Unofficial Faction Submissions

[Nervous]

I was the one who heavily pushed for the group system in 2021 and I still believe in this sytem despite its need for some improvements. However both setups have their pros & cons, and the group system is way more difficult for IFM to handle the way it was designed due to many players (included some that commented here) constantly recreating the same DM groups with their same DM friends.

I'll push the discussion with them since I kind of represent the group opinion for them and be able to play the devil's advocate with their current system, so it should be interesting! I'm sure we can find a common middleground that matches everyone's expectations.

[lil casamigo]

Yo.

 

As many people know ive recently been moved into IFM this past month or so. I’m going to chime in on some things for both sides of the coin. 

 

 

I tuned in to the “podcast”, and there were some points made that actually made sense. The questionable backflip punishment, certain concepts being favored over others, certain individuals who may seem immortal to punishment due to their connections to admins, black Gang RP and its governing card being held behind, and quality of factions that currently exist. Real solid statements that should be pulled into question.

 

But looking into the aspect of us as IFM having to approve or deny factions, there are some benefits to being an unofficial faction. Back then, having access to the script was a “we finally made it” kind of thing when you got official. Now, it allows us to keep track of members in factions better than we could in the past. I know people say “who gives a shit about the script”, but it prevents things and lets us look into situations better such as individuals creating characters just to join in on their friends wars, etc. Unofficial factions also get access to drug labs, schemes, and the ability to request houses or apartments in their turfs.

 

 

Official factions get more benefits. Access to an additional lab, access to supplier roles, safe houses, chop shops, faction related businesses. There’s also the aspect of having the upper hand over unofficial factions in terms of war (something I think is good, but can also be manipulated in conflicts).

 

 

I don’t believe they should just be statuses. It’s not only corny if we reduce it to that, but it removes the effort, and gain of accomplishments. 

 

I don’t believe that the idea of applying should hold you back from roleplaying with your friends. It shouldn’t be totally based on records, but sometimes it isn’t. There are groups of individuals who the community pass off as toxic. Whether its starting issues with another faction based on OOC, being labeled as a common faction hopper or mole (this has been a recent issue with people just joining their enemy faction's to get information from their discords and when they hop ig, etc.) and outright deathmatching. What all of this leads to is more faction reports. Even in my brief time in IFM, I've had to deal with a few. Sometimes their just outright petty, or revenge reporting because you got reported. It creates a shitstorm of work for us, and then people get upset when they don't get responses in time.

 

But as said by a certain individual, we need to be more responsible. If you want to have fun? Lets stop report wars, going "hollywood" when discussing terms, and the idea of cutting interactions just because you are losing. Faction leaders and members have to be better. Of course, that's not something we like to deal with. Why should we have to sit through and approve a concept that would just get reported for deathmatching, common courtesy, and metagaming? So that we have to go through the process of searching through logs and scrapping your factions again? 

 

Lets be realistic and fair to each other first before we start getting to the idea of dismantling what we have set in stone. I get that we want to have fun, I do too. But most of the time I'm overloaded with work because of what faction A did to faction B. Now that I'm in IFM sometimes it interrupts my own fun because I get pinged to look into a report. Or someone wants to stop interactions with X or Y because they feel its unfair. You have roleplay that is reduced now to who can make the best clips, who has the most OOC connections (I know a lot of history about a lot of people in this topic needless to say, I wont discuss that because I'm not going Uncle Tom on anybody. Lot of you still have one on one conversations with me and know I keep it real) or who has the most clout. If going forward, we can trust players to limit the amount of needless reports, then sure. Lets suggest an alternative.

 

I'm sure you all remember the troll threads in the past. 

 

4KT, O Block, West Side 13 14 Avenue Crip Piru, stuff like that. Its funny but nobody wants to see that. And the current system also protects issues like that as well. 

Edited March 26, 2023 by lil casamigo

[marbella mondays]

Personally I think the group system just complicates stuff even more, it seems a lot of the people heavily against the approval process are people who have gotten denied n are looking at it with a one sided bias opinion.

 

I would honestly just keep it how it is right now, but maybe change a few things:

- Don’t deny people for there being too many of the same concept, i.e letting multiple Maravilla or 18th street cliques open.

- If there are concerns about someone who’s currently applying, before straight up denying them; maybe let them explain their side first.

 

Adding back the group system just puts a heavier workload onto ifm that isn’t needed.

[Zoinks]

I'm on the fence with this, i'll start with why I agree with the current setup. 

 

Having unofficial facs/groups behind an application stops there from being an oversaturation of a concept, it stops DM groups spawning, causing trouble, closing, then the same DM group joining in a slightly different territory, and repeat. It keeps RP quality under check and I think that's important. 

 

However, I have a few gripes with it, in general and from own experiences.

 

- One being that you can't fully dictate a group's RP quality from an application. A DM group could bullshit their way into an approval. Sure, they might get shut down in a couple of months, but regardless, for those few months they take up space that another group could take. I don't think this stops DM groups from spawning in, just delays it.

 

- Allowing people to put up a group thread with no paperwork attached then later on applying for official and server benefits gives more of an idea of a group's RP quality because you see it. You see it in the game, you see it in threads and SS, and making the decision of making them official or not has more evidence to back it up rather than a one page application.

 

- Let's be real, it doesn't actually prevent oversaturation of a concept. There's still MCs everywhere. County is nothing but woods. There's nothing inherently wrong with these concepts and they're much needed, but it seems like some concepts get a free-for-all while others you need to be friends with an admin to get a chance to show why it'd be good for the server. Myself with a group of friends tried to apply for an unofficial mexican faction in Harmony (not nortenos, more so a rural mexican community with some illegal activity in there) and we were denied on the premise that "our characters could join one of the other county factions." When we messaged for further information on what made them settle on that decision and how they think a 45 year old Mexican man would fit into county peckerwood groups or MCs, we were blatantly ignored by several IFM members. Resulting in the shut down of what could have been another dynamic of County for people to get involved in with illegal immigrants, coyotes, etc. I think this is a much needed part of county since the areas that sandy/harmony/grapeseed are based off of IRL are 40-50% latino population, and had we been given the chance to show it's place in the county region, I think it would have been a great alternative for people who want to RP in county but don't want to RP white or wood or biker. 

 

I think IFM needs to micromanage less, let people make groups without an application with a 1 month probation or something, and then if that group ends up stirring up problems, or is an unrealistic concept, they can act after the fact, not prior. The application does nothing, really, bar unnecessarily limiting things and DMers will reveal themselves regardless.

 

[Nervous]

I’ll lock as it’s becoming toxic.

The messages were taken into account and we’re going to internally discussing some improvements between management and IFM.