argument. You spend $100 and buy, let's say for figures, 40 bodyguards. JohnnyComeEarly and JohnnyComeLately spends $600 and receives 280 bodyguards with a bonus figured in. 2 months down the road, who do you think will have a better chance of emerging as a leader? Hell, 2 months after that - after a powergrabbing wars - do you really think anyone would be able to compete with them.. at all?

Not really.

As someone who's been coming to this game for over 3 years day in and day out, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about. The games current balance would be downright rocked to its core - where, much like the real world, 1% of the population control... what, 95% of the wealth?

Syriana you really can compete with those on careers. If you put the new method out there I'm suggesting. You'd spend $250 on getting over 100 bgs. With all the math properly accounted for. Maybe less but it's a guesstimate. $250 isn't that hard to come by, I myself am a full time college student as well as work almost full time. Yet I can afford it and compete with those that have solidified careers.

Syriana for someone who has been here just as long as you have I figured you too would realize that there are people already obtaining 280 bgs. If anything it'd help those that don't have as much money get MORE for what they pay. Then again we don't want to do that now do we? Try and balance out the opportunity of getting bgs like everyone else do we?