What is your perspective on political roleplay?

[cxn]

Hello dear people!

 

I've seen that the point of view discussion about the illegal rp has become quite a pot of different opinions! To see all the engagement of you guys has made me very happy and I'd really like to know what you guys think of political roleplay and the results coming from it?
I have to admit that I'm quite interested in politics IRL, so to see that our community has got this path of RP has definitely created another roleplay opportunity to gain knowledge and experience from. IRL it's mostly that people are a bit scared of joining a party, because they don't think that they could participate properly or they are simply not interested.. Today I wanted to ask you guys, what do you think of this kind of roleplay? - What are aspects that keep you away from giving this a try? 

Edited February 20, 2021 by cxn

[orangejuice]

I was getting very interested recently in joining political roleplay, having never really gave it much thought in the past. I have moved from illegal to legal roleplay, as I feel the illegal roleplay on this server needs a bit of a touch up and a few updates where as legal roleplay seems to of been pretty well maintained and I want to experience a lot of new roles that I’ve never been involved with before. 
 

The only thing that has sort of stopped my interest in political roleplay is the staff team over ruling the decision to legalise weed. I’m not bashing, I understand it’s their server and ultimately they have the right to do whatever they like. However at the same time, it makes me feel theirs not much point to political roleplay as in the long run, any IC decisions made to affect IC laws will need OOC agreement and it just takes away a lot of the “roleplay” aspect in my opinion.

 

I’m not suggesting legalising weed is the only purpose of political roleplay obviously, I’m just saying under that line of thought, admins will/can ultimately over rule any IC decision. I know they have their reasons, script management, ensuring balance. I just think it takes away from the whole point of being political roleplayers and the staff team might aswell IC’ly play the government at that point.

Edited February 20, 2021 by orangejuice

[HaveADream]

21 minutes ago, orangejuice said:

I was getting very interested recently in joining political roleplay, having never really gave it much thought in the past. I have moved from illegal to legal roleplay, as I feel the illegal roleplay on this server needs a bit of a touch up and a few updates where as legal roleplay seems to of been pretty well maintained and I want to experience a lot of new roles that I’ve never been involved with before. 
 

The only thing that has sort of stopped my interest in political roleplay is the staff team over ruling the decision to legalise weed. I’m not bashing, I understand it’s their server and ultimately they have the right to do whatever they like. However at the same time, it makes me feel theirs not much point to political roleplay as in the long run, any IC decisions made to affect IC laws will need OOC agreement and it just takes away a lot of the “roleplay” aspect in my opinion.

 

I’m not suggesting legalising weed is the only purpose of political roleplay obviously, I’m just saying under that line of thought, admins will/can ultimately over rule any IC decision. I know they have their reasons, script management, ensuring balance. I just think it takes away from the whole point of being political roleplayers and the staff team might aswell IC’ly play the government at that point.

I think it's more likely that it was a one-off case as it just wasn't the right time to legalise it due to the state of the drug economy rather than the staff team enforcing it's will over political RP, I wouldn't expect to see a veto on much other legislation.

[cxn]

33 minutes ago, orangejuice said:

I was getting very interested recently in joining political roleplay, having never really gave it much thought in the past. I have moved from illegal to legal roleplay, as I feel the illegal roleplay on this server needs a bit of a touch up and a few updates where as legal roleplay seems to of been pretty well maintained and I want to experience a lot of new roles that I’ve never been involved with before. 
 

The only thing that has sort of stopped my interest in political roleplay is the staff team over ruling the decision to legalise weed. I’m not bashing, I understand it’s their server and ultimately they have the right to do whatever they like. However at the same time, it makes me feel theirs not much point to political roleplay as in the long run, any IC decisions made to affect IC laws will need OOC agreement and it just takes away a lot of the “roleplay” aspect in my opinion.

 

I’m not suggesting legalising weed is the only purpose of political roleplay obviously, I’m just saying under that line of thought, admins will/can ultimately over rule any IC decision. I know they have their reasons, script management, ensuring balance. I just think it takes away from the whole point of being political roleplayers and the staff team might aswell IC’ly play the government at that point.

