Improving the roleplay

[Norrage]

After some conversation with multiple members, I decided to make a topic to get some ideas how we can improve the roleplay on the server. The thing is; we need to find a balance between freeroam and roleplay. We cannot force people to roleplay but currently I cannot see much roleplay in the server unfortunately.

Feel free to state suggestions, improvements, criticism or any other stuff you like. Maybe we can have some interesting idea's out of this!

[DinoKid23]

a common misconception with force roleplay is that people think you cant make people roleplay but it actually means to force a scenario to go your way regardless of the other party's interaction. unless rules are made about making roleplay a must, the numbers will probably stay low l. i could be wrong though

[Ben.]

Wait, bipping my horn at you isn't RP?

[Norrage]

Added the IV:MP tag..

[Kerbe]

Soon enough forcing roleplay might be the only way to maintain at least some level of roleplay on the server. We've reached the point where veteran players have achieved their goals in terms of properties and vehicles and most of the time don't have anything better to do than go up and down the main road... And the hunt for possessions will start over with RS2, I'm afraid. And of course those who are new to our community will do what they see the older players doing...

Playing with the idea of forcing at least basic RP, or at very least not being able to turn down RP, is not that bad at all. The worst that can happen is that we'll lose people who have absolutely no interest in roleplay anyway. I know it might demotivate new players and cause them to leave, but maybe if that's the price we need to pay to have at least some roleplay going on, then it might not be that high after all...

Take a look at the jobs, after police duty which is popular due to the fancy cars and guns and chases, being a fireman is the next most popular one. Which wouldn't be bad if the job required some player interaction. But unfortunately, jobs such as medic or taxi driver that require contact between players are rarely taken on as the profit they promise is rather low, and due to our mentality, profit is the most important part of the server. Why call a medic if you can do /buy meal for a much cheaper price, or why call a taxi when you can just run to the nearest state car for free? To sum this up, we need people to stop being greedy and to seek roleplay instead. A fresh start with RS2 might be just the right chance for that.

[Norrage]

To sum this up, we need people to stop being greedy and to seek roleplay instead. A fresh start with RS2 might be just the right chance for that.

Exactly. And how can we achieve people not being greedy in your opinion?

[SugarD]

If people are failing to roleplay, no matter what number of rules or scripts are put into place, they still will fail to roleplay. This is a user problem, not a server one. MTA:VC faired just fine for years with nothing but minimal text-based scripts. Even with money implemented in the server, people RP'ed it most of the time instead of using the scripted ones just to make interactions more fun. If MTA:VC was successful this way, I see absolutely no reason why IV:MP cannot flourish with all of the fancy stuff it has.

Long story short, the problem is with the people, not the rules/scripts. People must be willing to roleplay with others in order to get the ball rolling. Even off-the-wall roleplays that are beyond normal "real world" events can help with this. (Think of when people have roleplayed shape-shifting dragons in SA:MP to avoid capture by government officials, or when Operation: Jericho took effect in MTA:VC during script outages to defend against hackers in a RP manner). People need to be creative and have fun! The more people having fun and interacting with others, the more likely even more people will join in. This is something that will require everyone to do their part to change.

Edit:

Exactly. And how can we achieve people not being greedy in your opinion?

I seem to have missed his quote, but I agree completely too. To answer your question, players need to be willing to give up some of their wants to dominate everything and be willing to share with others. The mentality needs to get back to everyone being there to have fun, and not everyone being there to see who becomes the #1 player with all of the cash, cars, and power.

[Kerbe]

Exactly. And how can we achieve people not being greedy in your opinion?

Oh, if only I knew... here comes some brainstorming.

Starting from the most extreme and unreal point of view, just remove everything they can own. All cars and businesses are state and houses are registered over forum as it was done before the housing script actually became implemented. This way, they won't strive to have money as they can't buy much. Money would become secondary and people would prefer player-to-player contact instead. But of course this has many flaws and wouldn't be viewed positively by the playerbase used to having everything in private posession. Temporarily remove all possessions to see it's perfectly possible to live without them?

So to get a bit more real, I don't think we can stop players from being greedy ourselves. The impulse needs to come from themselves. They need to decide money is no longer useful and there are better things to do than to farm cash. If people would simply disregard money and stop minding having low (or even negative!) cash, then we could make a progress with roleplay. But right now the more cash you have, the higher you value yourself, even though your money has no real use.

