Explain to me what the point of playing a roleplaying game is, when you continue to consort with the same group of people time and time again? People complain about stagnancy, they complain that the game never changes. Never gets any more fun. Well maybe it's not the game's fault? What if it is due to the fact that 90% of the people here float around and group with the same friends that they've had since 2006!

If you're new here, enjoy it! When you die, don't come back and try to find the same group of people that got your ass killed. Find a new group. In fact, find a new role. Get into the GAME. Enjoy the GAME. The community is great, the people are great, but mix things up a bit.

I'm not saying don't make friends. I'm saying don't let your friends influence how you play. I for one enjoy shooting my friends. They, in return, enjoy shooting me more. A lot more. Yes, I'm talking to you Rinaldi...Jono...basically everyone on the site...You all suck, to be honest. Is there anyone here that hasn't killed me?

Wow..now I'm all depressed and shit.

I'm looking for a guy who used to go by AnubisTheJackal or something like that. If you know him, or how to reach him, mobmail me plz. Very important.

Also, can anyone tell me where I put my car keys?

btw the topic name should read

Searching for former members of [insert crewname here]

Anyway I totally agree with you, Life goes on and so you do, when you die, you have a fresh start a new crew to join, new people to meet and new friends to make.
I believe when you keep looking for the same friends every time you die or evry time you take a break and come back, you aren't moving on.

You put your car keys in your kangaroo pouch, mama. And AnubisTheJackle is now running around with this ghey name "PhelixTheSphinx"...oh ... wait... that's me...

Alessandro-Dionisio...Go try to make a new topic using that name...It's too long...I tried...

GingerAle you can always give me your car keys, I will take good care of your car.
Try me, besides I won't recharge you for my services.

Aww, don't be depressed.  I think what you're saying makes a lot of sense.  Even if you do die and skip off to another family it's more than likely that someone you know will be there... or that you'll make really great friends with people you would have never met otherwise.  You might even get a chance to learn some new things. It's not like you've died and gone to Hell and no one will ever love you again.  It's just a way to change things up a bit.  Sure, go ahead and keep in contact with friends from your last family but like Phelix said, don't let it dictate every move you make in the game.  

Where's the fun in being an automaton like that?

You should talk to Admins then PhelixTheSphinx and ask them to give more space for a topic's name, I am sure many people had face this problem before. :)

P.S.  This is not to say that loyalty isn't needed, appreciated or honestly a good thing.  Loyalty is great.  But there's nothing wrong with thinking it over and wanting a completely new start.

Thank you for bringing this up Phelix, these shitty threads you mention annoy me for 3 reasons:

1)There are already enough shitty threads to post your shitty 'im looking for..' message in. Don't make another shitty thread. It's unnecessary.

2)If the only point of contact you had with someone is through mobmail, then obviously this person didn't figure highly enough on your agenda to swap emails/facebooks etc. It is akin to these shitty sad ads in papers that say 'Girl on the 5:15 metrolink service. I saw you looking. You had nice tits. Call me xoxoxox"

3)Similar to the above. If someone is still playing and hasn't bothered getting in touch with you, there's probably a good reason. Ie. they don't like you. Time to put on a brave face and move on, there's a good soldier.

3)Similar to the above. If someone is still playing and hasn't bothered getting in touch with you, there's probably a good reason. Ie. they don't like you. Time to put on a brave face and move on, there's a good soldier.

It isn't necessary that they don't like you thou but they don't give a shit to look for you, either ways you aren't a big concern for them.

It's not like you've died and gone to Hell and no one will ever love you again.

Unless you're Jono. In which case you will never be loved again until you steal your fort back. But you're right, Hickory. Friends make this game go along, but if you can't be friends with someone and still shoot them in the face you don't belong in the mafia. There are people in this game that I have lived with before, and I would still shoot them if need be. And they me. It's just how things go around here. In this game we are our characters. So currently I am a quiet, semi-annoying, thirty something mobster, not the 21 year old coder that you all know and love on IRC...well...you all know...well...some of you know and some of you are too afraid to say HELLO TO.

The few times that this topic has come up, one of the biggest points of discussion is "loyalty".  I am very pleased that it has been mentioned only one time here.

Let me make something perfectly clear to anyone who thinks that loyalty plays a role in this topic. It does not. I realize that it is hard for some of you inbreds to understand the concept of roleplay, but think about this...when you die, your loyalty ends.  It is not disloyal for you to join another family with your next character.  Your next character is a new person.  I know that people love to use the whole "bloodline" thing, but there is nothing that says your next account even needs to be the son or daughter of a previous account.  This whole son/daughter bloodline thing was born simply as a way for people to refer to their previous accounts while staying in character.  Somewhere along the way, it mutated into an assumption that we are all stuck in the same family tree for all eternity.

All that is irrelevant, anyhow. Even if your next account IS a son or daughter, a son or daughter is not obligated to the same loyalties as a parent.  If you think it is disloyal for you to move on to another family after the death of an account, then you are having troubles understanding the very simple concept of acting in-character.  Sticking with the same groups is detrimental to the game.  Look what it has done to mafia.org, if you are someone who plays over there. How many fucking years did they have, not only the same people, but the same perpetual families warring each other?  It's ridiculous.  Let's not do that here.

FlyingPig sums this entire thing up very nicely in that post. Let me just highlight a few phrases, so we can make sure they are cemented.

The few times that this topic has come up, one of the biggest points of discussion is "loyalty". I am very pleased that it has been mentioned only one time here.

