Why is LCN RP so stigmatized?

[Vice_]

People who are the actual demographic for this platform will always be drawn to good writing and meaningful story. And forget about people who don't care for those things. They're not your audience and certainly not your buddy. Even if you spare no expense and portray a realistic blue-collar worker, you'll still be stampeded to death by the plethora of quickened texts and emotes of some silly nobody, who wants to ruin your day for sport.

 

So, make your circle small. Filter out people you'll associate with. I don't care who you are behind a monitor, or if you're portraying a wacky character who thinks themselves the Earl of Denmark -- that's not what matters. It's not what you do, but the way that you do it.

 

I think that overall, people are inclined to ridicule people who paragraph RP on this platform; as if it's too slow and "how dare you waste my time with this reading nonsense". Yet, the most violent groups and large-scale concepts definitely have a need for this slow-burn process. Otherwise, you're without any flavor or nuance. And the little things are what people will stay for. The dedicated group of interesting players who are creative enough to hit the ball back and forth.

 

I do understand the sad irony of this certain RP, as it leans heavily towards money-making schemes. And to really procure something special and real, you're going to have to forget about those numbers at the top right of your screen. That idea alone will definitely make some players uncomfortable. Yet, fuck 'em. What really matters is the top left of your screen, that little box, hopefully filled with white and purple text that paints a pretty picture. And that concept, undeniably, is why we're all here -- whether or not people are smart enough to realize it.

 

This is a reading and writing game. I promise you, from the bottom of my heart, if you can play with that in mind, anything is possible.

[Xposed]

25 minutes ago, Sniekily said:

I've been off GTAW for a while now, but was part of MCF during what I would call its Golden Age. I was never the most active, never an LCN heavyweight, but was blessed to be in  Frank (legend) Palma's crew, which was just a group of sound guys having fun with the concept. This was how it was across the board in MCF. Sure we had our issues, occasional bad apples, but I choose to believe that 99% of people in there had the best intentions, as I think 90-ish percent of the entire server population does too.

 

It's weird to me that the main argument people are giving here is realism's sake. As many have pointed out, it's a game, get over yourselves. As others have pointed out, there are plenty terribly done concepts to point out, even more individual characters to point out for garbage portrayal, and overall situations that never should have happened in the first place (MCF-ETOC war, but that's a whole other can of beans). I don't wanna point at other people's portrayal of MCs, Surenos, Eastern-European OC, etc, because what does it matter? If someone wants to mostly ERP during their time on GTAW, I think that's weird, but fucking let them, unless they're breaking the rules surrounding it. Why can't we judge everyone on an individual basis. That's what the report system is for, it's what the RPQM reports are for, it's what faction reports are for. You weed out the bad apples, you weed out the shit portrayal, and the quality rises as a whole. But to claim that banning LCN as a whole makes the server better as a whole, is an incredibly egregious statement. 

 

A lot of comments I see here are arguing 'it doesn't fit with the lore of the server'. Well, whether you like it or not, Conti and MCF were both 2 big players in the illegal scene of the server for a good long while. It's part of the server's history, of it's actual lore, made IC'ly through roleplay. If we're gonna use lore as an argument, then an LCN family should definitely be allowed to happen again, because it already has happened before through IC events, IC actions by people's characters, and IC happenstance that created just the right conditions for it to become as big as it did. Not even mentioning what others have, namely the amount of businesses, legal jobs (MMA, port, construction), and rackets that were set up legitimately, providing RP for all involved, extending far beyond just the MCF roster.

 

I think people be allowed to portray what they wish to portray, as long as they portray it right, and give everyone else that freedom too. From my time on GTAW, I'm of course disillusioned from the notion that that will ever happen, but come on, everyone roleplays to have fun. Why not let people who want to RP LCN right, have theirs?

 

 

ps

MCF-ETOC war fucking SUCKED

+1

[Joseph_Campo]

I'm going to post a video, and I want you guys to fast-forward to 21 minutes. This video is days old, someone just so happens to ask Samuel Gravano if he had ever run into a West Coast "family". He answers no,  but also goes to say he's always known it to be open territory. What that means? I'll leave that to you. But truly, if you don't think there is mob presence in California, you're horribly wrong. If you do your research online, the leftover of LA crime family is suspected to be an extension of one of the familes' at this time, and no longer considered a family.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Joseph_Campo

[CowboyYoda22]

Organized Crime groups are operating still across the US, just in extremely low-key ways. There have been reports and belief by the FBI that they are growing again, but the key thing that a lot of people need to take into account is that it's not your grandfather's mob. There's frankly not enough pure blooded Italian americans interested in that lifestyle to fill out their ranks. The Federal RICO and advancements in anti-crime technology has turned these groups to becoming very subtle in how they operate. Sure it's a game, a game should be fun, but you should still try to portray a modern day setting. 

A small crew running out of a random hole in the wall business, portraying accurate fear, operating using smart business tactics and appearing as completely legal would be the way to go. Your ultimate goal is money, what's the point of controlling a corner if a more populated ethnic group can easily send a new wave of people to contest you for that corner? It just doesn't make sense. We live in a digital age where there is a wide variety of ways to make money in some sort of shady way. 

Anyone that portrays an organized crime character in 2023 should have three goals in my mind: 1.) Keep money flowing in. 2.) Maintain their legal cover 3.) Avoid the Feds at all costs. 