Neither of these is an idea, I'm just going through the stuff in my head, combining the factors that influence the players the most...

[koroush]

As sugarD said : this is not server problem,its just players problem
but I think removing people properties and vehicles is not the best way to make them RP...it makes our server much more freer than now,we wont have anymore players online!
in my opining,if admins start a public RP when they are online,it would encourage other players to make some RPs themselve,cuz theyll enjoy the RP...for example,about 1 year ago,we had many kidnapping RPs,most of people were trying to kidnap others and take them to bank,why?!cuz they saw that RP before,they enjoyed it and tried to make their own RPs..

[Mark]

Even staff is confused on how roleplay should be done around the server. Personally i gave up on this when i realized that none really gave a damn about having fun around the server except ramming and hunting each other for the lol. A-team didn't help either, making up new rules when they weren't even added to the list but just thrown randomly or coming by random thoughts in skype chats, sorry about that but some players kept abusing the new made-up rules for their own advantage (for example avoiding traffic stops when clearly driving like a monkey in a comet at 180 all around the map).
At this point you might wonder why i'm here bitching even if i don't play regularly since months, that's because i would really like to come back with a better atmosphere around the server, sadly that is just impossible, the true regulars left a long ago with all the basic knowledge about RP (sadly, for you old newcomers, we couldn't teach you anything useful, it was either our fault being too focused on our own things or madness at the situation which we were into for years) . If you really want more roleplay around the server, first you should find a way to get the old people back and listen to them, you ignored them for too long. Right now everyone can just make a group and dm around with the exscuse they use poor roleplay and that they need more time to learn, some will get banned but the group will stay and bother those who at least try to interact with them. A long ago you got rid of some people indirectly, ignoring their suggestions and issues with other players around the server, i see there are less troublemakers than before but nothing changed, why? Because you made those who really could improve the server go away or get tired with time, i'm one of them. Tons of false promises and the situation is still the same, playercount is still more important than quality, this is the only truth.

[Kerbe]

We are still talking in general terms, even though we need specific ideas to take place.

First of all, the rule that says you cannot force roleplay is misinterpreted, twisted and abused, as Dinokid said before. We need to make it perfectly clear so people cannot simply refuse roleplay. You came to a RP server to do what, if not roleplay? We've even got so far the police need to make sure a traffic stop is not seen as 'forcing roleplay'. Once this is made clear, we can go on.

Now that we have made sure players will not refuse roleplay on sight, we need to make them seek roleplay. Unfortunately, a lot of our players are sort of lone wolves. They sit around in their car, drive back and forth and have no player interaction at all. This is a perfect opportunity for groups or for example business owners to set up a RP scenario out in the streets and try to attract people to it. Could be a riot, could be free medical examination, could be a hot dog stand (just remember the players lined up in front of Honig's hot dog stand, all eager to roleplay having a delicious hotdog!). To make it a bit more general, active players should always take the chance to roleplay or initiate a roleplay.

The thing right now is no one wants to get out of their character or their comfort zone. To change this, those willing to escape from their comfort zone should do so now and show others that it's the only way they can make the game interesting for them again. Let's have another marathon, a road construction roleplay, an emergency services strike...

Right now, the server population is not nearly as bad as it was a few weeks ago. So let's make the most out of it!

[Killanic]

Personally i gave up on this when i realized that none really gave a damn about having fun around the server except ramming and hunting each other for the lol.

Tons of false promises and the situation is still the same, playercount is still more important than quality, this is the only truth.

I don't get why people keep saying that role-play is such a rare thing in the server just because they do not notice or witness any role-play happening. I role-play a lot, with different players each day. Sometimes I approach them first, and vice-versa. I've recently created a zombie character and so far nobody has rejected the opportunity to role-play with me. Overall I don't think the current situation rn is bad enough to exaggerate by saying "no one really gives a damn about having fun around the server except ramming and hunting each other for the lol." From what i've seen as a very active player is that THERE ARE newcomers who are looking for role-play and can role-play well- the current regulars are proof of that. Also, player count is just as important as quality. No players no role-play.

