Make all inactive businesses available for lease

[mj2002]

Detailed Description

 

Whenever a business is disowned because of inactivity, or for any other reason, make the business available for lease a little later on.

 

Relevant Commands/Items

 

None

 

How will this benefit the server

 

Leasing a business is a relatively easy way of getting into business roleplay. The location is already set, often times the mapping has already been done, and all a player needs to do (assuming they are able to get through the lease application process) is go IC, start running the business, and pay a monthly lease.

 

However, the list of businesses available for lease is rather short. The list right now is about 40 different businesses. This sounds like a lot, but if you're aiming for a specific type of business in a specific area, then this really isn't all that much. 

 

However, there are a lot of businesses that are active or inactive, that will never appear on the lease list. Most of these will have been requested by players a long time ago, and will have since gone inactive. The properties are now owned by Property Management, and for the average player, all they will see if a blue name if they happen to walk by the property's entrance. Those players however, don't know who owns these properties, if they're mapped, or whatever. They will have to wait for the right application window, create an application, and then hope they're lucky.

 

Instead, if all inactive business properties were simply listed as being available for lease, then we have the following advantages;

 

• Players will know about the existence of these businesses and their availability
• The business concept will already have been approved of
• There will be clarity about the status of interior mapping

 

This saves players time in writing applications that justify the existence of the business in said location and in turn save Property Management the time of having to review that section of the application. Beyond that, the barrier for starting one of the predefined businesses will be a lot lower. Leasing is easier than requesting a new property.

 

Some extra notes;

 

• It could be made so that players have the option to ask to purchase these businesses instead of leasing them, perhaps right away or perhaps if they've leased for a month or two.
• Properties of these inactive businesses could also be available to request for a different business concept, unlike the fixed leases we already have. That would be just a standard property application. But with this change, people will know the properties are available.
• The properties will have to be reviewed, lease prices will have to be determined, pictures will have to be made, shops scripts may not be available any more, etcetera. It requires some upfront work, no doubts there. 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by mj2002

[Keefen]

Absolutely, this would likely, although not immediately also help with businesses being out in the county etc because IF I'm not mistaken there's plenty of unused one's out there. 

 

Unused on this thread meaning scripted and you can enter them but not ACTIVELY in use.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Keefen

[Bubalonia]

It does feel like there's been a significant drop in open businesses, regardless of what type of RP they provide. I think something along these lines would really help bring things back to life. 

[sCrax]

Absolutely, there are tens of inactive businesses just in South Central alone. I don't see a single reason why they shouldn't be made available. Businesses are the core of all roleplay so the whole process of getting one should be more accessible to players.

[MarcoEL]

Support.

 

I don't see many businesses open nowadays, maybe it's my timezone, maybe. But I remember back then there were 4-5 businesses early morning (for me), now none.

I don't know what changed, but we need a solution

[Peak.]

Yeah for sure, why not. Suppose it should be similar with houses if you don't meet the criteria it gets back to the government.

[Zenko]

Plus one on this one, a good idea that should implemented as soon as possible.

[Sitra]

2 hours ago, sCrax said:

Absolutely, there are tens of inactive businesses just in South Central alone. I don't see a single reason why they shouldn't be made available. Businesses are the core of all roleplay so the whole process of getting one should be more accessible to players.

 

They are available I reckon - you've a thing called inactivity reports.

If you're interested in owning a business, make a /report and ask about it. You can then request them in the next lease/property request cycle, or report the owner for inactivity. It's a makeshift solution, but until a list is made - it works. Surely worked for me.

 

I know PM is working on compiling a list and cracking down on inactive business owners, but the team is small and it all takes time and effort.

That said, +1, I do support the idea.

 

2 hours ago, MarcoEL said:

 

I don't see many businesses open nowadays, maybe it's my timezone, maybe. But I remember back then there were 4-5 businesses early morning (for me), now none.

I don't know what changed, but we need a solution

 

My guess is "we don't care that you've spent weeks preparing to open this place up, applying, building, funneling tons of money - pay us extortion money or we get arson and CK perms" on criminal RPers' side is a great contributor to it. As someone who's recently acquired a business, it's sad to say but a big factor in the location choice was whether I'm gonna be extorted or not, and by whom, and it's been a concern of some of my friends trying to own businesses as well.

Business owner and non-crim RPers are getting the shit end of the stick in that regard because RICO laws are non-existent on this server, and there's no rules regarding extortion - not to mention that when people do extort, they do it in the most shallow of manners just for the money gain, with no RP surrounding it whatsoever. Some people I know straight up gave up on trying because, sadly, business owners are on the losing side here, while IRL it's the criminals that take the risk. But who knows, maybe with some some groups' dissolutions we'll be able to see businesses on the rise again.

 

Other than that - the money and effort required to acquire a business and keep it running is not proportional to just walking in and demanding money when you're a criminal. I lease a bar (as in, I don't own it YET, I'll be able to buy it off in 3 months), and have already funneled around 350-400k just to get it ready for the opening - I'm not even going to mention the tens of hours spent to plan the place, map it, prepare the menu and the graphics for it. Many people struggle with keeping the drive to keep going up because concepts grow stale and serve mostly as money-making schemes.

 

I'm glad there's hoops to jump through to get there, because then we get people who REALLY want to provide RP with the business ownership. If I were to give an answer, I'd say the decline in business ownership relies on the community itself.

[Frezemis]

Leased businesses are usually businesses that remain as a lease and cannot be bought out or purchased. I’ve stated many times that Property Management and even myself included have no problem helping people obtain businesses. Not everyone wants a coffee shop, clothing shop, barber shop, etc. Everyone wants their fingers in nightclubs, pawnshops, bars, lounges. I do not have a problem incentivizing businesses that are there solely for roleplay not just profit because they are prioritizing roleplay instead of profit.

 

If someone inquires about a business lost to inactivity we always tell people they can request it and we can offer them payment options. We will work with you unless there’s other factors like admin record and portrayal but aside from that we want businesses to be active and portrayed properly.

 

Most of the common businesses are already on the lease list. So I’m not completely understanding the suggestion here and I’m open for a different explanation or different approach.

[Narco]

1 hour ago, Frezemis said:

Leased businesses are usually businesses that remain as a lease and cannot be bought out or purchased. I’ve stated many times that Property Management and even myself included have no problem helping people obtain businesses. Not everyone wants a coffee shop, clothing shop, barber shop, etc. Everyone wants their fingers in nightclubs, pawnshops, bars, lounges. I do not have a problem incentivizing businesses that are there solely for roleplay not just profit because they are prioritizing roleplay instead of profit.

 

If someone inquires about a business lost to inactivity we always tell people they can request it and we can offer them payment options. We will work with you unless there’s other factors like admin record and portrayal but aside from that we want businesses to be active and portrayed properly.

 

Most of the common businesses are already on the lease list. So I’m not completely understanding the suggestion here and I’m open for a different explanation or different approach.

 

So what if a player has an admin record from over a year ago but still wants to lease a business out of curiosity? are they doomed for life because they have an admin record or is there an actual time between last admin punishment etc out of curiosity?