General Morale - An Improvement Thread

[sixchar]

I know this is a thread that could and will likely go many ways, and so I want to start by setting the tone of the thread with some positive light....

I believe that as a server, this community has accomplished a lot. Between the player base, staff-support, staff, devs, management and everyone.... It's great to see how far the server has come and how much has been developed.  
This has been due to a variety of contributions from everyone, as each and every person on the server plays their own role in adding a grain of sand to the jar. There are a lot of great things, as there are many not so great things.... Which leaves the topic of room for improvement, but in this case I want to specifically talk about how we can improve as a community. 

So I want to ask, 

What is it that attracts you to the roleplay community? What is it specifically about GTA-W that you like, what keeps you on the server? Is it the script alone, is it that you can share with your friends, is it the ability to build something of your own (albeit virtually)-....? How would you say those aspects could be improved? 

This next part, I ask to please answer objectively, no need to bash or be 'toxic' as many call it.... I know this is a tough conversation to have, some are more sensitive to things than others, some people take certain things more seriously than others, and what may be a joke to you may not be to someone else... So we want to try and be respectful of everyone's opinions and what they say-... Let's keep in mind this is a game, a roleplay server, a community... so take everything said here with a grain of salt, try and judge the intention-... perhaps ask a question if you need clarification, as it's hard to decipher some of these things over text sometimes....  So with that I ask-... on the other hand, what is it that turns you off? What things do you feel make you want to just shut the game off? What is it that sometimes makes you want to quit?  How could we improve as a community? 

This is meant to be an upbuilding discussion, and hopefully we can all be more objective in this in order to keep the thread alive and not shut down... As this has become a far more sensitive society to most inputs, we want to be respectful. 

Hopefully, get everyone to drop a bit of input, without being afraid of some sort of backlash for voicing their opinions... 

Additionally, I want to note that humility is one of the greatest traits one can have in my opinion. It takes a great deal of it to accept advice and constructive criticism, so I hope we can all keep an open mind during this discussion.

Edited August 21, 2023 by sixchar
Typos

[DLimit]

My responses are pretty vague, for now:

1. Roleplay that can be immersive and deep, something that I haven't heavily experienced since early 2021, with some minor exceptions in 2022.

2. The excessive amount of murders and robberies. I am not against murders and robberies, but it is excessive. Anyone screaming that reducing murders and robberies "kills RP" should have seen how deep illegal R.P. used to be without having to rob and murder someone every day or week.

Edited August 21, 2023 by DLimit

[Mattel]

12 minutes ago, DLimit said:

My responses are pretty vague, for now:

1. Roleplay that can be immersive and deep, something that I haven't heavily experienced since early 2021, with some minor exceptions in 2022.

2. The excessive amount of murders and robberies. I am not against murders and robberies, but it is excessive. Anyone screaming that reducing murders and robberies "kills RP" should have seen how deep illegal R.P. used to be without having to rob and murder someone every day or week.

 

I completely agree with this. I never took part in LCN RP before its downfall, but I always respected the depth of the RP and found it far more creative than any gang robbing/violence RP. I have nothing against gang RP, but I feel like legal factions are thriving right now, and we need some TLC on the illegal side. I am interested in less of the quick cash-grab RP and more character development.

[Smith]

It's easier for me to be a contributing member of society virtually than it is in real life.

[alina2137]

I'll put it this way, chief - my activity in this server has been coming in waves throughout the last 3 years, I'll join and play for like a week straight, dip for two, come back and the wheel keeps spinning just like that.

What makes me come back is nostalgia, the urge to just roleplay and keep a project moving forwards and some friends. I do not play particularly for the script, or the scenarios and nothing like that. I come, I chill, do some shit and log off. I might be on the spectrum and just enjoy the monotone shit instead of factions and events, who knows?

Since this is meant to be an upbuilding thread I will continue in that direction - a lot has been accomplished even since I've started playing in 2018. We have some of the greatest people in the scene in the mod/dev and Staff teams on GTA World and I am truly happy that they put in hours to keep this server up and running. I believe that most players are also decent roleplayers and that the dumbasses are the loud minority, so basically just like in the real world. 

Unfortunately I must also mention what makes me come back in waves. It is the sheer emptiness and lack of coordination and set in stone standards/lore across the whole server. The map lacks a centralized hot spot, everyone is spread out across a large city and you can basically only meet clusters of people here and there, even with 800 or more players present. I find that I, personally, cannot get my mind to properly immerse itself into the experience due to this, and so gaming for longer periods of time gets kind of sad and tiring for me.

What I also dislike is the business focus in roleplay. If you do not have a group to play with that "mobs around" in a certain area, such as the guys who play in K-Town then the outside on this server can be, to put it bluntly - fucking boring.

I think that if this server had more outside activity and less of a business hopping roleplay focus, it could be way better. Unfortunately with how the server population's morale is right now - tough words but hear me out - this is not that common. People seem to have a mindset of avoiding the outside to not potentially get thrown into random muggings and other scenarios such as this.

As someone who tries to utilize the outside as much as possible I must admit that I've rarely been mugged or harassed in public over just random stuff.

I think that ultimately when it comes to morale, I am burned out and tired of not being able to immerse myself into the experience due to the ongoing emptiness across the Los Santos map. Don't even get me started on the county because the lack of activity there is pathetic.

I must also admit that this is 85% a skill issue on my end. It is my fault as a player that I personally cannot immerse myself and others can. Maybe it's because I come from a different type of roleplay servers, maybe I'm just a shit roleplayer who cannot stick to nothing. Or maybe it is a 50/50 issue on my end and the server end.