Ultimately, I don't care what character people play as, as long as it's not just blatant griefing. It's a game that I go into to relax, do a little crime, rp with interesting characters. As an American, there is nothing realistic about GTAW Los Santos lol, so it's always funny when people bring that up as such a big concern. Most characters do not have the mannerisms or the subtle nuances that it takes to accurately portray a culture on a deeper level, in terms of thought patterns, mannerisms, etc. I don't really care because 95% of the server doesn't live in the US and only has media to go off of, but it is always interesting to see the same people claim that they want it to be a highly immersive experience.

Edited May 22, 2023 by CowboyYoda22

[Xposed]

Nobody said anything about starting as an Organized Crime Family, we all want to start from the bottom, as a crew, work our way up, I already got involved in plenty of legal businesses, including a big one that I have on lease, no criminal record and a drug lab hidden somewhere, so I can say that I've got my share of things set up but at what cost? I worked hard for all of this stuff and put in hours and hours of playing on the server to create my character, make relations and so on, and for what? To have it all cracked down by IFM, "NO LCN ON THE WEST COAST" like for real now....nobody asked for a Crime Family, but for a small crew to start off with and make our way up as time goes by, but I guess that it's not allowed to show character development and portrayal of an Italian-American character. All we've got are MC's with patched members that are spawned in (no need for any prior character development or anything, you just put on a patch on a leather vest and BAM, you El Presidente amongst other 10 patched muscle guys) and gringo's shooting you if you diss their clique, lol, this the truth.

[MurderO]

Ultra nationalist contra Neo Nazism hardly exist  in Los Angeles 2023 but we make exceptions (no that wasn't a shot at anybody, it was an example) Let people RP what they want, stop being weird about it, LCN isn't an entirely fictional concept because at it's core level it's a group of Italians doing crime together, I don't understand how that wouldn't be feasible.

[CowboyYoda22]

8 minutes ago, Xposed said:

Nobody said anything about starting as an Organized Crime Family, we all want to start from the bottom, as a crew, work our way up, I already got involved in plenty of legal businesses, including a big one that I have on lease, no criminal record and a drug lab hidden somewhere, so I can say that I've got my share of things set up but at what cost? I worked hard for all of this stuff and put in hours and hours of playing on the server to create my character, make relations and so on, and for what? To have it all cracked down by IFM, "NO LCN ON THE WEST COAST" like for real now....nobody asked for a Crime Family, but for a small crew to start off with and make our way up as time goes by, but I guess that it's not allowed to show character development and portrayal of an Italian-American character. All we've got are MC's with patched members that are spawned in (no need for any prior character development or anything, you just put on a patch on a leather vest and BAM, you El Presidente amongst other 10 patched muscle guys) and gringo's shooting you if you diss their clique, lol, this the truth.

Personally, I'd just go more of the route of a multi-cultural criminal group. The big thing is that I think there should be more non italians in these crews. Italian Americans aren't really a population that is growing in the modern day. Have a few different other white american ethnicities, maybe work with some street kids for the more dirty stuff. You might not be able to be full italian, you might have no backing of a family or something like that. But you'd be able to portray a modern american organized crime ring. It's better to be completely decentralized and just loose in who you work with and ally with, it keeps the Feds from being able to pinpoint who is what or with whom. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by CowboyYoda22

[DLimit]

 

[Belisarius]

All IFM needs to do is take one look at this thread and see how poorly they’ve handled the whole “realism” point. They seem to have chosen to die on that hill for whatever reason and as others have said, it will ultimately be a massive missed opportunity to add further life to this community and even increase its player count.

 

The replies from pro-LCN people in this thread shows a variety of valid arguments for LCN RP and also pointing out of contradictions and hypocrisy against said RP. The replies from the anti-LCN crowd usually goes something along the lines of “I’m an LCN fan” and then proceed to make the same nonsensical “realism” point. Either that or just plain trolling.

 

When you look at both sides, you can plainly see which one makes more sense. One side says no out of possibly jealousy, bad individual experiences or because they themselves don’t like LCN RP anymore and have moved on but for some reason doesn’t want others to do it.

 

The other side says it’s a game and liberties are taken with realism all over the server, so it doesn’t make sense to say no to LCN. Especially when, as somebody pointed out, the Nortenos were approved as a thread despite being on the banned/prohibited list. Why was that concept approved? Was it because somebody is friends with somebody in IFM? I don’t know, but all of this reeks of insincerity and personally driven agendas to prevent people from… Having fun on an RP server?

 

I want to make it clear again: there’s literally nobody that wants some massive crime family spawned in. All everybody wants is the opportunity to portray characters whose IC trajectory may result in such a crime family through their own IC movements and alliances, etc, etc.

 

It is literally against the whole point of RPing if everything has to be this close to realism. Should we also start handing out fines via street cameras for speeding? Have everybody get fined for parking? Let’s also forcefully age everybody up whenever someone goes into prison so it doesn’t break continuity and realism too while we’re at it.

 

Ridiculous.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Belisarius
sp

[el capo]

26 minutes ago, CowboyYoda22 said:

Personally, I'd just go more of the route of a multi-cultural criminal group. The big thing is that I think there should be more non italians in these crews. Italian Americans aren't really a population that is growing in the modern day. Have a few different other white american ethnicities, maybe work with some street kids for the more dirty stuff. You might not be able to be full italian, you might have no backing of a family or something like that. But you'd be able to portray a modern american organized crime ring. It's better to be completely decentralized and just loose in who you work with and ally with, it keeps the Feds from being able to pinpoint who is what or with whom. 

They'd never agree to that, because at the back of their mind, they want to eventually become an OCF, only like 1-2 people on this thread would genuinely roleplay a micky mouse type, no influence crew.