[Mark]

Sure you can still roleplay with a few, but generally speaking most of scenarious end up only with kills, noany criminal has intention to roleplay as injured, no cop trusts criminals anymore because of the play to win attitude and because of this you get easily shot at, more than you would expect normally. If staying online 4-5 hours a day to have only two small interactions with somebody for you is actively roleplaying around the server then i give up for real (Some days i just had random chases going on, if that is funny). I might be wrong on the current regulars as you mention it's different now, i'll make sure to see it myself in a few weeks. The situation was pretty bad some months ago, all the attention was given on events and random chases between cops and criminals.
I have also had multiple characters going on in past because of the boredom that was afflicting the server, i'm not saying it's a bad thing but what we need is more stable and active groups that are open to roleplay with everyone but also a more respectful behaviour by the other side (rest of players, citizens and more), something that has always lacked (Sorry, i just can't get over the fact that the only group actively trying to bring something new was SFC and the last time was three years ago when it got killed, the only group after it was Lucchese which is still alive; sadly majority of players is not interested in a true mobster role).
I'm willing to bring some fresh air but at moment (you know the reasons  ) the only thing i can do is try to explain you all what is still missing in the server, imo you will need some of the old players back and more roleplay oriented events (E.g. Carshows; DD's are kinda boring now, no?). Another example is Treasure events, i remember Honigsenf, Loon and me with the help of others making such beatiful events. Even Prison roleplay was funny (We had some "secretly" with FBI and LCPD ), this stuff should be organized by administration when possible, the more you stimulate the players the better it gets.
#makeithappenpls

[Younes]

I don't get why people keep saying that role-play is such a rare thing in the server just because they do not notice or witness any role-play happening. I role-play a lot, with different players each day. Sometimes I approach them first, and vice-versa. I've recently created a zombie character and so far nobody has rejected the opportunity to role-play with me. Overall I don't think the current situation rn is bad enough to exaggerate by saying "no one really gives a damn about having fun around the server except ramming and hunting each other for the lol." From what i've seen as a very active player is that THERE ARE newcomers who are looking for role-play and can role-play well- the current regulars are proof of that. Also, player count is just as important as quality. No players no role-play.

There are players who like to role-play in the server, but we can say that they are not that much.
From my point of view, I believe that the real fun in a role-play server is to role-play, not to really do it like once a week (not pointing at everyone). Some people refuse to role-play, just because they "don't want to", or because they are trying to earn some money at that time.
Role-play should be forced a bit, not that much, but a bit. Players should not, in my opinion, refuse to role-play at anytime, unless for a valid reason.
Another point which I would like to point is players paying more attention to the name-tag (OOC), instead of the character of player (IC). I've tried myself to role-play with many players as an under-cover police officer, without any act showing that I'am a member of Law Enforcement, but yet, they say "you're a cop, go away" or something like that. Not everyone does that, but we can say most of them since the actual old players either left or are inactive.
What I've seen in SA:MP and I wish to see in IV:MP is the proper use of in-game chats (local.etc), as well as a good role-play. This means, players cannot recognize you as a police officer if you're not role-playing as one, or if you're not pretending to be one.

To conclude this, players should pay more attention to role-play instead of the free-roam ideas they currently have. They should start looking for ways to improve role-play instead of complaining about it.

[Batta]

Hi guys,

I've read many of the replies to the topic question but I think some of you are missing a basic point. I've never been the top at Roleplaying but I can share my view of it.

Roleplay is nothing you have to build with rules, limitations and punishments. The one and only thing you have to do is encourage it.
How do you do that? That's simple. You give a cue and let it happen. You don't even need to have an aim, sometimes you don't even need to think about that, because isn't RP just the essence of us, after all? Some kind of essence that allows us to imagine and create anything in our mind?

Forcing imagination is unnatural, it's a contradiction in terms. This is why no rule or law in the world will be ever able to give birth to it.

People interested in money (yes, even a tiny number on a monitor!) will simply not be affected by them.
What they will be, or might be, affected by is that cue, that sentence, that friend asking them to go with them and experience something new, that idea, that anything! That's the only hook you can throw at them.

Roleplay is not a vaccine or a cure forcedly introduced into our minds, Roleplay is a virus, then let it spread!