Calling a taxi using taxi hotline just to rob them

[orangejuice]

2 hours ago, knppel said:

You do realize that guy ending up with his whole plot and full clear name detailed in a news article?

That they caught the guy?

 

That's the meta-issue here, people read only the part that "it was done" and cherry pick the bits that suit them.

That the criminal featured in the article was an utter failure, got busted and prevented for a good time to pull the same shit off again? Irrelevant, it certainly will work smooth ingame.

Yes, the majority of the people in the news articles got caught.
 

Taxi drivers in-game can also role-play having CCTV, they can roleplay the police getting the DNA from the crime scene, they can also hand over the phone number used. They can provide a statement and hand over all the evidence used to the police and get the criminal caught in-character? Just as they would be in real life?

 

I never said robbing a taxi driver was a smart, lucrative business. I quite literally said in my posts, the people that do this, are usually poverty stricken and addicted to alcohol/hardcore drugs. They want quick money and it’s usually for a quick high.

 

They go to prison, come home and then do that stupid stuff all over again a lot of the time. Their small-time, low level criminals. Their not exactly people renowned for having great amounts of intellect. 
 

Why are we not handling in-character crimes, in character with our in character police forces? 
 

You can argue, well you would get caught. You’re right, you would. We’re on a server where if you get so many points you’re sentenced to life. Get the police involved, get them arrested, if their in and out of jail, they will face the consequences. 
 

My only point is banning it saying “it’s unrealistic and never happens in real life”, is incorrect. It happens a lot. If something regularly happens, everyday in real life, how can it be unrealistic? A lot of the people commenting just don’t take into consideration human stupidity and the fact that a lot of career criminals aren’t actually scared of prison, a lot of them have spent so long in prison, their scared of being free. They can’t handle the lack of authority and routine. Prison is the only place they thrive.

 

Install CCTV in-character. If you go to pick up the customer and theirs a guy wearing a balaclava in the middle of the street, don’t pick him up? If he doesn’t have a mask and he does rob you, his face will be all over CCTV and he’ll be in prison in no time.

 

In-character solutions to in-character problems. Most people that get robbed on the server, don’t report it to the police. That’s their own fault. 
 

The other solution is ban it OOC, to benefit taxi role-play and encourage more people towards it. That’s fine, that’s the option I’ve cast my vote in.

 

I just don’t think we need to start adjusting the definition of realism. If something happens every single day, all around the world. It’s not unrealistic, you just personally think it’s stupid. The fact we think it’s stupid explains why we commit crimes on a online video game. News flash, the majority of all criminals end up in prison. It’s not Hollywood.

[tomatoz]

Just now, orangejuice said:

Yes, the majority of the people in the news articles got caught.
 

Taxi drivers in-game can also role-play having CCTV, they can roleplay the police getting the DNA from the crime scene, they can also hand over the phone number used. They can provide a statement and hand over all the evidence used to the police and get the criminal caught in-character? Just as they would be in real life?

 

I never said robbing a taxi driver was a smart, lucrative business. I quite literally said in my posts, the people that do this, are usually poverty stricken and addicted to alcohol/hardcore drugs. They want quick money and it’s usually for a quick high.

 

They go to prison, come home and then do that stupid stuff all over again a lot of the time. Their small-time, low level criminals. Their not exactly people renowned for having great amounts of intellect. 
 

Why are we not handling in-character crimes, in character with our in character police forces? 
 

You can argue, well you would get caught. You’re right, you would. We’re on a server where if you get so many points you’re sentenced to life. Get the police involved, get them arrested, if their in and out of jail, they will face the consequences. 
 

My only point is banning it saying “it’s unrealistic and never happens in real life”, is incorrect. It happens a lot. If something regularly happens, everyday in real life, how can it be unrealistic? A lot of the people commenting just don’t take into consideration human stupidity and the fact that a lot of career criminals aren’t actually scared of prison, a lot of them have spent so long in prison, their scared of being free. They can’t handle the lack of authority and routine. Prison is the only place they thrive.

