This is a rant. To be entirely honest, it's not directed at any one person or group of persons. It's directed at a trend which have I have seen in far too many individuals, and it's something I wholeheartedly disagree with. I've placed this rant in OOC because I feel it's an OOC issue, even though it has IC implications.

Friends
Friends. Oh how we love to have someone to sit down and chat with after a long day at work or school. I, as much as anyone, appreciate my friends (as a matter of fact, it was a friend which managed to get me back into this game after a far-too-long hiatus). However, I feel that the priority of "friends" is currently misplaced. This is a game, and it's a game that I feel has been mis-played for far too long. As a player of this game, it's important to understand and assume the risks and responsibilities that come with playing. For instance, the moment you start making friends with someone, you have to accept the possibility that you may later have to shoot your new friend in the face. It's nothing personal, it's simply how you play the game. For a very long time, many of the leaders were all good friends (and the hitters in each crew typically knew each other at least). This didn't stop them from taking over each other's cities. It was a friendly competition between players who had a mutual respect for each other.

You may be saying, "I would still shoot my friend if my boss asked me to". That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about putting your friends before your boss; that's a different issue entirely. I'm talking about putting your friends ahead of RP. I've had the pleasure of speaking with quite a few players, and far too many have said their primary or sole objective is "to make friends". Therefore, according to RP, they cross the Atlantic Ocean and join Organized Crime Syndicates to make friends. I don't think I have to tell you why I don't like this, but I will anyways. This isn't MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter. You're here to be a mobster. If you don't understand that, talk to someone who knows what I'm talking about. Talk to the people who complain "RP is dead". You know why it's dead? Cause you let it die.

These new players, new guys who come in off the boats, they don't know what the fuck to do. Everywhere else on the internet, they're being told to "log in with Facebook or Twitter". This site, this game, is different. You don't sign in with Facebook, and you don't play it like MafiaWars or FarmVille. But the new guys don't know that, and they need someone to tell them that. They aren't stupid! Hell, one of the guys I talked to literally told me "I've been trying to get the hang of this game for a while; it has a steep learning curve on the political side and no one's really walked me through it". Do you know how I learned how to RP? Sal_Giaquinto. Tiggy. Tita. These people showed me how to play the game, and I learned because it was fucking awesome watching them do it so well. I was a click monkey, but these leaders turned me into a mafioso. It's the leaders that make these changes in people. You cannot expect people to just "get it" on their own. It's complicated. It's dangerous. They'll get discouraged, but you need to help them. And when you do, you teach them the difference between IC and OOC, so that later, down the road, when their friend gets shot they don't go off the deep end and terrorize the shooter in an IRC PM because they can't separate RL from the game.

RP
RP... Sometimes I think people use the phrase "RP" and don't even know what it stands for. "Role Play". PLAY. Not Role Type, not Role Talk, not Role Speech. Role Play. Think you know where I'm going with this? Proper RP isn't italicizing a robbery story in the Streets. I'm not trying to devalue those posts, but it's worthless unless you're actually portraying yourself as a mobster. Walk like a mobster, talk like a mobster, act like a mobster. I play this game to win. What's "winning"? It's different every time I sign up. But I sign up with an objective, and I do it or die trying. "Winning" can be anything you want it to be, but think about why you're here, at MafiaReturns. "Winning" isn't and will never be, "make friends". You can make friends LITERALLY anywhere else on the internet. ANYWHERE. You know what you can't do anywhere else? Work with twenty other guys to build a crime syndicate and take over the nation. THAT is winning. Even if you die trying, you fucking won. Because you had the sack to set a goal and make it happen to the best of your ability. And you know what you do after you die? You start back up with a new goal and make that happen, only now you have more information to work with. More connections. More insight. And no, this isn't about "war" or "conflict", I'm just saying you should strive to make an impact on this world. Frankly, few have provided any "impact". 

My next RP concern is the intentions of the leaders. You guys, especially the Godfathers, have entire armies that have sworn to fight and die for you. Yet your chief concern is keeping them alive? They're not in your family solely for your protection. Any leader can offer them protection. If that's all you provide, there is NOTHING different between you and them. They want you to take them somewhere, so years down the road you can open a PM with them and "Remember the time we...". And if any crew member joined you and has no interest in following your vision, then why on earth are you even protecting them to begin with? Because they're your friend? (If so, see previous section). If your idea of "winning" is just being an empty HQ for your men, so be it. At least that's something that you can only do here on MR. But if you're going to provide no actual direction or objective for your members, at least have the decency to show them what RP is, how to separate IC from OOC, and teach them how to play the game. Because sooner or later, you're all gonna die and those guys won't be in your care anymore. And once they're on their own, your lessons will come into effect, and you may have trained the next Ragnarok, Marietta, or Tallien. Every single player you bring into your HQ has the capacity to become an amazing player. Don't waste their potential.

