Giovanni_Sgroi

I provided suggestions in August, and was told I would be added to the economy team once they have the infrastructure explaining how the system works and what is needed of team members. Since I haven't been added back I suppose there's no infrastructure in place. It's literally SAMP all over again. Irrelevant band-aid solutions that do nothing for the economic system itself. You have hyperinflation because you have someone in charge of economy who doesn't even understand how inflation works. Be transparent. Release a Forbes style top 10 richest list, and show how much money is added into the server on a weekly/biweekly/monthly basis. Then we can discuss economy.

I don't hate it. I was pointing out why the player base declined and why LSRP has become the foster child, with suggestions on what to improve on regarding community engagement. LSRP launching in V got me excited to roleplay again after years of inactivity but seeing nothing has changed it's disappointing. It is what it is.

I'm glad accepting mediocrity has made you a happier person but why brag about achieving the dreams you had when you were 12 if you're still as immature? What would've happened if you didn't settle with the first chick who didn't reject you? I'd rather play on a server that's worth my time and not play if there ain't none but that's just me. You do you.

If we had what people ask for they'd get in-game. Stop deflecting from the problems and act like they're magically gonna solve themselves. Good luck building a community with that kind of attitude. Your issue is you think people care. They don't. They'll choose an alternative, and pretending it's on them to not play victim and simply log on is counter-intuitive to what we're trying to achieve. Personally, I couldn't care less. If the server is good and there's players, I'll play. If not, I won't. Simple as.

I remember when I was invited to the Economy Team, raised concerns with suggestions, got kicked out because the ”Economy Team wasn't ready for the public” and that they'd invite me back when they had more to show. There was nothing, and I'm still waiting for my reinvite 6 weeks later. Furthermore, we can discuss and agree or disagree about the standards we want for the server but I'll reiterate what I said on another topic: A lot of people seem to think everyone's idea of roleplay has to match theirs. It doesn't. If you want to build and maintain a community, figure out what players want to roleplay and provide them the creative freedom to express themselves through the character they choose, and the scenarios they create. If it happens in real life, it's realistic. Has anyone asked gang roleplayers what they need for their roleplay? Motorcycle club players? Organized crime? Until you start doing that there's nothing to talk about. Get off the high horse and cut the ”stop complaining and get in-game” bullshit. That's the attitude that makes the average player go, ”fuck it. I'll join another server.” They don't care. They roleplay where they can roleplay what they want to roleplay. Period. Jack Welch said, “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” LSRP doesn't have a script-wise competitive advantage in V. What other competitive advantage can we create? Deliver more value by creating more roleplay opportunities for different groups of roleplayers. First, ask for feedback. Second, be transparent. Third, reflect and review.

I'll be completely honest I'm not even going to read the replies on the topic because it's been the same old song since late SAMP days. Before V, LSRP was the powerhouse roleplay community but everyone seems to forget why. It helped to have the most developed script but it wasn't the reason. It was a reason. The moment V came along that's where most of the target audience went. They would swap the most developed script in SAMP for a barebones script in V because it was the future. The main reason LSRP became the powerhouse roleplay community in SAMP was everyone could roleplay what they wanted to roleplay (and I don't mean having the money). The only questions we should be asking ourselves and everyone else is: 1) What's LSRP's target audience in terms of roleplay quality? 2) What does everyone want to roleplay? What do they want to do in LSRP? 3) If what they want to roleplay/do in LSRP doesn't match our intended target audience and roleplay quality, leave them be so long as they don't break rules and bother others. If they want to have shootouts in Davis, let them. If they shoot up a business over an argument, ban them for DM. Simple as. A lot of people seem to think everyone's idea of roleplay has to match theirs. It doesn't. The beauty of roleplay is that everyone has the creative freedom to express themselves through the character they choose, and the scenarios they create. If it happens in real life, it's realistic. Just don't overdo what would be extremely rare. 4) Figure out what players truly want to roleplay/do on the server, and if it happens in real life take immediate action to make it possible. Do you need a rule change? Do you need a policy change? Do you need a script change? What's the [x,y,z] that players need to roleplay? That's the most important part of building a community. It's never about ”how do we get more players?” it's about ”how do we make/keep current players happy?” That's what's going to attract more players. The second part is balance. If player A needs a rule change to roleplay X (which would realistically happen in real life) how do we balance the rule so that there's equal opportunity and counterplay? If you provide certain factions or players the privilege of guns or drug supply, do they deserve it and are they going to use it in goodwill spreading it around to other players who want them? You should literally be asking groups of players for feedback on a regular basis. Gang roleplayers, OC roleplayers, MC roleplayers, civilians, governmental, legal: what do each group need to have more opportunities for roleplay creation, and how do we give it to them in a balanced manner (relative to other groups of players)? Are gang roleplayers happy with the current state? Are MC roleplayers happy with the current state? That's real progress. Otherwise, you can go in circles talking about this is a problem, that is a problem, but you need to have a vision and mission statement for the community, take the necessary steps to build and maintain a community, increase community engagement, listen to feedback, put the right people in positions of team management who know what they're doing. Otherwise, what? You're never going to find any competitive advantage compared to certain other servers in the landscape and continue to ride out old nostalgia.

