How the server fails to encourage roleplay over money

[TinPan]

TL;DR for those who don't want to read through the entire thread:

- Most new players want to play characters that aren't low income, they want to play characters that're exciting (which subsequently leads to a lot of self inserts).
- The good stuff appropriately costs a lot of money, so new players focus on making money by any means necessary.
- The server does nothing to deter this mentality in it's application process and it's tutorial, so it results in the majority of characters being middle-class and not working-class.
- The server's administration focuses on dealing with these characters after they've existed versus preventing them from existing in the first place, so poor quality characters can pretty much thrive unless they're reported; which even then doesn't guarantee success.
- Players (both new and experienced) often fail to understand that the reward for good roleplay should be the story that is crafted along the way, not like an MMO where the reward is cash or an item.

The long bit:

Long story short, the server's state of roleplay in it's current state is one that seems to predominantly do nothing to promote people focusing on the quality of their roleplay, and instead borderline promotes individuals focusing on financial gains over the quality of their roleplay and the character that they play as. This can be attributed to a few main & identifiable issues, with some being direct consequences of the server's structure that can be remedied over time and others being mentality issues that simply have to be worked around.

When a new player joins the server, it's understandable that most want to buy expensive and nice things. I'm not talking a new character made by a player who's been around for a while and know's what kind of new character he wants to make, but I'm talking someone who's new to the server and making their first ever character for the first time. They'll follow the tutorial and the likes, but as soon as it's over and the training wheels are taken off; they're given free reign to do as they please. They've got the world at their fingertimes, and understandably; most are looking to get themselves the expensive goodies that're available like a fast car, a nice house; maybe even a business of some sort if they've got a basic understanding of what they need to do to reach it.

Only thing is, they can't afford these things immediately, they've still got a lot of hours left to go until their 200k is earned; and even then that 200k sometimes won't cover the costs of what some people want to obtain, so they look for ways to make quick cash and end up in a position where they're looking to make money by any means necessary. They grind, cut as many corners as possible; and either give up trying or getting bored after they get what they eventually worked so hard for.

It's understandable to be honest, and I can't particularly blame these new players for wanting to go down the upper class route; the last thing people wanna do after working 9 - 5 is play a character who themselves is also working 9 to 5. However, this has the effect of the server becoming Second Life 2.0; where self-inserts that're middle-class sports-car owners becomes the norm as opposed to the exception like it typically is in real life. People play who they want to see, not what is realistic; so you slip into an almost dystopian landscape where there is no working class.

There are no pale college students working behind the counter at a fast food joint, there's no office workers, no construction workers and janitors; everyone is immediately financially successful of the bat. There's no bad times, no risk of absolutely going broke; just brief moments where you either don't earn money or lose some that'll eventually be made back down the line.

Now, as I said earlier, most people don't want to work 9 to 5 in roleplay when they work 9 to 5 themselves. It's understandable, nor can I blame people for that; but what that means is that money takes priority over the quality of roleplay these people do and the quality of the characters they play. They put money first and the roleplay attached to it second; and this is where the server fails to step up and pull people away from slipping into this mindset that does more harm than good to the server.

I've seen on countless threads issues regarding quality of roleplay from both legal and illegal frequently devolving into staff members stating 'report it', which is great; but when it's happening so frequently and there's a large number of people pointing an issue out? It's clear that the issue is one relating to how the server is set up and how the server fails to promote roleplay over earning money to new players. GTA:W let's people play out their fantasies, which is one of it's strongest suits because roleplay should be about freedom; but players don't know that the reward is the story they craft and how they build the world around them.

They want cash or goods in return, and until that mentality is shaken through either promoting roleplay over money harder in the application process or even more direct intervention like a complete overhaul of the economy itself to make the majority of players less money-focused; it's just an endless loop where people join and grind money whilst doing the bare minimum roleplay while those who're looking to make unique roleplay are left to the side of the road because they can't afford anything in a cash-driven server.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree with my opinions.

Edited May 6, 2021 by TinPan

[DasFroggy]

We're edging ever closer to having to decide between whether we want roleplay or realism when it comes to money.

