Martin_Busato

La Famiglia wishes you all a Merry Christmas!

This is key. Putting a defining decision of that magnitude in the hands of the players is the type of revolutionary change needed to reignite this community and kickstart a new era where all administrative decisions are driven by community feedback. As @Lannetta and others have suggested, the players should also be allowed to vote in the entirety of the staff team; this is the best way to bring about the type of cohesive, one-team, community-first culture players have been starving of for years. How exactly that voting process works deserves a public topic of its own but it's totally doable, it just requires the powers that be to check their egos at the door and put the community's wishes first. In fairness to @jack: he has the difficult responsibility of facing us as the spokesperson but these decisions aren't his alone to make so we need to afford some grace and time for them to come up with a proper game plan. I must say, however, we have seen these sorts of promises before and more often than not they turn up empty, which is precisely why LSRP's fate needs to be put in the hands of all of us. Many of us have been here contributing for well over a decade. LSRP means a lot to all of us and it's simply wrong for a select few to make monumental decisions that are in direct opposition of the masses. Not only is the type of transformational culture change we are calling for necessary, but it is the leg up required to drag the morale out of the gutter, get people roleplaying again, and from there bring LSRP back to competitiveness in the market. The reality is that, as of this moment, LSRP in its current sad state is a total non-factor. It'll take all of us coming together to change that, but as we, the people, have echoed for as long as I can remember: it starts at the top.

Thank you to everyone for the wealth of feedback and staying on topic.

It's no secret that myself and the rest of my faction's leadership has butted heads with Aloosh numerous times in the past, but I want to take a moment to applaud the honesty he has shown in his contributions to this topic and the previous one. Clearly he is someone who cares about the people and LSRP succeeding. That's precisely the attitude all staff need to embody if there's any hope in turning this ship around. That is real leadership that people can respect.

They need to change this immediately. Why we need more transparency has already been discussed ad nauseum by the dedicated people of this community.

I understand management is reviewing the feedback and formulating a response which hopefully includes a gameplan we can all get behind, but where's the input from other staff members? Their absence here is quite alarming. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Voronov is the only staff member who has came forth with an opinion thus far. Yet, on the lost "Will LSRP survive?" topic, there were numerous staff members weighing in. I sure hope they aren't being muzzled because what we need right now is honesty, transparency, and input from players of all kinds so we can get the full picture of the current state of LSRP, what people want to see, and from there chart the best path forward.

Given how far the server has fallen and with many capable people leaving for various reasons over the years, there's no question finding a suitable leader is a tall task. What I would like to see is a proven, respected, experienced leader and roleplayer who brings forth a vision that the community will rally behind; a uniter and strong team-builder who is willing to put the community's interests ahead of their own, meaning compromising their own personal desires for the greater good and reinvesting donation money into improving the server instead of lining their own pockets. They need to be taking the job out of their love for LSRP. In my mind, it doesn't have to be a current or former administrator because many of the most capable people for this position have never had the desire to climb the staff ranks due to the menial tasks involved and would rather focus on roleplaying, but they may have interest in a monumental position like this where they can focus on big picture solutions that brings life back to LSRP. No matter who it is—whether they have prior LSRP staff experience or not—they will have strengths and weaknesses, so they will need to be an effective delegator who can keep the ship moving in the right direction. They certainly don't need to treat it like a full-time job but they do need to be available regularly enough to oversee the operation properly and engage with the community. I don't know who would be interested but I'm confident an opportunity like this may bring some old legends out of the woodwork. Whoever's track record and proposal best meets this criteria would get my vote. I greatly appreciate the discussion so far and understand morale is low right now but must say I do question the intentions behind some of the "LSRP SAMP is dead, stop beating a dead horse" type of comments. If that's your opinion, fine, but what are you doing here? I don't think anyone here believes we can return to the golden age of LSRP when it was regularly hitting 500+ players, but we can improve upon the current state of the server and make it a great place to roleplay once again. With the right leadership, vision, and teamwork, we can make a new golden age that looks a little different, albeit on a smaller scale. It is possible, but the negative, defeatist, apathetic mindset I'm seeing in some of these posts doesn't help the cause.

