Geographical placement of gangs.

[Craazy]

What people gotta understand that just because Vespucci beach is based on Venice beach, it doesn't mean that it is completely based off Venice and nothing else. For example, the majority of Davis is based on IRL's Compton but it still takes inspiration from other places as well. Carson Boulevard could literally be Compton Boulevard, Crenshaw Boulevard, or even Carson Street.

 

As mentioned earlier by @hillievonb, one of the major issue about the geographical placement of gangs isn't where gangs put themselves but it's how the faction does it AND how the locals react to it.

 

For example, a gang just creates a faction in Rancho projects on Jamestown without even mentioning the long-lasting Rancho 13 that literally has held those projects as turf for months.

 

Or a faction opens up in Morningwood's "Little Armenia", completely disregarding Morningwood's Armenian Power gang and the Armenian population in the area, and they decide to call that exact area "Little Italy" in their thread instead.

 

This isn't always the factions fault though. Sometimes they may take everything into consideration, and do an amazing job of running a gang in the area but the locals think the area is too "high class" for the gang.

 

A big example of this is Little Seoul. In real life, Koreatown (where Lil Seoul is based off of) is actually ran by gangs like MS13 and 18th Street. There is almost a 3-to-1 ratio of Sureno gangs to Korean gangs, and in recent years... the Sureno gangs still remain active while the Korean gangs (Mental Boyz, Asian Criminals) have faded off into the sunset some years ago. Asian Criminals still have a small presence in the area.

 

The best part about this is the fact that Koreatown gangs are split down the half with Koreans and Salvadorians siding together to fight Barrio 18, and the other half of Koreans and Hispanics siding together to fight back.

This is the Barrio 18 (Hispanic) & Mental Boyz (Koreans) versus MS-13 (Salvadorian) & Asian Criminals (Koreans).
So literally... Koreans are fighting this war on both sides in real life. However, now you take a look at Little Seoul where all the Koreans are united as one, and go around to every other gang to tell them to not sell drugs in Little Seoul.

 

I'm fine with this because if that's how their development has gone or whatever, sure...

But then the double standards come in.

 

IFM wants you to portray your faction realistically, right? And these things overlap each other all the time.

For example, big factions like Rancho 13 and the old Hoovers would CK many members weekly, right?

 

So let's say I killed many members in my own gang, and some of those may have been friends, AKA homies.

Now if a rival gang tells me "fuck your dead homies", what do I say? "Jokes on you, I killed my dead homies"?

No, I'd start fighting for my "dead homies" even if I've killed more of my own homies than I have my rivals, because REALISTICALLY, you wouldn't be executing members weekly. But now I'm conflicted because I've developed into this person who kills his own friends and now I have to choose between roleplaying based on my development, or roleplaying based on good portrayal.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Craazy

[Engelbert]

8 hours ago, Rushing said:

Yeah, I realize this, but most gangs on GTA:W aim to establish their IC hood in an area that's relative to the IRL placement. This thread is more about how people feel about the current placement of the gangs.

See this is the issue, instead of researching, why their gang SHOULD be placed somewhere on the map, they look at irl map of LA and say "Oh this looks similar to where we wanna rp, let's do this." While I agree that Los Santos is inspired by Los Angeles, the situation in the game and on the server is different from street to street.

[SCANDALOUZ]

I don't know if this wasn't already mentioned, but I think that gang placement isn't an issue. What might be more of an issue is gang behavior. From a third POV, it does sometime feel that it's all the same, just under a different name, colours and bullshit backstory.

 

Proper OCGs I feel have taken a step forward in the last 5-10 years (SAMP to V), but street gangs... I'm not sure if they haven't taken a step backwards.

Edited June 6, 2021 by SCANDALOUZ

[i dont wanna od in LA]

1 hour ago, SCANDALOUZ said:

I don't know if this wasn't already mentioned, but I think that gang placement isn't an issue. What might be more of an issue is gang behavior. From a third POV, it does sometime feel that it's all the same, just under a different name, colours and bullshit backstory.

 

Proper OCGs I feel have taken a step forward in the last 5-10 years (SAMP to V), but street gangs... I'm not sure if they haven't taken a step backwards.

In terms of realistic portrayal the gangs have really come a very long way and I'd dare to say that the mindset surrounding this kind of roleplay is completely different now. Obviously there are bad apples, just like everywhere else & their portrayal isn't quite as accurate.

[Vash Baldeus]

3 hours ago, Craazy said:

What people gotta understand that just because Vespucci beach is based on Venice beach, it doesn't mean that it is completely based off Venice and nothing else. For example, the majority of Davis is based on IRL's Compton but it still takes inspiration from other places as well. Carson Boulevard could literally be Compton Boulevard, Crenshaw Boulevard, or even Carson Street.

 

As mentioned earlier by @hillievonb, one of the major issue about the geographical placement of gangs isn't where gangs put themselves but it's how the faction does it AND how the locals react to it.

 

For example, a gang just creates a faction in Rancho projects on Jamestown without even mentioning the long-lasting Rancho 13 that literally has held those projects as turf for months.

 

Or a faction opens up in Morningwood's "Little Armenia", completely disregarding Morningwood's Armenian Power gang and the Armenian population in the area, and they decide to call that exact area "Little Italy" in their thread instead.

 

This isn't always the factions fault though. Sometimes they may take everything into consideration, and do an amazing job of running a gang in the area but the locals think the area is too "high class" for the gang.

