Character uniqueness

[Barbary]

Honestly, I don't think making a character 'unique' is a problem or a boon. This is a hobby, we're all trying to have fun here. The core problem always arises whenever different characters from different swaths and scenes try to impose their desires upon or at the OOC expense of another scene.

 

Everyone is the hero/protagonist of their own story. Some people try to make the story about a grounded drama in a modern American city, some people treat it like a TV sitcom or an HBO white collar political thriller, some people try to frame things like it's some blockbuster movie like End of Watch or Green Mile or Boys n the Hood. With a server as large and diverse as this one, it lets people generally create RP microcosms to cater to whatever niche they particularly care about. This can often mean that characters who fit one microcosm will clash with another when they randomly engage one another in the open world. So when a 'mallrat' talks to your super grounded and realistic Chicano, with either player seeing their RP as inherently more important than the other player's, things get ugly. Reaaaaaaaaaally fast.

 

I mean for crying out loud, look at that Robbery thread that got closed down. We had some people from one side saying that certain kinds of RP 'shouldn't be long term or valued' and we had other people from another group basically saying 'fuck you I do what I want.' And how did that whole thing end up? Locked and archived. Just like how people start slinging shit in /b or /f in game.

 

At the end of the day, I put more weight on how a player RPs with others more than I do who their character is. A good backstory/premise for a character is a foundation, but you can still build a God-awful house on solid ground. On the flipside, you can build a really pretty house in the Rockies that's always at risk of a mountain slide. You can make a bizarre and 'unique' character plenty fun with hard work.

 

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TL/DR: We're all actors on the same stage, and actors that don't play nice tend to get fired or ostracized. Don't treat other players like props, do your best to be dynamic and flexible.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Barbary

[Zoinks]

I completely get where a lot of you are coming from, with it often being portrayed poorly, and obnoxious, therefore ruining your own immersion. However it also isn't completely outlandish that these people exist, particularly in a city that replicates irl Los Angeles. I know it's easy to forget if you are european (I am too), or live anywhere but USA, or even if you are American and want to portray america how you experience it personally, but Los Angeles/Los Santos is diverse. There's boring people and there's the obnoxious weird people, the entire premise of GTA 5 SP is satire of this entire thing. While there character might be obnoxious, if I experience that, I just RP my character seeing them as a freak and making no effort to interact with them again, just like you would irl. 

 

I also think perhaps seeing a disabled character and automatically branding them under the notion that they're trying to be special or main character is problematic in itself. Disabled people aren't unique, really. And i'm sure there are roleplayers out there who choose the disability of the day just because they want to be special but we shouldn't brand every character with a disability under the same description, at least not OOCly. There is also an argument on the opposite side of the coin that everyone roleplays the same thing and so anyone slightly reaching out of that norm is deemed 'trying to be unique' when actually they're just creative writers, depending on the character and portrayal.

 

These characters can also be fun if done right. And like someone said prior to me, some people have been roleplaying here since 2017. The vast majority roleplaying in SAMP for years before that. It's a game, and any game gets boring if you do the same shit. People have thousands and thousands of hours here. That's why mods etc exist to offer different experiences to continue playing a game you like without being bored. If someone wants to try something to get them out of the slump of being bored of GTAW, as long as their aim at all times is to keep their RP grounded and authentic, good for them. The truly bad ones can be reported to RPQM, it's as simple as that imo. 

[Memozzy]

Snobby RP critics smh lol

Somw of you really need to go out and touch grass.
 

Let people play the game and have fun. No rules broken? Leave them be.

 

The way some of you are obsessed with RPQM like some RP cops is honestly sad.

[eTaylor]

21 minutes ago, Memozzy said:

Snobby RP critics smh lol

Somw of you really need to go out and touch grass.
 

Let people play the game and have fun. No rules broken? Leave them be.

 

The way some of you are obsessed with RPQM like some RP cops is honestly sad.

Sir, I’m gonna need you to calm down. You were emoting 250 characters in a 100 character emote zone. It also looks like you’re running an aesthetic violation, are those checkered shoes part of a gang mod pack? I’m gonna need to see your server application. 

[Invictus]

theres no such thing as unique characters. what matters is how you roleplay and develop, how other players see you, the immersion you build around yourself and most important of everything to have fun.

 

i prefer normal characters that arent unique in any way shape or form. "unique" characters tend to be pepega asf.

[RSanders]

Main character syndrome.

[alina2137]

I feel like many roleplayers don't have a basic understanding of how Americans are nowadays, especially Californians. I'm not trying to say "Amerika so badd omg" but a lot of Californians could really walk by someone's dead body and go "Oh, that sucks I guess". So it always baffles me how people get so butthurt over those freaky and weird characters doing some stupid shit like it's not just another day in the city of dreams.

[Decker]

15 hours ago, hentai! said:

I feel like many roleplayers don't have a basic understanding of how Americans are nowadays, especially Californians. I'm not trying to say "Amerika so badd omg" but a lot of Californians could really walk by someone's dead body and go "Oh, that sucks I guess". So it always baffles me how people get so butthurt over those freaky and weird characters doing some stupid shit like it's not just another day in the city of dreams.

because most people's ideas of a unique character is a british lesbian with pink hair that has 20 jobs at 20 different places and is also a mute who talks by typing on a nintendo ds

[alina2137]

44 minutes ago, Decker said:

because most people's ideas of a unique character is a british lesbian with pink hair that has 20 jobs at 20 different places and is also a mute who talks by typing on a nintendo ds

I have this rare theory that there's a shit ton of British characters simply because British people can't be fucked to learn like 30 words of American English for RP but I dunno. I agree though.

[peasoup]

A lot of "unique" characters aren't really all that weird or unrealistic by RL standards. They're just not one of the conventional tropes that people expect on GTAW, so they stand out. On the other hand, a number of supposedly grounded and realistic characters immediately become John Wick the minute guns are out, but that's normal.

 

Regardless, people who react with shock and awe at seeing fat characters should be summarily CKed for poor portrayal.