What LEGAL job is underrepresented on the server?

[Koko]

1 hour ago, Mahitto said:

Well, the purpose of accountants is to keep your books up-to-date so that the IRS doesn't flip you or your business over. That's the main purpose. They can also do tax write-offs and make some strategic decisions to boost revenue, but it's mostly about taxes or some sort of way your business is over-spending or losing money. There are many types of accountants but that's usually the bulk of their work.

 

In-game, we don't have any need for accountants.

 

Different styles of RP I guess. I do a lot of things that don't need doing in-game just because it's a way to RP more immersive aspects of the work life. At Hawaiian Snow we have an accountant (because sales happen through an outside platform and we have an activity-based paycheck model) and it works for us. In fact our accountant shapes a lot of how our clothing releases happen because we've analyzed the level of sales depending on when we do clothing releases and we can analyze aspects that influence sales levels.

 

I also take part in other aspects of RP that don't necessarily need to be done but include more people in the business, such as BMX repairs, sorting out warehouse inventory, and doing graphic design IC. I'm not a personal believer in the idea that all jobs need to have a 1:1 translation into script as long as you can do something IC that brings some value, even if it's IC. At the end of the day you're RPing a profession and if we went by script there'd be literally 10 jobs to do in the server.

[Mahitto]

13 minutes ago, Koko said:

 

Different styles of RP I guess. I do a lot of things that don't need doing in-game just because it's a way to RP more immersive aspects of the work life. At Hawaiian Snow we have an accountant (because sales happen through an outside platform and we have an activity-based paycheck model) and it works for us. In fact our accountant shapes a lot of how our clothing releases happen because we've analyzed the level of sales depending on when we do clothing releases and we can analyze aspects that influence sales levels.

 

I also take part in other aspects of RP that don't necessarily need to be done but include more people in the business, such as BMX repairs, sorting out warehouse inventory, and doing graphic design IC. I'm not a personal believer in the idea that all jobs need to have a 1:1 translation into script as long as you can do something IC that brings some value, even if it's IC. At the end of the day you're RPing a profession and if we went by script there'd be literally 10 jobs to do in the server.

 

I also am a big fan of diverting into as many detail-oriented aspects of RP as possible, role-playing as many jobs as you can. It is a nice aspect and perk that such a server gives us. However, it's not viable to role-play such jobs for most businesses.

 

Sure, there are a few that do accept or promote such role-play, but there's a reason why that kind of role-play isn't common. Because, in a vicious circle, businesses don't hire such people, and people who want to do it don't have any jobs or clients. Create a bricklayer character, or a gardener, or an exterminator. Or even a kiropractor, or a personal trainer, or a carpenter. 99% of the time you will do anything except for your job, because you won't find work. Sure, you'll find some work, especially in the beginning since people will be curious, but it will settle down really fast. If such jobs were viable options, then we'd have so many more people choosing to do them. And I don't mean do them within a faction or as a front for a faction (like waste management services?), but rather as small, realistic, legitimate businesses.

 

And the worst part about something like that is spending months coming up with a concept, creating a character and a personality, getting them a place, a car, some friends just so that you can see no one is interested in your concept. It's so much worse when you get a ton of money, apply for a business, spend hundreds of thousands on the building, spend weeks waiting, a ton more on furnishing it, hiring some people and everything so that you can then see it's mostly empty.

 

@ThatDutchPerson is trying out a nice, unique concept, so maybe they can give us some more insight on how many people are interested in such unique jobs or as clients of the business, but even that is a more generally accepted thing. If you do something more niche, you'll likely fail miserably, and that's a shame.

[ThatDutchPerson]

12 minutes ago, Mahitto said:

@ThatDutchPerson is trying out a nice, unique concept, so maybe they can give us some more insight on how many people are interested in such unique jobs or as clients of the business, but even that is a more generally accepted thing. If you do something more niche, you'll likely fail miserably, and that's a shame.

 

Hi there! Well, I can tell you tis not an easy thing to do. Min's Maritime started in September and only now is it really starting ti kick in. At start, it was merely 1 ship doing fishing and offering people a ridealong. Nowadays its a large business well established in the server with rental services and a multitude of events, projects and clients.

 

I can tell you it is a niche concept, and due to this, its very hard to actually earn a stable income enough to pay employees. Since September, I've been running the business compeltely alone, and its starting to take a toll on business progression. At this point, I simply need employees to keep expanding the way I want. However, not many people are willing to try the roleplay out, let alone have a leading role in it.

 

In the end it all comes down to pioneering. I dare to say that a big inspiration with this hard will and hard work is @lux. She started, asfar as I remember, with the lifeguard section of FD untill it became its own entity. It started from nothing, with little hope of becoming something. Now look at the amazing roleplay displayed. After that adventure, she started Hawaiian Snow; an other very niche concept now worth millions. @Alyssa McCarthy is an other exemple. Who is willing to roleplay school when they get home from school? Well, thats what they told Alyssa too. ULSA is now the 2nd biggest faction of the server.

 

It takes hard will hard work, and an iron motivation to get through the first period of something niche. Anyone can achieve it, the challange is to get past the first few months with little to no interest from others.

[Alice in Wonderland]

I would say...

 

- Tattoo artist

- Used car salesman

- Tugboat fisherman 

[Koko]

7 hours ago, Mahitto said:

Sure, there are a few that do accept or promote such role-play, but there's a reason why that kind of role-play isn't common. Because, in a vicious circle, businesses don't hire such people, and people who want to do it don't have any jobs or clients. Create a bricklayer character, or a gardener, or an exterminator. Or even a kiropractor, or a personal trainer, or a carpenter. 99% of the time you will do anything except for your job, because you won't find work. Sure, you'll find some work, especially in the beginning since people will be curious, but it will settle down really fast. If such jobs were viable options, then we'd have so many more people choosing to do them. And I don't mean do them within a faction or as a front for a faction (like waste management services?), but rather as small, realistic, legitimate businesses.