HaveADream has already made their point, I think it's quite comprehensible. I think it's just that the topic is too sensitive, there are so many discussions about legalizing it or not worldwide! This shouldn't be the only reason for you to not participate though!! Political Roleplay is freshly out and has yet to be experienced! You can still dive into many more topics to discover them and try to bring them further! 

[Vash Baldeus]

From the past experiences I've had with Political Roleplay on other communities, pointless, people get elected and go in-active. Everything is decided by admins, for example the Veto that was cast on the Legalization of Marijuana bill just shows Admins do not want to ruin a non-existent Drug market.

 

Why non-existent? Because 99% of any drug dealer on here is out to either scam or rob you, not to really sell you. So yes, when that's your chances of actually getting the product, you'd just don't bother. Yes it happens in-real-life, but lets be honest, why would you rob and not sell as if you sell, you'll have them come back to buy more.. if you rob 'em you won't get them to come back with their money again. Business wise does not make sense.

 

So, as long as Admins have last say in Political things such as this, I don't see the point of having it all.

[ThatDutchPerson]

The political roleplay is fine as it is, I really enjoy watching it unfold. However, admins should not have a final veto in law making unless its in regards to continuity (which the weed wasnt).

[lux]

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Edited February 27, 2021 by lux
changed my opinion

[Koko]

As someone who roleplays a grassroots. community-based activist, I find political RP to be a mixed bag of things that work and things that don't work. I agree with the opinion that the Governor's veto on weed legalization was a hard blow for the credibility of the political system and it disenchanted many with the RP since it broke everyone's immersion in the idea of generating meaningful political change in one single post.

 

I like that political characters have become more involved as time has gone by. Until now it often felt like when it came to elections and choice, you had a pool of candidates that you didn't care for who seemed like they just happened to have shown up for the position and were now in a ticket without a lot of opposition (mostly based around stereotypes knowing they'd get votes like that, aka "Conservative Blaine Republican" vs. "Vaguely Progressive Cityperson").  I'm aware that many of these people RPed at great lengths and were very serious about it, but the community never ended up feeling that, I think.

 

Gabriela Morales is a brilliant example of a politician character that has changed that perception of politics being a game of "choose your NPC", engaging with server events and earning all of the political wins she may ever get, and everyone should follow that character's example regardless of what end of the political spectrum they portray.

 

I miss more specific local political RP. The shift to the Senate and the State as a whole makes sense, but I am currently missing more representation and activity from District representatives. It feels like Senators have become the one relevant figure and it is what it is, but I think there's space to bring life to neighborhoods through district politicians.

[Smilesville]

3 hours ago, HaveADream said:

I think it's more likely that it was a one-off case as it just wasn't the right time to legalise it due to the state of the drug economy rather than the staff team enforcing it's will over political RP, I wouldn't expect to see a veto on much other legislation.

The staff track record on these things isn't exactly superb, though - I've been involved in court cases where staff (all of whom are gone now, admittedly) intervened and caused it to drag on much longer than it had to - all because the PD couldn't get its prosecution together. They had a perfect opportunity to take a step toward realism and drop (or try to get a plea deal out of) the case, but instead delayed the entire thing by a month.

 

Those staff members are gone, like I said, but I do very much get the sense the lack of intervention stems more from "we didn't notice" rather than a desire to leave well enough alone. I wish there were more of a commitment to leaving the system alone and giving it a chance to work.

[Koko]

31 minutes ago, Smilesville said:

The staff track record on these things isn't exactly superb

This is also a major issue. Since I started playing in 2018, there have been countless iterations of the political system lasting 3 months, crumbling to the ground, rinse and repeat. I think there needs to be some sort of system in place that works as a fail-safe if players are going to run for positions of relative power. One way would be to have a pre-prepared cabinet of admin/"trusted" characters that could step in and take over to pick up the pieces with a plan for whatever political character that a) disappears b) chimps out royally and messes up beyond repair.

 

We had the whole Oswald fiasco and since then City Hall has just been quiet as far as the public is concerned and it's all just moved a step up onto the Senate, which is still a pretty small circle and I think more attempts have to be made so that people understand who the players there are. I understand the need to be informed citizens politically, but right now I do think it would help to have a sort of OOC tree of who's who and who's where and what offices are active, since depending on your timezone you might never come across some of our politicians.

 

There's a lack of trust towards political RP because some of us have already seen it crash and burn several times.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Koko