On a different note from the economy, as management, you have 2 key responsibilities: 1) Server development in terms of script. I won't comment on that because I know nothing about scripting however it's important to listen to feedback and suggestions and implement systems players need for their roleplay or quality of life. 2) Figuring out what players need for their roleplay. Do gang roleplayers need a good drug system? Do OC roleplayers need more systems for white-collar crime? What do business and company owners need? What do civilians need? Should we implement restrictions on PF licenses so they would fill their intended purpose (of being a means for legal characters to obtain firearms, not for criminals). Which factions have access to the supply of guns and drugs, and are they setting up proper supply chains so it reaches everyone who wants guns and drugs for their roleplay? It's a combination of script features and systems (or rules and regulations) that allow players to roleplay what they want to roleplay (while still being fun and fair for everyone, not favoring any one group of players). Once you figure out what they need, you start balancing it so that input = output however there's equal opportunity.

I will briefly comment on the economy since that's what I'm most interested in myself. The current economy is not fundamentally realistic. It's based on a circular flow of income model but it's not designed to keep money circulating in the economy; instead, it creates a lot of money and looks to remove money from circulation. A healthy economy requires the regulation of how much money is created and keeps most money circulating in the economy (while creating investment and non-investment resources to spend said money on so that players wouldn't have too much money with nothing to spend on). It simply gives the false idea of realism because it's more difficult to start out but there are many loopholes. Something that people who don't understand economics and game economy design is that a realistic economy = is (very) difficult to earn money. You can have a realistic economic model but ”adjust the ratios.” For example, think of income classes. Lower class - very poor Lower class Lower middle class Upper middle class Lower upper class Upper class Each income class ”denotes a level (in a game)” based on how much someone earns (based on what they do and what their contribution to the roleplay universe and in-game economy is) and each income class can afford certain investment and non-investment resources. If you were in the lower class - very poor, you would rely on social housing and the Department of Social Services checks. If you were upper class, you could afford the most expensive mansions and vehicles. Most all games that have an in-game economy revolve around a cost system. The cost system determines how easy or difficult it is to reach a certain level (of income), and what each level can afford. However, the trick is in regulating the money created (called the ”main indicators of the game,” meaning what is being rewarded with money. Usually, in roleplay, it's either (prolonged) activity e.g. paychecks and savings, or it's roleplay creation.) Once the money is created, the goal is to keep it circulating, not remove it from circulation. That's how you get a healthy economic system with limited inflation. Now, as I said, you can ”adjust the ratios” of how easy or difficult it is to reach a certain level. The upper middle class to upper class should be the most difficult to reach but the first three levels should require minimum effort. That would set all (new) players up at a comfortable level where they don't have to worry about money and can roleplay, but would need to put in extra work (through roleplay effort) to get higher. The easiest way to visualize this is by thinking of XP ratios for levels in an MMORPG. At the moment, you literally have players who can't afford the basics for their roleplay while there is a player who owns the Gentry Manor Hotel as a private residence (I don't know who), and there is major inflation not even a quarter into the server existence with millions being printed. My suggestion is this: Make the economy more transparent (good starters would be a Forbes-style top 10 richest list, a monthly inflation tracker based on how much money was/is on the server, and an income ladder. All 3 of these are public to everyone). It creates accountability for the economy team and players will be more inclined to provide feedback on the economy based on how content or uncontent they are with the results. Make it easier to start out for new players but make it more difficult to reach the upper levels of income classes. Involve non-staff in the economy team, and make economic discussions public to the player base so everyone can voice their opinion, and see how decisions are made.

