[Discussion] What can improve RP interactions between players and general RP standards?

[Wuhtah]

48 minutes ago, ZaE said:

man...if only i had the balls to say what i wanna say lol

 

a lot of good discussion here.

 

I encourage you to message me - it won't be held against you. If it's constructive criticism, I'd love to hear it (even if it doesn't pertain to me or my subteam). I can bring it up 'anonymously' at the staff meeting. 

[Shah of Persia]

It's very sad but I feel like throughout my twelve years engaging in roleplay, the quality of the genre has seriously degraded. This server and others is a product of communities that have preceeded it. The sad part is that I feel like the worsening quality of roleplay is mainly caused by the staff's on-going effort (in past communities) to usher it into a better direction. The product, however, is that very little has changed, but it has only instilled more roleplay quality gatekeeping and bureaucracy. In retrospect, things weren't so bad back in the day. The endless complaints about mallrats has changed nothing.

 

The degredation of the genre's quality has very little to do with the script's possibilities and systems like business and property applications or funding requests and moreso an overall culture that has been bread by a vocal minority in 'General Discussions' and opinionated staff, with very little direction given to it. This server advertises as a heavy-text based roleplay server but the management doesn't seem to communicate a vision publically on what this exactly entails and in what direction the genre should develop. I am clueless as to what anybody in this thread calling 'roleplay standards', 'good roleplay' or 'roleplay quality' exactly entails.

 

This server's community is one of the most toxic I have ever experienced. Actively being judged behind your back, rumors being instigated that have an influence on what you can and cannot do on this server or how you're being treated, people trying to actively thwart you in trying to roleplay and seeing everything you do as an action of hostility. It seems that this is mostly what roleplay on this server entails for a lot of people. Instead of engaging in roleplay and seeing conflict as a means to propel a story forward, it is many people's mission to give you a bad time, and these plots are constructed in Discord servers. After the first three or so weeks I have played in this server, it has been my experience that good roleplay constantly gets squashed in favor of people engaging in tribal warfare, and the sad reality is that staff, instead of standing up for you, will often pick the side of the people giving you a bad time. Rules are enforced with a double-standard. I know people that have literally been forced to roleplay anonimously to get the "pure roleplay experience". It's really sad.

 

My opinion is that staff's increasing control of the genre has bred small cliques of an elite that go on to bully other people and dictate the meta.

[Law]

Consolidate factions instead of having friend circle groups scattered around the map. It’s like if each division of PD or a frat of ULSA were its own group/faction.

 

[CULTure]

19 minutes ago, Law said:

Consolidate factions instead of having friend circle groups scattered around the map. It’s like if each division of PD or a frat of ULSA were its own group/faction.

 

But there is a distinction and a reason between PD and SD despite effectively doing the same thing. 
There is a distinction and a reason between different chapters of an MC. 

There is a distinction and a reason between many Sur factions. 

 

For one, forcing factions to do anything is IFM stepping in and taking control, when they need to take a step back. 

Two, there would be no need if people were willing to RP correctly by removing themselves as a player from an RP scenario. Refusing to operate off OOC information or friendships, which is disregarded by certain staff members and purposefully ignored.  The current rules need to be enforced. 

[Invictus]

All my predictions start to come true.

[sk8]

6 hours ago, Jeroen said:

Calling everyone who doesn't fit in the cops and robbers side of the server "ERPers and mall rats" doesn't help your cause.

 

I could go on a tangent on the word "mall rat", since it has lost it's original meaning completely in GTA:World.

I didn’t say that. 
 

what I said was, this server caters to them. Not that by not RPing a criminal or an LEO that you are one. 
 

Dont put words in other peoples mouths in debates. 
 

 

[pendeja]

36 minutes ago, sk8 said:

I didn’t say that. 
 

what I said was, this server caters to them. Not that by not RPing a criminal or an LEO that you are one. 
 

Dont put words in other peoples mouths in debates. 
 

 

It really does. There are reports that are voided with well conducted planning, but you have Susy the bartender/model acting as an assassin.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Muerta

[Wuhtah]

Keep on topic or the thread will be locked. 