Thank you to the admins for letting this topic breathe and everyone for the respectful responses and valuable contributions to this discussion. Many excellent insights and ideas are coming in. Let's keep that going and hopefully someone from the administration is compiling a list of suggestions to consider going forward.

For those who missed it: there was a general discussion topic called "Will LSRP survive?" that went viral yesterday which was flooded with constructive criticism and solutions to improve LSRP. The thread was locked in response to a small minority of people doxxing, leaking staff information and derailing, and someone within the staff team crashed out and merged all of the faction threads into Bellantonio's. This prompted staff to rollback the forums to recover the faction forum, which resulted in the deletion of this topic. I've been told others have tried reposting it only for it to be deleted again but I'll give it another go, although I want to frame the discussion slightly differently to push for a more positive, solution-based discussion. Censorship certainly isn't the answer here and will only serve to shatter any trust left in staff and push the few players left out the door. Please keep this thread up if you know what's best for the server. If people are derailing or breaking rules, deal with those individuals accordingly but the rest of us who wish to see LSRP revived should be allowed to say our piece. Roughly a year ago I posted the first iteration of this topic and it was received quite well by everyone. I was very pleased with the staff response and moderation of the topic, but seeing what happened with the topic yesterday was a reversion to the kind of censorship LSRP had been known for years ago and was deeply disappointing. Linked below is the topic I posted last year which goes into detail about my vision for LSRP and is ripe full of great ideas put forth by the community: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE - Page 15 - General Discussions Archive - Los Santos Roleplay Today, however, my post (initially written as a response to the topic that was deleted yesterday) will focus on what I believe to be the crux of the issue. Given my faction has been staring down the barrel of description threats recently, I don't take posting this lightly but I want LSRP to succeed and believe it needs to be said. I want to start off by acknowledging and thanking the staff members who have helped make LSRP be a great place to roleplay over the years. As a member of this community since 2009, former member of Faction Management, an official faction leader from 2018-2024 and having still represented Valenti in many of our correspondences with Illegal Faction Council beyond that, I’d be remiss not to highlight the vast improvements seen in the Illegal Faction Team in particular compared to past eras where it was marred with incompetence, toxicity, and corruption. Factions today have access to more perks than ever before, official faction selections have been handled sensibly for the most part, and the IFT has generally been more supportive and transparent than ever before. Despite recent disagreements with IFC's handling of my faction, I greatly appreciated the honesty, accountability, insight and consideration shown by @Aloosh, @Rye and @unlawfulact in their responses yesterday and this gave me a renewed sense of confidence that the IFT is still in good hands. I'd also like to thank @badhbh and @Dos Santos for their immense dedication to this server and being a pleasure to deal with during my time as an official faction leader last year. When we brought Valenti back, I urged our people to set the bar low in terms of expectations for LSRP. Not because I didn’t believe in the potential for a major comeback on SAMP, but because the staff, more specifically, the management, had let this community down time and time again, and the return of the SAMP server seemed more like a last-ditch marketing gimmick for LSRPV than anything else. I wanted our people to enjoy this last ride as much as we can without dwelling on the failures of the staff team. Fortunately, despite the recent decline, this SAMP run overall has exceeded my expectations and much of that is thanks to the staff putting forth more of an effort to satisfy the community’s wishes, at least initially. Beyond that, the success affirmed that there is still an appetite and market for SAMP. Unfortunately, that market is shrinking by the day and will vanish if things don’t improve in quick order. I’ve only recently returned to playing after a year-long hiatus so I’m admittedly writing this from a limited perspective, but I’ve kept in the loop and been around long enough to pinpoint what I believe to be the main reason LSRP is on a steep decline: inactivity, complacency and a lack of leadership at the management level. No, this is not the only problem. Yes, I do agree with much of what was said in the discussion yesterday, but many of those problems are symptoms of this primary issue. When @Mmartin and Surreal took over from Damian, I showed my support publicly and still believe it was a much-needed change at the time. Some positive changes were made over the years and when Mmartin was actively contributing, developing and engaging with the community earlier in this run, the community was undoubtedly better for it; I am grateful for his contributions over his many years here. However, being a good leader isn’t just about knowing when to step up but also knowing when to step down when it’s clear you are no longer the person for the job. That time came long ago and it’s time to act on it. Every leader has a shelf life and there's no shame in that but it's abundantly clear a major change is needed at the very top to restore any level of morale and confidence in staff by the community. By no means is this an attack on Mmartin; in fact, my interactions with him both IC and OOC (the times he responded) were always good, but an active and engaged leader is essential for any hope of a revival for LSRP. The community should vote on a new manager and that’s who Mmartin should pass the reins to; doing so would rejuvenate the community, potentially salvage the staff’s reputation, and hopefully bring about a vision on the best path forward. I personally don’t have much faith in LSRPV but if that’s what Mmartin and others want to focus on, fine, but there needs to be a dedicated manager and team for each server, not one divided and dysfunctional team covering both. I don’t mind managers being paid for their efforts and wish LSRP was successful enough financially to pay all of their staff because I am extremely grateful for their contributions, but donations to the SAMP server should go towards the SAMP server and LSRPV donations should go towards LSRPV. Once either project is sustainable and successful enough, only then should managers and/or staff get paid. With foresight and an actual vision, there will be more to go around in the long run, but if the status quo persists, donations will dwindle away to nothing. The LSRP brand exists on SAMP, not on GTAV, and it’s glaringly apparent the SAMP server needs to be more of a priority going forward. LSRP SAMP failing is a marketing disaster for LSRPV. Plenty of good ideas have been presented and I have no doubt that people within the staff team have pushed for many of the improvements we are asking for, but ultimately it starts at the top. Management needs to seek player feedback more via discussions like this, feedback surveys, allowing players to vote on important decisions, etc., then utilize those findings, set out a vision and get everyone pulling on the same rope. The disconnect between staff and players needs to be eradicated and instead we need to be one cohesive team. I know this sounds like a pipedream, but I believe the right leadership can make it happen, at least to some extent. TL;DR: Management needs to step it up for the community, put forth a comprehensive vision that we can all work towards, or step aside for someone who will. LSRP's future depends on it. What's your vision for the future? If you bring forward a problem, do so respectfully and also bring forth a solution. Please keep it clean and let's have a productive discussion that can hopefully help shape a positive future for LSRP.

