I imagine some people will hate this suggestion, as it would make generating an income a touch more difficult.

The mob traditionally ran businesses that they could use as fronts to either launder their money or import drugs. The best examples I can think of are the now notorious Pizza franchises that the Mob opened to smuggle in their heroin from Sicily.

The idea of mob guys being involved directly in the running of a bar, such as serving the drinks and cleaning the tables, has always seemed a little at odds with the nature of what being a mobster is about. I'm sure very few high level mobsters ever got involved in the minor details of the legitimate side of their businesses.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why that isn't the case here and I know some people enjoy the more relaxed RP side they are able to incorporate into their businesses. My point is, that these businesses should be fronts, not just legitimate bars, restaurants, hotels, joke shops, etc. etc.

My suggestion therefore is an additional requirement before you can open a DFP. In order for you to open a DFP you must first own a front, available from the business district. You must own, service and maintain a front, so whilst you still have to bribe the Feds, perhaps if your business does not receive any meaningful posts for 1-2 weeks, you can still lose your DFP.

The difficulty in this is obviously judging what 'meaningful' would be, but I assume the same code used to judge the MRSE could be made applicable to this. I also think difficulty would be involved in coding in a front and the purchase thereof.

I can't speak for the coding element of that, but the business district would obviously be owned by the Godfather of whichever city and perhaps the amount of fronts available would be relative to the amount of members/crews in their city. This could be a function attributed to the Godfather's LHM, making their business district the responsibility of their third in command.

So to try and clarify this a little bit:

In addition to your funds in order to open a Drug Front Property you must:

- Purchase a 'front' from the Business District of whichever city you intend to open your DFP.
- Once you've purchased your 'front' you must now make a believable business out of it.
- Once you've established your business, you can begin drug production
- These fronts aren't free though, so a cut of your profits would have to go to the front owner, to keep the heat off from City Hall.
- Despite this, there is only so much the front owner can do. The feds are hot on narcotics, so they still might inspect your front from time to time, if it doesn't receive customers for 1-2 weeks, they might wonder about the comings and goings of the owner with large sacks of money, that can't be profits from the business.
- Provided your business is active, you line the right pockets, you can still make plenty of cash from your Drug Front Property.

Advantages:

Realism - Businesses are not legitimate, they are fronts for your drugs operations.

Business District use - Utilising and maintaining the business district is imperative to keep your gold mine DFP.

LHM Use - This position really doesn't bring much with it, other than additional invites. They would now be extremely important as they deal with the city officials regarding real estate and they deal with the funds raised from the purchase of fronts.

Reduced money - We have too much money in the game, I imagine this would make fewer people buy DFPs and the ones who did would have to earn them.

Godfather control - Godfather's own the fronts, they control the DFPs and they control the business districts of the city.

Disadvantages:

Coding - I have no idea the difficulties that would be involved in this, but I imagine it would take a lot to introduce fronts, quality controls and LHM responsibilities.

Monopoly - To me this isn't a disadvantage, but I imagine the better players would quickly gain a monopoly on this and buy up all the fronts. Given the longevity of most accounts, no new account would have a shot at getting a Front and thus a DFP for a long time.

I'm sure I've missed some advantages and disadvantages to this, but I wonder if there is any support out there for this sort of change.

I had a quick scan through (DFP search) and didn't notice anything of this style having been suggested.

Thoughts, criticisms, shut the hell up Tallien's, all welcome.

~T~

If nothing else, I think this suggestion should be used as a gold plated example of how to suggest a new game feature, including a suggestion, a well-argued reasoning behind the suggestion and a list of advantages and disadvantages of implementation.

That being said, I love this idea. What I love most about it is the merging of a profitable business venture (the DFP) with the meaning and spirit of the site (the RP). It gives the business district even more legitimacy for the time period, and helps it serve from a game standpoint as well as a roleplayed POV a more realistic and profitable face.

Even the name of the feature, "DRUG FRONT PROPERTY" indicates that there is obviously a 'legitimate' business hiding the true nature of the profit machine, and by merging the DFPs with the business district brings us to an area of true realism that we CAN use in the game. So many features we have now aren't towing the realism line because we have to make concessions to get around game mechanics. This feature would bring us into a new realm of realism that I find exciting to say the least.

Excellent suggestion, Tallien. I hope to see this in some form of implementation.

I have to say this is one of the most thought out suggestion I have seen in a while, from a user. I have no complaints about this idea. Tieing the business district to the DFPs seems a completely logical step to make. I would even go so far as to suggest that the available DFPs be tied directly to how many businesses are in that city. It is definitally something we should consider implementing.

Anything that helps get our business district active is a good idea.

Well Tallien as Anubis and GingerAle already said this is an incredibly well thought out suggestion.

Some players may not like the idea but I certainly do. I like the way it will get the business district involved more which I think is very good because we don't really get the use out of the business districts as we could and should

I'm pretty sure you said this, but just to be sure, did you say players will be able to create the fronts out of businesses already owned by other players?

Or will they have to create their own business?

Either way, this is a great idea on to bring in more RP into Businesses. I was kinda wondering how we could set up fronts in businesses, because most shops that the Mafia extorted were turned into fronts for drugs, gambling, guns, etc.

