What do I propose?
Upping the requirements to reach the Godfather rank in this game.

Proposed requirements:

1. A crewleader wanting to take over the Godfather position in a district should be a crewleader for at least 30 days.
2. A crewleader wanting to take over the Godfather position in a district should be a citizen of that city for at least 30 days.

These requirements will be on top of the 60 units, 120 days account age and the 30 member-family requirement.
I actually have more requirements in mind, but for the sake of discussion and explaining the need for extra requirements these will do. Dependent on how the community feels about the idea of upping requirements, we can give more attention to the actual requirements.


So why extra requirements?
Godfather should be a special rank that not only tells you've been able to jailbreak 10k people and managed to stay alive for 120 days.
For me a Godfather is someone who has shown to be able to lead a family, a district, a city with vision on it's own while maintaining good relations with the other cities. These relations may be just false pretensions, but it's important that a potential GF has the social and political skills to keep up with these pretensions to ensure some sort of continuity for his family.

The 30 days in a city requirements prevents:

• The Godfather gift to crewleaders who have been serving in another city. Perhaps they served well, but they haven't been the lead there, so they haven't shown to deserve that very respectable rank in my opinion.
• This also prevents crewleaders taking GF in a city, appearing as quite an achievement, while they've only been sent there to get rid of them, assuming they'll mess up on their own and get killed for it.

The 30 days being a crewleader requirement prevents:
 

• Old players who due to wars suddenly find themselves a CL with many members and decide to take GF, while they haven't even shown to lead a family for a proper time. Not suggesting 30 days is that impressive, but at least better than a week or two.
• Prevents (or lowers the chance thereof), a new GF to leave his members with a CL/Underboss they didn't choose and didn't have the time to get to know. The taking of Godfather might be a personal victory, but a district might not necessarily improve because of it. The 30 days requirement gives a family more chance to grow into stability.
  
   

Optional extra requirement:
On top of the existing, and newly proposed, requirements, a city should have at least 60 crew citizens before the option of taking Godfather becomes available. This ensures there are at least two properly filled crews before a GF stands up. That's a sign that a city is actually being build instead of someone just grabbing the GF rank because they can.

Timing & Disclaimer
I propose this now as to prevent any personal motives or accusations to others. The current GFs have been in their position for a while and have proven to be there rightfully. For any obvious upcoming GFs this won't have an effect either as all proposed requirements will be met easily. Implementing the proposed requirements will prevent "undeserved ascension to the rank of Godfather".

I also realize that "earning" the rank of Godfather is subject to personal opinion. I also understand that someone's accomplishments might be very big, but less visible to the community. This is just meant as a general raising of the bar. People who deserve the rank will find it just as easy to meet the requirements.

Summarized
I propose extra requirements for crewleaders wanting to take the rank of Godfather, so that their leadership skills have been more tested before they get the esteemed rank. This will give the rank more value again for those who actually deserve it.

Becoming a GF is difficult as it is and requires a certain amount of luck as well.

Really don't understand any of these added [time] requirements. Being GF isn't about being respected, earning the position, etc. It's about doing whatever it takes to get the position. If you can get yourself to GF in 10 days, good for you. (I know the minimum is 120, it's just an example.)

Here's a hypothetical--I meet current GF requirements. I tell Rayln to suck an egg and head out to LA and set up shop as GF of the city because 1.) I can. and 2.) I have the nuts to do so. I should haven't to wait around like a duck in calm waters because this isn't what the "mafioso" lifestyle is about.

I feel like these rules to be "accepted" are unconventional and unnecessary. They take away "random dynamic" from the game if you will.

Just my two cents.

Thank you for your reflection on my proposal, MDMA.

We disagree on what the title 'Godfather' is about though. I'd like to think of them of capable people who have social, leadership and organisational skills that have been tested and proven in public. With the title being the highest obtainable, I'd rather have it be obtained only by people who have more to offer than the average crewleader, or ballsy person who can take it. A godfather isn't just an ambitious mobsters, it's someone who can manage a lot of them.

My proposal doesn't remove random dynamic. It prevents people from obtaining a title that suggests they have achieved quite something, while in reality that doesn't need to be the case. Even with the added requirements, any person who wishes to add random dynamic by going to whatever city, doing whatever ever, they can still do it. It's just not rewarded with a title that suggests more then that person accomplished.

I agree that sitting our like a duck in calm waters isn't really the typical lifestyle of a mafioso. By no way am I suggesting that these 30 days will be calm though. In reality having a city to look after, members shooting other members, controlling ambitious hands, working with the rumors that always surface, that's hardly calm waters. This extra month with events (or 'random dynamic' if you will) to manage is a good test off the aforementioned skills aside from the fact that they managed to click buttons for 120 days.

"We disagree on what the title 'Godfather' is about though. I'd like to think of them of capable people who have social, leadership and organisational skills that have been tested and proven in public. With the title being the highest obtainable, I'd rather have it be obtained only by people who have more to offer than the average crewleader, or ballsy person who can take it. A godfather isn't just an ambitious mobsters, it's someone who can manage a lot of them."

What you think qualifies a person to be a GF and what everyone else think qualifies a person to be a GF are  and will always be different. It's all a matter of perspective.

Examples:

A lot of people like SpikeS and a lot of people think he's a fuck head.

A lot of people like Rayln and a lot of people think she's a fuck head.