In the end, I believe that as I said - nothing is inherently "gamebreakingly" wrong with this server besides the emptiness of the map and the focus to jump across businesses. I also want to again thank and congratulate Nervous and his team for managing to keep this sometimes stinky project running so well over the years. There are lots of people who love this server and do not generally complain, and there must be reasons as to why.

[Galactus]

I dont like talking for too long about something, so i'll dot point the pros and cons objectively and state a summary.

 

Pros

- Semi able to create interesting rp, dependant on scripts

- Easy start for new people financially

- IF you find good people, RP can be fun

- Some options for employment outside of bartender/clerk rp

- Current new easy lease system on offices/mall

- Constant development which isnt appreciated enough, even if with a few bugs

- Admin, who essentially work for free and deal with a lot of BS, myself on occassion included

- People are usually pretty happy to help with new players not knowing commands etc

 

Cons

- Established group cliques in a lot of places

- Very odd justifications made on characters and some weird justifications on "high earner" jobs that don't coincide with reality, but then some that do make sense, being denied certain things

- More crime than South Africa or Brazil

- People starting fights for no reason in almost all businesses or car meets is not realistic

- Current state of illegal RP is basically a justification to be shitty to others for some mild enjoyment

- Stating realism, then not including laws or other realistic things that exist in LA

- Some growing number dont RP things that are inconvenient to their play to win, protagonist mentality

 

The server as stated brings me back on nostalgia. In 2021 the server was arguably better as even in Davis neighbourhoods, people commited crimes youd expect and not every second person drove a black car with a mask ID.

 

I have noticed a decline in legal RPers due to the harrassment that is unrealistic and damaging.

 

If i didnt enjoy RPing with a group of people, id not have stayed as long. Its the people, not necessarily the server that keeps me coming back.

[Fabulous]

Variety and nostalgia probably. Overall, GTAW has been going for 4-5 years now and the playerbase has grown incredibly compared to its first year. Yeah, everyone agrees that the roleplay quality has been declining year by year but in my opinion there's still a massive variety of groups that open new avenues for people who want to switch and find enjoyment in something else. I think this variety and amount of people is able to keep the playerbase going for a few years more before the mask epidemic turn us all into ski mask bangers hunting opps in the streets.

[COUNTY SUPREMACY]

What I love is honestly just roleplay. Whether it was World with such a big playerbase or another server, I’d be there. The constant updates however and care put into them by the dev team clearly shows through player retention and even gaining new players. I can tell the staff team genuinely care about the server and want to see it do well. 

 

However, what has left a sour taste in my mouth the last 2 years or so has been the consistent OOC bias and toxicity. It’s just all too cliquey in my opinion. If you’re not apart of a specific faction, others within the space will do whatever they can to take you down. You piss one person off, the entire community goes at you. It might not be direct, but its definitely there and felt. What I also don’t like is the lack of blanket rules for everyone, sometimes it seems like its one rule for one and another for others (take the shooting someone over carjacking for example). 

[CupcakeCow]

I've been rping for a long long time (19 going on 20 years)

GTA-GTAW Has a real different genre/niche that other places I have rped just don't have, including the modern setting = And honestly? I love the customizing, I love the mapping system and it's been one of my favourite things to learn since I started doing it end of last year. 
 

I have enjoyed many ups and downs in my character's stories and I love the development that came with it. I like people can run businesses and actually have a lively life like feeling to the server along with it and I like that the grittier things can happen (robberies and certain crime that shakes a character up and leaves a lasting impression!)

------------

On the counter side of things, I feel like a lot of people take certain things way too seriously. It's making the game less fun when you log in and get hit with a log of negative oocness (And doesn't mean it's all directed to me, it can just be the vibe in the room in general or people going into /b with it) when it's just a game and we are all here to have fun. 

One of my biggest disappointments is a incident that happened last year. And I thought a few individuals were friendly however I received a lot of SS's to suggest otherwise. Instead of people coming to me for clarification on some IC things, or even handling their initial complaints icly they chose to just smack talk in a private discord which bounced back to me as most things do. As a completely new player and the fact the people in question never spent more than 10 mins with my char or knew my char indepth to even consider why things were how they were. I was very excited about joining the server- and I was excited to try new things also (I have 10 characters just for this honestly) But the whole incident left a really sour taste in my mouth and it took me a very long time to even trust joining a faction for this reason since it was also confirmed they brought their ooc grudges and forced it into ic without even rping with me properly. I feel a lot more people should be considerate, or even just rp more with a person they are talking poorly of because you won't know why the character does something unless you spend time roleplaying and learning the character and overall.  

A similar reason above, mostly being fairly new to this style of roleplay (less text and more fast paced). I am actually fairly anxious on an ooc point of even trying to dip into illegal rp as a newbie just because of the experience above.

However to bounce this back again in a more positive light, I have been surrounded by quite a few nice people, I joined a couple of factions and it's overall - with the right kind of people / mentality oocly - has been a much more enjoyable experience and I can happily say this is why I continue to donate and play. (And because I am really really hooked on mapping >.>) (However I would like to also shout out to Deckerside and K Town Ties, not as a member myself but they were all very lovely OOC and patient around rping with me and that also helped ease a lot of the worries I had previously)

[Wiphyz]

2 hours ago, DLimit said:

My responses are pretty vague, for now:

1. Roleplay that can be immersive and deep, something that I haven't heavily experienced since early 2021, with some minor exceptions in 2022.

2. The excessive amount of murders and robberies. I am not against murders and robberies, but it is excessive. Anyone screaming that reducing murders and robberies "kills RP" should have seen how deep illegal R.P. used to be without having to rob and murder someone every day or week.

Sums it up nicely.