I roleplayed almost daily with one week off since the server launched, and after playing SAMP longer than I care to admit V actually got me excited to roleplay again. Frankly, I didn't mind the low player base or bare-bones script because I saw initiative and activity from the staff (which was lacking toward the end of SAMP. Let's be honest). I always view servers, factions, characters, et cetera as long-term projects. However, what drove me off about a week or a week and a half ago was seeing behind-the-scenes on the Economy Team after which I took some time to analyze. Pardon my bluntness but I think the economy is neither realistic nor has a long-term future. The fundamentals are extremely poor, and the system is designed to hurt new players and benefit players in legal factions or part of the companies/businesses/factions scheme. A key issue in SAMP was inflation, and LSRPV has already printed millions upon millions into the economy while new players struggle with basics for their roleplay. When I raised my concerns (having literally studied economics and finance in real life, and designed game economies in the past) I encountered non-explanations and got kicked from the Economy Team because ''it wasn't ready for public'' despite being invited as non-staff in the first place. I wasn't invited back (I was told I would) and I saw no interest shown in my economic feedback. I hope I will be proven wrong but nothing that I witnessed from the economy team indicates they actually understand economics, which means that there are going to be fundamentally similar issues to what SAMP faced only different methods. Personally, as I have roleplayed in LSRP since 2007, as other servers in SAMP and MTA, right now LSRP has no competitive advantage. When I log in I don't feel as if there's anything new. If I'm completely honest, I don't even see many issues from SAMP solved or improved upon. At this point, you're only going to maintain nostalgic players loyal to the LSRP brand.

