Leaderboard

I think it was around 2016, that I was first allowed to test a new script in a leadership capacity. Bare in mind, this was well before any of us had read the writing on the wall, and we were still rosy cheeked enough to legitimately believe that this was going to be the first addition of many, certifying Mmartin as a capable lead developer. I don't think Bay Area had happened yet, and GTA:W / GTA:5 roleplay was little more than quiet whispers in Skype calls. When I look at the current state of affairs, I'm brought back to those moments. Broken promises, missed deadlines, empty reassurances, and little regard for the brunt that the rest of staff had to bear for all of it. Reading admin posts is like looking in a mirror. The blind defense of a man who really doesn't give a fuck about you or anything else is something you'll really only ever understand when you're sitting in that seat. If I had to guess, it comes from a place of passion for the game. If I had to warrant another, the snarky attitude is misplaced frustration with Mmartin. Trust me, they know. They hate him too. I think it's plainly obvious that everybody still here is here for a love of the game, and a love for the community. If you would spare me just a moment of your time, I'd ask you to really think about what made LS:RP what it was. What is it you loved, what made it fun, what kept you coming back for more? If I could dare to get even more abstract: what was LS:RP? • LS:RP was us. You, me, and every other person who made a contribution to this game. Every administrator, every tester, every player, every faction, and every shred of effort that a group of likeminded, infinitely creative and impassioned players and friends alike had made across 12+ years. LS:RP was the community, and the infinite potential every one of us saw that the game could be, and came together with our combined imaginations to make it so. Feel free to disagree individually with any of my points, but I guarantee you every single one of them is a cherished memory to somebody here: • LS:RP was staying up till 3:00a.m with your friends, making a faction thread for the sheer fun of it; • LS:RP was Chete's MS13, revolutionizing the concept of factions, introducing hundreds of us to gang role play (including myself); • LS:RP was pioneers of inventive types of role play, like Shah of Persia, and R. Hout, who never stopped pushing the limit on exploring new concepts; • LS:RP was incredible individual character stories, curated on the screenshots & videos forum as a quiet time capsule of days past; • LS:RP was logging onto stunting servers / dm servers during server outages, or settling Skype arguments on that one server (for the life of me I can't remember the name! Koky's?); • LS:RP was the infinite contributions of people like Westside and Obsessi0n, who otherwise pushed the boundaries on individual characters and gang quality; • LS:RP was the infinitely deep, and infinitely static LCN scene, baring no greater sense of passion from a group of players on any game I've ever seen before; • LS:RP was the individual contributions of testers at the crack of dawn, hammering the last of the applications down after a particularly busy night; • LS:RP was walking into Meathead's Deli for the first time in 2014 and being introduced to casual, passive role play for the first time, and falling in love with it whilst Bob Seger blares over that 181.fm station; • LS:RP was midnight conversations with Bospy, Pitchounette and KaylaSpace, discussing what our dream FBI faction would be; • LS:RP was every internal gang war. Finding out that Nova died still gives me goosebumps, or having Icey retaliate for ColossalBQ CKing me; • LS:RP was figuring out how the hell to install IRC for the first time, when you got tester; • LS:RP was Teamspeak fights about the direction of your faction and where it should move forward. I never got to apologize to iJoker and I regret it; • LS:RP was the transition between ENB to the "elite" grime era of screenshots; • LS:RP was getting caught behind the Ganton blue projects with your gun stash by a pair of prying eyes, and logging off pissed off because you know the rest of your week is SACF; • LS:RP was the 2014-2016 era casinos. Companies like Roux and BION are still firmly branded into my brain; • LS:RP was learning about the mechanic paycheck in the county, and beating yourself up over the 50 hours you played without it; • LS:RP was seeing the name "Settlemire" (I think?) in the distance and pissing your pants in Skype about the incoming casefile; • LS:RP was the transition towards "grime" role play, focusing on drug dependency and mental illness, racism and other uncomfortable topics, pioneered by factions like Peddlers of Death; • LS:RP was the Iraq War level gang conflicts between factions like Beasley & Associates (love u Damaz), Crenshaw, Hoover, WGS18, ViperZ, EHC, and the thousand other factions I'm woefully forgetting as I write this; • LS:RP was the individual contribution of every administrator who took time out of their day to contribute to something they loved; • LS:RP was the individual contribution of every tester, every forum moderator, and every subteam member who worked to help make the community what it was; • LS:RP was the individual contribution of every faction leader, every member of FMP, and every player who worked to build their faction and make a permanent mark on the server; • LS:RP was long lasting friendships. I still play games with Surreal on a regular basis; LS:RP was us. I'm not putting my neck out to burn a bridge. Believe me, I love this game as much as any of you do. I'm not trying to shit on anybody, but I'm simply asking you to heed my warning: don't commit to something and blindly defend it because it's name is attached to something that you love. Their is very fair criticism to be had on the matter, and I'm asking you to place it correctly. Kane, Bennemus, and whoever are easy to direct your frustrations at because they respond. Don't let them be another lightning rod. We caught enough for him.

