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Thoughts on Yakuza roleplay?


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20 hours ago, DLimit said:

It has been rejected countless times in the past, as their power within Los Angeles is minimal in comparison to their opposition. They wouldn't be able to expand due to the secure presence of opposing organizations in the city.

 

There is virtually zero LCN presence in LA and yet IFM has approved countless crime families and crews over the years.

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There's plenty of ways to approach Japanese-American crime roleplay. You could obviously go for the Yakuza schtick, which is impossible with the current stigma around it, and it's frankly overdone and romanticized to death. I'd say your best bet is to look deeper into it, find realistic circumstances that Japanese-American youth would band up. You can do some digging through some (credible or uncredible) sources and find instances of Japanese-American street gangs existing in L.A. (i.e. Marshall Homeboys, Buddha Crips, Tokyo Boys, & Westside Japs).

 

Your best bet is to take liberties as to how a gang originated in these parts. Most waves of immigrants come from historical events, for example a wave of impoverished Korean immigrants came to the United States during the 60's due to the Korean War, and to fend off against racial stigma and the issues of poverty, they formed gangs.

 

So, your goal of having a 'Yakuza' isn't likely, you're not going to be chopping fingers off or having full irezumi tattoos anytime soon. However, if playing a Japanese character is a must, you can use these sources and whatever else you have to piece together customs of defunct and disbanded gangs, and form your own circumstance about it. The argument of creative freedom is thrown about willy-nilly for the creation of Yakuza roleplay, you can't apply Yakuza gangs taking prominence in the U.S., currently. What you can do with this creative freedom, however, is create a circumstance where a gang of Japanese youth is created, and then make yourself prominent through IC circumstances, such as LCN did. 

 

Now, you might have the argument; "LCN only took prominence in character through every Tom, Dick and Harry wanting to play an Italian mobster like its the sixties, seventies and eighties." Now, think of the fact that you can apply that to a Japanese gang, as well. There's already a substantial amount of people roleplaying Japanese people, in combination with a fledgling gang, there's no reason you couldn't establish yourselves by sheer manpower.

 

Seriously, try it.

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As someone who has roleplayed in a Yakuza for over a year, I can only say it is one of the best experiences I have ever had. The roleplay is both complex and intriguing. A common issue with people wishing to start roleplaying within a Yakuza, whether that be joining one, or starting one, is the common assumptions made that it is just another type of OCG-roleplay with a different flair to it. 

 

Nothing could be further from the truth, and this is why Yakuzas often do not get far on the server. Other than that, there's the main obstacle to which one has to divide realism and fun from the aspect of roleplaying an associate and/or member of a Yakuza in a balanced manner. This trails back from members assuming that being apart of a Yakuza is only about roleplaying a badass character that kills people, deals in drugs and does the craziest things.

 

Again, something that could not be further from the truth. Something that's especially put on display in the few bits of documentation found on actual members that were verified as to be an actual part of a valid OCG. To add on that, however, there is not a willingness to develop in accordance to one's own standards with the information provided to them. Another few things I could think of would be the essential crews such as bosozokus and/or Korean/Hawaiian crews usually not being considered as an option early on, newer members joining with Japanese first names as if it's 1950s and finally, the lack of roleplay around religion, this most commonly being Shintoïsm.

 

Other than that, a few other reasons I could think of would be the following:

 

- A lack of proper territory to claim. Even Little Seoul is a very mediocre location;

- A lack of willingness to learn how to properly roleplay as and portray a Japanese-American associate.

- A lack of documentation on Yakuza members and public information;

- A lack of documentation regarding Yakuza rituals as these are usually very vague. A great example of this would be the induction ritual.

 

Either way, I'm all in for whoever may tackle a project as delicate as a realistic Yakuza. Good luck with it, I'll be rooting for you!

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You won't get approval from IFM for a yakuza, period. This will come down straight from the head of IFM and even Nervous himself. Don't waste your time as somebody literally tried this very same thing a month ago. 

 

You're better off creating another sureno set, an MC, a LCN crew, african american street gang.  

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