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Background Dancer : The Manifesto


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The quiet mumbling

 

When people think of heavy role play server, they imagine it of being full of people always interacting with each other, cars driving realistically and there is this sense of overall immersion on scenes. What they fail to understand is that a lot of that immersion is related to people who are not connected to any specific scene at all, they are the "GRINDERS". People like me who have all the qualifications to manage a situation that needs complex asymmetric thinking full of /me’s and /do’s but who choose to stay on the background and come to a heavy role play server to take the secondary role, being the simple man, not involved with gangs and heavy crimes. People often argument that they are not here to do a secondary job after a hard day of work in their real lives, but that’s exactly what majority is actually doing in the server ; cops, fire fighters, drug dealers, business owners, bar tenders, mechanics and so on. So when people like ME come and want to just enjoy the game world with its graphics, physics and the script support while roleplaying a simple trucker who’s favourite hobby is to fish – it puzzles you. But why? I tell you why. Its because the actual physical fire the FD puts down looks cool and the work looks cool. Doing /cf while fishing is boring. But for a background dancer like me it isn’t, as most of the actual roleplay goes on in my head anyways. It not that you need to do the entire fishing trip with /me’s and /do’s, its about thinking that you are actually fishing and when somebody tries to interact with you during or after that scene about the details of it – it won’t be any trouble to role play it as an actual memory of your character. But you may ask ; If it isn’t about the money then why won’t you just use fishing /anim and do it without getting paid? Well we all want to be awarded and it’s not about the quantity of money I get, but rather that I get any money at all. Even if the fish would cost 10 times as low I’d still do it as my main hobby. Same with the mining - treating the iron ores as scrap metal and cables I scavenge or steal. Or just plain truck driver who’s truck is being loaded and not a miner who single handedly fills his truck with ores and refines them too. I just make the best out of it.

 

The grinding is NOT about the money, It's about keeping it real :

  • I’m that poor trucker who gets that overly emotional appreciation while leaving 1000k tips everywhere he goes and then has to explain the economy and inflation on why the 1000k tip is literally nothing.
  • I am that poor redneck gambler who is betting 10k’s left and right while some helicopter flying rich folks can’t even meet the betting minimum of 2.5k.
  • I am the simple guy who cops stop for routine stop without me being suspicious in any way at all and can bust me for drunk driving without me evading or trying to kill him during the arrest.
  • I am the guy who is not from the neighbourhood but stops with his truck and tries to score some meth as the working hours are long.
  • I am that guy who VERY rarerly runs or jogs, even when alone.
  • I am that guy who stops at the STOP sign in Grapeseed.
  • I am that guy who who sits next to a hot girl in the bar but won’t try to hit on her as he is too depressed thinking of his alimony.
  • I am that guy with 8 civilian characters, so I don't have to RP being jack-of-all trades with multiple professions and jobs with only one character.

 

 

 Confession

 

Most of my time in the server is spent without making any kinds of /me’s or /do’s and not interacting with anyone, while still being completely in character and roleplaying to be a different person. But that does not mean I am not capable of doing it as it is supposed to be done when it comes to that. Some cops in real world won’t shoot a gun on their 40 years of service, but that does not mean they can’t shoot or they are bad cops. And when I do interact its 90% related to simple everyday things. The more there are script support for simple jobs and simple things that people can interact, the more people like ME would be spending much more time in the server. Not having a wide variety overhauled simple jobs like farming, trucking, mining and fishing certainly make people interact more on outside of these jobs but at the same it will take away the main source of RP from people like ME and cuts our daily average playing time.

 

 

The Word

 

Jobs need to be more complex, scripted minigames(like opening a safe), sectors with depletable resources connected with each other, forming a industrial and commercial grid so the the simple civilian population could bring more immersion into every scene. Its not about RPG versus The HeavyRP, its about combining them in a cyber realm where there are already high standards and RP will happen no matter what. Its about balancing in between different ideologies to bring in more people - thus creating more simple random interactions for people who are not connected to any of those simple jobs.

Edited by Guest
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I like the term "background dancer", nice touch. I see your point and rest assured, you're appreciated on the server as much as anyone else.

