The Valenti Crime Family

[Martin_Busato]

It's with great displeasure that I announce to our viewing audience that we have now received several warnings from IFC regarding our declined activity and failure to improve this month will put our official status in jeopardy. If history repeats itself as it usually does, this could very well spell bad news for LSRP.

Quick history lesson: our highly unpopular description in 2013 came about when Damian, LSRP's manager at the time, was on a tirade against the so-called elitists and claimed Valenti had "run its course." So he broke the cardinal rule of roleplay and mixed IC and OOC, ordering the VICE division to mount a casefile against us in order to descript us, despite the fact there were far more logical IC targets who were constantly warring and recklessly wreaking havoc on the streets. This debacle was exposed when they jumped the gun and descripted us before any arrests were made IC. They didn't even have the decency to give us some interesting roleplay in the shutdown of our faction but the casefile was released nonetheless and it was a joke; far from anything worthy of descripting the longest-standing official faction in LSRP history.

Our official slot was given to a faction built upon scripted roleplay, ushering in the screenshot competition era which took its toll on this community. Many of the best roleplayers of the time left and never looked back. LCN, the most historic and one of the most popular genres, was in shambles until our people came back and fixed it. By the way, we were on a high having just overcome some massive internal issues at that time and the faction was at a peak activity wise when they descripted us but it didn't matter; the faction had "run its course." Boy, did we prove him wrong and that proved to be the beginning of the end for Damian on LSRP.

During the last run of LSRP, we closed on our own accord when the server was still peaking at roughly 150 players. Many followed us out the door and that number tanked until the server itself closed only a few months later.

This is our fourth run as an official faction in a storied history that spans eighteen years. Thousands of factions have come during our time and thousands of factions have fallen but we're still here. That we have found ourselves on top in essentially every era of LSRP speaks volumes to our impact and contributions to this server. Not to mention the fact that the vast majority of other official LCN factions in LSRP history were created by Valenti members and the few that weren't took serious inspiration from us, whether they'd like to admit it or not. Our people have also created highly successful factions in other genres and many of the best LCN factions elsewhere as well. Call me an elitist all you want but that doesn't change the fact that no group of players has come close to dominating a genre to the extent we have dating all the way back to LSRP's infancy in 2007.

We led the charge from the very beginning in terms of offering a realistic portrayal of our genre and an immersive roleplay environment. We have inspired and developed generation upon generation of top-notch roleplayers and fueled more high-quality roleplay for this community than anyone else. As such, the Valenti name has long been synonymous with LSRP more so than any other faction.

We also have the utmost respect for the rules; our record has been squeaky clean since our comeback in 2018, and no one has been as loyal to LSRP as us. Yet, to my knowledge, the powers that be have never so much as thanked us for our efforts and continually ask for more from the faction that's done it all.

I was in-game last night and singlehandedly outnumbered the PD and SD combined. There it occurred to me that inactivity is a server problem, not a Valenti problem. The server's inactivity along with IFC's highly questionable management of our genre for many years now has been detrimental and prevented us from reaching our potential as a faction. Of course, our aging memberbase increasingly being pulled away for real life priorities is a big part of it, but under better circumstances we'd have enough recruits on the comeup to compensate and stay active as we did in the past. This faction historically covered all timezones and one of our strongest was the late night North American hours. We still have some die hards left who would like to roleplay in those hours more than they do but by the time they get on the server's dead — somehow staff believes  we should take the fall for that. In fact, that timezone was mostly dead for the last few years of LSRP's last run as well but we were one of the few factions to give it life.

To be clear: official status doesn't motivate us to play and we'd be totally fine without it, but that kind of mistreatment and disrespect after all we have done very well may push us out the door entirely and the chances of us joining LSRPV (an idea some of us were entertaining) would also be slim to none. The Valenti haters who dwell in high places need not get too excited though as you likely won't get rid of us that easily. We do still enjoy roleplaying here. However, if they do go ahead with this inexplicable idea to descript us and history were to repeat itself as it tends to, LSRP's time may very well run out sooner than you'd think.

We do things our way and always have. We've never begged our people to play more and aren't about to start now; real life comes first and the second you start treating a game like a job is when the fun gets sucked out of it. We've been here for the better part of LSRP's existence and still plan on sticking around until the very end and are determined to deliver one more great era of Valenti despite the bleak circumstances of today's LSRP, but pressure from admins to play more is truthfully nothing but an annoyance and won't move the needle for us. It won't magically give us more free time or motivate us to play. I understand activity is a requirement of official status and rightly so, but by now (only eighteen years later) I think it's fair to say we have transcended official status and have earned an exception. If we were breaking rules or our role-play standards took a dramatic drop, it'd be a different story, but that's not the case, and we have shown the ability to bounce back from activity slumps time and time again, although admittedly it does become more difficult as we become older and increasingly pulled away to real life priorities, along with the declining state of LSRP. The focus should be on making this server a more attractive place to play and rewarding long-time contributors to keep them around, not punishing them for inactivity which plagues the server collectively. 

I asked and there is no limit on the number of official slots available. If it were the case that official slots were limited, I would be far more understanding and if we ever felt like us being official was somehow detrimental to the server or blocking more deserving candidates, we'd forfeit our official status willingly because we don't need it to roleplay and we do want to roleplay here for as long as possible. We are part of the solution for LSRP going forward and far from being part of the problem.

With that said, we greatly appreciate all the staff who help make LSRP happen. We are grateful they brought the SAMP server back and we deeply want to continue being a part of its success. If we didn't like and respect LSRP, we wouldn't have stuck around here for so long, but unfortunately, that respect oftentimes isn't reciprocated toward their long-time flagship faction. I am also cognizant and forgiving of the fact that many of the admins likely haven't been around long enough to understand the full scope of our impact, but the old-school players will be able to attest to our unparalleled contribution to this server, provided they were paying attention. This post is a reminder to think twice before you count us out. If I was a betting man, I'd bet the house on Valenti making a major comeback.

I understand that joining has been difficult lately with the server's activity as it is, but our activity is now on the rise and I urge anyone who has been considering joining to make the plunge and get involved. Likewise, any past members or associates are encouraged to reach out, whether your interest is in joining or just reuniting with old friends. Those interested in joining are expected to read our OOC Information section which can be found in the second post of this thread. Our activity seems to come and go in waves nowadays, but if enough people get on board, it's totally feasible that the stable and consistent Valenti of old can reemerge, which would be a blessing for LSRP.

I do apogize if parts of my post seem harsh or rubs people the wrong way but try stepping into our shoes for a minute and imagine how you'd feel with this kind of treatment. Sympathize with us for a moment. This faction has been at it for the better part of eighteen years and many of us were a part of the original Valenti. It's disappointing and disheartening that the staff still won't give us our due. Not that we are entitled — we have earned everything we've gotten to the fullest. We have given a lot to this server and all we'd like in return is some respect. Is that really too much to ask for?

Over the past eighteen years we have roleplayed every imaginable phase of a crime family. Hundreds of players have had a hand in writing our story and each era has been special in its own right. I expect the final one will be no different.  A faction with our impact, history, and legacy may never come around again, so enjoy it while it lasts and know you'll be joining a great group of people. I know I'll be back for one last rodeo soon enough.

Tl; dr: Our official status is under threat. Like this post if you want our style of realistic LCN roleplay on LSRP to continue. We're hiring.

P.S. VORONOV FOR IFC

Edited 2 hours ago by Martin_Busato

[Robert_Trentino]

[7ayden]

[Frank_Luvano]

#ValentiBestLCN #Don'tRemoveOfficial

Edited 2 hours ago by Frank_Luvano