...so...

imo "might makes right" is how this should work. If someone can claim the throne I don't see why arbitrary magic should keep them away from it

Becoming a GF is difficult as it is

Lol.

Anything that makes getting GF even a TINY bit more difficult so that the title actually MEANS something again is a-okay in my book. 

I don't think we need any more hard set in stone requirements. If someone sets up as GF and proves themselves unworthy, they'll be sleeping with the fishes soon enough for that mistake. That's the way this game works.

I see this community as a place where we respect our higher ranks, based upon achievements. If the taking of the Godfather title comes down to an open stage talentshow where people can get their short burst of fame, simply because they can climb the stage, not because they can actually perform, that's something I'd rather see changed. 

I'm all for encouraging people to climb stages, but give them a stage as hand, family consigliere or crewleader. When they screw that up, they're not worthy of the title Godfather. Even with this proposal implemented, the game wouldn't change in terms of how we play. In our minds however the rank Godfather would actually start to mean something again. It'll be a reward for achieving more than many others, instead of a sign that someone is trying too.

It's like all other ranks, the easier it is to obtain, the less value it holds. But where the requirements for 'regular' ranks can be applied more flexible, dependent on time and need, I hope for the Godfather rank to be something truly unique and significant again as it implies something that isn't warranted by it's current requirements.

To me, making the rank of Godfather "more valuable" has nothing to do with adding items to the checklist of things you have to do before you can take the position. That's formulaic and I honestly doubt it'll even change the rate at which people take the rank of Godfather that much. 

You'll get no argument from me that the rank is too easy to obtain and that the rank holds less value now than it did. However, I blame the fact that the game, as it is, can have 18 Godfathers at once, when the games population hovers between 700-800 - even less, when you consider how many of that number are IA. If the game was, literally, about 5 times the size that it is, MAYBE 18 potential Godfathers would make sense. As it is, it just doesn't. The numbers don't add up. We've had districts for quite a few years now and, to my memory, the game has never had the population to support the number of districts it holds. I'd personally advocate removing the districts, removing Godfather Chairman, and going back to the old system of 7 cities, short flights, 1 Godfather. And I say this as somebody who currently occupies a district that would lose it if this was the case. 

If we aren't going back to cities without districts, though, I think the best answer, rather than adding more boxes to tick on the list of requirements, would be to simply remove the rank of chairman and allowing only one Godfather per city, in the central district. Restrict the supply, increase the demand.

Godfather "points" are easy as pie to get, the rank itself is not because that is decided by the leadership and community. Do most of those who get the rank actually deserve it? Hell no. The rank is next to meaningless now. When everyone and their dog became able to get the units for it it became just another rank. I'd love to see some of what has been suggested implemented. The rank would mean more to those who get it and the community. It's not a challenge anymore. Actually, the game itself isn't a challenge anymore, it's become drab and boring. I've gone from an addicted 40+ hour a week player to someone who logs on for an hour if that a day.

This is one change that might bring the respect for the rank back.

I like Maria's idea, I think limiting the amount of Godfather's we have would be more beneficial than having lots of them spread out among the city. What is the purpose of being a Godfather these days? The only reason I can see is so that a character is harder to hit and maybe has a better gun. Other than that there's not really much need for it in the game so I think if we were going to keep it this way then people should have to work a LOT LOT LOT more harder to reach that rank, the defence boost you can gain with that rank if you're IWP compared to an IWP Don is huge and I think because of that we should have to put a lot more work into it.

Personally I don't think any rank holds any value any more, let alone Godfather. What is the need to respect a rank? The game as a whole seems to have no aspects of role play to it. Made Man is just another rank, but limitations are put in place by leaders as it's the rank you can set up and become a rogue. Therefore the only reason leaders may be reluctant to promote you is due to a lack of trust in you going rogue and not because they don't think you fully appreciate what that rank means.

There was a time where if anyone reached Godfather, they'd be set as an extra person to break out of jail, if you did that now the jails would be ridiculously full I imagine.

I do understand that Squishy, but I also think it's like offering a hungry kid a plate of fries and saying, "Well, you CAN eat those fries if you like, but you don't have to." 

The benefits of the Godfather rank are considerable in terms of gun and defense boosts. To not take the boosts when they are available is bad strategy for your district and city, because you can be sure that everybody else will do it, and usually without a shadow of a thought about whether it's actually good for the game. That's why I genuinely do feel like this is something that should be hard coded in. You aren't going to be able to trump human nature, and it feels like, in this case, that's to the overall detriment of the game. 

Maria You summarized my feelings towards Godfather sufficiently. 

I'd personally advocate removing the districts, removing Godfather Chairman, and going back to the old system of 7 cities, short flights, 1 Godfather.

There should be ONE GF PERIOD. Discussion is easily debated. Anyone up for it?

I want to also debate the responsibilities/role of a GF. Anyone up for it?

Not only can I liven shit up but I can shut you up.

If it was up to me I'd up the level requirement to 80 and the age to 365. Make it poxy hard to get. It should be closer to an impossible dream than it is today. Each active city has a godfather, Detroit has two. There is no mystique to it.

Make GF almost impossible to reach and it will mean something again when someone eventually does.

If districts aren't removed then I am totally up for seeing the rank be a little harder to get. After all there can be so many of them, why not add the extra work to it?

For the same reason my mothers name (on this character) is false.

It is called helping hands because their hands reach deep in the pocket and fuck all else.