RP Quality of Life - Available Jobs

[Engelbert]

1 hour ago, Aquila said:

In my opinion, working in stores seems to be a pointless route for RP. It's pretty minimal and doesn't really contribute to a story.

 

It can be alright on a server that's based on a small community somewhere on the map, but on a server based in the large LS County it's just tedious. People who go to clothes stores, for example, just want customisation done to their character. It's doubtful that they want to engage in a full hour roleplay session giving/receiving fashion advice from employee to customer. Same with tattoos. I can sort of understand car mechanics, because you could just leave your car at the garage, have work done to it, come back and collect; but with gas stations, tattoo parlours, barbers, clothes stores, it's just a waste of time and effort to interact with players.

 

Like I said, it'd work in small communities, i.e. if there was an established community based in Sandy Shores or Harmony, then I can see gas station and 24/7 based RP having a purpose.

Some people infact roleplay buying clothes and stuff, but those are but few. Most of people jump IC when you rp with them, but if left alone they will just buy clothes and leave. Suprisingly there still are two LTD's that are roleplayed and not long ago people also roleplayed getting inked. I for example have 3 tattoos, 2 of them were properly roleplayed.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Engelbert

[Aquila]

20 hours ago, Trukken said:

Couldn't agree more, also the number of actually useful items that you need on a day to day basis to Rp is pretty slim in grocery stores.

"Hey welcome to the store!"

"Thanks, can I buy this pineapple?"

"Sure, that's $2."

"$2 for a pineapple? An outrage. Here you go."

"Thanks, hey nice watch!" 

"Thanks bye."

 

Maybe you can meet people this way or find out something IC about the area you're in, but other than that the RP routes are very limited. It's something you'd expect from start-up servers just for the sake of roleplaying something at all.

19 hours ago, Engelbert said:

Some people infact roleplay buying clothes and stuff, but those are but few. Most of people jump IC when you rp with them, but if left alone they will just buy clothes and leave. Suprisingly there still are two LTD's that are roleplayed and not long ago people also roleplayed getting inked. I for example have 3 tattoos, 2 of them were properly roleplayed.

Only way I could see LTD based RP thriving is if someone were to be there all the time. Everyone is too used to walking into a 24/7, buying a couple items then walking out within one minute. Finding someone there will make an action seem longer, though I can understand people who are extremely bored that they would go in just to roleplay something. 

 

From my experience, people who roleplay within a tattoo parlour/barber shop/convenience store setting usually converse as a primary thing, and buy services as a secondary thing - it's unrealistic, but it's a game, so obviously we're gonna wanna have 1-on-1 roleplay.

[Engelbert]

True enough, the LTD in Davis is the busiest given it used to be robbed everyday lol. But indeed it only makes sense if its like either closed when no one's around or opened. Hmm when it comes to getting tattooed I was lucky, there were like 4-5 people inside, so conversing some watching me getting inked, the artist actually rp'ed the process properly. People just don't wanna do these menial tasks, cause why should they.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Engelbert

[Aquila]

12 minutes ago, Engelbert said:

True enough, the LTD in Davis is the busiest given it used to be robbed everyday lol. But indeed it only makes sense if its like either closed when no one's around or opened. Hmm when it comes to getting tattooed I was lucky, there were like 4-5 people inside, so conversing some watching me getting inked, the artist actually rp'ed the process properly. People just don't wanna do these menial tasks, cause why should they.

Like I said, a lot of the menial tasks don't really contribute towards a story. How often will someone refer back to that moment they bought a pack of cigarettes from a shop? Maybe loyalty to a hairdresser or tattoo artist could make sense, but beyond that it's just a waste of time. Guess one could even say it's just useless RP, i.e. roleplaying for the sake of roleplaying. That's my take on it.

 

Don't get me wrong though, I'd take an every day convenience store visit scenario to people doing stand-around & talking scenario any day.

[Engelbert]

8 minutes ago, Aquila said:

Like I said, a lot of the menial tasks don't really contribute towards a story. How often will someone refer back to that moment they bought a pack of cigarettes from a shop? Maybe loyalty to a hairdresser or tattoo artist could make sense, but beyond that it's just a waste of time. Guess one could even say it's just useless RP, i.e. roleplaying for the sake of roleplaying. That's my take on it.

 

Don't get me wrong though, I'd take an every day convenience store visit scenario to people doing stand-around & talking scenario any day.

