Oversaturation of the Nightclub scene

[MasterChief]

Just now, SaintBatemanofWallStreet said:

Yeah, dude, at the end of the day as long as it's a good environment, I'm actually okay with the pricing on any aspect of it. But if you're gonna charge an arm and a leg, it better be worth the experience. You know what I mean?

For sure. I'm hoping to bring something /somewhat/ new to the scene, at least in its presentation. Definitely a far cry from a DJ-DANCE-DANCE nightclub lol ?

[eTaylor]

Just now, Kestalas said:

For sure. I'm hoping to bring something /somewhat/ new to the scene, at least in its presentation. Definitely a far cry from a DJ-DANCE-DANCE nightclub lol ?

As a club owner do you actually experience competition though? I'm just curious if people's choices IG actually effects the clubs themselves.

[MasterChief]

2 minutes ago, eTaylor said:

As a club owner do you actually experience competition though? I'm just curious if people's choices IG actually effects the clubs themselves.

I've never owned a nightclub on this server. I've seen plenty of example of places run badly and a couple that have been run very effectively, in terms of RP quality. Most places are opened and its a rinse-and-repeat formula. I would argue its the IG choices of the owner to not to anything different deepen that role play experience. For many of them, it's all about the money, which on this server I would argue that's the wrong motivation. Many owners think making a fancy interior with robot bartenders is going to last. As @SaintBatemanofWallStreet said, it's the person-to-person experience that matters and keeps people coming back.

[akari]

2 minutes ago, eTaylor said:

As a club owner do you actually experience competition though? I'm just curious if people's choices IG actually effects the clubs themselves.

As far as presentation goes, yes. I know of many characters who avoid places they've either A. Had bad experiences with or B. Just don't vibe with in general. My character has made herself an entire career out of tearing apart poor nightclub management decisions.

How you present yourself and the club has a pretty major impact on your venue's performance - That is, if what you're looking for is the RP. Most nightclubs currently in the scene are ran entirely with the intention of earning that sweet, sweet script money - And they know no matter what they do or how their business runs, they're going to get the droves of people who spend their entire ingame time driving exotic cars and looking for an interior to /anim partydance in. As long as they get those people's entry fees, their character's/their business' actual in-character reputation means nothing to them.

[.45]

I will be honest and tell you how it is. Current nightclubs are managed by the same bunch of people who simply don't have any knowledge about nightclubs in general. Apart from that, about 80% of them can't roleplay fear so illegal factions don't even bother to come near them. Add blue haired females with bats and stuff like that, and it's setting off to even visit them for openings. At the end of the day 50% of their time is spent inside talking, 40% esexing and 10% literally trolling from what I've witnessed yesterday. 

 

Solution? 

If the business is owned by the "company" that at the end of the day has whole nightclub scene under them, apply same rules as owning multiple properties at the current time. When you buy more than one, you pay 50% more and up. As you can't know who'll be and who won't be under the company simply add larger tax to EACH payday. (You can argue thay they already pay lease if it's leased. But lease doesn't cover expenses such as electricity bill and what not.

 

Another factor would be to monitor them closely, so we don't have 18 year old running clubs meaning they can't even enter them themselves as they're under 21 lol.

 

Morale of the story, people who own these things should be monitored closely, to see how realistic is their roleplay, how they roleplay expenses etc. Else we'll have like 6-8 Natashas by the end of 2019.

[HaveADream]

Anyone that knows me or @borhoi knows the IC crusade we went on to get change in this sector, I'm happy to see them actually make progress with their lounge.

 

Let me start by saying that management companies that run nightclubs is just terrible in itself and has led to the saturation of cookie cutter nightclubs that offer absolutely nothing but the exact same experience with different names. There's only one motivator and that's IC money. You go in, dance to the exact same playlist with the exact same regulars and order a drink from the exact same bartenders who are there for the same reason as the clubs themselves - to make money for their character so they can go racing or whatever.

 

Ever been to Sakana or Harmony? I don't even know if @akari makes money on the former it's so cheap, but the experience is there, there's physical stimuli, there's market research done, there's SERVICESCAPE analysis, there's competition analysis, there's effort and there's actual effort placed in the conceptualisation in the venue. As a marketer in real life, those two venues are like heaven to me.

