Things the community can do to grow bigger?

[Libra]

8 minutes ago, Silen said:

Uhm, fix the desync in about everything.

 

With this still being in the early stages, this is something to expect. This is only the beginning. The client will update eventually and things will be fixed. I just want to formulate a plan or process on how our community and myself can really get our REP out there. 

[Smilesville]

Provide more incentives for people to get involved with newer people. The biggest hurdle I've had to face on the server is making new contacts - and it's difficult to introduce yourself to a clique when they don't frequently expose themselves to others. Sure, this is more a cultural issue than a script issue, but I'm positive there is something we can do to ameliorate that.

 

That, and fix the way businesses work. Shameless plug for my suggestion to overhaul the system in the suggestion thread.

[Libra]

8 minutes ago, Smilesville said:

Provide more incentives for people to get involved with newer people. The biggest hurdle I've had to face on the server is making new contacts - and it's difficult to introduce yourself to a clique when they don't frequently expose themselves to others. Sure, this is more a cultural issue than a script issue, but I'm positive there is something we can do to ameliorate that.

 

That, and fix the way businesses work. Shameless plug for my suggestion to overhaul the system in the suggestion thread.

 

I'm fairly new to this whole server, I started two days ago. So people who are new tend to get pushed away by groups? I could understand it being hard to make contacts when there is only 40-65 people online. We must change and address that.

[Smilesville]

Au contraire, seems to me that people will generally try to bring you in if you can roleplay well - which is good! Unfortunately there's a problem with people typically being in an interior when they roleplay though, which usually prohibits newer players from meeting them to begin with. Not exactly sure how we would encourage new and old players to intermingle more other than changing the way businesses work, but it's just a thought.

[Libra]

I'm still stuck on the process of getting used to scripts and being a level 1 newbie. But it is good to hear that there are groups out there. Do you believe that if this server got to 800+ players, would the map size still be to big? 

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, Libra said:

I'm still stuck on the process of getting used to scripts and being a level 1 newbie. But it is good to hear that there are groups out there. Do you believe that if this server got to 800+ players, would the map size still be to big? 

To populate neighborhoods? Nope. To populate the roads? Yes.

[Libra]

3 minutes ago, Maca said:

To populate neighborhoods? Nope. To populate the roads? Yes.

Well let me ask you this. Do you think that the server will be able to on ur end/scripting and staff capabilities hold over 1000+??  And at this point will it be pack? 

[jcat]

Things the community can do to grow bigger:

 

Thing #1:  Promote the socially-oriented gameplay instead of the action oriented gameplay.  Show the action-oriented gameplay as the climax of a long intense social rp in the server's advertising/marketing.

 

Why?

 

So people watching media about this server will know it's about social roleplaying, with only a little action.  Manage their expectations right off the bat, and attract the people who are interested in social rp instead of the people looking for action.

 

How:

 

Bill it as true roleplaying.  Roleplaying is not pretending to be a jokey asshole cop yelling at people and then beating them up.  It's imagining a realistic personality as a character, then guiding that character's life and experiencing the stories that randomly creates.  I'm not explaining this well, but marketing for this server needs, MUST, make the distinction between the dramatic/intelligent/character simulation roleplaying here and the stupid violent joke "roleplay" that happens on a lot of other servers.  We want people to know how we play here, and we will only accept who want to play that way.

 

Make videos showing intense social roleplay that leave people wondering what's going to happen.  Can the single mom keep her sons out of crime?  Can the new immigrant keep out of the gang life of the organized crime element that controls his community?  Will the tensions between the Italian mafia and the Russian mafia spill over into violence?  Can well meaning cops keep more young gang members from dying?  Show drama, and show action only as the cherry on top.  This is because we want people who expect and desire social roleplay to join, because that's pretty much what we do.  

 

 

Thing #2:  Actively recruit people in different timezones, so every timezone will have at least a small community for new players to meet and rp with.  It's an old problem that's been discussed a lot, but it's still important.  Make an effort to recruit in specific timezones to increase players population during off peak hours.  We need to prevent new players giving our server a try from coming on, finding no one, and thinking 'well, this was a bust' and leaving forever.

