How do you handle time ig?

[Natala]

I joined the server in late may, and since then I've here roughly six months. When asked ic how long I've been in the city, I say six months. My character has had a relationship for three months, she will have her birthday sometime in January.  

So when I meet a character who says he has lived in the city fifteen years, and ooc says he joined the server fifteen months ago, it gets... confusing.

I've met couple who has been dating for two years, they met ig two months ago. I've watched people grow a fully bushy beard in a day, go from bald to long hair in a week. I've had people become pregnant and have a baby a month later. People go on holiday in game for 3 days and come back talking about their three weeks away. People get locked up (I know this is actually an ig mechanic) and comes out two days later with traumatic stories of their many weeks away. 

I am not here to criticise, gate keep or insist on rules, it is just something I always struggle to deal with ig.

My response is to just roll with it. I understand the need for some of this. I get few wants to wait 6 rl months to grow out their characters hair or beard, or spend nine months acting out every phase of pregnancy, and I full understand why being in jail is sped up. I enjoy how 3hr ig working is meant to represent a 9 to 5 job. 

But it gets topsy turvey when I was there when a couple first met, and you rp time as it is in real life, and then a month later they tell you they are having their one year anniversary while in my characters life a month has passed, or someone has aged four years while my character talks about her four months in the city.

I don't want anything to think I am hating on their roleplay, I am just a confused player.

I just wonder how everyone approaches time. 
 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Natala

[fortyfive]

it may comes vary to every players, but for me personally I don't really depend on /time I joined the server/ as a measurement for how old my character is, but instead the In-game events itself made me do, one of the most obvious example is; such as when my character got arrested for certain times long, it forces me to age-up accordingly for the immersion purpose, and so for business-wise, as one of /many?/ roleplayers who build a character with /rags-to-riches/ development, there may some occasion forces the character to age-up at specific time to fit the portrayal to match with the /wealth and lifestyle/.

 

As for reference, I joined to the server 14 months ago, and the character I use since I joined the server has done more than 6 years progression In-game.

[i dont wanna od in LA]

it's called suspension of disbelief. not everything that takes place on the server has to be taken literally. creating a new character literally doesn't mean them moving into the city, never did and i frankly never understood the concept as to why you can't just roleplay somebody who was born and grew up here (with that said, immigration obviously exists but this whole concept of somebody moving in, as they make their character just seems silly). same with progression, say your character gets booked for drug trafficking or gta or whatever, and then you actually roleplay in jail for a couple months real life time - nothing should then stop you from aging up, not roleplaying literally spending 2 months for trafficking an ounce of cocaine, because that simply doesn't happen. 

Edited December 6, 2021 by i dont wanna od in LA

[books]

I deal with inconsistencies in general by just going along with it without complaint. I understand that the time differences can be jarring, I tend to roleplay a day as a day but if you want to do something different I'll just go along with it because I'm not here to invalidate your fun, lol.

 

It's better to think of this place as a canvas rather than a coherent world, in general there's very little consistency across the server. Factions operate in entirely different worlds from each other a lot of the time. The difference in tone and seriousness from one faction to another can vary massively. For example, comparing one of the gangs that you see in Davis/Rancho, where you get a sort of gritty portrayal of a L.A street gang and then comparing that to some of the more fluffy, slice of life type roleplay you see in a lot of nightclubs/cafes/bars; it's impossible to acknowledge both of these things happen in the same world. 

Edited December 6, 2021 by books

[Anders]

It is imo up to each char's development. you see someone not be realistic? RPQM them

[ScarletRose]

Personally, I'm roleplaying my character as someone who was born in this city and has lived here for her entire life. So when I get asked how long I've been here, I'm not gonna say 8-9 months, as that doesn't make sense, even though that's how long I've been playing. 

I personally believe that aging specifically, should be 1:1 with real life. So like, 1 year in real life equals 1 year for your character. And I believe that's the best way to do it, so that everyone's on the same page. It gets extremely immersion breaking when people age up randomly, but my character remains the same age. It's weird seeing friends who used to be younger than you, but then they're suddenly older than you just because they went to jail for 3 months and decided to age up 4 years in that time.

 

[Late]

It's very simple. 1 day IRL = 1 day IG. 

I pay no attention to people time skipping as Rafi's life moves at the same time as IRL.

 

Rafi has lived in Los Santos since when I joined the server in 2017. Habeeb Taxi was founded in 2017, ICly and OOCly. 

[Devastante]

I just don't. Been complaining since 2018 it would make far more sense to have 2 24 hour cycles in game. I'm a NA player and its always like 1am server when I'm able to play. If I were to actually RP the time it would completely ruin my immersion and all the possible things I could realistically do.
i.e. Run my business. 

 

Upon further reading it appears you're more referring to the passage of time in reference to your character not how time is actually handled in game. Jumped the gun I guess haha. 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Devastante

[Topinambour]

1 hour ago, Late said:

It's very simple. 1 day IRL = 1 day IG. 
[...] founded in 2017, ICly and OOCly. 

Same goes. My current char's lived in LS for 2 years in 2017 and 18, then left and came back in 2021. I play it as 2 years, and coming back 3 years later 😕 

As for when other people use different time scales, overall... I found it relatively easy to brush it off since the impact isn't too major. In the few more egregious cases, it takes a minute to quickly talk with the other player to see how we're gonna handle it. Most people are very arranging and I never had a problem with it 🙂 

[Allantrist]

It depends on the roleplay happening around me. I'm LEO so my age is also based on my ranks, further we go up the older we have to be.

My character is 28 years old and her husband is about 32ish. They've been together for four years icly but it's only been 6 months oocly. Mostly the timeskip is because during that six months both our characters have achieved development in their careers that would realistically take years or months of training in real life. We also timeskip any healing for injuries that would realistically put you out of work for weeks, maybe months.

Personally, I think time skipping should be something you need to consider when they achieve ranks or positions within their faction that would realistically take years not months of roleplay. You just need to keep tabs with those you roleplay with on a daily basis so it's not weird.