Portrayal Issues

[soudiere]

45 minutes ago, pateuvasiliu said:

Where do people get this idea that cops are poor? There was a site that showed how much cops around the LA county were being paid and many were making 200,000 - 300,000 $ a year. The average Los Angeles salary is about 70,000, so that's 3-4 times above average.

 

 

 

This on top of how much it costs to live in L.A.? Yeah, it ain't happening.

[Stanty]

You have been portraying similar concept over and over again and had issues with your portrayal each time. You have been part of multiple different factions and they all came to the same conclusion so clearly there is something wrong with the way you portray your characters.

 

I have been roleplaying on GTA for almost a decade now and what helped me improve was leaving my comfort zone. I RP one life characters, every time my character dies and death makes sense, I CK and make a new character. Each time, I try to make a character which is different from all the other characters I previously had, constantly trying out new concepts because I enjoy developing different characters and that truly helped me improve. Some of my characters last for only a few months until they die, some I managed to keep developing for over a year.

 

My honest advice would be to leave you comfort zone completely and make a character which is polar opposite of what you have been portraying. You say you always try to do your best and I am sure you will try your best with a new concept as well. Stay away from legal factions with your new character and don't make another Italian-American, you can try to join an illegal faction but I would recommend to try and develop a civilian character, maybe this time you should make a poor character, possibly even homeless, there are a lot of character concepts you can choose from.

If you happen to join a faction, legal or illegal, almost every faction provides a helpful guideline to help you portray your character realistically. Read the guideline multiple times if you need to, make sure you clearly understand what sort of roleplay the faction expects from you. If there is something you do not understand you can always reach out to the faction leaders. From my personal experience, the faction leaders are easily approachable and they are happy to assist you and help you improve your character's portrayal.
 

Another thing I see a lot of players struggle with is to remain IC at all times. Keep OOC interactions to the minimum, as much as you can, even when the situation feels unfair or you think another player is breaking rules, there is no benefit from discussing stuff in /b or /pm, do not stall RP, you can /report and remain IC, continue the RP. If admins don't respond to your /report, it's fine, you can always take it to the forums once the situation is over if you feel like it's necessary.

 

Hope this helps you improve!

[Lilypad]

From an RPQM point of view we value when people have character development and justification in their character. A prime example, without granting details, would be a report on a character who from very brief interactions became an RPQM concern. This concern was investigated and, actually, though those brief interactions were deemed poor portrayal they had thoroughly researched what they were doing and held proof from every angle for their actions. It's so easy to judge a book by its cover; but you need to remember as well that this is a game and we want everyone to enjoy themselves. What some may deem poor portrayal may actually have reasons undisclosed behind them. 🙂

Edited December 15, 2022 by Lilypad

[bonk]

12 minutes ago, Lilypad said:

From an RPQM point of view we value when people have character development and justification in their character. A prime example, without granting details, would be a report on a character who from very brief interactions became an RPQM concern. This concern was investigated and, actually, though those brief interactions were deemed poor portrayal they had thoroughly researched what they were doing and held proof from every angle for their actions. It's so easy to judge a book by its cover; but you need to remember as well that this is a game and we want everyone to enjoy themselves. What some may deem poor portrayal may actually have reasons undisclosed behind them. 🙂

 

Lots said.

 

But, not much made sense.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Lilypad

[Lilypad]

16 minutes ago, bonk said:

 

Lots said.

 

But, not much made sense.

 

That's just my personal poor portrayal. Joys of lacking sleep and a day with preschoolers.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Lilypad

[Valkyria]

What does "portrayal issues" mean to you and who is able to determine it? Have you ever been told you have portrayal issues?

 

It's a broad and mostly subjective term. There are, however, some more objective/grounded things to look out for. It's not a portrayal issue if you play a white, Italian-American. It's not a portrayal issue if you stick to some sort of general theme, but it is a portrayal issue if the characters feel one and the same but with a different name.

 

There's one issue that seems to be inherent in all of my issues and it's a commonly cited one: portrayal concerns. Character portrayal issues. Roleplay quality. 

 

Personally, I think you're overall fine. I haven't hated a roleplayed interaction with you thus far, but you have a tendency of getting into some goofy silly situations once every three-four months which makes you look very bad and is hard to defend. The worst part is that you don't even do it out of malice, but people in roleplay communities are predisposed to believe that malice is at the forefront of every action.

