IFM - Underground Economy Regulations

[ogsamir69]

There are significant problems in the illegal economy of LS that can be circumvented by regulation on certain kinds of deals and changes to the OOC distribution (i.e. quantities assumed from drug labs). This suggestion aims to highlight these problems and the sub-sequent consequences, hopefully we can come together as a community to solve these problems.

 

Weapons for drugs, drugs for weapons.

The underground market has been slowly dominated by weapon for drug/drug for weapon exchanges. Drugs are now scarce and weapons are seemingly common - this is a huge problem. I believe the reason as to why drugs are now scarce is due to the fact more people already engage and/or want to engage in gun-related roleplay rather then drug related roleplay, which means that people stockpile drugs in the hopes of trading them off for weapons (meaning the underground economy now has very little to do with money, which is destroying the economy). 

 

This is a part of a multi-faceted problem within the underground economy, there are numerous blockers and changes that need to be put into place in order to create a healthy and realistic economy.

I think there are numerous ways to go about fixing the problem and I will not be able to give you the answer in this suggestion, this suggestion is to try and really highlight the problem so that IFM can sit down with management and discuss how this problem can be fixed so that the server can practise what it preaches.

 

 

Prohibition

- Factions should be prohibited from trading weapons for drugs (visa versa) with individuals, there should be a cap put in place on faction to faction trades (for example, a maximum of 1 kilo a month can be traded for a maximum of 15-20 guns).

- Factions should be required to sell their narcotics for cash, this is to uphold the realistic nature of the illegal economy and force criminals to care about money, if they decide portrayal isn't their strong suit, the rest of us who want to roleplay around drugs shouldn't have to pay their price. 

- Individuals (Non-Faction/Non-Supplier) should be free to trade, however there needs to be some sort of regulation to ensure factions aren't off-loading all of their drugs to an individual so that they can circumvent the regulations and continue this cancerous cycle.

- Direct suppliers should not be allowed to trade, they should have to off-load their drugs for money.

 

 

Quantity

This doesn't have to go with prohibition, I believe with less regulation and more quantity (based on the servers drugs statistics) can allow there to be a large influx of drugs which will regulate the servers drug economy.

Drugs should not be scarce, there isn't a place in the world where cocaine is scarce - pure cocaine (irl this would be 80%-100% purity) is scarce sure, however the drug itself is not scarce.

 

There needs to be less suppliers with a lot more supply.

 

Again, I am not sure what is already in the pipeline and the angles IFM have on this problem. However the economy is fucked and drug roleplay is at a halt, there are no big fish.

It destroys a huge part of the potential and it needs to be fixed.

 

I urge IFM to bring this into discussion, get feedback from the community and hopefully fix this problem.

Edited Saturday at 06:40 PM by ogsamir69

[Solim]

It does seem pretty insane to me that the entire illegal community has regressed to a barter system where money is rarely mentioned anymore. Cash is king, after all, no? Or at least it should be.

 

It used to be less obvious. There used to be more nuance in the sense that group A would sell guns to group B for cash; group B would then sell drugs to group A for cash. This makes more sense, because these two groups have a business relationship, so of course they'd supply each other. But this relationship came from somewhere, first.

But the constant drugs-for-guns, guns-for-drugs, without any cash even changing hands? I don't know. Seems strange. Especially given that relationships between groups now are initiated based on 'ah you have drugs? Great! I have guns!', which is something that should likely occur organically.

 

It's particularly unfortunate that I myself would rather sell pistols, for example, for cash and perhaps later call in favours. But because the current barter system is so widespread, you basically put yourself at a disadvantage for not playing the same game everyone else is. 

 

Given the server has been around for a long time now, and money remains when you CK, it makes sense that it becomes less and less important. I think the issue is more deep-rooted than just an IFM sanctioned rule against blatant trading of guns for drugs. Maybe it's a place to start, but I think more importantly a general reconsideration of money's importance and worth is needed.

Edited Saturday at 06:55 PM by Solim

[ogsamir69]

3 minutes ago, Solim said:

It does seem pretty insane to me that the entire illegal community has regressed to a barter system where money is rarely mentioned anymore. Cash is king, after all, no? Or at least it should be.

 

It used to be less obvious. There used to be more nuance in the sense that group A would sell guns to group B for cash; group B would then sell drugs to group A for cash. This makes more sense, because these two groups have a business relationship, so of course they'd supply each other. But this relationship came from somewhere, first.