I don't want to sound like a know-all but I have played for a long time, experienced different server states, and writing from personal observation. First and foremost, there's a difference between deathmatch and trigger happiness. Most commonly: Deathmatch is looking for or provoking action to kill with little to no reason. Trigger happiness is reacting with action (to kill) when provoked but not looking for or provoking action themselves. A misconception is that more guns results in more deathmatch and robberies. You couldn't be further from the truth. When dealing with said problems, we have to look at the core of the problem: player behavior. Guns are a means of carrying out said behavior, not the cause. Read that again. I was personally involved in official factions supplying the server guns from 2008 to 2011 and we largely only had 2 goals: Oversupply (flood) the market so everyone who wants a gun has access to guns. I'll later explain why it's important. Maintain supply chain stability and never inflate the price: the street price of a Desert Eagle was tied to the $3,000 mechanic paycheck. Our idea was that the average price of a Desert Eagle should never exceed $3,000 (it took 3 years to inflate to $3,500) but we maintained a highly controlled supply chain, and each step of the supply chain had a price range in a few hundred range (I think the range was originally $500, for margin). A player was able to get a gun after an hour of play (both in terms of affordability and finding a dealer). When either or neither of the goals is met the server faces the following key problems: 1) Subpar roleplay (and mass robberies) trying to find guns for their roleplay using non-roleplay means. Let's be completely honest with ourselves: in the U.S. guns aren't difficult to acquire by any stretch of the imagination, and LSRP is an amplified version of the U.S. since most players roleplay the criminal side of real-life society. The truth is, almost everyone should have guns. For a few reasons: They can roleplay what they want. If they want to roleplay drive-bys and shootouts. Let them. That's their idea of roleplay, and that's what they find fun. It shouldn't bother anyone else until they start bothering others, and that leads me to the next point. We need to cultivate a culture where we don't bother others for the sake of bothering others. First, deathmatch and subpar robberies are rulebreaking and should be treated as such with OOC punishments (and they should be dealt with promptly, and consistently, to prevent repeat offenders). Secondly, trigger happiness should be among those who are trigger-happy. Take it outside an open business. Take it into the hood. Don't shoot up someone in a place trigger happiness doesn't belong. That's what gang roleplayers and criminals can do themselves, and if it's reported by other players it should be treated similarly to deathmatch. What we did as official factions was we stopped supplying factions that engaged in deathmatch or trigger happiness, and it took away from those factions' ability to defend themselves against rival factions and earn money street dealing guns. If player 1 is trigger-happy and player 2 is trigger-happy it's fine when they shoot up each other (if that's what they find fun roleplay) as long as they don't bother players 3 and 4. When their trigger happiness carries over to ruining players 3 and 4 it becomes a server-wide problem. When guns are very easy to get then certain types of behavior are encouraged: 1) There's little to no play-to-win attitude because nobody cares about losing their gun. You want to rob my gun off me? Take it for all I care I'll have another one in 20 minutes. I feel like defending myself? I always have a gun on me. “Don't be stupid. This is the shootout.“ Everybody carries a gun? Oh shit, I better think twice before I rob someone because they might defend themselves. When you make guns scarce you are going to get the opposite effect: Players are going to play to win to keep their guns because it's difficult to get another one. Players are going to lack self-defense and become even easier targets for robberies. 2) There are 2 types of robberies: Robberies where thieves go out looking for victims. That's often the worst quality roleplay because realistically speaking, robberies wouldn't take place in broad daylight in affluent neighborhoods. Robbing someone in front of a West Los Santos clothes store goes against the common courtesy rule and should be treated as such. Robberies where the victims are in the wrong place at the right time. If you wander around gang-infested neighborhoods and aren't careful you deserve to be robbed. Let's be clear about that: that's your responsibility and fuck-up. Only the 2nd type of robberies should happen en masse because they're self-inflicted, and don't ruin anyone's roleplay because they brought it upon themselves. The exception to the rule is planned robberies which are usually well-executed. In conclusion, guns are the means, not the cause. guns should be abundant, not scarce. gun market should have a realistic supply chain and price ranges that don't inflate. PF licenses should be difficult to obtain and revoked immediately upon evidence of abuse. They should be means for legal characters acquiring and carrying guns for self-protection (for whom it wouldn't realistically make sense to buy one from a gun dealer), not for criminal characters. OOC punishments for deathmatch, trigger-happiness, and subpar robberies should be prompt and consistent, especially for repeat offenders. IC consequences should be implemented to invoke fear (because the average player behaves based on the IC consequences, or lack thereof). Limiting the supply of guns doesn't address the fundamental problem (and causes other problems). The fundamental problem is player behavior, not the number of guns.

