I am here to bitch about seeing top ranking members of families being demoted to buy bodyguards....I know this subject has been talked about before, but it needs to be addressed again.

If you cant buy your bodyguards when your young or dont have the money when you rank, well thats your tough luck....

In my opinion its not my business what people do with their money or lives. If they want to get demoted to thug then so be it. What they do has no effect on my life.

Well it isn't tough luck as they can be demoted to purchase the bodyguards for a cheaper price.

This would really be better adressed to the Gods, as I doubt leaders are going to hinder themselves by not utilising this option, although I've been wrong before.

Tallien leaves his business card behind. It says:

~T~

The level of BGs is rather silly these days, since we have mega-rich Godfathers kicking around, but it's the same for everyone. Demotion for the purpose of "stocking up" is a bit surreal in our thing, but lets be honest, most of us have done it or taken advantage of it at some stage or another.

OWP takes it to another level right enough. As Tallien says, city hall might look at it, but the leadership is unlikely to shoot themselves in the foot over it. Even then, saturation has reached such a level that city hall action to stop it would probably only provide a starker light for the divide, given the fact people won't have their already-purchased-BGs made redundant.

I'm sure my bloodline has said this down Suggestions Alley before, but I've always wondered why there isn't better structuring in the BG sector. By that I mean, one at Thug, Two at Gangster, and so on up to unlimited at some point.

As skewed as it is now, any solution beyond "leave it", will require much consideration.

Mega-rich Godfathers? I don't see any GF that is anything but rich and that goes for most of the game.

Personally I've never been a fan of removing the limit on bodyguards, even when it has been of benefit in the past. Considering we pride ourselves on realism, the idea of someone swaggering around with 80+ bodyguards, is hardly in line with this.

Tallien business card is still on the ground. It says:

~T~

Paul, "mega-rich" wasn't used as a definite term of wealth, like Extremely Rich status and so on, I just meant it as a statement of the fact we have Godfathers who are very well off. However, since you bring it up, I'm sure Thomas won't mind me bringing up the fact he was recently unfeasibly rich and rightly proud of it to the point of advertising it in his "personal space" shall we say, since FlyingMonkey will belt me if I say profile.

I'd say that if these high-ranking mobsters want to be demoted to buy cheaper bodyguards, then so be it.  I don't see the big deal as it does not pertain to my life.

As Mikhail hears the opinions of his fellow mafioso's, he decides to give his.

Dudley, some people are going to argue about this issue over and over again. A couple of us have made a couple speeches in the Suggestions Alley and get little feedback on the ideas of the issue. I suggest you go take a look.

My opinion stands as I think its an exploitation. There's only a gain to the demotion as ranking is easily done as you can agree Paul. Took you vhat? Two days to achieve the rank of Wise Guy after being demoted to purchase a large sum of bodyguards? 

If you wanna hear about the ideas being thrown around, check out the Suggestions Alley.

if a higher ranking member is unable to make enough cash to purchase a BG by the time there that rank, then they don't deserve a BG, although this is my opinion. We have no right to get involved with certain peoples lives, especially if we would ever consider this path ourselves.

surley tis is unethical "in this litlle thing of ours"..... miste cudnt put it better myself, it shudnt be allowed to happen just m humble opinion

I don't really agree or disagree with this point. I'm on the fence if you want to put it that way.

I do want to say however, If the higher ranks were not allowed to demote for bodyguards then your families taxes could very well be really high and the donation drives more frequent. Therefore taking more of your own personal money. Bodyguards are a very important thing for your leaders, RH's and LH's. Sometimes it is the difference between life and death from rogues or wars.

That is a way you might want to look at it.

people will do what they can to make ends meet such is life.  unless you can do something about it, but lets me say this... NO ONE LIKE A SNITCH... 

If someone get demoted to buy many bg's, it means he/she has doing many good thing for his family. please consider their effort before they can get that huge reward.

if we consider that as cheating, how about a protection shoot in war, i think they both are the same.