 

Install CCTV in-character. If you go to pick up the customer and theirs a guy wearing a balaclava in the middle of the street, don’t pick him up? If he doesn’t have a mask and he does rob you, his face will be all over CCTV and he’ll be in prison in no time.

 

In-character solutions to in-character problems. Most people that get robbed on the server, don’t report it to the police. That’s their own fault. 
 

The other solution is ban it OOC, to benefit taxi role-play and encourage more people towards it. That’s fine, that’s the option I’ve cast my vote in.

 

I just don’t think we need to start adjusting the definition of realism. If something happens every single day, all around the world. It’s not unrealistic, you just personally think it’s stupid. The fact we think it’s stupid explains why we commit crimes on a online video game. News flash, the majority of all criminals end up in prison. It’s not Hollywood.

I know I said I wouldn't continue with this, but nevermind. Nobody is stating that "it's unrealistic and never happens in real life". By CCTV, I'm assuming you mean a dashcam and or a recording camera that faces the rear seats of the taxi. You actually need the permission of all involved parties to roleplay having those and the other parties most likely will not give you permission to use any of them to avoid them being caught. And that is basically one of the reasons that doing this is mostly unrealistic; cameras being in the taxi that are recording anything that is happening. That isn't the only reason that this isn't a totally realistic action to do. You have saw what I said about how I think doing this is unrealistic, so I won't go over it again. Just remember, there are many other ways to rob people that are much more realistic than calling a taxi just to rob them.

[orangejuice]

8 minutes ago, tomatoz said:

I know I said I wouldn't continue with this, but nevermind. Nobody is stating that "it's unrealistic and never happens in real life". By CCTV, I'm assuming you mean a dashcam and or a recording camera that faces the rear seats of the taxi. You actually need the permission of all involved parties to roleplay having those and the other parties most likely will not give you permission to use any of them to avoid them being caught. And that is basically one of the reasons that doing this is mostly unrealistic; cameras being in the taxi that are recording anything that is happening. That isn't the only reason that this isn't a totally realistic action to do. You have saw what I said about how I think doing this is unrealistic, so I won't go over it again. Just remember, there are many other ways to rob people that are much more realistic than calling a taxi just to rob them.

Actually, you quite literally said “it’s unrealistic and doesn’t happen in real life”, you just changed your tone after I provided you with 25 real life examples as proof? Now your saying the server can’t accommodate it. 
 

You don’t need their permission in a business. Make it defined that a taxi is treated like a business, add the ability to have recording footage purchased and installed in-game. Just inform the patron through /do their is a sign stating their on camera. 
 

I just thought on a heavy, roleplay server that apparently has a huge emphasis on realism, we would take realistic approaches to in-character situations other than, “it’s annoying and inconvenient, BaN iT”. 
 

Let taxis get cctv. Fix in-character problems with in-character solutions. The majority of people taking part in robbery’s, do not ring taxis. They know it’s stupid and they will get caught. Those that do? Handle them in-character.

 

I thought that’s what GTA World was about.

[tomatoz]

5 minutes ago, orangejuice said:

Actually, you quite literally said “it’s unrealistic and doesn’t happen in real life”, you just changed your tone after I provided you with 25 real life examples as proof? Now your saying the server can’t accommodate it. 
 

You don’t need their permission in a business. Make it defined that a taxi is treated like a business, add the ability to have recording footage purchased and installed in-game. Just inform the patron through /do their is a sign stating their on camera. 
 

I just thought on a heavy, roleplay server that apparently has a huge emphasis on realism, we would take realistic approaches to in-character situations other than, “it’s annoying and inconvenient, BaN iT”. 
 

Let taxis get cctv. Fix in-character problems with in-character solutions. The majority of people taking part in robbery’s, do not ring taxis. They know it’s stupid and they will get caught. Those that do? Handle them in-character.

 

I thought that’s what GTA World was about.