TL;DR
I'm doing everything I can to make these changes happen. I'm talking to my fellow players, I'm getting them to discuss the world around them, I'm trying to get them to figure out why we're all here. We're here to play a game, and if your "friends" are keeping you from playing the way you want to, then you need a wake-up call. Considering most of the leaders now are oldies, you should know better than this. You know how to RP, and you can blame no one but yourself for why it died. Every mobster in the game is under one of a few Godfathers' command. You have the power to change every single one of them, and bring back RP. You can either wait until I do it all myself, or you can fucking help me. Either way, that's why I'm not happy.

Some worthwhile points that I agree with and some wildly inappropriate name drops aside, a largely useful insight into the mentality that should be employed on this game.

I will likely sound like a broken record, but the problem is the length of time that goes into building a great account. After hundreds or thousands of hours of work, how many people are really prepared to gamble on losing it? There are very few games where if you die you lose everything and have to start over from the beginning. The greater the potential loss, the less likely people are to take the risk and as a result, people play it safe. Rather than shooting someone, I'll befriend them. Rather than causing a conflict, I'll address my concern with them in private. Rather than giving someone a reason to want me dead, I'll give them a reason to like me so I can survive. So on and so forth.

The political side is increasingly less important than it used to be. Masses of protection affords idiocy the freedom to largely act however they please. When people are accountable to more than a handful of the most senior players, they will need to be savvy. Until then, they can continue to try to smash through the door rather than opening the lock.

I can only echo similar sentiments with regard to attitude, leadership leading and the ability of the world to be changed. Nothing is set in stone, this is a sandbox for us to build whatever we please. If we choose to build replicas of what everyone is building, then we really only have ourselves to blame. 

Ecellent posts by both of my predecessors in this thread. I don't need to echo what they've already said, I'm just here to lend my support to it. Alas I feel that nothing will really change until the leadership changes and they are replaced by those who value RP over safety. Until then we have Mafiabook and it's more of a social site than a game.

I agree with most of what you have said except for...

Any leader can offer them protection. If that's all you provide, there is NOTHING different between you and them.

A good crewleader will offer protection & guidance as any of their members work hard on making money, training their gun and developing their contacts.

I could go out right now and start taking random pot shots at other people because it's a game and I'm sure it would be talked about for a long time but don't you think that having protection and being able to play without dying every 20 days is worth more? We are all going to die at some time or another, the game always switches around it's just that this time there is peace and money for all is plentiful. So we are all happy campers.

I do agree that the leaders/GFs that do control the shift of the game should go to the drawing board and devise a plan about how they auth their leaders, I think that having a strong, well thought out roleplayed character with a common street prescense should be placed high amongst a friend or someone who is able to click their way quickly to 60 units. - I know that most of the leaders have been authed because of their hard work within their city or district but the game shouldn't be played like that, the masses of people playing should atleast know your character if you are to lead your own family.

Thats just my opinion, I'm just a leader of my own family and all I can do guide my family to follow the same principles that I follow myself just like what Sal, Tiggy and Anita did for you.

high amongst a friend or someone who is able to click their way quickly to 60 units.

Higher than that of a friend or someone... **

Ecellent posts by both of my predecessors in this thread. I don't need to echo what they've already said, I'm just here to lend my support to it. Alas I feel that nothing will really change until the leadership changes and they are replaced by those who value RP over safety. Until then we have Mafiabook and it's more of a social site than a game.

The current leadership doesnt prevent people from posting. This notion is assine.

The current leadership doesnt prevent people from posting. This notion is assine.

 I don't know what "assine" means, but I'll assume it's synonymous to "wrong". There are leaders in place who actively prohibit or discourage posting in the streets. In my opinion, the fact that nearly 100 people are in structure positions yet the Streets are practically barren shows that even if you aren't preventing it, the lack of contribution shows the lower ranks that Street Presence isn't valuable or worthwhile. Hell, people get to Godfather now with only so much as an auth thread in the streets. That's setting an example.

A good crewleader will offer protection & guidance as any of their members work hard on making money, training their gun and developing their contacts.

 My original statement was "Any leader can offer them protection. If that's all you provide, there is NOTHING different between you and them.", as you quoted. If they are providing guidance, training, and development, that's more than just protection.

I could go out right now and start taking random pot shots at other people because it's a game and I'm sure it would be talked about for a long time but don't you think that having protection and being able to play without dying every 20 days is worth more? We are all going to die at some time or another, the game always switches around it's just that this time there is peace and money for all is plentiful. So we are all happy campers.

I don't like this argument for a few reasons. First, you (for whatever reason) interpret "set goals and achieve them" as "taking random pot shots". I don't know why, but I'm talking about having a purpose. If you're going to take shots, have an objective driving them. I'm confused, because I heavily accented on this point, yet you still concluded I meant "random" shots? Taking shots can have purpose, but random shots eliminates the entire objective behind the shooting. Second, even if I was suggesting we start taking random pot shots, you take that argument to the extreme and couple "war" with "incessant war". This is not only incorrect, but misleading. Engaging in a conflict doesn't immediately jeopardize everyone forever.