[Xaleya]

1 hour ago, Invictus said:

All my predictions start to come true.

At the end of the day, the staff has to discuss how to fix most of the community issues and there not been much changes since last year

Edited July 6, 2022 by Xaleya

[sk8]

9 hours ago, mj2002 said:

 

When you look at the topic of this thread "What can improve RP interactions between players and general RP standards?", I think a reply like this achieves the exact opposite. No solutions are provided, no initiative to start making a positive change, no introspection about you or your own group, the blame is on everyone else, my group is more important than the others, staff is essentially useless, etc etc. This attitude does a disservice to your own cause, because it turns the discussions into us vs. them, rather than focusing on solutions and addressing problems. We have had dozens of these us vs them threads, lets not turn this into another one. This really isn't it. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

 

Edit: Dont get me wrong. I'm not saying the problems your bring up aren't real. But this isn't the way to start a path towards resolving them either.

You’re correct, my viewpoint isn’t constructive to the discussion of finding ways to fix it - but it’s my opinion based off of what I’ve observed here and over 20 interactions with IFM and other admin teams. 
 

Firstly, shout out to the Property Team in @Wuhtah - the statement I made about there being a few solid admins who are good people? They’re one and the fact they’ve allowed the conversation to continue constructively where other admins have popped in to make snide remarks is valuable to the server and a credit to the admin team. 

 

So, let me try to be a productive member of this community and offer some actual insights as to what will help improve this issue. 
 

1) IFM need to actually understand what they’re monitoring and make an active effort to listen to experienced players who actually know what they’re talking about, and not twist it to suit their own narrative and beliefs. If we’re going to portray a realistic rp server, let’s actually encourage realism and the horrors of gang life instead of trying to romanticise it and have everyone sing songs around the camp fire. Half the time IFM are acting like camp counsellors, not admins in charge of enforcing realistic portrayals of concepts and to stop making excuses. 
 

2) Server management actually need to reply to things in a timely manner. The fact that players get their refund requests for 600k over a bug archived because no one bothered to pick it up and then told to “reapply if you still want it” instead of resolving the issue is a key example of the Band-Aid, not solution mentality this servers staff have in certain aspects. 
 

3) Goddamn character applications. How do we have a process for ensuring people know the rules, and can RP at a base level and people still get accepted into the server to cause issues? This isn’t the player bases fault, it’s managements. If I took you into a Walmart and you saw a bunch of teenagers running around causing havoc and harassing other patrons, while you’re going to blame the people causing harm, you’re also gonna ask “where the hell is the security team?” 
 

4) Less gate-keeping. The vast majority of the player base can’t actually influence RP culture because they’re not given an Avenue to do so. Do you know how easy it is to grow a weed plant and start selling 50 bags irl? Not hard. But on this server you have to come up with some grand explanation as to how you’ll do it. Weapon suppliers face the same issue - lack of rp concepts and ways to execute because half the faction concepts people want to make can’t start or be viable because they can’t make the resources required to keep a faction entertained and flooded with RP opportunities. 
 

5) Encouraging and being friendly to the community. Sounds simple right? But the amount of staff members who forget we’re dealing with each other over computers but there’s another adult on the other end who deserves to not be talked to like they’re a 11 year old. The amount of staff who come in with the kick the door down and ask questions later mentality is ridiculous and it actually leads to a lot of frustration, which in turn affects roleplay scenarios. Hard to roleplay a calm and collected character in a situation when an admins just come in, insulted you, and then made an active effort to tell you how from their personal life experiences, a human being wouldn’t react like that in this situation. A lot of admins here have taken it upon themselves to tell people how they can and can’t RP a human being. 
 

Now, what I’m saying here is exactly what I said in the first post - if you have an admin team who’s job is to ensure RP quality and server quality, why are we the community having to discuss how to improve what these people are volunteering to do? 
 

Shit flows down hill. If everything’s bad at the bottom, bet money it comes from issues at the top. 
 

I say volunteer loosely. I’m not sure how admins are reimbursed. 

That’s my constructive critism on this server and why the overall quality has dipped. The good players are leaving the building because they cannot be assed trying to get people who don’t care about their experiences on this server.