Can we return to the Golden Age of LSRP?

[Tungsten]

Hello folks,

 

I am wondering if folks think it is possible to return to the “Golden Age of LSRP” that we saw in 2012-2018?

 

Back then, there were so many factions it’d make your head spin! There was top tier roleplay on every street corner, and LSRP was widely considered to be the cream of the crop. People longed to be a part of this community and the application queue was sometimes in the hundreds.

 

Now, we seem to be in the dark ages. There’s still good roleplay to be had, but you really have to search for it. If you don’t have a friend who is doing that top tier faction roleplay, it seems impossible to find. Those of us trying our hardest to create interesting roleplay are easily taken advantage of by those playing surface-level or avataristic characters. There seem to be no IC consequences for repeated major crime, and people don’t think twice before committing heinous acts.

 

Is it possible to get back to this golden age? What can be done to get there?

[Kunis]

I think people always look at "the good old times" with rose tinted glasses. When thinking back to the period of 2008-2014 where I spent most of my RP time, I can't really remember any of this "top tier" RP on every street corner. I feel that the RP back then arguably was much less developed than it is is now. You've always had the newer and more casual players that don't really care about in depth RP and you've always had more "Hardcore" oriented RPers who've now had up to 17 years of time to hone their skills.

 

My own opinion is that we're by no means in the "dark ages", if this is considered the dark ages then we've always been in it.

 

Let me know what you think.

[Tungsten]

14 minutes ago, Kunis said:

I think people always look at "the good old times" with rose tinted glasses. When thinking back to the period of 2008-2014 where I spent most of my RP time, I can't really remember any of this "top tier" RP on every street corner. I feel that the RP back then arguably was much less developed than it is is now. You've always had the newer and more casual players that don't really care about in depth RP and you've always had more "Hardcore" oriented RPers who've now had up to 17 years of time to hone their skills.

 

My own opinion is that we're by no means in the "dark ages", if this is considered the dark ages then we've always been in it.

 

Let me know what you think.

Perhaps i’m looking back with rose-tinted glasses, then! In my first couple of years though we saw some amazing factions! While I was a P1 in the PD, the great MS13 riot happened. Then we got a hurricane soon after! Those memories are still vivid for me!

 

Roleplay scenes on LSRP have brought me many emotions over the years. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, and everything in between … but not for a while. It feels like things are only surface deep nowadays, but perhaps I can find that top tier roleplay if I look harder! I’ll take your word that it’s there, I’ve just got to find it!

[Sal]

9 minutes ago, Kunis said:

I think people always look at "the good old times" with rose tinted glasses. When thinking back to the period of 2008-2014 where I spent most of my RP time, I can't really remember any of this "top tier" RP on every street corner. I feel that the RP back then arguably was much less developed than it is is now. You've always had the newer and more casual players that don't really care about in depth RP and you've always had more "Hardcore" oriented RPers who've now had up to 17 years of time to hone their skills.

 

My own opinion is that we're by no means in the "dark ages", if this is considered the dark ages then we've always been in it.

 

Let me know what you think.

Think this pretty much sums it up. Let's not forget that we have changed a lot over the years; including our expectations of RP, what entertainment/value we actually get from it, our free time, etc.

The "good old days" were great, but I think there's a lot more to it than just trying to steer things back to the way they were. 

[Kunis]

3 minutes ago, Tungsten said:

Perhaps i’m looking back with rose-tinted glasses, then! In my first couple of years though we saw some amazing factions! While I was a P1 in the PD, the great MS13 riot happened. Then we got a hurricane soon after! Those memories are still vivid for me!

 

Roleplay scenes on LSRP have brought me many emotions over the years. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, and everything in between … but not for a while. It feels like things are only surface deep nowadays, but perhaps I can find that top tier roleplay if I look harder! I’ll take your word that it’s there, I’ve just got to find it!

 

Things like server wide events will of course not feel as massive due to the current limitations of the playerbase, but the top tier official factions (Mainly illegal ones) provide the kind of RP nowadays that people could only dream of 15 years ago. The hardcore in depth RP can not be found everywhere, they're usually in their own small bubbles, mostly interacting with other top tier RPers whilst at the same time actively avoiding Idlewood.

 

Back when playerbase was 500 for example, you maybe had 100 very capable RPers, 150 decent and 250 medium to low quality RPers. Now i'd say the distribution is the same, only the playerbase is smaller.

[persona non grata]

Contrary to common belief even among the experienced, average quality of roleplay has gone down over time. It's a numbers game driven by standards, and it starts with the factions scene.

 

The more players you have the more factions you will have. When you have high standards, factions strive and compete to meet them. The more factions you have the tougher the competition. During the “Golden Age of LSRP” you had unofficial factions that would significantly outperform today's official factions in almost every metric you could compare them by.