I remember how that worked in SAMP. When people roleplayed something and failed, they went to their OOC piggy bank and refinanced instead of learning from failures and being smart about making their operations profitable. Personally, I don't see how someone who has money and wants to roleplay a bookmaker but doesn't know how bookmaking works and operates at a constant loss, is more authentic roleplay than someone who starts from scratch, learns how bookmaking works, makes a profit, and separates themselves from the rest. The exact same fundamental concept applies to practically everything. People bet money because they didn't care if they won or lost. Since they didn't care if they won or lost they did less or no research. The bookmakers running betting shops didn't know how to balance the books or use margins and make odds but you know what? They didn't care learning because they didn't care if they won or lost. Why go through the hassle of learning about bookmaking? Why put time and effort into balancing the books? Why make a 7-8% margin on a $20,000 book or why risk loan sharking if someone can go bartend for an hour and make the same amount of money. That's exactly what breaks immersion and makes the environment completely unrealistic. You can have a different opinion without being an immature hater. Refrain from name calling and personal attacks, and focus on discussion points. If you fuck that up we ain't got nothing to talk about. It's the 4th day I'm waiting for a response to my business lease application. Am I complaining? No. I go out and roleplay in the meanwhile. If I get denied it's because I need to put more time and effort into it. Think it through. Make sure I can operate it actively and profitably. The property team doesn't owe me shit and I'm entitled to nothing. My output depends on my input. Period. I wasn't going to respond to that but I'll tell you what creativity is. Creativity is when you're a low-level Mafia associate who's in debt (and when I say in debt I mean really in debt not your imaginary little roleplay scenario you painted with your friend for screenshots ”to grow your character.”) and you got until the end of the week to come up with an envelope otherwise your character will be killed off permanently. You can't go to your OOC piggy bank. You can't keep roleplaying a gangster because you want to. No. You have to go out there and figure out how to make money. That's creativity. That's authenticity. Because it's real. Not ”let me have a business and endless trunks of money so I can make pretend I'm a gangster, and everyone should respect me because that's what I choose to roleplay.”

We are polar opposites in that sense. Your idea of roleplay is that money is an OOC tool and you should have everything you need to create the character and roleplay environment you want. My idea of roleplay is that a realistic economy is part of realistic roleplay, and there's natural selection regarding who succeeds in achieving their goals of what they want to roleplay and who doesn't. For those who don't there's a learning curve. What good is your dream car if you didn't work for it and can have any car you want? What good is your business if it's unprofitable because you don't know how to run it properly? My idea of organic development is that you get what you work for. I want to be able to say, "I have a nice car most people don't. I live in a house most people can't afford. I run such and such business. You know why? Because I earned them. I worked for them. I beat the competition." I will get backlash for this but most of you complaining about grinding script jobs are the very people who don't know how to earn through roleplay, and won't learn, and just want to get things for free so you could roleplay things you don't understand. If you understood how they worked you would be able to earn through them in the first place. And I'm not going to sit here and pretend like everything that works in real life works here. That's why you have to adapt and overcome. Learn. Do research. Try out things. Struggle. Fail. It makes reaching the finish line all the more enjoyable. Otherwise what? Roleplay a career criminal in an utopian paradise where I can make money hand over fist, and never have any money problems? How could anyone realistically roleplay a criminal character when money is abundant, when crime is motivated by money? Make it make sense.

I won't comment on the GTA 5 RP marketplace and target audience concerns, and I agree in spirit with many points you made but there are two obvious logical fallacies: 1) We have enough data from SAMP to know how ”just so they can RP what they actually want.” works when there's an overabundance of money. There is endless evidence but I'll use one example from my immediate area of expertise: bookmaking in organized crime. I know plenty people who wanted to roleplay bookmakers. They had money (often not earned through roleplay) and they started a bookmaking operation they had made zero research for. I'm talking about people who don't know the absolute basics of balancing books or how margins and odds work. They could go around running betting shops, and roleplay hotshot bookmakers because they had money. They would rather never make a profit than actually learn how bookmaking really works. I hate to be blunt with you but if you don't think it breaks immersion for others, and that there's no learning curve necessary then we have very different views on quality roleplay. When money is scarce, it forces people to learn. Learning results in improvement. Improvement in anything from understanding how the real world works and roleplaying skills to English proficiency. Now, on that note, I think more factions should be new player friendly, and mentor them instead of rejecting them based on lack of experience. And the whole server should facilitate learning and progress (however not babysit them). Overprotectiveness keeps new players from engaging in situations restricting the opportunities to build connections and learn necessary skills. Similarly, as @Mmartin mentioned, we shouldn't encourage instant gratification. I only need one quote to sum it up and it is this: don't wish it was easier wish you were better. You don't need to grind fishing to roleplay what you want. I'll be completely transparent here: I started a bookmaking operation with $1,000. I started a private protection firm with no money invested. Be resourceful and put time and effort into achieving your goals through organic development. Don't think you should be entitled to have the hottest and best dance club in LS because ”that's what you want to roleplay.” Build up to becoming one. 2) There is some truth to riding the wave of SAMP nostalgia and I'll admit I was critical of LSRP management in the past but if you don't respect them trying (which they are in my opinion) then I would say your judgment is clouded by hatred. Now, there are two competing text roleplay servers and a third is to launch but I personally see no need for conflict. Everyone roleplays where they have fun roleplaying, and saying LSRP is a server of players rejected from or banned in World is a very rigid and ungenerous perspective on the community here. Most players I personally know — and frankly I don't know many since most if not all my old friends have quit because there has been no high-quality roleplay server to roleplay in for the past few years — never saw World as a serious roleplay server. I don't deny it's a popular server and I wholeheartedly believe people should be having fun so I have no reason to hate on World whatsoever. It's simply that my view on roleplay is very different from the average player base there. Does LSRP match my view on roleplay? That's debatable but it's the best I got to work with, and I don't doubt it'll get better with time. Personally, I had no expectations for LSRP V. I don't expect it to be anywhere near peak LSRP SAMP. I may have roleplayed for 10+ years but I went back to starting from scratch and I absolutely love it. To each their own.