I've demoted people before for bodyguards, but never after they achieve Made Man.  Gangster, Goomba, Earner, Wise Guy... I'll demote those, but once you hit Made Man it is supposed to be meaningful.  I know it is a relatively easy rank to gain the criming experience for, but in my opinion if you are above Made Man and want bodyguards you should earn them.  A few months ago, many of you know I was Obscenely Rich (that is when you register more than $100 million in personal money that you have on hand).  At the time I had several Dons under my stead by the names of Fork Rourke, Scipita, and Alfieri... Instead of stripping them of their ranks to make things cheaper for myself, I shelled out about 90 million dollars of my own money in a matter of minutes to make them all at least Well Protected.

Sometimes keeping your pride intact and that of your members is more important than a dollar amount could be.  For instance I've seen right hand men get demoted and bulk up and that saddens me.  How is anyone in that family supposed to respect someone who at the time would be under Made Man and allegedly the second in command?  I know I don't.  They are not worth a thing except their bodyguard cost. 

Anyone who knows my personal history, that of Aurora's, Premier's, and Marietta's, knows none of us were lavished with bodyguards at our beginnings, we all bought the bulk of ours after working hard to achieve our own personal ranking goals, and refused to sacrifice our dignity for the sake of flaunting heavy protection.  Now it's easy to say that as a Godfather, and I know the allure of a lot of bodyguards is one that can really draw you in, but I myself wasn't Extremely Well Protected until late January, I survived that long because I worked with a group of people who all understood what it takes to win, be successful, and trust one another.  The money for bodyguards can't buy that.

I take this as a dig at myself so I shall respond

Before you talk about subjects, perhaps do some research on the matter at hand first. Not everyone with a decent amount of bodyguards has been given every last cent for them. Sure, I was demoted. Sure I was given some money by HydroPhonic for a few extra bodyguards. However, the vast majority of my bodyguards (and the money needed to re-train them) has all been made by... dun dun dun dun... ME! that's right, little old me! Is it my fault that you do not know how to make money? Is it my fault that every time you play Blackjack you hit until you bust? The people in my family know where I get the majority of my money from and it certainly isn't my boss. Just to squash another rumor flying around, Marietta has never given me a cent either so please don't make assumptions because so many of you are SO far off the mark.

I am not female, Marietta or Hydro didnt buy all my BG's, I'm not "Marietta's next auth", I am NOT female (i feel this needs repeating), yes I am the blackjack king and no I won't give you any tips (or cash for that matter). :)

Nay!

Personally I can understand saving money by demoting all the way down, but I agree with ThomasRourke. Anyone Made Man and above shouldn't demote to thug. Taking the ranks that mean the most and willing demoting is just disrespecting in a way to me. If you really need bodyguards that bad then why not do it one at a time? I think if someone from Made Man or above is dropping ot thug to get 50+ bodyguards then are back at Wise Guy nearly the next day then they're up to no good. It just gives me a bad feeling in my gut.

I think the gods should make the price of the BG the highest rank they've achieved. So If I wanted a BG and demoted all the way to thug it'd still be the price of what it is at Made Man. Yes this is a little drastic, but having 10, 20 or even 30 mafiosi walking around with 20+ bodyguards is crazy. There's plenty out there with 50+.

"I think the gods should make the price of the BG the highest rank they've achieved." Absolut

A sound idea in theory, but how many complaints will they get like "OMG! LuckyNellerie got to buy them at 500k! How come I have to pay x amount of millions for mine?!?"

If they need that many bodyguards they should be getting them at Thug. Maybe the system they need to work out is you have to pay 250k for each rank you achieve past thug if you take the demotion back to thug for bodyguards. So here: Thug Bodyguard: $750,000 Now you get all the way to Earner but want to go back for bodyguards. You pay 250K for achieving gangster + 250k for achieving goomba + 250k for getting Earner. Making the price 1.5 million for a BG back at thug. When originally it would be about 2.25 million at Earner. So you save 750k, but we don't see everyone walking around with a small army the size of the Vatican.

Am I making sense? I feel like that's a rough way to describe it.