I think this is an excellent suggestion, and should be implemented at soonest possibilty. I think current number of fronts should be limited to the current number of DFP's - so no existing DFP owner will get the shitty end of the stick. However, a maximum (of 10per city, say) should be set on the basis that once current DFP owners lose their dfp, they will not be able to repurchase unless there are <10 fronts in a city.

The overall limit and potential of monopoly is what I love most about this, purely on the basis that it is an integral part of the mafia and something which is largely missing from this game.

One thing I would like to clarify though, as 'fronts' will be run essentially as business district threads, would they be available on the MRSE? I personally think this could become a little confused and congested, though I suppose it's a 2-birds-1-stone scenario which is not to amiss given the realism we are trying to create.

I must say I adore this idea. There has always been businesses that role play their alcohol supply in the back room and stuff of that nature. (Not nearly enough with people ordering a beer 2 seconds after entering a bar. Doubt that would get you far in the 30s...) Actually incorporating it seems like a no brainer. And how Tallien has laid it all out there's not much thought that needs to be put into it. Very well done chap. Although I have a few more ideas about this to throw out.

Firstly I am somewhat less partial to Noah's idea of limiting it. As long as their are businesses that are acceptably well thought out, and put together you should be able to make a DFP out of it. So if their are 20 excellent bars in a city. 20 DFPs should be able to be up for purchase. To counteract this however, make it so that as the number of DFPs operating in a city increase the cost of bribing the FBN to stay away.

So to balance that out so people aren't stuck with rocket high bribe amounts perhaps an auth type system could be implemented so that if you wish to turn your business into a front you need auth from the Godfather. (Another incentive to make sure someone is Godfather in your city.)

Could even take it farther and say that to get auth their are a list of precoded requirements on top of whatever requirments the Godfather would set out. So aside from making sure the post is of quality (I assume the Forum code can handle that.) Their would need to be a certain amount of posts in the bar before it is eligible. (Maybe 25 would be a good starting point?) And as the MRSE they would need to be substantial posts.

On a final note, this last idea wasn't really fleshed out in my mind the few days I've been been mulling this over so I will just throw it out. Perhaps the MRSE shareholders could get dividends from the businesses. Trying to think this out at the last minute has just lead to incoherent jargon. So anyone with ideas spit it out!

Just thought I would resurrect this thread.

I still believe it could be adopted for the betterment of the Business District and it seemed to garner a good reception at the time.

~C~

A tragedy that it hasn't been adopted.

This is much better than my recent proposition and I wholeheartedly support it.

Everyone knows your suggestion was completely inferior to this one, and you should support this one.  zing.

Has this been considered any further? Rejected?

~C~

Why wasn't this suggestion ever put in place? It seems like a wonderful opportunity to liven up the Business District and the MRSE at the same time.

great suggestion, I'm sure the Admins got a lot on their plate, but hoping they will make a time to implement this.

This is the first time I`ve seen this suggestion and from what I`ve seen, it seems to me to be a great idea, and well laid out. The morphing of DFP`s, the business district and the involvement financially of the controlling force within the city, would definitely introduce a more realistic means of running a DFP, and at the same time increase the levels of activity within the business district.

Currently, the business districts are purely a means of communication. They have no financial meaning or opportunity which, if we`re honest about it, is completely opposite to the ethos of the mob.

I strongly support such a dramatic and significant change within the system.

I can say nothing more than, A wonderful idea! Hopefully it is considered.

I don't enjoy forced writing, and I would see this as forcing me to write if I want to be competative money wise.  I can see having to make a business for your DFP but, I don't like continued writing being forced upon anyone.  We have a lot of players who speak another language than English as their native tongue.  Some do not feel comfortable with the language to draft long posts and instead like to keep their contribution short.  During the school year, I have enough to do with directly business in my family and fullfilling my school responsibilities, that role play writing for this game is a chore, instead of an enjoyable pursuit. 

Posting in your own business once every one to two weeks is hardly forced writing. I'd like to think that people that have their own businesses in the business district would post more regularly than that already! I'd guess that it would require a decent post from *anyone* every one to two weeks, not necessarily the business owner. This would make the writing and participation in the business district something the whole city would and should contribute to, to keep the money flowing in.

I would love for this to be implemented, as I see it the business district is woefully underused and overlooked at the minute and this would be a positive step toward getting people involved again.

Honestly, I think the defenses of 'I don't have time' and 'I don't want to do that' should actually enforce the reasons why we should have this.

This game is so geared towards putting hundreds of hours in now that the most important aspect, the communication, has been completely abandoned. Those people who sacrifice a kill or a pickpocket in favour of ensuring their DFP is a success deserve to keep them. Those people who construct a worthwhile front deserve to keep them. Those people who are only prepared to click a button, frankly, don't.

We are doing are very best to eliminate the skill element from this game and turning it into a number running exercise. This would be a solution to the problem of the neglected business districts which are currently pointless from a game perspective and completely ill suited from a roleplay one. There is nothing that would mandate you to require a business to succeed, but you would fall behind those people who make the effort to maintain their fronts.

Why should everything be handed out? Why should everyone have everything? Those who have the aptitude and commitment to succeeding will do so. Those who don't, won't.

~C~

I would love to see this added to the game.