Congratulations to Ludwig, Voro, Connor and everyone involved. Well done.

Congratulations and welcome to the newest additions to the family. Very well deserved.

Thank you for all the interest shown so far. I do want to point out that this adjustment does not mean joining will now all of a sudden be easy. We strive to roleplay everything realistically IC and recruitment is no exception. In fact, much of Valenti's success across all eras can be attributed to our stringent recruitment/progression process; delayed gratification has worked wonders for us in many other facets as well and will continue to be foundational to our success. There are other LCN factions where you can simply have an Italian name, ask for a drink and they'll hire you to do dirty work, but that won't cut it here. Working your way in will still require the ability to portray a realistic character, creativity, and patience. It's no secret our activity has been below peak levels for a while now and the server as a whole isn't as lively as it once was, so we felt a public Discord channel is an appropriate move for the time being. We're giving you a few nuggets on where and when you can find us to make joining a little more convenient, but it's on you to plan a realistic character and find your own pathway into the faction from there. In regards to the recent decline in activity: don't worry about it. All factions experience peaks and valleys when it comes to activity and ours are unavoidable due to our memberbase being much older than the average faction and increasingly pulled away from the game due to real life responsibilities. The beauty of Valenti, though, is that it's very rare that people ever leave the faction; they'll take a break from roleplaying and return home when they have time to get back into the game. Our ability to retain players over long periods of time is simply second to none and rest assured myself and countless other Valenti loyalists will return home when we have the time. We have experienced far greater activity slumps in the past and rebounded to incredible heights; I have no doubt that will happen again. All that to say: don't let our recent slip in activity deter you from joining, but rather look at it as a prime window of opportunity. The inactivity currently is at the associate level, which means naturally there will be a higher demand for manpower and more room for characters to advance than in many previous eras. That doesn't mean it will be quick or easy but now is certainly a great time to get involved if you'd like to make your mark on our historic storyline. With that said, I hope this adjustment dispells the misconception that we are a closed club full of elitists and don't want anyone to join because that couldn't be further from the truth. This is the Mafia; our exclusive nature IC is self explanatory, but on an OOC basis we are thrilled to have new people join. We may or may not be as engaging as other factions are in their Discord channels, but we are also cognizant of creating an immersive roleplaying environment IC with no OOC strings attached. Every single one of us was new to this faction at one point and we can all speak to how helpful the faction and its members were in developing us as roleplayers. Valenti has lasted so long because it's always been a breeding ground for the best LCN roleplayers and we are looking forward to seeing the next generation emerge and helping them along the way. Just two cents from the dead boss. Keep up the great work everyone.

