What is your perspective on political roleplay?

[eTaylor]

3 minutes ago, Mecovy said:

In my eyes at least, everyone takes a different approach to politics and how they do things. But the key is be the change you want to see. Run for office, try get those changes which will impact everyone. Rn at least speaking as someone decently high up in city gov, there's a lot of things happening and the public get a chance to see it.

Oh I know there’s a lot happening. It’s beautiful to see the system thriving with the people who put their effort and time into it. You really see it pays off. But that’s just what you can see OOC, you don’t see any of that IC. You’d be forgiven to think the government doesn’t even exist at all. The whole be the change is kinda moot, my character isn’t a politician. 

 

4 minutes ago, .Pluto. said:

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One example, open carry in the county serves everyone in the county. The fuck? Bro, go out of the hood one time, support someone who runs for the senate from your neighborhood, check their roleplay. If it doesn't serve you directly, it doesn't mean it's not serving anyone lol. They are there for you, ICly, for everyone for your district, of course it serves and impacts people from your district, and all over the server. 

You’re misunderstanding my position. My character lives in the BCD, but whether someone somewhere in some office talks about open carry, or passes legislation, it just doesn’t exist unless you’re a part of it or actively seek it out. This is best represented in the people who vote. It shouldn’t be like that, it’s a shame people miss out on it.

 

[Gambler]

I think the political scene is still young and has a lot of room for improvement, especially with the introduction of state government which is even more recent. This time around I think the situation is stable and more convincing. I'm just crossing my fingers it doesn't go to hell as fast as it did with the City last time around.

[Mecovy]

3 minutes ago, eTaylor said:

Oh I know there’s a lot happening. It’s beautiful to see the system thriving with the people who put their effort and time into it. You really see it pays off. But that’s just what you can see OOC, you don’t see any of that IC. You’d be forgiven to think the government doesn’t even exist at all. The whole be the change is kinda moot, my character isn’t a politician. 

 

You’re misunderstanding my position. My character lives in the BCD, but whether someone somewhere in some office talks about open carry, or passes legislation, it just doesn’t exist unless you’re a part of it or actively seek it out. This is best represented in the people who vote. It shouldn’t be like that, it’s a shame people miss out on it.

 

What we've experienced is the first ever state senate. It's the fun go around, and obviously because it switched from city council to state senate some folks left and others were brought in. This is now the first proper full election period for the senate. Which means people are going to have to start doing their jobs in the respective districts or they simply won't get the job. Everything has teething problems, but now its actually ready to continue its development. We've come far from the trainwreck of Rockford to the glorious stuff we have now.

[eTaylor]

6 minutes ago, Mecovy said:

What we've experienced is the first ever state senate. It's the fun go around, and obviously because it switched from city council to state senate some folks left and others were brought in. This is now the first proper full election period for the senate. Which means people are going to have to start doing their jobs in the respective districts or they simply won't get the job. Everything has teething problems, but now its actually ready to continue its development. We've come far from the trainwreck of Rockford to the glorious stuff we have now.

Then it’s a simple case of it just being too early to call for the common folk. I just hope it doesn’t disappear into irrelevance and am looking forward to seeing where it goes. 

[Mecovy]

5 minutes ago, eTaylor said:

Then it’s a simple case of it just being too early to call for the common folk. I just hope it doesn’t disappear into irrelevance and am looking forward to seeing where it goes. 

Given the groups who are leading the charge, and just how dedicated they were too it on other servers, I don't see it falling back.

[.Pluto.]

8 minutes ago, eTaylor said:

Then it’s a simple case of it just being too early to call for the common folk. I just hope it doesn’t disappear into irrelevance and am looking forward to seeing where it goes. 

93 members in State Gov as of this moment, + City Gov, that means, over 100. Great people are part of the leadership, so trust me, it won't disappear. 

[vrb]

You may not hear or see much of the political scene/GOV because most of it is still getting fleshed out internally. When the political scene existed in City, we were still relatively new as an entity. We started from scratch as there was nothing from previous iterations of political RP we could use since they all seemed to have gone inactive/failed. Every week there were always unforeseen changes, issues, or limitations set forward by one entity or another, making any real progress very difficult. 

 

This transition to state government has been promising since we now have a stable and experienced leadership within the legislature. We have set rules on operating, allowing us to focus on our roleplay and eliminating the ambiguity that once existed. Many conversations which was once strictly taking place over discord and TeamSpeak are now taking place in-character. Overall we're on a positive trajectory, and I only see things getting better from here.

[Vash Baldeus]

2 hours ago, vrb said:

You may not hear or see much of the political scene/GOV because most of it is still getting fleshed out internally. When the political scene existed in City, we were still relatively new as an entity. We started from scratch as there was nothing from previous iterations of political RP we could use since they all seemed to have gone inactive/failed. Every week there were always unforeseen changes, issues, or limitations set forward by one entity or another, making any real progress very difficult. 

 

This transition to state government has been promising since we now have a stable and experienced leadership within the legislature. We have set rules on operating, allowing us to focus on our roleplay and eliminating the ambiguity that once existed. Many conversations which was once strictly taking place over discord and TeamSpeak are now taking place in-character. Overall we're on a positive trajectory, and I only see things getting better from here.