 

Really the only metric present-day roleplayers have the old-timers beat is realism. However realism is a double-edged sword because you can reach a point of overrealism. Playing to imitate real life for screenshots defeats the purpose of roleplay and, the rose-colored glasses aside, roleplay was best when people logged in and improvised. They were more active in-game than on the forums. Organic development was based on IC events.

 

Now, I'm not here to hate on people who log in for 2 hours a day, manufacture a roleplay scene, take screenshots for their topic, and call it development. Everyone should have the creative freedom to roleplay what and how they want. However people who do that aren't at liberty to complain about declining standards when they don't set a good example for the new generation themselves. 

 

The best roleplayers I ever met never shied away from genuine interactions and making the best of a bad situation in terms of what was available for roleplay creation. People adjusted to the game universe and got creative. What the old-timers had figured out is that we were having fun living out our fantasies and making memories. We cared for realism just enough to provide structure for our roleplay but not enough to curb our youthful enthusiasms. 

 

People think their roleplay is the best and only right way to roleplay. It's not. Roleplay is subjective. What's fun or interesting to someone may not be fun or interesting to someone else. If more people understood that, embraced it, and weren't afraid to take an L every once in a while the server would be a better place for everybody. 

To answer your question, the Golden Age of LSRP will never return. SAMP is the past not the future. Though we can enjoy it while it lasts. 

[Smocaine]

Can we return to the golden age of LSRP..?Yes..but risks would have to be taken..risks which the server management arent willing to take... So, no ,LSRP will never return to the golden age and the playerbase will continue to dwindle until there is no. one eft.

[Aberdeen]

22 hours ago, Tungsten said:

Those of us trying our hardest to create interesting roleplay are easily taken advantage of by those playing surface-level or avataristic characters. There seem to be no IC consequences for repeated major crime, and people don’t think twice before committing heinous acts.

You already know what the problem is and how to solve it, you just have no power to. The fight was lost the moment that player attempts to regulate bad roleplay were labelled as "toxic". You either learn to accept and avoid the fedora-toting mallrats that run the economy and find your niche or crash out trying.

 

I don't believe that those steering the ship have had much of a passion for or really any understanding of the tenets of roleplay for years now, even preceding the server's relaunch. While it's great to see there's still a concerted effort to keep the server alive through incremental updates, those of us who are here stay for lack of any viable alternative and not because we love what it has become. We're still making the same complaints we were 10 years ago, just more so because of the smaller player base, and will continue to do so until we get tired of the circus of illiterate, ChatGPT-reliant drones and DM squads hiding behind the guise of "gritty" street gangs... or something changes. I'll let you figure out which of those outcomes is more likely.

 

To paraphrase what I said in Busato's thread a few months back: enjoy the ride while it lasts.

[Bowlcutkid]

Yes and no. SAMP has no future anymore, it's pretty clear outside of the handful of people who have hopium that the SAMP scene still can make a comeback. I think a lot of the decent players went off to RageMP/FiveM because there's no real reason not to; it looks better, it plays better, has better physics, easier to mod, there's really no objective advantage SAMP offers anymore now Rage is stable. 

 

It definitely has a chance to reach the old numbers of 600+ players every night. Looking at the git updates the devs are adding some pretty interesting features, I think they've learnt from the issues that were present in the original release so I have hope it'll reach good players and hopefully provide a solid rival to GTA:W again.

[Chicken Bargain]

No we can’t. Enjoy what we got left… Respectfully.  
 

You want golden age find a group of role players who are between 25-27 years old  IRL and stick with them. 

Edited May 31 by Chicken Bargain

[Scary Eire]

Respectfully, no. As a veteran player, I reckon you should just learn to adapt to the changing landscape of LSRP. Within the right circles? You'll still find gold amongst those close to you. 

5 hours ago, Chicken Bargain said:

No we can’t. Enjoy what we got left… Respectfully.  
 

You want golden age find a group of role players who are between 25-27 years old  IRL and stick with them. 

Good advice.

[Michael_Dippolito]

With the current mentality surging behind the scenes in sensitive areas of the server, I highly believe not. 

[shotgun shawty]

Very rhetorical question. 

[Smocaine]

2 hours ago, Michael_Dippolito said:

With the current mentality surging behind the scenes in sensitive areas of the server, I highly believe not. 

I agree with this vague,defeatist drivel..facts

[Tudounaozi]

We are never returning to the golden age before admins stop being so egoistic. Especially when they say "I think people always look at "the good old times" with rose tinted glasses.".

 

What was the last company that told its players "you think you want it, but you don't" again? Was it blizzard entertainment who lost 600 million revenue over that year? 

Edited June 10 by Tudounaozi