Congratulations Trentino, DeNoia, and Angiolini. Very well deserved. Welcome to the family.

Further instructions can be found in our OOC Information section (post #2 of this thread). Thank you for your interest and best of luck.

Good to see our old friend Novarese back in action. I have high hopes that the new chapter of the Valenti-Bellantonio saga will be something special.

Congratulations, Stompanto. Very well deserved. Welcome to the family.

I will be back on a new character in the future when my schedule permits. Needless to say, the show goes on. New topic for all usergroup members to read: https://community.ls-rp.com/forums/topic/14600-leaves-of-absence/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-212203

Why is this goof allowed to troll and derail my topic? Ban him already so he can move on with his life and we can get back to a constructive discussion. Those posting here have provided a wealth of feedback and suggestions for management/staff to utilize. Someone should be monitoring this to ensure it stays on topic and blatant trolls are dealt with accordingly. The purpose of this topic is for the community to come together to find solutions to improve LSRP. The hyperbolic "LSRP is dead" comments aren't helping the cause. If you think it's dead, what are you still doing here? I have been quite busy lately but I will chime in on the discussion again when I have time.

New private forum topic for all usergroup members to read: Borgata - Private Forum - Los Santos Roleplay Keep up the outstanding work, everyone.

Thank you to everyone for your contributions and honesty in this discussion. This topic has brought the dissatisfaction of the player base to light and it's good to see staff, particularly Mmartin, engaging in the discussion; I am optimistic that our voices are being heard and some form of positive change will come from this. This topic has garnered a lot of attention and LSRP staff would be doing itself a major disservice to ignore our calls for change. It's also important to remember that we (the players) need to play a major role in making this a good place to role-play. We all need to be introspective and find ways to help LSRP improve, regardless of your role in the community. If you have something on your mind, please don't hesitate to speak up, but this isn't the place to be calling out individuals as it will only serve to derail the topic. We need to be able to have a respectful discussion for this to have a meaningful impact.

I'll have time to reply properly later but what I'll say for now is that people should be cognizant of the tone they are bringing to this discussion, stop jumping to conclusions from a limited perspective, and treat one another with respect. If you are done with LSRP and think it's a lost cause that's fine but go find something better to do with your time than coming here to drag it down. Many of us still see potential and the purpose of this thread is for the community to work together to find solutions. There will always be differing opinions and as such no one will ever be 100% satisfied but that shouldn't stop us from having a constructive discussion about the best path forward for LSRP. Please stay on topic.