I'll believe it once I see it, meaning when LSN and other news outlets actually report on things the Government has done. Since the inception of GTAW, City Hall and the Government was non-existent in it's feel. Moreover the Mayors we've had prior, were APPOINTED not elected.. so I'd love to see how this changes now and even if its viable and will actually change anything.

[hillievonb]

I'm involved in it, and it's fun from a character development standpoint, the RP is interesting, etc.

 

However, it's one area where the setting deviates a lot from realism and accurate portrayal of pseudo-California politics. It is what it is, and part of that is because we're on a game and we want to have elections where players actually determine things. And this is fun! It's a game, and it's one area where being a game means unrealistic outcomes.

 

It's just hard at times to know how to have my characters react to political events IG. I know a lot more about politics IRL than I know about Korean organized crime or Peckerwoods or whatever, so it's a lot more jarring to see, like having a Yakuza gang take over a couple of blocks of Davis. You just have to turn up your suspension of disbelief and have fun with it.

[Sidar]

as someone who has actively mained a political character on LSRP for ~3 years both in the legislative and executive branches, i really dislike the current political scene here. this is mostly because there is simply way too much ooc politicking involved. before i talk about the issues i've observed, i would like to point out that none of these are personal digs to anyone.

 

to begin, and this often comes with the gov faction on every server it is introduced in, people seem to think just because they rp characters that are influential and that are in charge of most things in the state ic, they themselves have a right to dictate what most legal AND illegal factions can roleplay. what the people in charge of and taking part in gov/political roleplay have to realize is that the government as a faction is not there to lead and direct things on an ooc level, but provide support to other avenues of roleplay as side characters. gov is a supporting faction, not a leading one, mostly because of the limitations of the game world. this is akin to the age old argument for LEO roleplay: LEOs are not here to police the server, they are here to provide law enforcement roleplay. this goes for gov/senate: gov is not here to lead all factions, theyre here to provide realistic government roleplay. a solid example to this is the constant attempts at legalizing marijuana. we saw it happen on LSRP multiple times. we see it happening here, as well. while yes, it is realistic for a democratic government imitating that of california to decriminalize and legalize marijuana, one must also take into account the significant impact such an act would have on the illegal drug trade scene which is already hurting pretty bad. therefore, without consulting illegal faction leaders and ifm, pushing for such a move is simply debilitating roleplay instead of creating it. most roleplay revolving around marijuana is about its trade, not about its use. legalizing it will almost eliminate it from the game.

 

another issue ive seen here is that there is a lot of OOC politicking going around as well. if you are going to maintain a functional GOV faction, you are going to have to work together OOC as well instead of trying to push your own personal agenda all the time. i like to think our little stint with george, eriks, kushin, justitiae etc on LSRP was quite successful (despite its ~3 month short tenure) mostly because we worked as a team and worked to implement each others ideas instead of simply focusing on our own goals. in fact, it all fell apart the moment we all started focusing on our own things instead of the gov faction as a whole, and stopped working together. if you conspire against other gov/senate roleplayers and start to take it ooc, gov roleplay is simply going to be diminished to a bunch of closed circle rpers insulting each other on weekly lsnn news articles, like it did on lsrp. gov is a team effort, and always has been. your personal agenda is not important. no one cares about it. however, to clarify, this does not mean your CHARACTER should not push their own agenda. they should. thats what politicians do. you simply should not take it out of character and actually learn to lose from time to time when your efforts go to waste after ic debates and deliberations.

 

a third issue i want to address is the amount of administrative involvement with gov roleplay. we had constant management interference in our affairs on lsrp, mostly to balance the legal and illegal scene and keep us from legalizing anything that would simply tip the balance beyond repair. contrary to what most of my fellow political roleplayers would defend, i think this is a necessary evil. while it sounds cool to have an outrageous governor that legalizes dumb shit and turns the state into a criminal haven, it is absolutely NOT cool to actually have one. it looks dumb, it looks goofy, and it ruins everyone else's roleplay. the only problem with administrative involvement is that the admins that are tasked with keeping an eye on gov sometimes do not keep their ego in check. once again, this is not a personal dig. the admins involved have to realize that they are not in charge of gov, they are simply supervising it.

 

finally, illegal rp, contrary to popular belief, goes very well with government roleplay. bribery and constant lobbying are very common place in real life politics. organized crime factions could very easily try to get some politicians in their pockets to try and get their agenda pushed. politicians should help this out by not making their characters the pre-incident harvey dents of los santos. most of the time, this will lead to the senate rooms and news articles turning into an ic platform for illegal and legal factions to push changes on the server on an ic level, giving gov roleplayers something to do AND providing a ton of roleplay for LEOs, gov rpers, news rpers, civilians AND illegal roleplayers.

 

TLDR: gov rp is a community effort, not a personal effort. if we want a functional gov providing good rp to people, we should vet the people taking part in it a lot better, and learn to separate ooc from ic.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Sidar