 

There's a line between RPG and RP that we can agree on as long as it's not forced down my throat. I'm here for role play though, pure sandbox role play where I can play the role of someone without having to break my back grinding for it. There's plenty of other games for that. I want my time to be directed towards nothing but role play. I don't care about the money, the assets, the status, nothing. I want pure dialog between myself and others in order to shape character development and story and I want to portray it realistically, therefore if I want to RP someone that's grown up in the hood, perhaps inherited the house of their parents, I'd like to be able to buy that house in-game and have it serve me for my role play purposes. There's no point in me breaking my back grinding for a house because I'm not buying it to show it off, it's merely a tool for me to tell a story. I think that's reasonable. 

 

A few years back on my own SA-MP server I was going to introduce a system where you could apply for character assets, such as a house, car, whatever you needed to fulfill your role play needs. Of course there had to be a good reason for each asset and a background story to why they would have it. A very good reason. Safe to say, most applications would be denied but the ones that made sense would potentially prove to bring tremendous value to the role play atmosphere in game.

 

We're on different sides of the coin but I've heard you out.

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Yea' I switched from the style of driving luxurious cars a long time ago, these days trying to keep my characters more realistic with their money.

For example the most cars I've had were two at any given time, right now, one of the cars is a sports car that is 60k at a dealership while the second one is a truck with 65k at dealership. Nothing fancy, I do grind at RPG jobs at the dead hours of the server to pass the time and gain some money, yet I do not roleplay a rich ass stuck up person.

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3 minutes ago, CHRISTIΔN said:

I like the term "background dancer", nice touch. I see your point and rest assured, you're appreciated on the server as much as anyone else.

 

There's a line between RPG and RP that we can agree on as long as it's not forced down my throat. I'm here for role play though, pure sandbox role play where I can play the role of someone without having to break my back grinding for it. There's plenty of other games for that. I want my time to be directed towards nothing but role play. I don't care about the money, the assets, the status, nothing. I want pure dialog between myself and others in order to shape character development and story and I want to portray it realistically, therefore if I want to RP someone that's grown up in the hood, perhaps inherited the house of their parents, I'd like to be able to buy that house in-game and have it serve me for my role play purposes. There's no point in me breaking my back grinding for a house because I'm not buying it to show it off, it's merely a tool for me to tell a story. I think that's reasonable. 

 

A few years back on my own SA-MP server I was going to introduce a system where you could apply for character assets, such as a house, car, whatever you needed to fulfill your role play needs. Of course there had to be a good reason for each asset and a background story to why they would have it. A very good reason. Safe to say, most applications would be denied but the ones that made sense would potentially prove to bring tremendous value to the role play atmosphere in game.

 

We're on different sides of the coin but I've heard you out.

Thank you. And thank you for hearing me out and starting a crucial dialog with me. 

 

As you like to RP someone from the hood, I can only assume that you would like to RP around crime as well. But there is only so much a imagination can help us. We can do this and that , day to day but at some point we wish for those random interactions with strangers. I have seen so much from the faction screenshots how gang members risking a gang war over robbing rival gang members for lousy 1000 bucks worth of stuff, or standing there on the corner without anyone trying to buy any drugs. Therefor I think its crucial to implement scripted jobs that route through those gang infested areas, and not only - jobs that interact with those areas. Having something scripted on those areas that players who are not from there need to get. And by need I mean are forced, otherwise they would just spend all the money on tuning the cars - get tired of them, buying another one, until they get bored and take a break from the server.

 

Yes the coin - we might be on a different side but as being the same coin we both appreciate the realism and immersion as the most important things that motivate us coming back every day. I think its an ideological question on how do we satisfy every party so ones could do non stop RP without having to worry about money and how do we give scripted jobs that are interesting but won't mingle with people on levels where it breaks their RP atmosphere.

 

The more movement and interaction with complex script features there is to the civilians, the more work and interaction there is for everyone else as well.

 

4 minutes ago, Vash Baldeus said:

Yea' I switched from the style of driving luxurious cars a long time ago, these days trying to keep my characters more realistic with their money.

For example the most cars I've had were two at any given time, right now, one of the cars is a sports car that is 60k at a dealership while the second one is a truck with 65k at dealership. Nothing fancy, I do grind at RPG jobs at the dead hours of the server to pass the time and gain some money, yet I do not roleplay a rich ass stuck up person.