This was originally intended as a response to gyzo's "Can we bring back the old playerbase count?" topic but after I completed the post I felt it was worthy of its own topic. A VISION FOR THE FUTURE: Achieving peak LSRP activity numbers is probably an unrealistic goal given the landscape of the RP scene nowadays, but I do believe there are steps that can be taken to maintain and build upon the current player base. There have been plenty of solid ideas here and elsewhere on the forums that can help bring about positive change in different aspects of LSRP, but my post is going to be focused on the big picture and what all of us can do—players and admins alike—to help LSRP reach its true potential. To touch briefly on why I personally returned to LSRP: it was for Valenti much more so than it was for LSRP or SAMP. In the past, I have publicly voiced my displeasure with LSRP staff. I was very skeptical of the LSRP comeback and thought it was simply a last-ditch marketing gimmick for the GTAV server; I didn’t think it would be successful and had no interest in rejoining until countless Valenti members reached out urging me to reopen the faction. I went through with it and I’m glad I did because the server has exceeded our expectations so far and has allowed us to make a serious comeback as a faction. Upon our return with how accommodating the staff was setting us up with official status and swiftly handling requests, it was the first time since I joined Valenti in 2011 that I felt we were finally getting the respect we deserve as the longest-standing and most renowned faction on the server. Unfortunately, with lengthy delays and several questionable rulings against us recently, this feeling has dissipated to a degree, but I am still of the belief that the staff team is doing a better job than they have in most previous eras. Regardless of player count, LSRP still has major potential and I believe we can make this final era something special if we all work together. CULTURE SHIFT With that said, everyone needs to remember that the admins are volunteers and we need to adjust our expectations accordingly. The admin team makes LSRP possible and we need to be grateful for that. We need to squash this “us vs. them” mentality that drives a wedge between the players and admins, and we all need to start pulling the rope in the same direction. A clear vision for the future needs to be outlined and at the center of that needs to be a cultural shift that brings the community together as one team working towards the common goal of making the best role-play experience possible. LSRP having a smaller player base doesn’t mean the community doesn’t have room to grow and it isn’t something we should dwell on; instead, we need to look at this as a prime opportunity to build the foundation upon which the new era of LSRP can be built. The success of this server has always been a team effort and that will need to be even more pronounced this time around to ensure we have a community that is sustainable and has room to grow. FACTION SCENE The faction scene and the great factions in particular have always been the main driver of LSRP’s success. We are currently in a good spot with several long-standing official factions and some solid new factions on the come-up. This kind of continuity of characters and factions is key to creating an immersive, realistic, cohesive, and sustainable role-play environment. To maintain and improve upon the current state of the faction scene, everyone needs to play their part. To build strong, quality factions, people need to consider joining the existing factions instead of creating new ones. Only those who are experienced and qualified should be making new factions with the intent of filling a gap in the current faction scene, but we need to be cautious not to oversaturate certain genres. Faction leaders need to create factions with purpose and meaning, the average player needs to stay IC and focus on the realistic development of their character, and the admins need to incentivize, reward, and help facilitate quality role-play. The standard for achieving official status needs to remain high and admins shouldn’t feel pressured to lower the bar in order to appease to players out of desperation. High standards for official factions ensures a healthy faction scene and lowering the bar will create for weaker, unsustainable factions, as has been seen in the past. Unofficial factions now have plenty of schemes they can apply for and it’s certainly a good thing to reward good performance and give people the tools they need to role-play, but only the best faction(s) in each genre should represent LSRP as an official faction. On the other hand, toxic factions need to be disciplined, and if improvement isn’t seen in quick order, they need to be shut down. LSRP has been doing a good job with this as of late and I have seen the benefits first-hand in the LCN scene. The description of a long-time official crime family that was notorious for rule breaking and subpar role-play early on in the LSRP comeback set the tone. That faction in particular has since improved and are making positive contributions to the role-play. The recent shutdown of another toxic LCN faction was another step in the right direction. The LCN scene is experiencing one of its better eras right now and that is in large part thanks to LSRP bringing the hammer down on these problematic factions. In order to optimize the faction scene, I would like to suggest a revamp of the Faction Team structure as seen below: Head of Factions and/or Faction