Voronov

I would like to preface this post by first begging administration to let this thread run its course unless it is absolutely derailed to the point of idiocy. Let the discourse flow. I have, embarrassingly, been a part of this server since early 2008. My 12 year old self would ask I be euthanized if he knew I was still roleplaying at my current age. However, I have always had a soft spot for this community and the people that make it up. Roleplay is a hobby that keeps the brain fresh and creative. I am too old to employ ChatGPT in this response. These words come from my beating, probably-autistic heart. I have been around for the entirety of LS-RP's latest return. I watched it start off firing, continue strong and exceed my own expectations of longevity by more than a year. I have had some of the best roleplay of my entire cursed tenure in this iteration. I have now watched, sighing, as it degrades. There is not one single reason or issue to point to, but instead, a host of many. This last run was doomed to fail from Ground Zero. I expected nothing of it, and it continued to defy and surprise me everyday. GTA World has the playerbase, the features, the map - all a roleplayer with something better than an ancient laptop could desire. It, however, lacks LS-RP's innate soul. GTA World is not LS-RP. Do I know how to salvage this server? No. Do I think an aggressive marketing campaign will save it? No. Easy requests have been delayed, scripting has grated down to a standstill, and the only good administrators we have have somehow become a lightning rod for the frustration everyone feels. Do I attribute these issues to a single individual? No, the rot is systemic. Grow up if you're trying to affix blame to a single individual. Is there administration that should have long ago lost their title? Yes. Many of these others however, as aforementioned, are the only ones fighting to make the situation better and breathe life into a sever already gasping for its own. Stop shitting on them. They are the only thing keeping this Titanic-after-iceberg afloat. As we sit here and debate how to save a dying, geriatric body, I see only one way forward. It's bringing that soul back. Countless hours have been spent chasing away factions comprised of some of the best roleplayers I know in an attempt to punish the lowest percentile of their membership. Meanwhile, spree-robbers and moronic behavior runs rampant and untouched. If you want this shit to last, it's time to get in-game and lead by example. Create the change you want to see in this world. Create a community of roleplayers that people want to join. If we wanted to leave and discard this server, we all would have left already and wouldn't waste time typing up a response like this. The manifesto? I can only speak to my specific niche on the server. Center it around roleplay. We have a roster of strong official factions. Concentrate features into their hands. Encourage systems that allow them to connect with unofficial factions and water the plants seeded by these new factions. Create an ecosystem wherein factions are forced to rely on one another to achieve their aims. Narrow the scope of schemes and material distribution and force factions to center their aims into singular ones. X faction should be the kingpin of cocaine, while another should have the means to launder money. A third faction should pioneer good chopshop-based roleplay, while the fourth spends their time researching how to best portray the marijuana grow op they have in their basement in-game. These are limited examples that could easily be implemented. Reflect real life criminality. Encourage interplay between these groups, not because it results in cool screenshots, but instead, because it creates a semblance of necessity in sustaining their own faction’s expansion. The best roleplayers I know have always been encyclopedias of knowledge in their specific lane. Encourage this specialization. Stop policing concepts so harshly when the activity and wherewithal is not there to sustain or even acknowledge their approval. Let people cook. The second order of importance is clarity. Too many discussions occur behind closed doors. As a member of IFT, my ilk and myself are guilty of this. Expose everything to the soul of this community - the players. Act on their suggestions when good immediately, and offer insight as how to improve upon ideas when they're bad or otherwise lacking. The administration should not be a separate body from the players overseeing them, but instead, a sounding board for the players they are representing. Make it political. There should be no tenure for administrators that aren't enacting the goals of the general populace. Administrators should not be private police, but the speaking output for those they represent. To stifle discussion is to make your own job irrelevant. Unless blatant bullshit is happening, let everyone say their piece in the agora that is this server. Lastly, and most importantly: FUCK KRISK FUCK KIRIL SOKOLOV FREE SHARIF REYNOLDS FREE RIVA FREE ASESINO FREE DAMIANC UP BAHDBH AND RYE FUCK GTA V We can all watch this server die a slow, awkward death or we can take steps to be the change we wish to see in it. For many of us, this is our last chance at roleplaying and comprising membership of the server we want to see. Clown on this post to your heart's content. I have searched all of my empty pockets and cannot find a fuck to give.

Good shit, guys. Keep it up.

Trentino hit the crux of the issue here, and also landed the nail on the head. We are a small server with a dedicated population that is only here for a very, very minute host of reasons. In my case, it is that I am unwilling to run GTA: V and have no interest in moving to another server, nor will I. We are a gasping-breath dying breed, granted, but that doesn't mean we should go out in geriatric fumbling for our oxygen tanks and wondering what went wrong or if we could have salvaged this opportunity. We may not attract the array of new roleplayers that LS-RP used to, but we can lock down the old and those willing to take the plunge into something serious and, in my opinion, wholly awesome. Though our playerbase is low in comparison to past eras, it has cultivated a symbiotic criminal and faction-based ecosystem that I, as a roleplayer, have been chasing for over a decade now. I have been on the same account since LS-RP reopened and have used that time to cultivate IC relationships with a host of factions and independent roleplayers, that encompass the legal and illegal worlds and those that blur the lines between the two. The venture-specific, based-on-criminal-merit-and-modus-operandi archetype is something that has never entered the realm of IC materialization as well as it has right now. I am experiencing some of the best roleplay I've had on the server since 2008 at this exact moment. Each and every character that exists on LS-RP right now serves a purpose, or is working towards doing so. Every niche, no matter how small it may be, is a niche that deserves to be filled. The administration have done a great job of removing trolls that are not working towards this goal. To personify this, I have not been robbed in-game by those that aren't here to roleplay in the manner of past eras in months. To continue to foster this ecosystem, the importance of managing factions is of utmost importance. This does not constitute micromanagement of factions, but instead should consist of supporting factions that present good ideas and good roleplay and, thus, allowing them the space to succeed in their endeavors, or in their failure attempting to do so in-game. The reality of this quagmire is that we need to cater to our current playerbase. We do not need 700 factions, but instead a world where 700 micro-factions exist built off the backing of existing factions and their connections to these factions paving the way to success. There is no good way to encourage players to only join factions instead of creating their own, but it is not necessary, regardless, as it can never be feasibly attained. The illegal faction base is one of the strongest I've seen to date and I count myself as one of the lucky players to have helped so many long-standing official factions of the past to success, and still, we are looking better than ever in my eyes. Kudos to our current administration on making this a reality. You all deserve more thanks than you will ever receive, but you can count me amongst the utmost thankful in your creating this environment wherein roleplayers like me are able to succeed and develop characters in the manner we have been allowed to by good management. To the rest of you hanging off the fence, asking if you should leave, hop off my nuts and go. Hang from them, because they sag low at my age. Sharif Reynolds said it best. If you're asking if I'm arsed, I'm not, but you're negatively impacting a server that should be allowed to succeed with every factor already existing against it without your comments. We don't need your "dead LS-RP" comments, but instead constructive collaboration on how we can make a run of this server until it can't run any further. When this server dies, so, too, do a lot of good roleplayers. I have nothing but the utmost confidence in this server and all that it's brought to the table. This era of administration has the whole world before them to be the best I've ever seen and are actively working towards this goal before our very eyes.