 

I haven't ever encountered the term portrayal concerns until landing here, at Grand Theft Auto: World. Maybe that's because my former mediums of roleplay aren't that noteworthy or perhaps not expansive enough but I engaged in everything from tabletop to Garry's Mod to Conan, SWTOR, and more. This term appears to be unique here and what's more, is it seems to be used sparingly. 

 

Sort of. It's usually called something different and it's mostly a community-based thing. Also a game-based thing. What's a PK here is a CK on Garry's Mod, for example. Kinda weird, but you'll see it in a different cloth everywhere you go. People will usually say that X or Y is simply put — not a good roleplayer instead of trying to say how it's a portrayal issue of some sort. That is the case in most games/communities other than this one. Really, you'll find it anywhere if you look hard enough.

 

I suppose my biggest issue with the term is that there are no set criteria for what poor portrayal really is, does it mean that your character doesn't act according to certain unlisted expectations or rules, does it mean that your objective roleplay quality is poor i.e. grammar and /mes, or that your character's goals aren't defined or you simply can't roleplay well?

 

It's a political tool used for stonewalling people in most cases, therefore it's very ambiguous. There's going to be very few things they'll point out if you ask for feedback, and if you do, they'll be very miniscule/nitpicky/petty, and you'll note that at no point in time nobody has spoken to you about it, but you were expected to fix something you never thought of as erroneous to begin with.

 

To me, I believe portrayal should be left to the judgement of RPQM ultimately... and whatever criteria it is they utilize to try and discern good characters from bad. Allowing factions to make those determinations themselves on what is and isn't okay for a character is a bit of a slippery slope, especially if it seemingly comes off to the whims of leadership inside of those factions that has no formal connections or ties to RPQM or any quality assurance times such as LFM.

 

I do not agree with this. RPQM does not know the inner operations of X/Y/Z faction(s), and neither does LFM in most cases. During my tenure in RPQM, I had some extremely lengthy cases and they went nowhere despite unanimous administrative agreement that, hey, that person is not up to server standards. That's not to say all of them were unsuccessful, but they were simply way too tedious to work and I had to deliver large documents to players explaining our stance on things and what we can do moving forward.

 

And with reputations that seemingly carry from one circle to another, it's often the same people making those decisions over the same people that are on the proverbial shit-list of being labeled and denigrated a poor roleplayer or someone with a poor character. It shatters the IC/OOC boundary by halting progression or development artificially.

 

Such boundaries have long since been crossed. However, if I speak, I am in big trouble so I much prefer to hold my peace. 🤫

 

I don't know why I wrote this, but maybe I'd like some opinions from the community about what I believe is an unspoken issue, and that is the issue of lording over others' roleplay.

 

People don't like it when other people have fun.

 

Am I a shitbag?

 

If anything, there's at least a trend of you being respectful towards other people in discussions. I speak for myself, but I've always appreciated that when dealing with you on an OOC level.

 

 

Remember to buckle up and have fun, @radreaper100. I have a new game to go play!

 

[radreaper100]

5 hours ago, Stanty said:

You have been portraying similar concept over and over again and had issues with your portrayal each time. You have been part of multiple different factions and they all came to the same conclusion so clearly there is something wrong with the way you portray your characters.

 

I have been roleplaying on GTA for almost a decade now and what helped me improve was leaving my comfort zone. I RP one life characters, every time my character dies and death makes sense, I CK and make a new character. Each time, I try to make a character which is different from all the other characters I previously had, constantly trying out new concepts because I enjoy developing different characters and that truly helped me improve. Some of my characters last for only a few months until they die, some I managed to keep developing for over a year.

 

My honest advice would be to leave you comfort zone completely and make a character which is polar opposite of what you have been portraying. You say you always try to do your best and I am sure you will try your best with a new concept as well. Stay away from legal factions with your new character and don't make another Italian-American, you can try to join an illegal faction but I would recommend to try and develop a civilian character, maybe this time you should make a poor character, possibly even homeless, there are a lot of character concepts you can choose from.

If you happen to join a faction, legal or illegal, almost every faction provides a helpful guideline to help you portray your character realistically. Read the guideline multiple times if you need to, make sure you clearly understand what sort of roleplay the faction expects from you. If there is something you do not understand you can always reach out to the faction leaders. From my personal experience, the faction leaders are easily approachable and they are happy to assist you and help you improve your character's portrayal.
 