I roleplayed in Habbo, SAMP, and MTA, and joined LSRP in 2007 when I was 12. I'm 27 now and I'll be completely honest, the primitive script and me being new to V makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. Contrary to popular opinion, the current economy is by far the best thing to happen to LSRP. Money is scarce. Money has value. People are actually putting time and effort into earning, and aren't breaking immersion by roleplaying operations they don't understand simply because they have the money to finance it. SAMP was absolutely unplayable toward the end because money was abundant and nobody cared if they tipped the bartender $1,000, $20,000, or if their bookmaking operation operated at a constant loss. How are you supposed to roleplay criminal or entrepreneurial characters when there is no fun in competing for the dollar? Now, if your business, operation, or scheme is unprofitable, it forces you to learn. There's a very obvious learning curve: if you are new to roleplay, grind script jobs until you learn to earn through roleplay, or join a faction and learn from more experienced roleplayers. There are no shortcuts or get-rich-quick schemes, and people aren't treating the game as an MMORPG. Frankly, I love it and, for the sake of immersion, please don't allow savings or bank interest to hyperinflate the economy like SAMP. It breaks immersion on so many levels.

Foreword There are 2 ways to play blackjack. The first is with /dice and the second is with /rnumber 13. I think everyone knows ”/dice blackjack” which is using /dice that rolls 1-6, you play up to 21 and the player goes first. Now, dice blackjack originated from Habbo casinos in the early 2000s using a piece of furniture called HoloDice where you could roll between the numbers 1-6 similar to /dice. Another similar game was 13 based on the exact same rules. However, /rnumber was introduced in LSRP SAMP in the early 2010s, and /rnumber 13 became the most optimal way to play real blackjack. The general player base never changed from /dice to /rnumber, and since /dice blackjack wasn't prohibited and casino owners weren't encouraged to use /rnumber only a handful of players (mostly in organized crime circles) adopted the optimal way to play. It's been some 20 years since Habbo so it's time realistic blackjack with /rnumber 13 was played across the board, and /dice blackjack died its death. It's an ancient relic of the early RPG era of SAMP and not a good standard of roleplay. That's only my opinion but no owner or manager of a legal gambling establishment should be allowed to deal /dice blackjack in 2023. Guide The way realistic blackjack with /rnumber 13 works is very easy. The values are as follows: 1 is Ace (1/11) 2 is 2 3 is 3 4 is 4 5 is 5 6 is 6 7 is 7 8 is 8 9 is 9 10 is 10 11 is Jack (10) 12 is Queen (10) 13 is King (10) Based on probabilities, that's the most accurate system. To play, the dealer deals themselves the first card face-up then the player hits until they stand, and the dealer completes the hand. That's the easiest and most optimal way to play bar none. Advanced players can implement double downs, splits, surrenders, rule variations, etc. which I need not explain.