Yeah I agree, most of times a sentence "Going to a hairdresser, or hitting up the story, wait here" are enough really.

 

[jcat]

On 7/18/2019 at 9:51 AM, Kestalas said:

My question is why? What is stopping you from working these jobs? What are your complaints/concerns? What do you think could be done to fix it or at the very least improve it?

 

 

Here's my response to the OP's original question:

 

• They're boring, and they don't lead to quality rp.

 

My character went into an LTD once to buy snacks, and I got a little bit of decent rp out of it.  About 3 or 4 characters were in there at the same time.  Yet, nothing really happened.  Why?  Because strangers in stores have no reason to talk to each other.  In a dangerous town like LS, it's frequently foolish to talk to strangers.  It would've been weird try-hard-ish metagaming to create conversation between strangers in an urban convenience store.

 

People routinely self-pay at automated gas pumps, and again, people don't have meaningful conversations with the gas station guy unless they know him.  Even then, they're not there to rp, they're there to get their gas and get on with what they were doing before the noticed they had to get gas.

 

• People want to use the store or service or whatev to get something done, and sometimes rp isn't a good idea while doing those things.

 

I don't want to rp while I'm trying to navigate the clothes buying menu.  My character looks like shit while I'm trying on clothes and I need to focus on what I'm doing so I don't fuck it up.

 

• Businesses need to be available and not in dangerous areas at all times.  If I just want to get smokes, get gas, or get a haircut, this is a problem.  I'm not going to go to some shitty neighborhood to get a haircut or buy smokes.  Then I have to wait to do it and that's irritating.

 

General expectations are wrong, and they lead to disappointment. 

 

People who work retail or at gas stations or tattoo parlors irl meet a lot of people, because there is a big enough population to support that business.  We're rping that our characters live in a big bustling city, but they really don't.  They live in a small town of about 200 people, most of whom stay indoors most of the time.  Because of this, any retail job is going to be hideously boring because there just aren't enough people who need to go to the store, and most of them just want to be left alone when they do.  Especially in a game where the characters don't really need to buy anything.

 

Restaurants, bars, clubs and

titty shacks

thrive because the nature of those businesses is social.  People go there because being in a small unpopulated town makes people interested in meeting others just for something to do.  People would hang out in the Mirror Park parking lot for the same reason.

 

So, businesses with an rp focus thrive, businesses which do not have an rp focus do not.  If a gas station had a restaurant, then people would hang out and rp at the gas station.

 

Also, if robbers are going to mess with people rping at the business, then people who don't want to be fucked with aren't going to go near it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Engelbert]

Can relate to the last part, half-assed robberies really pull people out of roleplaying anything. Nobody wants to play in a business that gets robbed everyday. 

[Aquila]

On 7/28/2019 at 6:26 PM, Engelbert said:

Yeah I agree, most of times a sentence "Going to a hairdresser, or hitting up the story, wait here" are enough really.

 

Yes.

 

I also want to clarify that convenience store RP, or barber shop/tattoo artist RP is similar to bar/club RP, but the former 3 have a primary function of making money, and realistically they're not social gathering spots. It's sad, because bar/club RP is a lot more boring than the former 3 (in my opinion anyway), but it is what it is.

[DLimit]

Convenience stores, barber shops, and tattoo parlous are perfect social hubs. 

Travel to the most ghetto or impoverished region of your city or town and examine the amount of individuals that surround these hubs and enter these hubs. Generally, these locations ARE social hubs for the average lower-class local that would prefer to seek cheap entertainment across the street than to spend hundreds of dollars on transportation and a club.

My Jamaican gangster and main character, Ras, would spend countless hours at the Davis LTD and Strawberry LTD either as a narcotics distributor, pimp, or simply a customer... it was the cheapest social space for him. A few one-dollar cups of coffee allowed him to stand inside and outside the store for hours.

I've witnessed Vinewood Hipsters loiter in front of the convenience store in Vinewood for hours while bikers spent hours discussing trivial matters in the tattoo parlour in Paleto Bay.

I'll be bold: Your imagination is limited if you cannot classify these places as social hubs.

 

Unfortunately, these hubs were temporarily ruined when a few trollish players decided to ram their motorcycles into the store ten times per day... I'm hoping that it shall be recovered as soon as possible.

Edited August 1, 2019 by DLimit