 

Yes. Exactly.

 

As we all know the money values differently on various fields of our cyber Los Santos. My grinding means more tips and higher bet sums for others - literally.

 

And most importantly, the entire meaning of this thread, as Vash Baldeus said "to pass the time". There are times when we have high motivation to create some grate RP but there are also times when we just log into the server to pass time - not meaning we gonna drive around like a nut and troll - just pass time, with the same overall moral quality towards the rules but with a lot less RP - Meaning : With more script support, more RP-able-people will pass time on the server, thus creating a lot more RP opportunities.

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15 minutes ago, Tr1bal said:

Yes. Exactly.

 

As we all know the money values differently on various fields of our cyber Los Santos. My grinding means more tips and higher bet sums for others - literally.

 

And most importantly, the entire meaning of this thread, as Vash Baldeus said "to pass the time". There are times when we have high motivation to create some grate RP but there are also times when we just log into the server to pass time - not meaning we gonna drive around like a nut and troll - just pass time, with the same overall moral quality towards the rules but with a lot less RP - Meaning : With more script support, more RP-able-people will pass time on the server, thus creating a lot more RP opportunities.

Thing is, if during my grind if an opportunity to Roleplay appears I take it, and enjoy the Rolepaly.

Edited by Vash Baldeus
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3 minutes ago, Vash Baldeus said:

Thing is, if during my grind an opportunity to Roleplay appears I take it, and enjoy the Rolepaly.

Exactly. When there would be interesting script support for a lot more different kind of jobs from various fields that can reflect characters different RP paths it would help them to find those RP interactions and at the same time help them to pass time when there is not so many people in the server.

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best topic i've read on general discussions in a long time, well done, and apologies if my reply seems way off base/off topic

 

to avoid grinding jobs that do not fit my characters, very often i would set up some kind of make-believe for them if it ever came up in ic conversation, like owning a certain car but it's currently being worked on, or renting a motel room even though, in terms of script, my character isn't renting it

 

it's not against the rules, and i do this because i'd much rather build this story around my character without having the means for it, and in roleplay, conversation between my characters and others means more to the story than showing/owning those items

 

to get back on topic, i'd have to say what the community already know - there isn't enough in the script to accommodate every character, if you think of the world as a setting in a book, the methods of making money would seem alien for a city that is supposed to be modern and aiming for realism

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I respect what you're trying to say here but I'm a little confused, are you patting yourself on the back here or trying to suggest a better system to accommodate players who want money but also RP?

 

If you spend most of your time grinding scriptwise jobs I can understand players being a little iffy about what your intentions are because at the end of the day, this is a roleplay server, and if you're just stuck at the corner of the map grinding money, you're not really adding to the whole roleplay aspect the server is based around.

 

I don't think it's the players not understanding your method of playing, it's more players not understanding why you'd pick a heavy RP server to play a role that in the grand scheme of things, could be seen as pointless because you're not even taking part for the majority of the time what the entire server was created for.

 

At least in my opinion, the side-jobs are just there for players who want to quickly make an extra paycheck or two to speed up the process of buying something they want for RP, not really something you should dedicate an entire character to.

Edited by Liam_Airey
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8 hours ago, Liam_Airey said:

I respect what you're trying to say here but I'm a little confused, are you patting yourself on the back here or trying to suggest a better system to accommodate players who want money but also RP?

 

If you spend most of your time grinding scriptwise jobs I can understand players being a little iffy about what your intentions are because at the end of the day, this is a roleplay server, and if you're just stuck at the corner of the map grinding money, you're not really adding to the whole roleplay aspect the server is based around.

 

I don't think it's the players not understanding your method of playing, it's more players not understanding why you'd pick a heavy RP server to play a role that in the grand scheme of things, could be seen as pointless because you're not even taking part for the majority of the time what the entire server was created for.

 

At least in my opinion, the side-jobs are just there for players who want to quickly make an extra paycheck or two to speed up the process of buying something they want for RP, not really something you should dedicate an entire character to.

All thou the OP is in a “I” and “Me” form, it is clear it was not about me personally but rather a representation  of people who act in that manor. If you really respect what I was trying to say then you will try to see the deeper meaning behind my words. Its not about vanity , its about trying to bring together two ends of the rope.

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