The problem I, and many others, see is the complete lack of transparency that was promised. All Mmartin had to do was download discord on his phone, create a new account quickly, message Kane on telegram "hey dude give me admin roles on this account" then send a message "Hey everyone, I'm currently moving house due to getting robbed. My PC is currently with the mover company and I can't script without it since all the server files are on there. I know I should've backed it up but we all learn a lesson, whether it be the hard or easy way". (I don't know if that was the reason, just an example.) It's not much any of us are asking for. We just want honesty. If the server needs 2 more years, why not just say? It's the lack of transparency I will still play it despite my complaining. We just want transparency

The stupidity behind all the decisions made by the management can only be explained by them. They've had a developer or two leave or get removed, I am not sure what it was about exactly. Might've been the fact that we don't even see a server right now, but might also be internal conflicts. We never will know. It's harder to let go of things like that. If you don't have patience to wait for something to come out then why are you still sitting here moaning? You guys had the patience to wait out long downtimes due to DDOSes, the whole management collapsing and you can not wait a year for the server to come on? Sure, I am as disturbed as you guys are, but chanting "LSRP is dead" doesn't bring us any closer to the opening. We're all human. Yeah, Mmartin and Ben make a shit load of money off patreon and this server in general, but haven't we been through this? It's not like any of the former staff ran off with a large amount of the profits the server made before? Prepare for the worst, but have hope for the times the server actually comes alive, I guess. Sure, the management SHOULD at least speak to us, but if you are in the discord server, there were occasional messages by Ben, Kane and Mmartin there. I heard something about Kane mentioning, that he does not want to do what Mmartin was assigned to do (The development, certain scripts etc). If Mmartin was NOT able to access his computer due to real life circumstances, why fight over it with him? He has been working on this community for years and will hopefully work on it for years to come (but with a server up at some point). I recon you guys are sour. Yes, it was a bad idea to move to GTA V with bare preparation for it. No matter what, real life comes first. It's the same for all of us. If something happens to us in real life and we disappear for a while, we don't get as much backlash as Mmartin. If you think about it, we're nobodies. Our friends may ask why have we been gone, but not the whole server. It's the case with Mmartin and the co. You guys should calm your tits. The more you PRESSURE the management, the harder it will be and the longer it'll stretch out. The server will come out. Be it a year, two years, three years or a decade. Fuck it, someone will still play it and others will be coming back. It's been like that for a long time. In the SA:MP server, many left but came back. Why? Because it's a fucking role-play server with history and with people who can actually put their thought into role-play. I am not really saying that other servers do not have this, but everyone is focused on their own subject. Some servers lean towards a perfect legal community and leave illegal RP on the side. LS:RP has been decent in balancing it out, at least. I understand the community should be the number one thing to focus on when you are creating a server, but spare them some time. Play other servers if you are so "thrilled" to RP, even if you think they're shit. And to all of you cunts (sorry) that think the staff in general is shit? Try being in their shoes. If you have done it before, think about all the wrong decisions you made. There must've been a few. Especially the ones that're so fond of their work and their history. You guys forget the fact that you fucked up. It's rough to admit you made a couple dumb decisions here and there, but why do you blame everyone for making a mistake when you're JUST LIKE THEM. Anyway, what LSRP was for me back in the days? Occasional hustle to get into a faction or a group. The occasional need to better myself for a video game, which ended up reflecting on my real life. All the long nights spent role-playing with people you do not know in real life, but you still clicked with. Having to adapt to different timezones to understand where other people are from and being able to role-play with them if necessary. Being a faction leader. It was a thing I did a lot in my last few years of LS:RP and I enjoyed it, a lot in fact. Spending around 30$ on name-changes because I was FPKed or CKed from Cycos for near ten or so times. Sitting in a neighborhood with a boombox on a corner blasting rap music. Chilling, vibing with people from your faction and then getting hit on by another faction just to log off demotivated. Fun times, ngl. Having the chance to learn from great role-players. A few of them would be AceS, Chete and International. There're plenty others, but those are the ones I think I learned the most from. Having a blast with legal role-play. Even during the times where my sleeping schedule was messed up, the graveyard shifts were still amazing and fun to be at. Meeting people in-real life that I met in a role-play server. Anyway, I hope I gave you guys something to read. No matter how much I repeated myself, my point still stands, hopefully. It's seven AM as I am writing this, so feel free to correct anything I might've messed up.

you guys really should stop overusing word 'soon' lmao

You and people like Apophis were apart of the bad side of LSRP. Flemwad you singehandily brought GOV rp to it's knees because you wouldn't trust players. Apophis makes this thread, but people celebrated when he left. He wasn't apart of the positive side of LSRP. He was never one of "us" as he says. The six years I spent on LSRP was the greatest gaming experience of my life. Playing alongside some amazing people, the community is what made LSRP great. The factions, the solo rpers and the people who were behind them. What bogged this server down was always stemming from one source, management. Yet nobody in management believes they were the problem. Just look at this thread, nobody thinks they were apart of the problem.