I'm agreed with Vaelin the ongoing street saga is very entertaining 

I have been paying attention.  Cities full of "role players" haven't enticed me to read anything they have written in literal months.  Very recently though I am excited to read whatever interesting silliness is posted, including something that you yourself participated in.  Surely if there is an actual audience for their work it can't be called mindless. 

I would much more readily call posts role playing visiting a bar in chicago business district mindless rambling. Where is the creativity in that? 

Also, its only been a couple hours.. how many people are you thinking would have purposefully gone to Chicago in that time?  You might be overestimating the player base by a bit bro. 

I think that, in fact, the Streets are alive with RP.  Unless you're a humourless, purist moron.

Maybe no one is responding to your posts because you are boring

Interestingly enough, role playing isn't the only method one can use to be active.  This is, I want to say my 3rd public post in a couple characters, and I am very rarely accused of inactivity. 

Relax. 

Ok so that was what is commonly referred to as an analogy.  It wasn't role playing inactivity that Chicago was accused of, nor would a couple lively business district threads probably have made a lot of difference to be honest.  I dare say the current residents of Chicago are in a fine position for the foreseeable future, and your implication that they might be considered inactive because they didn't fly home to respond to some business district threads in a few hours is honestly laughable. 

To be honest, PhillipMarleau the business districts are dead. I struggled to get anyone to post in any of the 3 businesses my last character ran, and they were diverse and varied. People post in defunct threads owned by dead people, the reason for this is they get their points, increase their vision,and you get nothing in return. Most of the so called RP I have seen in recent times is conducted in back alley's pre written trash, and then moved into the streets in one job lot when complete. They are not my cup of tea, so i avoid them, I'm sure they make others very happy.

Whilst you may not like or enjoy the ongoing saga unfolding in the streets, it is bringing a lot of laughs to a lot of people. Several folks have commented to me about how much they are enjoying it, and I'm sure Randy, Grin and Kong have likewise been commended. If its not to your liking, then try something different yourself, there are no guarantees that any one will pay you a blind bit of notice, but then again, i could be wrong. So to answer your original question, the roleplayers are everywhere, they may just not be your kind of roleplayer.

PhillipMarleau

Philadelphia seems to have a pretty active business district, if that's what you're looking for; I noticed you were in the city earlier- hopefully you found the sort of thing you were looking for?

My recommendation, rather than saying RP is dead, would instead be to post something here in OOC basically asking who has an active business who'd like a visitor; I'm sure you'd have some good responses. Additionally, if you see people with active businesses, perhaps invite them to yours to return the favor; in my experience, people who create their own businesses are almost always willing to visit others. 

I also disagree with your assessment of "mindless, bullshit ramblings in the streets" as being objectively correct. Different strokes for different folks, as MariaReynolds said. People have different tastes. My advice would be to play the game and write how you'd like- and extend others the same courtesy. This place is big enough for lots of different types of people and playstyles. 

As others have mentioned, "inactivity" resulting in a city being attacked tends to be more based on leadership engagement than the BD. Although "lack of street presence" used to be a (often dodgy) excuse for wars a decade ago, we've grown beyond that expectation as the game has shifted.

Sharpe, I am curious about your use of the term "fantasy thread"; isn't everything a fantasy thread in a roleplaying game?

Neil_Anblomi said "They are not my cup of tea, so i avoid them, I'm sure they make others very happy." I think this is good advice, and this is basically what I'd advise you to do moving forward, Phillip. If you don't like something, just ignore it. Create what you're interested in creating. As for myself, I'm here to actually write out a character and tell a story in addition to the more mechanical aspects of the game. I hardly expect people to read the probably millions of words I've written in the last decade- as for myself, I've greatly enjoyed writing them, which seems to be the point of things. 

I think RPing is quickly becoming a type of extra-curricular activity for crews. There's often 1 or 2 who take it very seriously (sometimes they're a CL or hand), and those who wish to participate regularly or occasionally are invited to contact those people. Some crews, especially those where no member of leadership is comfortable in an RP setting, rely on players forming those connections among themselves. Neither of these are particularly problematic, but it is certainly determined by the city and crew you operate in.

As Oriana has already stated, Philly is bustling in part due to a rich diversity of players and because RPing is encouraged and participated-in regularly by its leadership. I'm not familiar enough with Chicago, its leadership, or its Business District, but perhaps some research should be done into whom you join since some crews will inherently favor more RP than others?

Perhaps a conversation should be had with recruits and associates to better place those who want to RP in crews that have thriving RP players. Because, as just about anyone can imagine, if one were to play this game chiefly for RPing and your crew simply has no outlet for it- they will choose to stop playing of sacrifice their account just for the chance of something better.

Regardless of this, I've seen first-hand how just a single associate can drum up substantial support for RPing in a crew and they never needed to make an OOC post to get it done. Beat that with a stick.

Not I, however the hungry caterpillar is a personal favourite