Okay, I do not know if I actually said that. If I did, then that is totally on me. It is now sort of something that is unrealistic and doesn't usually happen in real life. You're right, this is a heavy roleplay server. But do you really believe that calling a taxi juts to rob the taxi driver is heavy roleplay? Unfortunately, we cannot roleplay everything here as that could either lead to someone roleplaying something unrealistically, or the scenario could just be unrealistic itself and not happen in real life more often than other incidents that would make much more sense to occur. Taxis can roleplay having CCTV and dashcams, but I highly doubt that the other parties involved will let them roleplay using it. I get what you're saying here, but to me, I believe that calling a taxi just to rob them breaks our rules.

Edited December 14, 2020 by tomatoz

[Tempesto]

18 minutes ago, tomatoz said:

Okay, I do not know if I actually said that. If I did, then that is totally on me. It is now sort of something that is unrealistic and doesn't usually happen in real life. You're right, this is a heavy roleplay server. But do you really believe that calling a taxi juts to rob the taxi driver is heavy roleplay? Unfortunately, we cannot roleplay everything here as that could either lead to someone roleplaying something unrealistically, or the scenario could just be unrealistic itself and not happen in real life more often than other incidents that would make much more sense to occur. Taxis can roleplay having CCTV and dashcams, but I highly doubt that the other parties involved will let them roleplay using it. I get what you're saying here, but to me, I believe that calling a taxi just to rob them breaks our rules.

It's funny how this topic is against people roleplaying being exceptions while there's a topic in general discussions right now defeinding people roleplaying exceptions.

 

Either way, I'd like to change my vote. I'm not supporting this idea. I want to start a taxi company in-game and if I am able to abuse the rules in order to protect myself and my drivers and also not have to deal with this ICly, I'm all for it. So please, make this against the rules! 😁

[Late]

Damn it Tomato, you just created a new rival to Habeeb Taxi.


I want to reiterate again I am not calling for a blanket ban on robbing taxi's. If as a taxi driver you pick up people from the street or park up in an alleyway in Davis then that's a risk you assume yourself.

I am only calling for a ban on using /taxi as an easy means to rob drivers. 

 

There have been some interesting points brought up as RP'ing dashcam, install a screen between front and back passengers. I'm not against using these methods to combat IC crime, but the problem then comes back to the people robbing will refuse to RP it, demand screen shots, maybe straight up forum report you, immediately find another way, RP pointing the gun and claim it wouldn't stop a bullet and point blank... my point is, it leads to a lot of fucking hassle OOCly. Being robbed is a 5 minute RP experience, leading to an hour of more of consequential RP for the victim. Alerting/calling the police, giving a long ass statement, interview, buying a new phone, and if you lost your weapon going onto PD forums, filling a missing gun topic etc etc and that's before any forum report for "stalling" is brought you way. MY POINT BEING - there's enough hassle in being robbed as it is with out adding to that by battling people on an OOC level about if you did or didn't install CCTV. After the [x] amount of times being robbed it gets very long, very quickly.

Moving along, I do see the arguement of IC PROBLEM DEAL WITH IT ICLY, I get that, but here's the thing. If crime against taxi drivers is SO rampant then I would imagine who ever owns and operates /taxi and the app on the phone (let's say the government) would probably introduce an additional level of security built into the app or phone number where as one would have to register and sign up to the service with their real name, phone number and possible credit card too. Like Uber for example. If we can agree that this would probably be the case, then we can start RPing that as taxi drivers we know exactly who they are. If they then choice to rob us anyway, well we can go to the police and say HEY I GOT ROBBED BUT I HAVE THIS CALL LOG WITH THEIR NAME/NUMBER ETC. 

I do have a question. As it stands when a taxi call comes through, we get their number and their name. Is their name known to us ICly or purely OOCly? 

[yerro]

21 hours ago, Late said:

I want to reiterate again I am not calling for a blanket ban on robbing taxi's. If as a taxi driver you pick up people from the street or park up in an alleyway in Davis then that's a risk you assume yourself.

I honestly think that this rule doesn't need to be added because that's just subpar roleplay, much like ramming people with vehicles to rob them. I get that clearly defining what counts as subpar RP makes this a more transparent community, but I'm generally against specifying these encounters since they send the wrong message — they make people go search for a workaround, another loophole to abuse.