But the constant drugs-for-guns, guns-for-drugs, without any cash even changing hands? I don't know. Seems strange. Especially given that relationships between groups now are initiated based on 'ah you have drugs? Great! I have guns!', which is something that should likely occur organically.

 

It's particularly unfortunate that I myself would rather sell pistols, for example, for cash and perhaps later call in favours. But because the current barter system is so widespread, you basically put yourself at a disadvantage for not playing the same game everyone else is. 

 

Given the server has been around for a long time now, and money remains when you CK, it makes sense that it becomes less and less important. I think the issue is more deep-rooted than just an IFM sanctioned rule against blatant trading of guns for drugs. Maybe it's a place to start, but I think more importantly a general reconsideration of money's importance and worth is needed.

 

The whole point of a crime is money however that's completely neglected on the server, partially due to the unavoidable fact that portrayal isn't everyone's priority.

Money should be the access point to drugs and weapons, which in turn breeds fear and power.

Your roleplay, your connections, your respect and reputation - should be the key to your political power within the city. When your a supplier; word spreads throughout groups and factions, people metagame your screenshots, these things all play a part in your characters reputation and so people being willing to do you favours should naturally just be a perk of the job.

 

The psychological theory of the dark triad is 100% a real thing, it's not only psychological but sociological and economical in parts too. All criminals have an overlapping malicious and callous personality that falls under being Machiavellian, Narcissistic and Psychopathic - this is because fear controls the mind. Fear, in the real world, is bred by your capabilities, which is enabled by money and connections.

[sawrnr]

I agree that such a problem exists, however the proposed solutions seem overly-complicated and restrictive. I am not sure how you would regulate most of such trade, and especially the "factions off-loading drugs to an individual to circumvent the rules". Seems like a nightmare to investigate.

[mj2002]

21 minutes ago, ogsamir69 said:

 

The whole point of a crime is money however that's completely neglected on the server, partially due to the unavoidable fact that portrayal isn't everyone's priority.

 

That, and people complain about every single change or development that would cost their characters more money. They'll raise hell before they actually have to pay for anything, and meanwhile money is becoming useless because many characters are walking around with millions. No wonder trades are so common.

[SilentOG]

The value of cash on this server is close to none, it's everywhere, everyone got 200k just for being around for the longest time, the drugs get consumed, the weapons get consumed, that's why they hold value instead of this endless stream of money hitting your account. The money not having any value is the problem, not the bartering
-1

Edited Saturday at 07:42 PM by SilentOG

[grimlin]

Most of the current suppliers do not trade weapons for drugs, it's the middlemen, it'd have to be a server rule to not trade to fix the problem and that would be complicated in itself.

[slakka]

The current bartering system that exists between criminals is a byproduct of the fact that there is little to no In-Character regulation (i.e the IRS) on how money is handled. There is no such thing as "dirty money" until someone like LFM / PM asks you to provide proof of you laundering money or how you make your income, and this occurs in the case that you want to fund something legal with illegal funds. 

If a system were to be implemented in order to regulate money, it'd have to be automated. Keeping up with every single player's transactions is impossible. 

[ogsamir69]

A lot of people are claiming that server rules are over-complicated and aren't the fix to the problem, the problem being the value of money.

The problem is shit RP, not the value of money. 

 

It's contradictory to say rules and regulations are over-complicated but implementing an IRS or re-wiring the value of money isn't.

I agree, we do need some sort of IRS.

 

I am yet to hear of a proposed solution, this suggestion wasn't created to fix the problem it was created to start the discussion. Disagreeing with the problem is not a way to solve this, it's a way to allow the problem to manifest itself into a much bigger problem.

 

 

If there are rules in place and people want to break them, they may very-well get away with it.

However a lot of people will not willingly break these rules and there will be conformity.

 

The idea that server rules are restrictive is baffling to me, the whole make-up of the server is based on rules. There are 100s of reports on the forums each week?

 

Edited Saturday at 07:56 PM by ogsamir69

[frost.]

we been saying this has been a problem for years. that X is scarce so ppl are gonna end up trading, with something thats actually valuable.

 

no one wanted 2 listen and now every1 trading like its runescape

 

Edited Saturday at 08:02 PM by frost.