Honestly, I wouldn't care if people died every 20 days. If people were playing the game, making money, trying to get to the top, and the game was so dynamic that it was a constant struggle, I'd be fucking enthused. In my mind, if everyone is dying every 20 days, the gap between the bottom and the top isn't so ridiculously huge, and every time we sign back up, we'd log in with the idea that we could actually make it to the top. Now, when you sign up you have to work for months to catch up on that gap. I think such a gap is discouraging to new players, too. "Welcome to Mafia Returns, pay a shit ton of money and/or commit months of your life to get anywhere." I don't really enjoy that, but to say that any conflict will reduce us to a 20-day account-cycling is preposterous. We've had massive conflicts, takedowns, and wars but we never got to "dying every 20 days". And even if we were, what's so bad about a system that refreshes that quickly?

Third, "peace and money" isn't what everyone wants, so I think it's a bit naive to assume that everyone's a "happy camper". However, the "gap" forces people to commit so much time to "peace and money" that they may seem like they're happy, but it's just because they have to put on that face to get anywhere in the first place. Would you promote someone who says "I like war let's fight, everyone train up so we can kill people"? No. So in order for people to advance, they have to be "peace and money" people. By the time they get close to the top, they realize they've invested so much into getting there, that they don't want to risk it. Even though they joined the game with the purpose of making a difference, the sheer effort required to get to a difference-making position biases them against it. So it stays static. The leaders have paid tons of money to keep things static.

Apart from those three points, I certainly agree with your comment on auths. One of the great ways to see if a player is a good player, is their ability to establish a character and encounter conflict and cooperation along the way. If they can establish that character and communicate with others through that character, that's a sign of a great player. When we skip this step, we auth people who have no clue what RP even is. 

The current leadership doesnt prevent people from posting. This notion is assine.

Again I will not cover the ground that Artorem has done such a fine job of covering however I do have to point something out. You immediately jumped on what I said as a complaint about posting. RP is not just about posting. RP should stretch into every aspect of MafiaReturns. In the way you conduct business with others and the way you maintain relationships. It's not just about what is said but what is done. I believe this is at the heart of Artorem's complaint. There was a time where people were friends with the most powerful people in the game and were buried by those people for some violation simply because RP called for it. Now those people not only go unpunished but some are rewarded with positions of power. The bottom line is that friends are chosen over RP and that just doesn't work well for a RP game.

First, you (for whatever reason) interpret "set goals and achieve them" as "taking random pot shots". I don't know why, but I'm talking about having a purpose. If you're going to take shots, have an objective driving them. I'm confused, because I heavily accented on this point, yet you still concluded I meant "random" shots?

I didn't confuse what you said, I just said something completely different. If you care to think outside of the box you would notice that the fact I said take random pot shots leads up to the fact that nobody can actually take over the game, so all that would happen is random pot shots. Your just right when you said about the static and this means things would have to be done differently to actually take control of the game. Not like before when one crewleader could just rise up with nothing and take control, with the current standing of things that can't happen.

When I'm talking about people dying every 20 days I'm talking about those people that never ever ranked above wiseguy, they would come and go like mini muffins on my breakfast table. If you think this situation that we are in right now is actually so bad, think of the good that has come from it aswell, there has been so many new players, old players, couldn't get past 20 day players that have actually now ranked themselves right up to Don. When the game does change hands in the future and different rules implemented atleast we now have so many new players that know exactly how to play the game.

You have to be able to look at the good in any situation and not always focus on the bad stuff. Although I do hear everything your saying and I think everyone has fealt that at one point or another but you just have to keep on trucking and see how the game pans out.

I think that most of the current leaders are actually waiting on the new features more than anything, there will be a lot of home city based protection and loss of protection outside of that and the game is moving in a different direction. Although I like the fact that the admins are currently adding lots of new features to drag street activity into the game, I still firmly believe that it is the users that are the ones that control how the streets work.

Leaders do set examples and can suggest things to push their members towards speaking in the streets or business districts, but what I get tired of hearing about is how it seems to be solely our problem.

The fact you brought up your concern for all to see is a plus, you are doing something and seem to care, but it is as a community as a whole that needs to work at fixing this, not just us bolds and italics.

We may have more power over people, but what people don't seem to realize is the members of our families also have a lot of power too. I don't think I've met a leader that would tell someone in their family, "No, I don't want you to go out and role play or start a group of people who want to role play.".

I feel that the main issue is a fear of the streets. People are unsure how to speak there and would rather earn their way up by being an amazing earner, a really helpful family man or woman, or someone who has a skill at shooting these punks that show up around our parts.

If you go to say that people shouldn't be promoted unless they post, yes we could all do that, but not everyone's forté is speaking or role playing. Am I saying not to push for it? No, I push for posting, whether it be in the HQ, Business Districts, or Streets. 

And you say that we know how to role play, but I've met many people who aren't even sure how to start out role playing. 

The gods above are trying to make posting more appetizing for players. So hopefully this helps out, but I know for myself...I'm mainly hitting blank walls right now as a writer. Eventually, it should pass. Yet, I'll gladly help any who want to stretch their wings and start posting or role playing. I'm only a mail away.