Realism VS Roleplay; what's your preference?

[EffPee]

I find 'realism' and 'being realistic' are actually two different things.

 

Realism - Basing your decisions off of the world IRL, focusing too much on how normal your character should be; sacrificing uniqueness for the sake of being an ordinary person.

 

Being realistic - Making a somewhat 'unique' character that doesn't necessarily act as a normal person, but is still a believable character if you look at how realistic the actions taken are.

 

Personally, I prefer 'being realistic'. I don't want to sit there roleplaying my three meals a day, going to church every sunday etc. While this is a heavy roleplay server, and I respect people that make the choice to have an ordinary character, I would rather roleplay a character that seems to exist in a high-budget TV show or a movie; A character with a believable story while still allowing fun over-the-top situations to pan out, despite how rare they might be in a real life setting. Hopefully this doesn't by any means suggest I want to RP a comic book character or a majorly unbelievable character story like James St. Patrick in Power, it just means that I will not sacrifice fun for the sake of making my character extremely realistic.

 

Way I see it, we're telling stories with our characters and I want my story to be enjoyed by anyone who comes across it, the way of doing that is to make it exciting but still somewhat realistic.

Edited March 23, 2021 by EffPee

[Petey]

Roleplay. I see the game as an escape from reality and I don't wanna be hit with another wave of harsh reality in my nuts. With that being said, I do roleplay realistically but not upto an extent where I RP taking a piss every 60 minutes.

[Alyssa McCarthy]

On 3/22/2021 at 4:47 AM, TinPan said:

Just as the title says, really; do you prefer the server focusing on providing more roleplay opportunities or do you prefer the server focusing on increasing the level of realism?
 

 

The two are not mutually exclusive:

1) You can have an environment based on reality and have plenty of RP opportunities

2) You can have an environment based on complete fantasy and have plenty of RP opportunities

 

The rules around the setting (level of realism) simply sets the parameters around which it can happen.

 

 

 

 

 

[Benavides]

You escape from real life by stepping in the shoes of a character and role-playing in a virtual world that resembles Los Angeles. I am sure that ninety percent of the player-base won't be Sureño gang members in real life.

 

Being able to experience a realistic setting that resembles real life where possible while being able to be "become" a gang member, a police officer or anything other than regular life is the whole point of why a heavy role-play server is fun.

 

I am sure everyone has their own opinion where something becomes too strict. However, there are many other games and communities out there that do not offer the same amount of heavy role-play that this community does and instead focus on the fun aspect of game-play mechanics. This is the first thing a player sees when they click on the main website:

 

"GTA World was created with the goal to provide a fun, realistic and dynamic roleplay experience."

 

Applying realism where possible should be our goal. I believe there is a big misconception on what people asking for realism want, which is applying realism to character portrayal, situations et al, rather than what some people make it out to be.

 

A good role-player, in my own opinion, knows when to portray fear etcetera and balance out his character development based on in-game events, such as witnessing too many shootings that would cause a regular person to suffer from PTSD in real life. Therefore, that shouldn't be used as an argument to any suggestion that promotes realism over unrealistic role-play & characters.

 

Just because your character is unique, doesn't mean your portrayal is realistic.

Edited March 24, 2021 by harry

[Storm]

On 3/23/2021 at 12:17 AM, Zani said:

All I will say, is that any end of really any extreme is no good. Therefore, too much realism is no good and too much 'fun' or 'roleplay' isn't good either. We really need to strike a balance in the middle.

We should still strive to take what we can from real life if it can be translated into our game world. That should be the balance, and it is the direction that the server is moving in. With additions of teams like Continuity, the re-addition of Roleplay Quality Management and I believe that it is the best way of going about creating a realistic but fun environment. No one is arguing that we need the exact same laws as we do in real life LA, but we should still continue to loosely portray it in aspects that work and we deem fun.

 

Another common misconception I hear and it is something that Harry brought up before me, unique characters. They are fun to have around at times but they do not necessary equate to good roleplay. The best roleplay comes from having a character that lives a life just like anyone else would, dealing with their own problems in their own way with their own emotions. This can include characters in any walk of life, whether they're a gang member, mob tied, cop, firefighter, homeless/unemployed etc.

 

I have had this discussion to no end on the LSPDs end, but what we want to shoot for isn't a 1:1 portrayal. We can change things here and there. Overall we want to recognisably portray LA and LA culture while still allowing for some fresh concepts to see their way into the world. Characters and concepts should be grounded in reality.

Edited March 24, 2021 by Dawn

[marbella mondays]

On 3/22/2021 at 11:38 AM, Jennie said:

It's a game, at the end of the day you play GTAW to escape from real life, if we look for strict realism we would only have another hell like IRL, I don't feel like paying abusive taxes both in IRL and on GTAW, I play for fun not to have a second job, for example.

 

[lambchops]

They can go hand in hand.

[DasFroggy]

One of the better approaches is usually to suspend enough realism to have fun. Is an action movie realistic? No, but it is fun.

 

So, I intentionally miss shots, reward clever tricks, and allow for some unrealistic actions against my characters, because it is fun for other people to feel like they are (insert movie role here). 

 

Alas, it is only somewhat successful, as there are those who take it as permission to steamroll over the whole experience with minimal effort...

[Zani]

4 hours ago, Dawn said:

We should still strive to take what we can from real life if it can be translated into our game world. That should be the balance, and it is the direction that the server is moving in. With additions of teams like Continuity, the re-addition of Roleplay Quality Management and I believe that it is the best way of going about creating a realistic but fun environment. No one is arguing that we need the exact same laws as we do in real life LA, but we should still continue to loosely portray it in aspects that work and we deem fun.

 

Another common misconception I hear and it is something that Harry brought up before me, unique characters. They are fun to have around at times but they do not necessary equate to good roleplay. The best roleplay comes from having a character that lives a life just like anyone else would, dealing with their own problems in their own way with their own emotions. This can include characters in any walk of life, whether they're a gang member, mob tied, cop, firefighter, homeless/unemployed etc.

 

I have had this discussion to no end on the LSPDs end, but what we want to shoot for isn't a 1:1 portrayal. We can change things here and there. Overall we want to recognisably portray LA and LA culture while still allowing for some fresh concepts to see their way into the world. Characters and concepts should be grounded in reality.

I would agree with a LOOSE portrayal however in reality it appears that it’s very strict which I’m not a fan of. It gets really down to the details within specific factions. I refrain from mentioning specifics because It’d just derail the discussion and people would feel attacked for how I perceive things.

 

As for unique characters, I think we are all understandably more interested in ‘different’ or uncommon characters. Roleplayers of both average and unique characters can be good. Sometimes, people define ‘good’ by how much detail a person puts into their roleplay, others focus more about development prior and throughout the character’s tenure on the server.

[Matthew]

We need a focus on realism and a focus on roleplay. The roleplay needs to be believable though, so realism should definitely be a part of the roleplay. Continuity confirms we’re roleplaying in the real life universe and we should do what we can to portray this.