[NickyW]

It’s a good write up and it rings true, but everything you said could’ve been summed up with this:

 

> people don’t want to work 9-5 all day and then come home to a character that works 9-5

 

its sad but it’s true. The fact is, a lot of players, the majority in-fact, just don’t have the mental fortitude nor desire to RP a working class character. That’s why the only poor people are illegal characters or teenagers. 
 

incentivizing working class RP is tough; because you can really only do it through some form of compensation, which will eventually cause them to cease being working class. 
 

You could certainly fix it it OOCly by simply making money harder to get ahold of, but Nervous has said on many occasions he doesn’t want the server to be a grindfest. 
 

This is really a problem with the community as opposed to the server. There isn’t much staff can do if people don’t wanna RP poor. 
 

Imagine  if your post said “there aren’t enough people role playing as lumberjacks”. I mean sure, yeah, you’re right. But we can’t force people to RP as lumberjacks 

 

 

[Planters80mm]

I get what you mean but we all know a crowd of people here that drives sports car on a daily basis without really making sense. Honestly whoever prefers money over cash is not here for the role play. I wonder why since the only fun on the server is the story you create for you and the ones around you. If someone plays for assets, they are cleary not here for the role play. I do agree that the server doesn't really set you up to a job or how to make.money. Although there isn't many grinding rpg styled jobs left. Only trucking, fishing and farming.  It's really hard to guide new players in a direction to promote role play over money since that's an out of character issue that has been plaguing servers for decades. People just want shiny cars, fancy apartments and drive around. 

 

 

Coming back.to.your.point some people are already doing a 9 to 5 IRL, they come here to do things you can't and have fun. At the end of the day, I don't think it's the server's fault or job to fix an ooc problem. RPQM reports are always here.too.

[cracked]

The property market is a perfect example of players focused on money instead of roleplay. They rush to the properties that come back from inactivity like it's a competition, some sort of arcade game. Whoever gets it wins and everyone else is salty. Yesterday I was headed to an apartment I wanted to buy. 2 sports cars were outside, it was a forum drive apartment. I needed it for my RP, alas. The rich property hoarders got it instead. I wonder and what point it gets too ridicilous to be allowed.

Edited May 5, 2021 by cracked

[K3V]

17 minutes ago, cracked said:

The property market is a perfect example of players focused on money instead of roleplay. They rush to the properties that come back from inactivity like it's a competition, some sort of arcade game. Whoever gets it wins and everyone else is salty. Yesterday I was headed to an apartment I wanted to buy. 2 sports cars were outside, it was a forum drive apartment. I needed it for my RP, alas. The rich property hoarders got it instead. I wonder and what point it gets too ridicilous to be allowed.

 

Explain to me how in a CITY - this is the only remaining houses that are for sale????

[Ketamine Kowboy]

Guess we're RPing the California housing shortage

[mj2002]

So what are the proposed solutions? I'm not seeing many of those yet. Players mentalities are not so easily changed.

[TinPan]

1 minute ago, mj2002 said:

So what are the proposed solutions? I'm not seeing many of those yet. Players mentalities are not so easily changed.

As I said earlier, you can take a light approach like structuring the tutorial in a manner which disencourages new players from just grinding cash as well as also including more questions in the application process that highlight the importance of focusing on roleplay more than money; or you can take a more direct approach which requires larger but more effective changes such as heavier taxation for expensive goods (something I'm a huge advocate for) to deter new players from grinding cash to buy goods they realistically can't afford and decreasing the number of scripted jobs in order to encourage players to work at more unique player-ran businesses.

All of the changes though listed above in some manner or another require a restructuring, as even changes to the application process and the tutorial require developer intervention; not to mention the amount of work that needs to be put into removing script-jobs and a taxation reform.

Those are just some of the soultions though, I made this thread to also let people contribute their own; not to mention see if other people agree with my stance, which seems to be the case.

 

[cracked]

funny thing is i wrote my reply as im planning to rush a property, but don't judge me too quick. I'm trying to find 1 house, for my 1 character. Not five houses to hold onto and sell at 3xMP+FP. Fuck that shit.

 

I recently let 9 whole ass properties go right back to the server economy from inactivity, cuz I was bored of playing for a bit and i simply don't care about money. 

 

HOWEVER, I find it very limiting that now, to get a house, I'll have to shed out more than any of my characters can actually afford money-wise because of the insane inflation. Which will leave my character with 0 money. And this particular character isn't poor. But it'll be hard to not be able to drive a car because you literally cannot afford it, because you had to shed a million on a house in El Burro, or some shit.