Team Council Official faction leaders (1 from each official faction) The most qualified admins and players with ample faction experience Testers/admins who serve the purpose of handling requests in a timely fashion The most notable change is the involvement of the official faction leaders. When LSRP was in its heyday and on an upward trajectory, there wasn’t a massive Faction Team; there was a Head of Factions who consulted the official faction leaders, which worked quite well at the time. The official faction leaders are a highly knowledgeable group and can bring great value to the Faction Team’s decision-making process. Additionally, this ensures all official factions are represented equally in the faction team and limits the potential for corruption. The Faction Team needs to consist of a healthy balance of players experienced in all the major genres. Many players (myself included) have grown increasingly frustrated with their suggestions falling on deaf ears over the years and, as such, don’t speak up like they used to and have no desire to seek out staff positions. LSRP acknowledging this and going out of their way to recruit the most suitable candidates for the Faction Team (and other staff divisions) would go a long way. ROLE-PLAY MINDSET Everyone needs to adopt the mindset of focusing on the realistic development of their characters. Stay in the moment and embrace every scene. The play-to-win mindset, trigger happiness and seeking quick thrills is not the best way to go about role-playing and it drags the server down. LSRP is marketed as a heavy role-play server and we need to back this up. Below I have linked two threads from the old forums related to this topic: (39) [Tutorial] A case for RPing realistically - Los Santos Roleplay (39) Realism + Character Development = Fun = Success - Los Santos Roleplay MARKETING Other posters have already outlined different approaches that can be taken to market the server and I am in agreement that this needs to be a major focus for staff. Aside from this, word of mouth will go a long way in bringing old players back to the server, but we all need to do our part to make the best role-play environment possible in order to lure people back. While I am of the opinion that the staff team has improved, there is still a stigma weighing them down and they need to continue making positive steps to repair their reputation for some players to ever consider a return. The admins also need to recognize the value many of the long-standing official factions bring from a marketing standpoint. Countless players have come through these factions and people who are otherwise disgruntled with LSRP staff can potentially be lured back by the prospect of rejoining their old faction and continuing their character’s story. Remove the red tape and let these historic factions thrive. PLAYER RETENTION Marketing is useless if we can’t retain the players we bring in. Having a strong faction scene will go a long way in attracting and retaining players. On top of this, the community needs to be welcoming and the game needs to be as user-friendly as possible. LSRP does a good job of allowing players to have creative freedom, but there are still plenty of instances of the admin team being overbearing on people’s creativity. Remove unnecessary restrictions and applications; allow players to craft their characters as they see fit within reason. Factions and players who have made mass contributions to the server over the years should especially be given the benefit of the doubt and more leeway. As others have stated, having the current script-based jobs as the main moneymakers for new players won’t cut it. The government needs to have funding available for companies so that money can be earned through actual role-play as opposed to mindlessly farming scripted jobs. I suggest the introduction of a new staff division or a “buddy system” of sorts committed to helping new players learn the ropes not only in regards to the game itself but also how to role-play realistically and develop a character. We need to focus on retaining players who are here to role-play and develop a realistic character. It’s usually quite easy to decipher between someone who is here to role-play and someone who is not. Discipline and ban rulebreakers/toxic players who only serve to disrupt the experience of real role-players; LSRP being lenient with these types of players out of desperation to keep the player count up is counterproductive. Additionally, LSRP needs to be cautious with how much time they put into the GTAV server. I’m not sure if this explains the recent increase in wait times, but the increased focus on GTAV certainly had a damning effect on the SAMP server last time around and history tends to repeat itself. GTAV is covered, but there is clearly still an appetite for SAMP and thankfully LSRP has filled that void for now. Most of us are here because we aren’t interested in GTAV. The SAMP server, in my opinion, should be the top priority; don’t take it for granted. TL;DR Role-play is a collaborative game and people need to stop being so selfish. Take responsibility yourself, regardless of your role on the server, and think about how you can positively contribute to the community. Focus on role-playing and developing your character realistically. We need to come together as one team to create the best role-play experience possible for the success of LSRP going forward.

Usergroup members are reminded to keep up to date with all private forum topics: The Valenti Crime Family - Los Santos Roleplay (ls-rp.com)