Sal

Yas I play - what data centre you on? I'm still making my way through Endwalker.

At the end of the day, I think most people are free to RP whatever they like. I've spent a few years RPing on different platforms now, ones which don't have RP economies (like WoW), and it worked purely because the people interested in that type of RP just... did it. It was much less about the rat race of making money, owning places, growing to a huge size, and more about just doing the roleplay because that's what people enjoyed. I know this is a different playing environment here, involving an actual economy and businesses and what-not, so it's only fair to expect that unique RP like the one you've suggested should receive some kind of support, imo. Although only if those interested prove that they're gonna stick to it beforehand.

That's fair enough yeah, there never really was much diversity in the music that was played. On World they had a place dedicated to metal music at some point, it was a bit cray but it was different and refreshing. Let's hope for a good mix!

I just finished the first of the Mistborn series and I loved it. I'm finding the start of the second book a bit too combat-heavy though (I have trouble keeping up with it) so might just skip some bits to get back to the actual story.

I'm pretty sure I could re-watch Death Note an infinite amount of times. Even the English dubbed version wasn't so bad.

Aye back in 2011/12. The one who wore the tilted fedora because that was such a good idea at the time

I remember one of the main issues in early LSRP was actually filling the nightclubs, because so many were opening and people preferred to hang around in their own gang neighbourhoods or what-not. The short-term solution that the club owners came up with was the good old dance competition. It basically forced people to dance and create a more realistic atmosphere, in exchange for cash. Sometimes a hell of a lot of cash. Obviously this is shite for immersion and realism, but I get why they did it. Most people literally sauntered into a club, stood around and looked moody, and then... that was it. It never looked realistic unless people were dancing. This seemed to be less of a problem on World, from what I saw the few times I went on there over lockdown. Especially since you can sorta dress your characters up in their "going out gear" now. I think maybe just see what happens with the business that are set up, then go from there.

Ahhh spent so many years in SAN. The issue, which many people raised already, is that the previous landscape didn't really allow for competitor news factions to really progress anywhere. We ran Source Magazine and TraceNews for months, with no support in an already difficult civilian economy. It naturally flopped and failed. It sounds like the systems will support budding news factions much better in the release though, so I agree that these should be built from the ground up. And any rewards in terms of scripting should follow to those who commit to it. In terms of execution, obviously the text across the screen thing is very old hat now. I ran the news faction on World for a time, and we used an opt-in system (akin to watching /tv on the old LSRP script) which seemed to be more popular, but it was still... old. I like the ideas that people are putting forward for an app, or similar sort of interface. Think that would be cool. We also started recording news and putting it up on the in-game XM stations, which looped. It took time and effort but people seemed to really enjoy it for immersion. It also gave me a chance to actually make use of this damn expensive microphone I splashed out on for no reason at all. Anybody remember COPS back in the 2008-2010 era? Oh the nostalgia burns me to my core.

Great discussion but rather than add a wall of text in here, I'll just say that I agree with all the points about there being a need for balance, and an appreciation that criminal, LEO and civilian roleplay all has its place in creating an environment that complements the roleplaying experience for all three. I think ROZE summed this up best in the earlier post. How to do it all in practise, though? Biiiig topic. Lots to be learned from World as everyone's mentioned; both in terms of what to pick up, and what to discard. If the vision remains that it should be a fair system that doesn't overly favour one roleplaying group over another, then the actions taken as part of this should be positive. Obviously it'll take some hiccups and learnings along the way too.

I personally enjoyed some of the earlier iterations of government systems because it was more simple. I know there were quite a few folks who were really into it a few years later with the senate and what-not too, though I'll admit it just got a bit much for me to keep up with so I just sort of stopped reading. So tl;dr I think this is on the right track and I support, and am looking forward to what you come up with. Also know that you've been there, done that and worn the t-shirt so you'll know the kinda things to think about. Further thoughts below, since it sounds like things are still in early stages: Make the decision early on regarding how much "say" the Government has in the operation of other factions, obvs thinking law enforcement and fire department as the main ones. If it's to be a lot, then due care needs to go into who in the Government that particular responsibility stops with. I know this is why there was always some level of admin involvement in the form of a Governor for certain things, since IC decisions could heavily impact OOC enjoyment of the game. I'll use the example of the time when a Mayor tried to fire a Chief of Police, which would have caused untold chaos if nobody intervened. If there's to be elections, I think make the terms long. We saw time and time again that regular new leadership basically meant an entirely new faction, which was unstable and chaotic. I know that the city manager position and the separation of departments / the mayor's office tried to combat this, and I'm not sure how successful that was (perhaps others who were around after me could elaborate 'cause that would be interesting to know). A constantly changing leader figure is also very fatiguing for everyone. Remember it's still a game. I think that in the past, and in certain "other communities", it just went too far down the lines of being a bureaucratic, boring mess. Some people love doing paperwork and are fine with seeing their online lives as a second job, but I don't personally think that's sustainable. There are some paperworky things that you'll never get away from needing, but I think the focus should be on the roleplay and the experience far more than the function. I know not everyone will agree with that, but I'd rather have an active and stable government faction which stays that way because the players enjoy playing their characters, rather than one which just seems to manage a myriad of processes on the forums. I'm not saying make the government useless, but just make it interesting! Then we may actually have people who stick around. If there's to be competition, or party systems, be careful of players getting too hyper about winning. Easier said than done I know, but I just think it's important to encourage people to enjoy the game and the stories rather than getting so involved and bothered about whether they'll "win". And yesss I know this also feeds into the wider problem of some folks having a problem with losing in general, I just know from experience that too much competition and things can get really nasty and stressful on an OOC level. Stay fluid. You're in the fortunate position at the moment where nothing is set in stone and you can just sorta sit back and watch everyone's thoughts. People do have their own prerogatives for getting involved in Gov factions though; some people enjoy the creation and passing of legislation, some people enjoy having powerful characters, some people enjoy the in-game roleplay, some people see it as a popularity contest then disappear, some people enjoy the forum paperwork... basically just take opinions in context where you can. Creating a government which has function and purpose but is still fun to be part of in the game should be the direction, I reckon. It's been a very long time since I roleplayed in Government on any server now, so I know that things have no doubt come a long way since the 2012 era. I'd be eager to hear more about what happened and whether certain things worked or not, purely 'cause I'm nosy and nostalgic. Also I ain't gonna pretend my opinions are the magic bullet here, far from it, just my two penneth from what I've seen before!

Greetings. 2008. Scary shit.