Jump to content

Do you think criminals are way too open about their criminal activity?


caballero

Recommended Posts

Was just thinking about this. It seems like criminals on the server /want/ people to know that they do crime. They'll either tell you directly, or tell you by acting like it. 

 

On the other hand, when you're a criminal which looks like a stereotypical criminal which you could find on the server (Specific names, appearance, tattoos, etc), I find that when you meet other criminals, they'll use this OOC knowledge of knowing those specific checkboxes in order to connect with you for possible illegal deals in the future, more than they'd try to connect with your average Joe.

 

Might've just been my experience, so that's why I'm asking. I've met criminals at both ends, while being fully crime-clean, and while leading a faction, just want to know if it's a common occurrence within the server.

 

I haven't really met many criminals IRL, the last 2 that I met, one of them waited 10 months-1 year before telling me he did the most basic illegal scheme ever, and the other one didn't even tell me, I just found out when he was eventually apprehended approximately 2 years into me knowing him.

Link to comment

Depends on the character, the situation, the player's emotions, and who they are hanging with. Hundreds of variables.

To some criminals, doing "petty theft" is so petty that it isn't a big deal if every one knows. The same with having something as small as a quarter of marijuana or cocaine, in their pocket. It's miniscule to a criminal that's probably seen or committed murder. To others? They keep everything on the down-low. Some people prefer to be "off the grid" while others prefer to be "infamous".

Who are they saying this to, as-well? Is it a civilian that looks like they may do drugs? Or, an LSPD officer?

EDIT: Average criminal will small-talk petty things with people, even strangers, as it's "petty".

If a man's walking around shouting that he's murdered someone before getting caught OR before the verdict of their trial? Man's a hot-headed liability.
It's all relative to the situation.

My last character? People literally OOCly PM'd me like "No way! I thought he was a chef!" when the man was laundering kilos worth of cocaine money. 99% of the people, ICly, saw him as just "A Jamaican Rasta-mon that ran a restaurant". They weren't aware of his operations. My new character? Everybody knows that he's a criminal simply because he's a gang-banger. All relative to the character and situation.

Edited by DLimit
Link to comment

Criminals on GTA:W are rarely subtle. It's so glaringly obvious which characters are criminals that it's really difficult to portray any sort of suspension of disbelief with your character. As a player of a legitimate entrepreneur, I really try to realistically have my character treat criminals as "just people" but it's so common to bump into criminals ICly and so many of them are so cliche and obvious about it that it's hard to portray that my character would not recognize it.

 

More than half the organized crime characters on this server are outrageously stereotypical and it's usually pretty clear what movie the player of those characters is trying to copy. Oh, there's your Goodfellas/Sopranos wannabes! Oh, look at The Departed cosplay! Here come the Brigada/Eastern Promises dudes! Seeing criminal characters that are believably human is a rare opportunity by the few, select talented roleplayers which make this hobby and this community worth the time.

 

It's also really common that whenever I try to roleplay legitimate business with people RPing criminal characters, they reveal that they're incapable of any roleplay but crime. Most real life organized criminals, especially in the USA, tend to be legal personas first and foremost and criminals second--especially the higher up the chain of command you go. The percentage of RPs where I've tried to engage in realistic business RP with criminal factions only for them to turn around and start chewing the scenery with incredibly cliche and unrealistic extortions or other such scams is almost 100%. 

 

#notallcriminalRPers, #butdefinitelymost

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment

A lot of street crime seems meaninglessly public for no apparent reason and even violent crimes don't seem to have much planning and thought. I role-played in gangs, mobs, etc. and understand the mindset but at least calling a payphone on the other side of the city while pulling an armed robbery seems sensical more or less. Screw that, even gloving up and masking up properly would make more sense.

 

This is because people focus on their faction instead of focusing on their character. It's about getting the group to be a faction, not about achieving success with the role-played character. Crime is no longer the character's ways and means through which they achieve whatever they want to (money, assets, status, power, etc.) but rather the centric activity. Most people take their last resort and pull a robbery when they indeed have nowhere to turn to. This is quite literally why projects or good factions die out or experience bursts of activity followed by a hiatus and subsequent lock.

 

This is exactly why a seemingly discreet mob had trouble being even acknowledged by the police as being a tenured crime family when their crimes have mostly been subtle, and this was nonetheless in the middle of a CK war. It's proof that being generally subtle works and for as long as you don't engage the police violently unless you absolutely have to, you're golden. The average criminal character has very public encounters, so definitely most.

Edited by liq
Link to comment

In the competition between fun and realism doesn't fun always win out in the end? Even for the realism nerds, for them realism IS the fun option. We live in a society where every Italian is probably in the mob, every black reps his set, and etc. It's not really an issue, let the people have their cake.

 

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, imi said:

In the competition between fun and realism doesn't fun always win out in the end? Even for the realism nerds, for them realism IS the fun option. We live in a society where every Italian is probably in the mob, every black reps his set, and etc. It's not really an issue, let the people have their cake.

Realism IS indeed fun. It's when an other player's idea or sense of realism clashes with your own. It becomes an issue when some people can't have cake at all.

 

What I've seen helps is to buy in to people's stories if they're marginally researched and competent role-players. For as long as it's sensical, give in to the notorious gangbanger, rumored mob enforcer, tenured cop, whatever. It helps tap in and connect with others. What currently happens is people hold each other to different standards and no one's willing to cut the other part some slack. It usually has to start with you — buy in more to people's stories and they'll do the same. It helps immersion, better portrayal and good role-play. Bottom line, don't treat every Italian character as if they're in the mob, every Black character as if they bang, etc, unless that's the story they're selling. And if they do, then buy in to it.

Edited by liq
  • Applaud 1
Link to comment
5 hours ago, imi said:

In the competition between fun and realism doesn't fun always win out in the end? Even for the realism nerds, for them realism IS the fun option. We live in a society where every Italian is probably in the mob, every black reps his set, and etc. It's not really an issue, let the people have their cake.

 

This is basically paving the way towards GTA Online. If people wanted GTA Online, they wouldn't be here.

Link to comment
  • Wuhtah locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...