[Maksimum_Fire]

this thread got messy in the few hours that I left it.  Thank you, Miller, for bringing it back on topic.

I think it's not wrong to call the lack of easy-access RP a community problem.  There's at least a little bit of gatekeeping in most cliques, as is reasonable for a clique even IC.

To me?  It makes sense.  It's not easy to just run in, nestle up with somebody, and start divulging your character's background in the span of a month.  As a newbie, I spent months as just "crab murderhobo" as my IC.  It wasn't always a great time and I didn't always get RP, but I sure as heck went with it.

If the goal is 'to make rp more accessible', then it'd be a simple measure to just.  Push ourselves to do a lot more public rp.  Whether that be hanging out in cellsvich square, having a spat at the arena, what have you.

I think what turns people off to those sorts of things- and indeed, what turned me off as a newbie, specifically to cellsvich square, declared as a main rp hub- is that more often than not, what dominates those sorts of scenes isn't (phenomenally forced and unnatural) small talk, but instead eh.  Kinda nonsense stuff?  Being frivolous, random and loudmouthed- memes- and then gossip.  And if it feels unnatural, you're gonna start to feel like your character is out of place pretty quickly in that, I feel?  It's some people's cup of tea, but I can't imagine wanting to do that day after day.

Some things that benefit public RP, I'll mention, are some of the organizations made by players that serve the community.  The Blades of the Promised Land is open to taking commission quests from the public, Sanctuary Hospital takes care of wounded, bars and food spots like the Last Resort Cantina are a staple for making people feel less awkward, and Stella Trading is a lovely IC mercantile guild for characters to dip their hands into making money.  A few other locations like this exist in the game, but.  There's a pretty solid reason there aren't more.

They're costly as heck to get running.  To start:  You need to find a good slot to plonk down your house.  Then, you need a house ticket.  Then, you need to design the house.  Then, you need to make furniture.  Then you need to make all that look nice.  For particularly detailed projects, builders need to purchase floor planners.  Then, if  you want more than one floor?  You need to repeat that all over again.  Do you want your house to have some nice jams?  Then you have to ALSO go buy a fun-o-gram.  So, if we're looking at the costs for just making a two-room house, with 250 furniture in one or more rooms....

500 Asagos for a house ticket.  500 for an extra level.  1200 for fun-o-grams.  200 for furniture planners.  And then however much murai you need to populate those locations with furniture, plus the time and effort it takes to make these things look absolutely gorgeous.

So, setting aside the murai and time, because in a perfect world that's just 'a little bit of grinding' and 'a little bit of effort'-  That's 2400 asagos, or $24.  That's why an establishment that's as well polished as the recently refurbished Sanctuary Hospital is so rare, imo.

It's hard to really combat that, though, and decreasing costs probably isn't appealing from a development standpoint.  So really?  here's what I would like to see- and it's pretty solidly based on things other people have been discussing.


Roleplay areas need a significant touch up.


Right now, the arena doesn't have spectator seats.  Honestly, people just kinda congregate around some grass and either cheer or jeer for the people brawling on said grass.  Clinics have very little RP value for the people managing them, as literally all they are is a bazillion doors for people to farm XP on.  And there really aren't any locations other than that that specifically foster RP, in the base game.  The community's kinda carrying it.

What I'd like to see is: 

>Modelled off projects like Sanctuary Hospital, clinics being expanded to have rooms for players to stay in, npcs to interact with, and locations to RP in.

>The arena getting an 'inside' map, where people can go up into the spectator seats and watch.  If possible, a betting mechanic when watching fights specifically at the arena would also be cool, and give a mechanical incentive to come watch and enjoy fights as well.

>More mundane tasks around the world that can be RPed out.  People do once in a while get to meet each other cleaning up after black beasts, and honestly, I think that's a pretty nice function.  But there aren't a lot of tasks like that in the world, and what does exist doesn't have much specific location focus that brings players together, or is combat(mines and raids).


This gives a little more element of freshness to the game, and while it'd be difficult to implement, would, imo, have long lasting benefits for the community.  That said, this isn't like an, end-all-be-all, it's just a gauze wrap to patch things up.

The community is definitely super toxic to one another, and I think that's very obvious just reading this thread.  People are still gonna RP in closed-door situations plenty of times, because they're going to find better RP there most times.  But that's just sort of how things can be?  I think the best thing we can do is foster the things we want to see more of, as a community.

Last notes I got is regardless of how things are or whether it's frustrating that you can't find some people, or that you can't get some rp that you want-  That's not anyone else's responsibility.  There's always something, at least, to do in SL2 right now, even if it's not something you're super familiar with doing.

Thanks to everyone who's been keeping it calm in this thread, and thanks to Miller for keeping us on topic.  I probably won't comment any more on this topic since most of what needs to be said's already been said.