Evening everyone.  

Roflcopter loosens his tie a bit and helps himself to a swig of scotch from a bottle stashed away in his coat pocket before addressing the crowd.

In light of recent and historical observations noted in the journals of my ancestors, I have come to my own conclusions about this tool from the black market, however I was wondering what you, my peers, thought about the Hitlist and how it is utilized. 

Is it effective?  Does it allow for proper retribution in a realistic manner when one feels wronged or wishes for vengeance on behalf of their ancestors? On the flip side, does it ever play into a successful strategy in weakening an opponent before an eventual take down where personal opinions are not involved?

In addition, I'm sure many of our kin have had their own experiences with the Hitlist as well and I was wondering if any of you would like to share the experience of your ancestor or ancestors from their journal entries with the community as a whole.  Maybe sharing how it made them feel regardless of what side of the hit-listing they were on.

Rofl steps aside as he offers the podium to anyone interested in sharing their thoughts on the matter.

Roflcopter sensed a disturbance in the crowd and watched to his amazement as none other than Augutus_Caesar himself made his way forth from the gathering only to proceed to sodomize Meme_Lord in front of all onlookers, making a grand and grotesque spectacle for anyone that wanted to watch.

"Well, this is awkward...".

And with that Rofl shrugged his shoulders and walked off to the nearest speakeasy hoping that maybe after a few hours someone would come along that had an interest in debates.

Antonio watched the "display" with a disinterested look on his face and a raised eyebrow. If anything he was surprised by just how weird the streets have gotten recently. He quickly put his mind back to the question at hand.

I have personally never seen the hitlist be used for anything good other than for Durdens from time to time. As far as everything else people have just recently been using the hitlist to try and fail to send a message about how they feel about somebody or to say something negative about somebody, while wasting money at the same time.

Maybe and hopefully one day it'll mean something and legitimately be used for something other than foolishness again.

Antonio then heads off after saying his piece, not wanting to witness anything else too strange here at this corner of the streets

The_towndrunk staggers into another mind numbing conversation.

"The hitlist?  I don't think I've ever seen a successful hit carried out, nor have my kin.  It does serve well to create controversy and get the rumour mill churning.  I dunno, maybe it does do something.  Now gimme a fuckin' drink"

TTD snatches a flask away from some lowly petty thief and drains it.

I think the term has become misleading to be honest. As others have stated it is often used but rarely is a hit from it ever carried out.

I guess there are 2 ways to look at this - either the list in its current form is not able to accommodate the purpose it was designed for or that this world has learnt new ways to utilise, maximise and manipulate the environment to achieve a desired outcome - we are criminals it is rumoured after all.

I know that some time ago in another area of this world a conversation about suggested changes to the current methods were discussed and most / all that were a part of that conversation seemed to agree that it did need modifying with some detailed and helpful ideas but as far as I am aware nothing further came from it.

It is a communication method as others have stated, it is a tool to control people financially, it is an uncomfortable place to linger when Tyler calls into town, it gets tongues wagging, it fuels or starts rumours and it can make or break a reputation - none of these things are necessarily a bad thing. Equally none really fall into the definition of a hit list either.

For anyone that was paying close attention in the recent wars, the hitlist very much is a valuable tool. I don't want to sit down and list all of the information it was placing out into the public realm that otherwise would have gone unknown, but if someone was active and wasn't paying close attention to it they were leaving a huge amount of information on the table. In a time of war, one of the things that really makes our world tick, the hitlist is an absolutely vital tool in a variety of very different ways and will remain so for some time to come.

As for using it as a tool to try and orchestrate a hit on one of the leading mobsters in the country? That could happen, but it'd have to be a very specific set of circumstances in order for it to happen. Should anyone have tried taking a chance on picking up one of the recent listings they know they'd have met a swift end from one of the remaining leaders. The work required to get to the point where you could take the hit meant that nobody was willing to take the risks of getting caught for what was ultimately far too low a reward. Even at a combined total of three hundred and fifty million ish when the work required was viewed, nobody would take what was tantamount to a suicide run in order to gain it.

That's a good sign for our world. It suggests our leaders are thinking. It suggests our leaders are able to evaluate risk versus reward. It suggests our leaders aren't lemmings who'll take acts on the whim of a well-financed man of the shadows. Personally, I find each of these things reassuring. I wouldn't agree they suggest that the hitlist is broken. I far more believe they suggest our leaders are leading. 

After being robbed off his flask by The_towndrunk, Huehuecoyotl missed most of Anteros's speech, but he heard their point on the hitlist being a weapon in disguise and had to agree to that. He waited for his neighbour to finish and then stepped forward..

Interesting conclusion, TsuDhoNimh, and comforting to be honest, that our leaders are indeed thinking and leading!
I know at least one of my late familymembers has been on that mentioned list, and I think it did not bother them too much as a threat. It did make him think about who was spending this money though, but only his kin dared ask around after their father died in the war foretold.

What I did read in his journals, though, was an uncomfortable feeling of not being able to track down who was the person behind the listings at the time.. He always thought it was weird, how would everyone know somebody was wanted dead, but noone knew who offered the bounty..? There should have been a way to track who gave that order to someone.. or to buy that way..