 

 

Thing #3:  Voluntary outside rp.  People need to be visible so people can see that something is happening, so they stop and interact.  Relationships and acquaintances are the beating heart of rp, so we need to do everything we can to make it easier for acquaintances and socializing to happen.  

 

How:

 

First, take some polls.

 

Poll #1 "How much do you do exterior/neighborhood rp?"

Poll #2  "What discourages you from doing exterior/neighborhood rp?"

Poll #3  "What would encourage you to do more exterior/neighborhood rp?"

 

Polls with a lot of possible reasons will show what's happening in a easy to see quantitative way (how many, how much), instead of a slow sometimes difficult to interpret qualitative way. 

 

People will also post their qualitative answers in the poll threads.

 

Once staff can see what's happening, they can start coming up with solutions.  We've had great ideas in threads, maybe they can be implemented once the staff can see quantitatively where their work will do the most good.

 

Many people have mentioned crime, security and getting their rp session ruined by attackers as a big reason they rp indoors.  Well, here's a possible solution.  Have most crime happen after dark.  In rough neighborhoods (Rancho, Strawberry, etc.) crime can happen any time, but in other neighborhoods let it happen during hours of darkness or something.  It's not a perfect idea, but I'm trying to contribute to ideas which can increase the server population, and players need rp.

 

Another thing, is criminals can voluntarily decide not to hassle people roleplaying outside, unless its a rough neighborhood like Rancho or Strawberry.  Again, maybe that's not realistic, but let's try to encourage all rp instead of just cops and robbers rp.  I'm not saying we only do that, but thugging people when they're trying to rp inherently ruins what they just spent some time doing.  What are they going to do?  Take it inside where they won't be screwed with.  Then we're back to deserted streets and everyone in houses, like they're waiting for the Purge or something.  Cops, maybe take a voluntary community engagement demeanor with gangstas rping outside instead of going hardcore.  Not saying that it's all hardcore, just bringing up some possibilities based on what people have said on previous threads.

 

Bars, try having waitresses serve outside so people can form a crowd having a good time outside the venue.

 

 

[Hollywood]

On 10/23/2018 at 10:54 PM, Libra said:

but I feel we could grow in numbers just by even posting youtube videos, doing lets plays etc and getting GTA: World out there. 

 

Bringing in new faces/players isn't an issue. If we made a concentrated push to advertising and media content we'd see (and have seen) an influx of newbies.

 

Keeping folks around, interested and logging back in is the real challenge we currently face as a community. 

 

 

3 hours ago, jcat said:

Voluntary outside rp.  People need to be visible so people can see that something is happening, so they stop and interact. 

 

On 10/24/2018 at 12:49 PM, Smilesville said:

how we would encourage new and old players to intermingle more

 

On 10/24/2018 at 12:30 PM, Smilesville said:

The biggest hurdle I've had to face on the server is making new contacts

 

 

 

Plain and simple, when someone logs on for the first time they are unlikely to encounter anything overly unique or eye-catching because the majority of RP is being facilitated indoors or in concentrated areas that new faces wouldn't necessarily visit. 

 

I can't say that i'm really sure how to change this dynamic or how to make new players more aware/accessible to other.

 

What I can say is a definite reiteration of what I posted above, we need to focus on keeping quality players interested and attracted to the server rather than large recruitment/advertising campaigns at the moment. I'd rather bring in 10-15 new faces that are hooked on the server than 50-60 new faces that will leave or go elsewhere within a week.

[Crocker]

4 minutes ago, Hollywood said:

Plain and simple, when someone logs on for the first time they are unlikely to encounter anything overly unique or eye-catching because the majority of RP is being facilitated indoors or in concentrated areas that new faces wouldn't necessarily visit. 

 

I can't say that i'm really sure how to change this dynamic or how to make new players more aware/accessible to other.

 

What I can say is a definite reiteration of what I posted above, we need to focus on keeping quality players interested and attracted to the server rather than large recruitment/advertising campaigns at the moment. I'd rather bring in 10-15 new faces that are hooked on the server than 50-60 new faces that will leave or go elsewhere within a week.

 

I couldn't agree more.