 

It's a shame, I actually RPed needing an exterminator twice at the club my character runs.

 

Spoiler

 

Totally get that it shouldn't be anyone's full time occupation with something that specific, but I think that a big business that offers cleaning services and includes things like pest control could work. I think a lot of legal jobs could work actually, if they became providers of several services in the same sort of realm that make sense (even if that's not how they work IRL, but to give them more things to do in a niche). So a cleaning company could offer pest extermination, cleaning services, laundry for restaurants etc, and operate through /startshift scripts internally for company work. I don't know, I mean, many of these characters don't even need the money because they have OOC assets. RPing jobs is not for everyone, but some of us do enjoy it.

 

I mean, a lot businesses could benefit from janitorial RP, and many legal factions try to hire the one token janitor for example. You could make a contracting agency that offers janitorial services and give them LFM funding, for instance. There's really a realm of possibilities, and oftentimes a lot of people involved don't care 100% about monetary gain.

[ZaE]

all

[Hendrix Jackson]

2 hours ago, Koko said:

Totally get that it shouldn't be anyone's full time occupation with something that specific, but I think that a big business that offers cleaning services and includes things like pest control could work. I think a lot of legal jobs could work actually, if they became providers of several services in the same sort of realm that make sense (even if that's not how they work IRL, but to give them more things to do in a niche). So a cleaning company could offer pest extermination, cleaning services, laundry for restaurants etc, and operate through /startshift scripts internally for company work. I don't know, I mean, many of these characters don't even need the money because they have OOC assets. RPing jobs is not for everyone, but some of us do enjoy it.

 

I mean, a lot businesses could benefit from janitorial RP, and many legal factions try to hire the one token janitor for example. You could make a contracting agency that offers janitorial services and give them LFM funding, for instance. There's really a realm of possibilities, and oftentimes a lot of people involved don't care 100% about monetary gain

This is great. I've always said small details are as important as the bigger ones. +1

[Mahitto]

3 hours ago, Koko said:

 

It's a shame, I actually RPed needing an exterminator twice at the club my character runs.

 

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Totally get that it shouldn't be anyone's full time occupation with something that specific, but I think that a big business that offers cleaning services and includes things like pest control could work. I think a lot of legal jobs could work actually, if they became providers of several services in the same sort of realm that make sense (even if that's not how they work IRL, but to give them more things to do in a niche). So a cleaning company could offer pest extermination, cleaning services, laundry for restaurants etc, and operate through /startshift scripts internally for company work. I don't know, I mean, many of these characters don't even need the money because they have OOC assets. RPing jobs is not for everyone, but some of us do enjoy it.

 

I mean, a lot businesses could benefit from janitorial RP, and many legal factions try to hire the one token janitor for example. You could make a contracting agency that offers janitorial services and give them LFM funding, for instance. There's really a realm of possibilities, and oftentimes a lot of people involved don't care 100% about monetary gain.

 

The problem here is that a lot of businesses could hire such people, but very, very few actually do.

 

I have tried to run a few unique businesses down the years and I'm pretty sure that everyone who has has, at some point, dealt with the same issues. There's virtually no demand for unique role-play; if you do find some clients, there's always some sort of issue. That's why we don't have (almost) any such businesses, and literally none of the to have been around long-term.

 

It's hard to get people to pay you for a service that doesn't benefit them script-wisely. You can't really ask for much. It's extremely hard to find employees when your first line is "There's basically no money in this job.". Even if you do it for the role-play, you'll still need money, the realistic purpose of a business is to create profit, and you can't run a business without making any.

 

If you're willing to jump through a ton of hoops, face a lot of stress and boredom, spend a lot of money and time then you might be able to kick something like this off, but is it really worth it? There are too many examples of people spending months developing a character and waiting, hundreds of thousands of dollars and real-life money getting a business, a website, graphics and everything, to create something unique, just so they close it down in two weeks after seeing no interest from the community.

[Junx]

Parking Enforcement, just imagine.... lmao

[Topinambour]

Ey 🙂 

 

I gotta say I'm a bit like @ThatDutchPerson here. Running a niche sort of RP business, wishing I could expand, but the revenue is so random... It would be absolutely impossible to reliably hire and pay anyone. In fact my char has other jobs, just in order to keep their company running. 

Now, I don't mind that much - I mostly started that business because it makes sense for my character and I don't care much if I make millions or pennies out of it ^^ But there are people who have invested actual time (a lot of it) and IG money into their concept, so it's a bit disheartening to see it fail.

 

It's part of why whenever I see an "unusual" business offering services, I always ask myself "is there any believable way my char would be interested?". If the answer is yes, then I go blow as much money as necessary there. That's how they bought a mani-pedi and some scented candles, had their car repaired or the engined cleaned up even though I could just /vpark it, is looking into deals with breweries even though I could just go to any liquor store, or why I'm looking for any reason to rent a jetski from Min 😛 

 

But, all in all, there are a few issues. Some jobs are much more niche and even with all the goodwill in the world, you can't find any reason to hire someone to do that. For my business, if I can find an accountant, I'd be glad to hire them for quarterly account reviews and such "fun" (yes I hate numbers). But hiring them on a day to day basis... other matter. Same goes for that landscaper I heard somewhere - I'm trying my best to find a reason to book them but when your char lives in a 2-room downtown apartment, well... 😛 

 

Those jobs would work just fine if there actually were the 12+ million people a town of that size is supposed to have! But within the context of an RP server it's a whole other issue. Even if we had 5.000 players at peak times, it still may not be enough for those specific jobs to be "worthwhile", from a purely monetary point of view :x