[SA:MP] Funding roleplay businesses

[Manoni]

Greetings community.

During the past month I've been trying to gather up all the opinions and ideas from our players, listening to all of them and doing everything that is in my possibilities to push them forward, of course everything done with the assist of the rest of the HQ and our Development team.

While a progress has been shown and made, there's still much to be done. I will try to keep you guys up to date as most as possible maybe not with ETAs of when stuff is gonna be released but with the "To-do" lists of what is being done and what is being planned to, although that is a subject from another day; right now what I want to focus is civilian roleplay, specifically talking about the businesses and companies.

Remember the Business Support Fund aka BSF? The idea behind their organization was to promote business and stimulate the economy, they wanted to assist the businesses financially with the goal of help them to be able to pay salaries and advertise their services. Players need to be motivated, they deserve recognition for their efforts in game, for the time they spend with us, whether if its doing massive roleplays with their group and other groups or simply being an external part of a roleplay company. This is a very important factor in the general activity of the server and while this is not something that it can be done by the HQ team alone, it is indeed something that can be done through the players themselves, with our assist, it is a project that I would like to bring back.

This subject was brought to discussion several times in the past although no clear answer was given regarding why this could not be done. Yes, we cannot say that BSF was a perfect organization nor had the best structure, but that does not changes the fact that what they wanted to achieved was a mutual benefit for players and the community.

With this I am not saying that BSF is coming back, but I do want to revive the project and the ideas they had to promote roleplay and improve the server's environment. I will be reviewing the business groups very carefully during these months and start creating a system that goes according to the needs of each one of them in relation to the current state of the server's economy. Expect to see this new organization coming soon, more to be told about it in the upcoming weeks. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

[Stivi]

This subject was brought to discussion several times in the past although no clear answer was given regarding why this could not be done.

I think it was more of a, should we do it or should we not do it, rather than a "don't see why not". To my understanding, BSF spawned money and that is exactly what we tried to avoid doing in RS5, for the sake of the economy. And to be honest, I appreciate the HQ giving out these incentives to grow the playerbase, I just don't think we should be looking into short-term solutions. I'd rather see no BSF, than see BSF and then a reset a couple of months after, because the economy went to shit.

[Whiteman]

Stivi is right though, we cannot afford another economy imbalance that ends with an account and assets restart. When inducting this update, we need more sinkholes to keep it balanced.

[jovanca]

I rather see it as an option to have people more occupied with roleplay than farrming drugs to get cash. The economy is already kind of fucked up so i dont see BSF drastically changing things on that matter

[Manoni]

This subject was brought to discussion several times in the past although no clear answer was given regarding why this could not be done.

I think it was more of a, should we do it or should we not do it, rather than a "don't see why not". To my understanding, BSF spawned money and that is exactly what we tried to avoid doing in RS5, for the sake of the economy. And to be honest, I appreciate the HQ giving out these incentives to grow the playerbase, I just don't think we should be looking into short-term solutions. I'd rather see no BSF, than see BSF and then a reset a couple of months after, because the economy went to shit.

There is no money being spawned in the server and it wont be if this idea returns. We have decided to use the money obtained by government auctions to fund this project instead of throwing it on random events that have no roleplay purpose.

Stivi is right though, we cannot afford another economy imbalance that ends with an account and assets restart. When inducting this update, we need more sinkholes to keep it balanced.

Economy is not really balanced as Jov says, there are more ideas to keep the economy flowing and not have everyone running around with billions on their hands.

[Stivi]

There is no money being spawned in the server and it wont be if this idea returns. We have decided to use the money obtained by government auctions to fund this project instead of throwing it on random events that have no roleplay purpose.

Plenty of spawned money if we're being honest. Starting from the bug abuses since RS5.0. Myself have like $40,000, but I'm sure there's more with millions like that Scotto guy. Using the auction money, on the other hand, I'll try to join some events to support the cause if that's the case.

[Chase]

The money should indeed come from some form of government grants. With that though, I do believe there needs to be contracts in between the government and those receiving the grant funds. It should outline what the money should and shouldn't be used for. Combine that with a specific criteria needed to even be given the grant, I think that should be enough of a deterrent for anyone to misuse or simply pocket the money entirely for themselves.