 

The problem is this; anyone who can make a nightclub pretty much dumps a load of cash into it, gives it up to whatever management companies are called now and a group of completely unqualified people rush in and run a business to make a short term profit. If you want to run a nightclub, do it yourself, do the market research - what do people want to see? Think about your SERVICESCAPE, what will people feel upon entry, how will this effect interaction? Think about your customer journey, how will you get people to be loyal customers who provide word of mouth marketing? These aren't complicated concepts and are the absolute basic of business and services marketing. Speaking of which, invest in marketing. Despite the Fyre-festival feel of The Garden, they did their marketing right for a venue that cost 1k.

[Selena]

I’ll write up something when I wake up this seems like an interesting topic

[xanx]

Oversaturation of nightclubs is not an issue.

 

Competition in this field, like many other, leads to innovation and weeds out what simply doesn't work. If a nightclub is not successful, there is a reason for it. It might be because they have recently just started up and those are some of the realistic hardships that come with being a business owner, not only in roleplay but the real world as well.

 

What you need to realise is that if there are more nightclubs and more people trying to outdo their competition, it is bound to be beneficial not only for the night club owners as they put in a lot more effort into their roleplay and business, but the clients at the end of the day who are receiving these benefits through the experience they get provided by the business owners, whether it is live DJs, great looking venues, or other attractions to bring in customers.

 

Variety in the choice is great, although you may put a counter-argument down of it splitting the community and sparsely separating the players, that is just the reality of having an X amount of players on each day. Not much can be done about it, however, I do not see why others should miss out on the opportunity to roleplay whatever it is they want.

 

As for the company behind almost all the nightclubs, this is a system that is not only smart but also beneficial as organisation is that much easier. Want someone else to be running the nightclub scene? Be the change you want, but do not limit others through OOC means or some IC regulations because you don't like it or don't see the bigger picture in it.

[Nervous]

10 hours ago, SaintBatemanofWallStreet said:

Honestly man, I don't care what they cost. What I don't like is when they're charging 200 for a beer. 300 for a mixed drink. Stuff like that. I get it, sometimes it sucks for pricing in terms of your overhead. But I've been in places that charge 200 for a beer and you get nothing in return. And I don't care about getting an item for the transaction. Not even a thing for me, but some do. But that right there? Tells me it's about the money for that club owner. Not the RP. THAT is what I can't abide by. If you can put on a good environment and it just costs a little extra? I'm down with that. But I don't consider a good environment to be one that you just spent a lot of money on to make a cool interior. It's about atmosphere and interaction.

You know Cheers? The TV show? A place where everyone knows your name. Those places I mentioned before? I can go there and they say "Usual?" and I can say sure. It's people who know that my character's name is Ricardo, but he goes by Rick, and they reflect it in their /me's during interaction. It's not robotic and feels like you're waiting in line at an amusement park. Stuff like that adds up. And yeah, it's tedious. I get that. But it makes the difference in whether I'm gonna stay for 15 minutes or until you shut it down.

I'll repeat this again, stop taking real life prices as an example. Yes the price of a beer in a club here is $200 because GTAW$ != US$. If we want the economy to live, we can't suddenly tell truckers "hey you will deliver this drink it'll be $2 payment for you, the club then sells it $3". The economy is stable and based on a value per item. A weapon is around 15-20k, a drink is around $200, you make approximately $5000 per hour if working and not every month so it's all balanced. You can do a x10-x20 on US$ if you want a good estimate of small items values, while houses / vehicles are more around x1.

[Trupiano]

While the issue of nightclub competition is entirely IC, some interesting points have been raised in this thread. 

 

First and foremost, I don't see one company running most of the nightclubs as an issue, If your familiar with US nightlife on a national level or in any major metropolitan you know a lot of clubs and music venues are actually owned by very large, multi venue organizations like Live Nation. However, I think that while this may be an IC issue I believe they should be subjected to some OOC scrutiny by staff. If one company is operating most of the clubs they better have some pretty great RP to back it up, if not they should be talked to by staff.

 

Secondly, While I personally dislike most nightclubs on the server, I have seen a general slip in quality since mid summer. Do I think this needs to be addressed OOCly? No. I firmly believe that while nightclub RP might be struggling temporarily, eventually someone will create a new club that will outshine the others.  If companies has the market cornered and want to provide crappy service, eventually they'll lose their hold on the market.

 

Also, Someone make an actual dubstep venue, Please? I'm tired of listening to hardstyle every time I go to a "rave" on the server. 

 

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