Current State of Extorting Businesses

[Martyn]

29 minutes ago, Henning said:

What will happen is instead of going to the police and reporting it we'll have a bunch of vigilant business owners who believe that the best solution to extorting is to pickup arms and kill the mobsters. Which is WILDLY unrealistic.

 

 

You can report these people for bad portrayal, I cannot report someone for lack of fear if they extort every single business they come across.

 

  

29 minutes ago, Henning said:

Your making assumptions about other peoples actions. No one is not RPing fear because they know they are safe OOCly, they aren't fearful of you because yours just a fucking business owner and nobodies called the cops yet so who exactly are they supposed to be fearing.

How do they know the people they are trying to extort aren't criminals themselves? You're the one looking at things black and white. The fear of the unknown, the not knowing if the person you're about to extort isn't a crazy hillbilly that won't just pull a shotgun from under the counter to blow you away to Timbuktu because you've just quite literally threatened his livelihood. 

 

  

29 minutes ago, Henning said:

Maybe because the only people criminals respect are OTHER criminals. Asking one criminal organization to help solve a problem for you doesn't automatically make you a fucking criminal. Let me just give you an actual example.

 

 

 

It's extremely lackluster to force the majority of business owners to have some sort of connection to a criminal organisation. We shouldn't be forced into a Godfather scenario where our businesses get extorted we have to go kiss the ring of some Mafia boss who will then handle the situation for you. There are people trying to roleplay normal civilians here! And we should always encourage realism and you can only achieve that if the majority of players are mainly legally based. Or else you're no longer near the scope of realism.  

 

And if you think these so called friendly neighborhood criminal organisations will help you for free, you're delusional. They're not going to risk their ass for you because they think you've got a cute business. At the end of the day, you'd of been better off just paying the extortionists. Because now you've also gone crying to another organisation and if it cannot be solved diplomatically between the two. They will definitely see this as a hostile act and you're once again, screwed.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Martyn

[Queen]

When I held the lease for Auto Exotic, on the second/third day of business or some such, a guy approached and in no certain terms during a private conversation told my character to pay up for protection. The alternative was that a threat that him and his friends would cripple my character's employees and herself, ruin the business, etc. Of course he wasn't very smart about this, so he was arrested about fifteen minutes later.

 

 

Overall, it wasn't a very enjoyable interaction even though basically nothing happened - because despite being released like a day later, nothing ever came out of it. If for instance, they'd subtly started trouble by I dunno, starting fires nearby or spraypainting a wall and then approaching to offer a reprieve from the horrible thugs vandalizing the property, the overall situation would've been more enjoyable for both of us.

 

Granted, also not the best idea to do within arms reach of several people with capable bludgeoning weapons.

 

That's just my personal experience with it, I'm sure there are some well-portrayed extortion scenarios - but that whole shebang just wrecked my mood for it.

[Darcin]

My only question is this: It's been said 'call criminals to handle criminals, Mr. Legal Business Owner'.

 

Why is it realistic to assume someone completely legal would associate or be connected with someone involved in an illegal organization? Is there some criminal phone book I'm unaware of?

[Lemonade319]

11 minutes ago, Darcin said:

My only question is this: It's been said 'call criminals to handle criminals, Mr. Legal Business Owner'.

 

Why is it realistic to assume someone completely legal would associate or be connected with someone involved in an illegal organization? Is there some criminal phone book I'm unaware of?

Things aren’t black and white though. Legal business owner seeking protection from another criminal (perhaps from a criminal his ethnicity) isn’t that unrealistic even for a totally law abiding citizen. It’s not illegal to know criminals, or even be friends with them, it’s not uncommon for legal business owners to know and associate with criminals, especially if they’re immigrants for example.

 

The issue that’s been brought up is totally law abiding citizens jumping to murder when they’re threatened with extortion. That is a massive jump in character, knowing or associating with criminals isn’t a big jump.

[Chef]

There's no such thing as completely "legal." That term is a leftover of the RPG era of GTA roleplay in servers like Godfather RP and so on. What you are describing is a human being who abides by the law in their day to day life. Nobody 100% abides by the law, it's just not how human beings live. Whether it's speeding to work or smoking weed, gambling, etc. 

 

How would they meet someone crooked? Same way anyone does, interacting socially with people, meeting other business owners in the community who may be a friend of a friend.

 

This whole construct people seem to have that being friends with someone who dabbles in crime is going to be some type of interaction straight out of Don Corleone's compound is not based on anything actually happening in game but rather a subconscious worry that's been built up out of the sheer fact that you're too egotistic to chance being at the mercy of someone else.

