Road Wars
This game is loosely based upon the Mel Gibson movies "Mad Max" and "The Road Warrior".
At first glance it is well done and thoughtful. There are many things to do in the game in addition to the usual player combat. There are crime missions, search missions, small quests given out by the NPC shop owners. Well thought out for the most part and all packaged in a elegant user interface. The core activity in the game is "gang warfare" and when I first started to play, the game allowed a weaker player to partner with anyone to utterly destroy whomever they pleased.
The common pair up would be a level 1 with a level 200. The partnership was hidden and you got quite a surprise if you attacked a level 1 partnered like this. When "tiered" gang warfare was introduced, gangs were separated by "respect" and some sat all alone in a tier for weeks on end waiting for a opposing gang to climb the ladder. Now the issue that ensued was when a opposing gang tried to gain the new tier, the gang that was there was supposed to fight them. All well and good, except anyone could pull in level 200's from gangs not even in the tier to assist.
As a new player I felt this concept made the game unbalanced because it allowed weaker gangs to hold onto territory that they weren't entitled to by virtue of their own abilities. As you may have guessed, the game is "ruled" by the usual old guard players that feel the game belongs to them and any new comer has to do it their way or no way! However, being stubborn I pushed for play balance and convinced the owner to make changes.
This major change led to the old guard virtually putting me on permanent "abuse" status and as fate would have it, the majority of the old guard were also staff! Now in most games the primary job of the staff is to assist the owner in the management of the game. Not so in Road Wars. In this game the staff is set up to oppose the players, compete with them in the tiered gang combat. The staff has access to weapons that the player's cant obtain, they also engage in harassment and abuse by the in game mail system. And since they are staff, you can't put them on block. Some members of staff openly post on their profiles the players they deem as "annoying, unworthy or anyone of a hundred petty complaints".
Now the owner of this insanity not only allows this to occur, she encourages it by virtue of ignoring all player complaints about the subject. And assisting the staff gang in combat with weapons that allow them to never lose! If a staff member chooses to "not like you" you might as well pack your bag and leave. I had a player swearing at me in mail and I reported him and I got mail banned! Why? Because the staffer in charge didn't like me.
Now, lets take a look at the concept of "war". The obvious conclusion is you attack and kill your fellow players. This is not Road Bake Off, this is Road Wars! So, in order to earn exp. and gain money and petrol, you attack and kill other players. So, yes you get your usual collection of people that can't handle this and they react is a variety of ways.
My character being 54 days old had been killed 421 times in combat which averaged out to 8 times per day. One of my targets, a player that had been in game 187 days claimed I was a bully and quit the game supposedly because of me! In 187 days she had been killed a total of 219 times, which is a tad over 1 time per day!!! All this is petty nonsense I assure you. The problem now occurs that the staff were friends with this player and the non-stop attacks, abusive mails and harassing comments on their profiles ensued.
Bottom line?
If you stay in your place you will be fine -
If you try to improve the game and that improvement takes the advantage from the staff you will be harassed like I was until you quit -
If you show any kind of aggressive behavior such as competition, you will be ostracized!
If you need to burn out your brain on a "free" game there are allot of good games out there that not only provide a solid game but also who value a customer.
BTW I donated almost $1,500.00 to the game in 54 days and this is how they treated me!