Let me make something perfectly clear to anyone who thinks that loyalty plays a role in this topic. It does not. I realize that it is hard for some of you inbreds to understand the concept of roleplay, but think about this...when you die, your loyalty ends. It is not disloyal for you to join another family with your next character. Your next character is a new person. I know that people love to use the whole "bloodline" thing, but there is nothing that says your next account even needs to be the son or daughter of a previous account. This whole son/daughter bloodline thing was born simply as a way for people to refer to their previous accounts while staying in character. Somewhere along the way, it mutated into an assumption that we are all stuck in the same family tree for all eternity.

All that is irrelevant, anyhow. Even if your next account IS a son or daughter, a son or daughter is not obligated to the same loyalties as a parent. If you think it is disloyal for you to move on to another family after the death of an account, then you are having troubles understanding the very simple concept of acting in-character. Sticking with the same groups is detrimental to the game. Look what it has done to mafia.org, if you are someone who plays over there. How many fucking years did they have, not only the same people, but the same perpetual families warring each other? It's ridiculous. Let's not do that here.

Yes, I understand that is the majority of his post.

Yes, I meant to do that.

Yes, you should read it about 50 more times, and heed his words.

I wholly agree with this topic. Each and every one of my characters have had different alliances, friends, personalities, and lives. Sure a few of them have been in crews with many of their previous leaders/crew members but that is simply because they are the best or only choices. If and or when I die, my "next of kin" will go where I feel led to.

To be honest I agree in part, but I also strongly disagree in part.

Firstly I agree that if you stick to the same group of friends and ignore everyone else all the time then you can't complain if you find the game growing stale.

Secondly I agree with FlyingPig that loyalty has absolutely nothing to do with who your next character joins.

Where I disagree though is with this statement:

Explain to me what the point of playing a roleplaying game is, when you continue to consort with the same group of people time and time again?

I don't believe it is detrimental to the game to have a group of friends with whom you are especially close and thus liable (not duty bound) to form alliances with in the future. I mean to say that while you mustn't exclude new people you've never met before from your life, and while you should look to embrace new challenges and shake things up every so often, there's no harm in keeping alive solid acquaintances through multiple characters based on the fact that you find them enjoyable to talk to and capable at running good crews or fighting wars.

Maybe I'm here playing this game for a different reason than some of the RP purists, I'm not sure. I'm here for the people I meet, for the banter and for the odd time when war breaks out and everyone gets over excited. I'm not here because I particularly feel the need to impersonate a 1930's gangster. I'd be just as happy tbh were the setting the year 3070 and we all play as bug eyed aliens, so long as the community were the same. It's the community I come for, not the roleplaying per se, and what's the point in having a community if your frowned upon for communicating with people you happen to like talking to?

I'll freely admit that I tend to end up with roughly the same bunch time and time again (with gaps mind you) but I don't complain about the game getting stale because for me the game is about the people and the chat, and the people I mostly end up with are the people who's chat I usually enjoy the most.

I haven't killed anyone from your bloodline Phelix, I certainly remember when you tried to kill me though :(

Fredio, this is not against having a group of friends and occasionally working with them. It is fun to work with people you know and it is bound to happen from time to time, planned or unplanned. This is for those who decide "O, so and so got a crew, so lets throw away my current character and all its hard work to join up with them." Its those that limit themselves to only that small circle of friends that señor Sphinx is talking about.

I realise this Richard and I'm absolutely not taking it personally or anything; there's a valid point to be made in what Phelix and FlyingPig sre saying, but I do feel the general content of threads such as this tends to tar quite a few different playing styles with the same derogatory brush. Personally I'd never dream of doing something like throwing away a character to go join another crew, but the implication that my continuing to talk to and work with old friends somehow makes me an undesirable presence on this site is still an annoyance that creeps up now and again.

The great thing about this game is that it's a blank canvas to be played how you wish, and it might be worth acknowledging from time to time that people wish to play this game in a variety of different ways. None of which are correct. It's a subjective issue, so maybe it ought not to be treated as black and white as has a habbit of happening.

To clarify my position, I see nothing wrong with maintaining certain friendships over a long period of time.  The problems arise when a player is unable to move on from past associations.  These threads that Phelix describes resemble an insecure child clinging to a security blanket.  It is much more enjoyable to add some variety to your gaming experience.  I enjoy working with a new group of people with each new character.  Even though I have friends that I have kept for over seven years now, if I am not in the same family as they are I will rarely even converse with them.  This is just my opinion, but if you are here simply for the community, why do you bother playing? Hang out on IRC or talk to your friends through some social networking site.  The game, itself, is meant to take you out of your real life persona.  If you are clinging to the real life personas of other people throughout multiple character incarnations, you are not enjoying the true essence of roleplaying.

Other problems arise when these friendships create conflicts with your current family.  I call this phenomenon "playing the game on IRC".  These people, in effect, have TWO families.  The family that their character is part of, and their more important family of the people they associate with and cooperate with on IRC.  You will often see these people clinging to the past and working together as an extra-familial unit rather than as a member of the family they are actually part of.  As long as you are able to be in a different family than a friend of yours, keep family business secret from that friend, and kill that friend if the need arises, then there really is no problem.  However, very frequently I see people sharing information with people in other families which should really be kept in the family.  Let's not forget, THIS GAME IS COMPETITIVE!  That fact seems to get lost on many of the hand-holding crowd around here, and I hate you all.