Calculating Wealth

[Supernova28]

A question came to my mind recently. How do we calculate the wealth of players? By that I mean, who is rich? Who is poor? Who lands in-between. The economy of GTA:W is all over the place. So we can't scale it 1:1 with reality. In reality if you had $200,000 to start your adventure, you'd be holding a golden ticket. But that's less so the case in our fictional world. So... What class do characters fall into? Based on their overall networth. (Assets, cash and business/faction/bank funds). It'd be interesting to know if other players view it differently. Maybe money seems more or less valuable to certain individuals. Certain jobs are even disproportionate. The guy roleplaying a mafia don probably has less than Crystal the stripper who spawned into existence only 3 months ago.

 

But regardless, I find it an interesting question to ask because it helps me (and others I imagine) better roleplay their wealth. There isn't really a point of reference. I like to feel immersed, sometimes I wanna keep the illusion I'm poor, but I have $500k in the bank. Is that still poor? Let me know your thoughts! I'll share mine too below. And a little disclaimer, I'm not a script hungry, money oriented role player. Believe me, I put roleplay first. But sometimes, irregardless of your roleplay, you find yourself earning more or less money than you expected from your concept and you find yourself at an awkward spot of how to roleplay it. Are you down on your luck? In-character should your character be expecting more from his job? Or on the flip side, are you making waaaaaay more than that job typically would yield? Maybe this thread will give a little guidance into just how to portray that. But anyway, here's my take on class divisions based on wealth. I mostly divided networths into what someone with those networths would be able to afford on the server. That's how I do it with my characters anyway. My baseline is "Can I afford a HOUSE?" Not a mansion. A house. If I can do that? I'm realistically doing pretty well. But maybe there are some people so rich it dillutes that way of dividing things. I really don't know! Hence I wanna know what other players have to say as well. 

 

My Class Divides: 

 

• $0 - $50,000:  Flat broke. Bottom of the ladder. 3/4 of that networth is probably your car.

 

• $51,000 - $119,000: Lower Working Class. You're not broke but you're not doing great either. You probably have a very basic apartment alongside your car, with little cash to spare. 

 

• $120,000 - $200,000: Working Class. The average Joe! Even new players get given this by default to help them out. You have an average car with an average apartment, maybe it's mapped slightly too. You even have a little savings. 

 

• $201,000 - $500,000: Lower Middle Class. You've started to move up in the world. You can afford a nicely mapped apartment. It's nothing fancy but it's homely. You probably upgraded your car by this point and have at least $100k left to spend.

 

• $501,000 - $999,999: Middle Class. You've made it. This is where most people end up and stay. You have either a rather fancy apartment with luxury furnishings or a modestly decorated suburban house, the car you always wanted and around $300,000 lying around left to spend.

 

• $1,000,000- $1,999,999:  Upper Middle Class. Now you're starting to reach for something more. You're comfortable in life, you have everything you need. But you want MORE! Maybe now you've invested in a business of your own, a second car or maybe a second apartment. You have plenty of cash to burn, but you're not rich yet. 

 

• $2,000,000 - $3,999,999: Lower Upper Class. Now you're officially rich. Even if just barely. You've made it to the upper echelons. Your business is doing well, you've sunk a considerable chunk of money into designing your dream player home,  you probably have 3+ cars and maybe a boat. You spend a lot of money, but you're still cautious enough not to go crazy with it. 

 

• $4,000,000 - $7,999,999 - Undeniably Wealthy. You don't even think about money anymore. You probably have a second business, you buy random, overpriced scripts because you've run out of other things to buy, you probably even go to strip clubs just to flex and throw big wads cause you just don't know what to do with your money. You can even afford to pay out the ass for private security if you wished. 

 

• $8,000,000 - $14,999,999: Stinking Rich. You're bored now. You've had your character for about 4 years. You sometimes get excited when new cars are released, you sell an old one to buy it. There's literally nothing left to aim for financially. You've basically got the freedom to create any roleplay scenario you wish. You probably even gamble just for the thrill. Playing big hands cause it doesn't even matter if you lose. (Like money in real life allows you to pretty much go out and do whatever you want.) 