[Manoni]

The money should indeed come from some form of government grants. With that though, I do believe there needs to be contracts in between the government and those receiving the grant funds. It should outline what the money should and shouldn't be used for. Combine that with a specific criteria needed to even be given the grant, I think that should be enough of a deterrent for anyone to misuse or simply pocket the money entirely for themselves.

That's the idea. Every company that decides to be affiliated to this funding organization will be strictly bonded to a contract that will be made and that will require court approval before starting receiving any money.
The rules will be set regarding as in when and how much the company will receive and the specified terms for this to be valid.

[Matt Murdock]

Interesting.

Here's my two cents(this was a part of draft of my mayoral campaign back in January but oh well) :

There's people paying taxes on everything, correct? Tolls, stores, properties, what not.

How about setting up proper government structure, based on cities (LS,LV,SF). And the mayor of each city can grant these aids to RP businesses out of that tax money.

However to keep it fair, this must be limited to a maximum of 2 businesses per group(per city? or 1 per city). So for example it cannot be turned into a monopoly by an entity like the Sforza Enterprises / Gvardia Corporation / Corleone Holdings (just a few example) , etc etc where they are getting funded 10s of businesses by the government not giving an opportunity to other groups. And by making it per city, it'll also motivate people to setup their businesses in SF and LV, also avoiding the chances of corruption by the respective mayors.

To maintain the balance in economy the RP businesses first priority should be to make a profit by themselves (a majority of Sforza Enterprises businesses made their profit without any grant and in a legit way, that's how we based them) but we cannot deny that there's some RP businesses which simply would not be possible without any aid.

It will be the respective mayor and his cabinet's responsibilities to first evaluate if a business can churn a profit without the aid, to deem it qualified for the aid. If corruption is discovered the mayor must lose his seat.

So how about circulating the tax money into helping these businesses?

[Bruce.]

Why not use the taxes that people pay each month as well??

[Thomas_A]

Interesting.

Looking back at the previous elections - Its just gonna look like that one group is gonna be fun ded. Like c'mon, there hasnt been a winner that wasnt affiliated 

[Stivi]

So, basically make state funds accessible by the mayor and give them the chance to allocate funds? So long as the FBI or whatever government institute can have control over it, so that it keeps stuff interesting :p

[Matt Murdock]

So, basically make state funds accessible by the mayor and give them the chance to allocate funds? So long as the FBI or whatever government institute can have control over it, so that it keeps stuff interesting :p

Exactly. 

Looking back at the previous elections - Its just gonna look like that one group is gonna be fun ded. Like c'mon, there hasnt been a winner that wasnt affiliated 

I explained how to tackle that already.

[Thomas_A]

So, basically make state funds accessible by the mayor and give them the chance to allocate funds? So long as the FBI or whatever government institute can have control over it, so that it keeps stuff interesting :p

Exactly. 

Looking back at the previous elections - Its just gonna look like that one group is gonna be fun ded. Like c'mon, there hasnt been a winner that wasnt affiliated 

I explained how to tackle that already.

I know, reality is It's not going to work in practice unless no-affiliated people step up from somewhere and start running proper politics. Otherwise Its just people who are affiliated already, farming money for their crew, their own needs and agenda. You never mentioned anything about that.

[Matt Murdock]

So, basically make state funds accessible by the mayor and give them the chance to allocate funds? So long as the FBI or whatever government institute can have control over it, so that it keeps stuff interesting :p

Exactly. 

Looking back at the previous elections - Its just gonna look like that one group is gonna be fun ded. Like c'mon, there hasnt been a winner that wasnt affiliated 

I explained how to tackle that already.

I know, reality is It's not going to work in practice unless no-affiliated people step up from somewhere and start running proper politics. Otherwise Its just people who are affiliated already, farming money for their crew, their own needs and agenda. You never mentioned anything about that.

I'll quote one of my popular sayings on that. You'll never find a non-affiliated person. Everyone will be affiliated in some kind to a group or another, its human nature and Argonath does not have bots.