Another thing I see a lot of players struggle with is to remain IC at all times. Keep OOC interactions to the minimum, as much as you can, even when the situation feels unfair or you think another player is breaking rules, there is no benefit from discussing stuff in /b or /pm, do not stall RP, you can /report and remain IC, continue the RP. If admins don't respond to your /report, it's fine, you can always take it to the forums once the situation is over if you feel like it's necessary.

 

Hope this helps you improve!

 

While I've said I prefer to within my comfort zone I don't ultimately believe that is a huge issue. Being in your comfort zone should be perfectly fine actually. I've heard often from people that tried to offer advice or suggestions that you should just "play a different character" but this blanket statement fails to consider the development and organic growth you already experienced on a character. You should be able to roleplay what you like even if it's far too generic and done over several times so long as it's within the boundaries of what is realistic. If someone wants to play Hispanic females solely, I support that. If someone wants to roleplay black males, I support that. If that's what clicks for you and that's what you like I fail to see how that is poor portrayal in and of itself. "But similarities between chara-" okay, similar doesn't always mean the same and if it's a 1:1 repeat you're better off lodging a report so it can be formally reviewed. To instead stonewall the person as we've previously discussed and halt their progression or otherwise bar or blacklist them from a faction over it is preposterous, especially if the roleplay quality is up to standards, which makes for a miserable experience. Imagine spinning your wheels in the mud for months.

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by radreaper100

[Storm]

90% of people

[Stanty]

1 hour ago, radreaper100 said:

 

While I've said I prefer to within my comfort zone I don't ultimately believe that is a huge issue. Being in your comfort zone should be perfectly fine actually. I've heard often from people that tried to offer advice or suggestions that you should just "play a different character" but this blanket statement fails to consider the development and organic growth you already experienced on a character. You should be able to roleplay what you like even if it's far too generic and done over several times so long as it's within the boundaries of what is realistic. If someone wants to play Hispanic females solely, I support that. If someone wants to roleplay black males, I support that. If that's what clicks for you and that's what you like I fail to see how that is poor portrayal in and of itself. "But similarities between chara-" okay, similar doesn't always mean the same and if it's a 1:1 repeat you're better off lodging a report so it can be formally reviewed. To instead stonewall the person as we've previously discussed and halt their progression or otherwise bar or blacklist them from a faction over it is preposterous, especially if the roleplay quality is up to standards, which makes for a miserable experience. Imagine spinning your wheels in the mud for months.

 

 

 

I never said making similar characters is wrong. I think everyone should RP what they wish to RP.

 

You struggle with realistic portrayal of your characters. You mentioned in your original post that multiple different factions came to the same conclusion about your portrayal. If it was only one faction, I would give you a benefit of the doubt, but it wasn't one, it was a few different legal factions. Unless you are trying to deny that the issue is within you because I find it extremely hard to believe that there is nothing wrong with your character portrayal and multiple different legal factions are wrong and they coincidentally came to the same conclusion about your RP.
 

The reason I recommended to try a completely different concept is because it helped me improve tremendously in the past and perhaps trying different character concepts is going to help you improve your RP and your portrayal as well. 

[SpicyBandito]

1 minute ago, Stanty said:

I never said making similar characters is wrong. I think everyone should RP what they wish to RP.

 

You struggle with realistic portrayal of your characters. You mentioned in your original post that multiple different factions came to the same conclusion about your portrayal. If it was only one faction, I would give you a benefit of the doubt, but it wasn't one, it was a few different legal factions. Unless you are trying to deny that the issue is within you because I find it extremely hard to believe that there is nothing wrong with your character portrayal and multiple different legal factions are wrong and they coincidentally came to the same conclusion about your RP.
 

The reason I recommended to try a completely different concept is because it helped me improve tremendously in the past and perhaps trying different character concepts is going to help you improve your RP and your portrayal as well. 

 

What was exactly wrong with his portrayal, if it got to the point of being deemed unrealistic? If you and @radreaper100don't mind sharing the details? I'm curious because I always thought legal factions were a bit more flexible with their portrayal. I've only played illegal characters, so I'm just very interested to know what portrayal issues are like on the other side of the fence.