 

But as usual, bad apples spoil the bunch. I'm lucky to be in a position where the characters I interact with in the underworld are actually protraying a character, a living entity with bills, worries, paranoias, friendships, families etc. and not a robotic murder machine. 

[Darcin]

Literally none of that answers my question.

 

Why is it realistic to assume someone completely legal would associate or be connected with someone involved in an illegal organization?

 

Most people in the real world tend to purposely avoid shady individuals. People with a known criminal history. Hell, people that look intimidating. Saying 'oh just go to other criminals' is probably the most unrealistic thing you can tell someone to do, because most people can't just pick up their phone and speed dial a criminal. Most people can't and won't call up their friends and be like 'hey I need dirty work done, know anyone?'

 

Simply stating 'get protected from criminals by criminals' is the most video game-geared advice you can give, lacking in any way shape or form even a hint of realism, which is what this server strives for if I'm not mistaken.

[Lemonade319]

11 minutes ago, Darcin said:

Literally none of that answers my question.

 

Why is it realistic to assume someone completely legal would associate or be connected with someone involved in an illegal organization?

 

Most people in the real world tend to purposely avoid shady individuals. People with a known criminal history. Hell, people that look intimidating. Saying 'oh just go to other criminals' is probably the most unrealistic thing you can tell someone to do, because most people can't just pick up their phone and speed dial a criminal. Most people can't and won't call up their friends and be like 'hey I need dirty work done, know anyone?'

 

Simply stating 'get protected from criminals by criminals' is the most video game-geared advice you can give, lacking in any way shape or form even a hint of realism, which is what this server strives for if I'm not mistaken.

I don’t know how to describe it clearer, but I’ll try. The world isn’t a black and white distinction between good and evil, legal and illegal. People grow up, make friends in life etc. Some of these people end up being criminals, it is what it is. Some people still remain friends with saud people just because, they like them. 
 

Some “legal” characters will knowingly associate with criminals for a myriad of reasons, they might get various benefits for example. They might not want to go and and directly commit crime, but it helps that they have people they are friends with who’d be willing to do things for them, this can be helpful to said “legal character”.

 

Some examples might be some sort of politician using criminals to make sure he gets a position, a business owner paying criminals to disrupt competition , a family man wanting revenge in a guy who’s harmed/threatened his family.

 

You need to get off this two dimensional view on life being between legal and illegal parties and move to a more realistic sense of the world not being so simple.

 

EDIT: that’s not even mentioning the fact that some communities prefer the policing of said communities by their own people rather than local/federal policing systems. This often leads to organised crime running some communities.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Lemonade319
Added something.

[UTOPIA]

Should really just ring the cops! If you're being extorted, threatened, harassed, and you're a civilian? If you really feel like there is no way to escape your circumstances, I'm sure there are plenty of detectives who would love to hear about your problems, who's causing them, etc.

 

There are a multitude of ways to escape your difficult circumstances, and though I understand it can be frustrating to be throwing away your character's hard earned cash, you also need to realize; this is a role-playing server, what happens to your character is what happens to your character. If you've invested your time in grinding out money rather than investing your time in genuine role-play? Shame on you, it deserves to be taken!

 

Why not take an alternative approach, befriend these people, get involved in some way? That's the beautiful thing about role play, you can solve your problems in hundreds of different ways, there is not just one path that can be gone down. For those of you asking for OOC intervention because you are so hopeless? I can't help but laugh at you.

[MasterChief]

I’ve had great interactions with groups who have extorted businesses I’ve owned. Call me crazy, but I think it makes for some really great role play. Sure, this can vary depending on the character you’ve developed. Befriend these people or if you’ve got balls, go to the police and offer to help catch them. Again, a lot of these groups aren’t doing it solely for the money but for the RP. You’re not going to go broke. 

Edited June 26, 2020 by Chief

[Lemonade319]

If anything, in my experience here and on other servers in the past as an illegal RPer I’ve had more issues with business owners in these situations. Most of them don’t want to give any sort of RP. You can tell in the RP they give they’re clearly not bothered and just want to OOCly avoid the whole scenario. 
 

Extortion is a great way to develop your character even from the side of the character being extorted. This is your opportunity to involve yourself in more things. Sure you not gonna be selling narcotics or performing hits, but it could be your lead into getting involved in gambling if said faction has that running. Not to mention the fact that it allows you to form personal relations with those you’d normally avoid.