 

A big example of this is Little Seoul. In real life, Koreatown (where Lil Seoul is based off of) is actually ran by gangs like MS13 and 18th Street. There is almost a 3-to-1 ratio of Sureno gangs to Korean gangs, and in recent years... the Sureno gangs still remain active while the Korean gangs (Mental Boyz, Asian Criminals) have faded off into the sunset some years ago. Asian Criminals still have a small presence in the area.

 

The best part about this is the fact that Koreatown gangs are split down the half with Koreans and Salvadorians siding together to fight Barrio 18, and the other half of Koreans and Hispanics siding together to fight back.

This is the Barrio 18 (Hispanic) & Mental Boyz (Koreans) versus MS-13 (Salvadorian) & Asian Criminals (Koreans).
So literally... Koreans are fighting this war on both sides in real life. However, now you take a look at Little Seoul where all the Koreans are united as one, and go around to every other gang to tell them to not sell drugs in Little Seoul.

 

I'm fine with this because if that's how their development has gone or whatever, sure...

But then the double standards come in.

 

IFM wants you to portray your faction realistically, right? And these things overlap each other all the time.

For example, big factions like Rancho 13 and the old Hoovers would CK many members weekly, right?

 

So let's say I killed many members in my own gang, and some of those may have been friends, AKA homies.

Now if a rival gang tells me "fuck your dead homies", what do I say? "Jokes on you, I killed my dead homies"?

No, I'd start fighting for my "dead homies" even if I've killed more of my own homies than I have my rivals, because REALISTICALLY, you wouldn't be executing members weekly. But now I'm conflicted because I've developed into this person who kills his own friends and now I have to choose between roleplaying based on my development, or roleplaying based on good portrayal.

My issue is when a Gang takes over a relatively expensive housing areas (I.E. Mirror Park, Vespucci Canals), locations that have HOUSES that are expensive, that's poor way of doing it as they can't have a house there as most if not all houses were bought and they'd have to pool their money to buy a house. Plus there's almost no low-cost housing that's close enough and is not turf of another gang.

[Vash Baldeus]

2 hours ago, Engelbert said:

See this is the issue, instead of researching, why their gang SHOULD be placed somewhere on the map, they look at irl map of LA and say "Oh this looks similar to where we wanna rp, let's do this." While I agree that Los Santos is inspired by Los Angeles, the situation in the game and on the server is different from street to street.

This, exactly this.

[orca112]

4 hours ago, Garras Up said:

hate to break it to you, but IRL Echo Park (Mirror Park) is very much a gang area.

Mirror Park is based off of Echo Park and Silver Lake forming a mixture of the two. Silver Lake mostly known for being a "Hipster area" and Echo Park being more and more alike due to gentrification. A lot of gang members are either killed, prisoned or moving away from the area - like many LA areas with rising costs of living. This is not the late 90s and early 2000s anymore.

 

As for the server, Mirror Park is notorious for being "the cop area" and generally high value properties translating to high society & wealthy individuals living there due to the absence of housing in Vinewood Hills, Chumash and other "high value" areas. This has been the case for the last two, three years on the server and manifested itself as such. If one starts a gang saying they have been in the area for X years, it is no surprise they are met with an "Excuse me? Half this area is inhabitated by cops for years." from local residents - in which continuity management needs to look into it and establish guidelines/rulings on how that (and other) areas are seen and therefore roleplayed by the community based off of their real life counterparts, server lore/history and of course the fact the map is more compressed than IRL LA.

[Rushing]

5 minutes ago, orca112 said:

Half this area is inhabitated by cops for years.

Just because there’s 12 houses and 5 are owned by cops doesn’t make it a cop area. 
 

Gangs that do have their hoods in mirror park can easily rp gentrification since it’s already and IRL problem for many of them. 
 

They only state that they’ve been there in their history for many years because it’s realistic in terms of a backstory. The sets they’re trying to portray aren’t brand new either. 

[Queen]

4 hours ago, Garras Up said:

the gangs were there before the hipsters, and still are there. the same applies IC.

Why does the same apply IC? Picking and choosing what areas are suddenly 1:1 comparisons to their real life counterparts regardless of pre-existing norms is silly, in my opinion. Echo Park may very well be a historically gang-infested area, but Mirror Park (as far as I know) has not been until recently. High crime rate? Absolutely, the houses and residents are usually prime targets for anyone looking to make money, if a bit risky considering I'd wager something around half the houses are owned by LEO characters.

 

You aren't going to get people to suddenly wipe everything they know and replace it with something new - nor should they. As of right now, I feel like there's a pretty decent dynamic to be worked on as a previously middle class area starts sinking lower on the totem pole.

[Engelbert]

21 minutes ago, Rushing said:

Just because there’s 12 houses and 5 are owned by cops doesn’t make it a cop area. 
 

Gangs that do have their hoods in mirror park can easily rp gentrification since it’s already and IRL problem for many of them. 
 

They only state that they’ve been there in their history for many years because it’s realistic in terms of a backstory. The sets they’re trying to portray aren’t brand new either. 

Except that they are a new brand, cause I never seen any gang in MP before. I don't care what LA looks like irl and where gangs are irl. In the game where I live were no gangs prior to this year, so don't act like you are not new and for god'sake don't ask people living somewhere, if they are new, cause they ain't. The one asking this question is...NEW. End of story.