 

• $15,000,000+: The Elite. You are among the 1%. Sure some people might have upwards of $100,000,000. It's a wide bracket. But there's no denying, you're now in the 1% of characters. 

 

 

Edited May 27 by Supernova28

[v_v]

my money is entirely ooc to me and i just rp whats sensible and realistic for my character

 

the avg american cant afford a 500 dollar emergency so thats my baseline

 

for example id happily rp someone else being a disgustingly wealthy high class person if they rented a mansion and leased a 300k car with 20k in their bank even though they dont have the ooc money to back it up

Edited May 27 by v_v

[Anders]

Oh no I'm close to undeniably wealthy, this will not do. Also money dosnt mean anything, the economy is fucked.

[mj2002]

From an IC perspective, what your character has achieved or has done (actually roleplayed hopefully) is what makes a difference, in my view. The OOC wealth of a character doesn't really make an important difference if you decide to try and categorize characters by 'income class' or something along those lines. 

[eTaylor]

I've finally achieved 

UPPER MIDDLE CLASS

 

[Supernova28]

4 minutes ago, mj2002 said:

From an IC perspective, what your character has achieved or has done (actually roleplayed hopefully) is what makes a difference, in my view. The OOC wealth of a character doesn't really make an important difference if you decide to try and categorize characters by 'income class' or something along those lines. 

 

That's true. But I guess I'm tryna figure out a space in-between. A middle ground. I find it awkward and sometimes a daunting task to try and scale and divide that wealth of what I have in an OOC sense and and IC sense. For as good as your intentions start out, there becomes a point where the line is blurred and you have to question... Is my character actually successful now? I could in theory go out and by x, y and z and not be in financial ruin. Especially for characters who maybe so something freelance. Something with no set wage. (Criminals, photographers, bartenders, comission based roles) In a sense, certain roles allow a little more flexibility. Given they can vary wildly depending on several factors. Unlike if you're roleplaying a garbage man and you have a spare $5,000,000 cause you've been roleplaying a garbage man and nothing else for 5 years straight. Lol. That I can see as an OOC wealth. But sometimes, depending on your job, and there are a lot of jobs with arguable wage differences when it comes to more freelancing stuff, it's just hard to pinpoint what exactly you should be roleplaying. 

 

My point isn't to almost give a "score" to players but just grasp more of a general idea to what I should portray. There certainly comes a point where if you have x amount, it becomes unrealistic to pretend you're poor. Much like it can be unrealistic to have X car/assets with only X amount in the bank. It's a mess honestly but you know. 

[Montana Fats]

I have over a million on my main character.

 

I'm still RPing him flat broke. Money means nothin! 

[blanco leopardo]

23 minutes ago, v_v said:

my money is entirely ooc to me and i just rp whats sensible and realistic for my character

 

the avg american cant afford a 500 dollar emergency so thats my baseline

 

for example id happily rp someone else being a disgustingly wealthy high class person if they rented a mansion and leased a 300k car with 20k in their bank even though they dont have the ooc money to back it up

this.

i dont care what my bank account shows. if i think its realistic, i buy it.
plus, since i mainly roleplay illegal characters, i put aside any money i make from deals so i can see my growth and calculate the characters life based on that.

[Jorgensen]

Generally I discard money on hand + bank. Thank about what your character might own in the development you’re going for + their job/lifestyle.

[suggest]

I have well over 5M, but realistically my char isn't some sort of yacht buyer, it's about how realistic you be with the money, half the time you'll just have it sitting doing nothing. Mass majority of the player base and even admin team see money as OOC, which is why they allow multimillionaire OOC players to commit robberies on players / businesses. 

I do spend on stripclubs though... That's 10K a week for Wren to backflip for me! Thanks Wren!