Why is LCN RP so stigmatized?

[kypchak]

1 minute ago, el capo said:

 

without any modern examples the only type of roleplay you're gonna get is characters based on old LCN stereotypes with one or decent characters who would have been better off roleplaying something else. There is no positive aspect of an LCN faction in the game other than pleasing the two or three people who want it to be a thing, you wan to do white collar crime? Go make a AP crew and run that under them, other than that how does an LCN faction positively affect the criminal underworld in GTA W?

Bro, can't you understand what you read?

[Bolax]

35 minutes ago, Mahiko said:

a faction whos sole purpose isn't to disrupt every single bit of public legal RP

If you genuinely think that any gang faction's sole purpose is to disrupt every single bit of legal RP then you have a very concerning outlook lol.

[el capo]

2 minutes ago, kypchak said:

Bro, can't you understand what you read?

Is this how people try to win arguments nowadays lmfao

[Mahiko]

2 minutes ago, Bolax said:

If you genuinely think that any gang faction's sole purpose is to disrupt every single bit of legal RP then you have a very concerning outlook lol.

Not saying every gang faction, but there's a lot of them that purely seek clout through it, and it destroys more than it creates.

[Chuckles]

The reason it's so stigmatized is because the modern representation of the mob on the west coast is unappealing to the masses who would much rather impersonate the stereotype. As someone who recently closed a faction of this nature a couple of roadblocks I ran into when attempting to realistically roleplay the existence of leftovers of the mob were not with the people I started the faction with, but with the people who tried joining. The culture and continuity of the scene is that far gone that it's almost impossible to do anything remotely similar to how it would be in modern times.

 

A lot of us were semi-legit and the rest were wannabes and low-level but when there's nobody of "status" in the faction IC and your portrayal is lowkey it's often mistaken as being powerless and frightened because a lot of these roleplayers take pride in wars, status, numbers and power which shouldn't even be a topic of discussion in the modern day. It's extremely hard to break a trend and even more difficult to get through to people who won't take constructive criticism without being offended. I spent a lot of time trying to guide people in the right direction in terms of portrayal but it was brushed off and taken the wrong way because people had been "doing this for years."

 

IFM are completely in the right to gatekeep this concept and I agree with their stance even more-so having been one of the few who in recent times got through to the unofficial faction section with this concept. While it is not completely defunct, the remnants of what once-was are hidden and in the background of the criminal underworld. Whilst east coast involvement in LA is and has been a thing and their presence has been documented and proven on multiple occasions, what happens on this server completely misrepresents that. You do see east coast criminals and wiseguys come to LA but what you don't see, like we see time and time again here, is an entire crew of 10+ people come from a New York neighbourhood and develop into the X Y Z crime family.

 

The LA crime family is that in name alone. If you were to look through the roster of the family, there's maybe 6-8 people from different east coast-based families listed as members of it including the Buffalo family, the Patriarca family, the Colombo family and most recently Canada's Musitano crime family. One thing that's generalized the genre is its failure to identify the cultural differences between coasts and I think that's what's left people fed up with the genre, myself included. I've been involved with this category of RP for a long time dating back to early LSRP and it's just not fit for this sort of server or environment.

 

The truth is nobody is interested in roleplaying the small, modern and under the radar factions, they're much more interested in the huge rosters, wars and clichés.  Here's some of the resources I have in my discord from our attempt to modernize it.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R-iiD6uNrc&ab_channel=ArmchairMBA 

 

https://gangsterreport.com/when-california-dreaming-becomes-deadly-was-hamilton-on-mob-figure-made-in-l-a-in-the-weeks-before-he-was-killed/

 

Jimmy Caci & LA’s Buffalo Faction – Silver Screen Wiseguys (wordpress.com)

 

Quote

The 2003 Annual Report to the California Legislature on Organized Crime mentions 'traditional organized crime' (LCN) as a "dwindling and diminishing presence". It estimated the Southern California family had 15-20 members, and there was some activity from the east coast families too. The last version of this report in 2010 does not even mention LCN at all as an organized crime threat in California.

 

[Trupiano]

LCN RP is stigmatized for 2 reasons/core beliefs within the community. 

 

1. "The mob doesn't exist on the West Coast" This is pretty much true and LCN is the only faction type like this where it's still allowed. For certain people that's frustrating, I know for a fact that there are players who hate on LCN RP because at the core of it they are frustrated they can't do Yakuza RP. I see the hypocrisy but also see why it's allowed, it's easily translatable to the west coast and personally I feel like you really have to have another secret grudge if this is your only gripe with LCN RP.

 

2. "All LCN characters are bad Sopranos/godfather/goodfellas knock offs" This is tricky because I feel there is both a kernel of truth and a bit of a misunderstanding around this stereotype. There are absolutely characters who fall into there's stereotypes, I've been doing LCN RP for the better part of 4 years and it's clear as day IC when the extent of their LCN knowledge is their first time watching Goodfellas last weekend. That being said I think a lot of members of the community have the same extent of knowledge and so when they bump into any LCN character they just assume its a bad knock off. 

 

I personally think the level of stigmatism LCN has received from the community is unfair. It's fine to have gripes about certain areas of RP but the "fuck LCN" crowd goes OOC with their level of hatred, constantly power gaming and trolling LCN RPers any chance they get. That's sad because without LCN RP the last 3 years, the peak during quarantine isn't nearly as fun as it was. We had two fully functioning crime families with over 30 made men, 5-6 different crews and hundreds of associates. We ran 20+ different businesses, we created unique RP jobs in the form of the port and construction along with respective unions, we ran the Country Club, the MMA circuit, pretty much every casino. If one of the LCN factions didn't run it, they probably had a hand in it. So I'd say even if you hate our guts, you probably enjoyed the RP we created one way or another.

 

I think the server had a great run with big massive LCN factions but those days should be in our past. Like the exact same organizations we're trying to RP, both families peaked in power and were either cracked by investigation, infighting or simply died from age with no one to replace them. All that's left is a few, very loosely knit crews and a handful of characters with a connection to the past. Let it fucking be.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Trupiano

[WeBrim]

1 hour ago, el capo said:

wedit - just proves that most of this is fake, 10 pages and not one article, video, or book snip to justify that the mob is still vibrant in LA. 

Kind of cringe you're trying to argue something with no knowledge in the field, your little google search wont prove anything

I literally have a cousin who is half italian and is involved in the Cali mob, which look over LA and the Bay. You don't know what you're talking about and its getting cringey. 

[Cartoonhead]

5 minutes ago, WeBrim said:

Kind of cringe you're trying to argue something with no knowledge in the field, your little google search wont prove anything

I literally have a cousin who is half italian and is involved in the Cali mob, which look over LA and the Bay. You don't know what you're talking about and its getting cringey. 

🤣🤣 

[miguelito]

 

 

[NickyW]

I just think it’d be really interesting to have some former gang members come on here and tell people  how “realistic” some of the official factions' portrayal is.

 

This community is by and large 18-24 year old middle class dudes who’ve never so much as bought adderall for an exam, let alone embroiled themselves in any sort of actual criminal dealings.

 

if you want realistic portrayal, get rid of the DM rule and watch people kill eachother over traffic accidents. That happens a lot more than “he shot my homie so I block wiped him with my Draco” and the other dogshit you see in approved CK apps.

 

I don’t have an issue with stigmatizing poor LCN RP so much as I do with the overwhelming hypocrisy. If you got rid of all the glamorized, movie-based stereotypical factions on this server, there’d be like three left, and they’d probably all be non-Gov legal business facs.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by NickyW