 

It's common sense that calling a taxi with the deliberate intent to rob makes no sense just like... looting bodies in the middle of the road after a shootout.

[tomatoz]

22 hours ago, Late said:

Damn it Tomato, you just created a new rival to Habeeb Taxi.


I want to reiterate again I am not calling for a blanket ban on robbing taxi's. If as a taxi driver you pick up people from the street or park up in an alleyway in Davis then that's a risk you assume yourself.

I am only calling for a ban on using /taxi as an easy means to rob drivers. 

 

There have been some interesting points brought up as RP'ing dashcam, install a screen between front and back passengers. I'm not against using these methods to combat IC crime, but the problem then comes back to the people robbing will refuse to RP it, demand screen shots, maybe straight up forum report you, immediately find another way, RP pointing the gun and claim it wouldn't stop a bullet and point blank... my point is, it leads to a lot of fucking hassle OOCly. Being robbed is a 5 minute RP experience, leading to an hour of more of consequential RP for the victim. Alerting/calling the police, giving a long ass statement, interview, buying a new phone, and if you lost your weapon going onto PD forums, filling a missing gun topic etc etc and that's before any forum report for "stalling" is brought you way. MY POINT BEING - there's enough hassle in being robbed as it is with out adding to that by battling people on an OOC level about if you did or didn't install CCTV. After the [x] amount of times being robbed it gets very long, very quickly.

Moving along, I do see the arguement of IC PROBLEM DEAL WITH IT ICLY, I get that, but here's the thing. If crime against taxi drivers is SO rampant then I would imagine who ever owns and operates /taxi and the app on the phone (let's say the government) would probably introduce an additional level of security built into the app or phone number where as one would have to register and sign up to the service with their real name, phone number and possible credit card too. Like Uber for example. If we can agree that this would probably be the case, then we can start RPing that as taxi drivers we know exactly who they are. If they then choice to rob us anyway, well we can go to the police and say HEY I GOT ROBBED BUT I HAVE THIS CALL LOG WITH THEIR NAME/NUMBER ETC. 

I do have a question. As it stands when a taxi call comes through, we get their number and their name. Is their name known to us ICly or purely OOCly? 

I still agree with the point of the topic. I am just having a "discussion" with the other player on why this rule should be implemented which he doesn't agree with me. Robbing taxis are perfectly fine as long as they are properly roleplayed, but I don't think calling the taxi hotline just to rob the driver is considered proper roleplay.

 

Also, for the question you just asked. I am pretty sure that when you call a taxi in-real life, they ask for your first and last name meaning that it is IC in-game. It would be OOC if it had parentheses around their name (( like this )).

Edited December 18, 2020 by tomatoz

[Entity]

On 12/17/2020 at 5:21 PM, Late said:

I do have a question. As it stands when a taxi call comes through, we get their number and their name. Is their name known to us ICly or purely OOCly? 

The name is known ICly, as it stands. In real life, most old-school taxi systems (not talking about the newer taxi apps or ridesharing apps) used to ask for your name in order for the driver to verify that it is indeed you who they're picking up. It usually is the last name only (they don't ask for your full name).

 

However, your name should not be automatically taken by the taxi system. You should either have to state your name to the dispatcher (thus being able to choose any name whatsoever) or have an ID (or just the phone number) in the call, without a name. It's highly unrealistic for your name to be forced into the system.

 

I agree that calling the taxi hotline and robbing the driver can happen and, if properly roleplayed, can be an amazingly smart way for criminals to make a quick buck. I am supporting this suggestion, however, for the simple fact that my character is a taxi driver and if people are insisting on creating an OOC barrier from my character being robbed, I'm obviously going for that. If it were after me, there'd be no rule - the taxi drivers have to be smart about it, but I'm biased and I'm not complaining about this.

[Pepper]

I'm gonna have to agree on this, I've roleplayed a taxi driver and on a 3 hour shift I remember being robbed 7 times.

To the point where I had to drive to my home and bank, to store everything before starting a run.