Another discussion made by me. I promise this will not become a thing!
Last night I and several community members had a nice conversation in the shoutbox about things we "hate" about PERP, the conversation continued into stuff we think would aid the community. And I thought it might be a good idea to have a healthy discussion about it. As normal I have a lot of opinions and have had for a long time. Just not been able to be very vocal about them.
I upset a few people with my last discussion but as these are topics that have been brought up a few times in different posts and forums, I don't really care, If you are going to hold a position you should be open to criticism and discussion. PERPHeads is an amazing, or awesome community as the logo says. But it has its flaws due to mismanagement and inactivity. As I mentioned in the shoutbox yesterday, I do not believe PERPHeads will ever be the community many of us want, where serious roleplay is a thing. It is way too late to try to completely transform the type of roleplay being done. But as always, improvement can be done!
New Players
One of the biggest issues on PERP, is that it's not always that easy to start off. Especially if you join with no friends.
And even if you join with a friend or two, you will after a while start getting raided by PROFESSIONAL CS GO PLAYERS that think this is some kind of Call of Duty Deathmatch game mode. Not that I have anything against Call of Duty, it's a good game. Especially NAZI Zombies! And of course, a big part of PERP is gunplay, where people shoot at each other. But it should be fun for both parties.
A few years ago, Organisations would try to imminently recruit new players to their organizations, which gave new players a good start in their PERP "career". This does not really happen anymore. I remember in the Harpers, we had so many new players, it was crazy! But it allowed them to earn that first million or so before they could base on their own.
During the past year, there has been a lot of good plans to improve things for new players, a tutorial system, a mission system, rewards for inviting new players to organizations, etc... but at the end of the day, this will not work. If you do not want new players in your organization you will probably not do it for some extra XP either.
So my question is, why would you not want new players in your organization? Why does everyone want to treat their organizations as professional CS GO teams? What has changed?
Roleplay and "events
For the past few years, I and many more have seen the type of roleplay change. It has gone more towards a more unserious type of roleplay. Where the goal is to spend as little time as possible on stuff. Where even the shortest traffic stop is a pain in the ass. Where gunplay has completely taken over the "arena", where it feels like people care more out their K/D score than the interactions they have during roleplay.
Roleplay on PERP has always been a bit unique, its really never been the super-serious game mode many players want. And as I said above, it will never be that game mode either. But how come gunplay has completely taken over? Is it the strive to be the best that keeps players playing on the server these days? I personally have a very hard time understanding the mindset of some players. Where the time between each shootout must be kept to a minimum or they will leave for the day. Is this what PERP has become? a Team Death Match server? where some poor players get caught in the crossfire while trying to set up a newspaper stand.
I would really like to know why people join PERP every day, what is it that keeps them playing?
Something that maybe deserves its own section, is events. But it personally think events have an impact on roleplay.
So there are three types of events, Pre-scheduled OOC Events, Roleplay Events, and Random OOC Events.
I personally agree that OOC events are good and fun, but they should be planned in advance! For several reasons, such as it is a roleplay server, where random OOC events interrupt roleplay situations. I can instantly remember 4 situations where roleplay has been interrupted by events starting out of the blue. Having all the suspects in your car disappear, or having everyone robbing the bank disappear is not really what I consider fun.
What makes these often spammed OOC events so fun? Do players play because of events instead of the roleplay? and why is it even allowed to interrupt proper roleplay with OOC events that have not been announced ahead of time on the forums? This is after all a roleplay server.
If we move on to roleplay events, which could be something really good! From what I have seen its mostly gunplay events, again fueling the gunplay driven roleplay. Like I said in the shoutbox, roleplay events should happen every day of every week. These events do not need to be anything fancy like robots taking over the city or shit like that. It can be simple things, such as dead bodies popping up forcing the police to investigate, and stuff like that. Explosions and gunfire are not the answer to everything. I think it would be in the best interest of the community to actually show newer players that we are serious about our roleplay. We state that we are a serious roleplaying community, but in fact, we are a Team Death Match server most days. I am not saying that gunplay should not be a part of the game mode, all I am saying is that it should not be the driving force, interactions should!
Finishing off I would like to express my thoughts about the role, Community Manager. This is more aimed towards the role and not directly at the person/persons that are holding/have held it.
It's a great idea. The plan for it was amazing! A person that handles the roleplay, development, and community relation parts. This is something PERP has needed for years. Someone who spends his time in-game, making the gamemode better, and making sure players are enjoying the server.
But, unless you are blind, dumb, or dead you will realize this is not what the role has become. I would currently describe the role of "OOC Event Manager with more permissions". nothing more, nothing less.
So whose fault is this? I would say it no one's fault. It's more an issue of mismanagement and inactivity. No one seems to be putting pressure on the CM to perform tasks, which leaves the CM to do whatever the CM wants to do. Which is something that is never good, it decently results in poor performance and nothing being done.
If we take a look at the short history of the CM rank we do barley see any achievements. Other than one failed community meeting I personally have not seen any push for change, or improvement.
This does not mean that I think the role should be removed. I just think as I have said before. Should be a secondary role, with proper supervision. The role should not come with any permissions, it should be an administrative position. And should not be treated as an Event Manager role, that was not its created purpose and in my opinion, is just fucking retarded.
I think removing the CM role from its current holder, holding a community meeting, sending out a community survey, and then making an action plan will be a very good step in the right direction.
Thank you for reading. And again I am sorry for all the text, but these are things that I have wanted to say for a while, but been unable to.
Last night I and several community members had a nice conversation in the shoutbox about things we "hate" about PERP, the conversation continued into stuff we think would aid the community. And I thought it might be a good idea to have a healthy discussion about it. As normal I have a lot of opinions and have had for a long time. Just not been able to be very vocal about them.
I upset a few people with my last discussion but as these are topics that have been brought up a few times in different posts and forums, I don't really care, If you are going to hold a position you should be open to criticism and discussion. PERPHeads is an amazing, or awesome community as the logo says. But it has its flaws due to mismanagement and inactivity. As I mentioned in the shoutbox yesterday, I do not believe PERPHeads will ever be the community many of us want, where serious roleplay is a thing. It is way too late to try to completely transform the type of roleplay being done. But as always, improvement can be done!
New Players
One of the biggest issues on PERP, is that it's not always that easy to start off. Especially if you join with no friends.
And even if you join with a friend or two, you will after a while start getting raided by PROFESSIONAL CS GO PLAYERS that think this is some kind of Call of Duty Deathmatch game mode. Not that I have anything against Call of Duty, it's a good game. Especially NAZI Zombies! And of course, a big part of PERP is gunplay, where people shoot at each other. But it should be fun for both parties.
A few years ago, Organisations would try to imminently recruit new players to their organizations, which gave new players a good start in their PERP "career". This does not really happen anymore. I remember in the Harpers, we had so many new players, it was crazy! But it allowed them to earn that first million or so before they could base on their own.
During the past year, there has been a lot of good plans to improve things for new players, a tutorial system, a mission system, rewards for inviting new players to organizations, etc... but at the end of the day, this will not work. If you do not want new players in your organization you will probably not do it for some extra XP either.
So my question is, why would you not want new players in your organization? Why does everyone want to treat their organizations as professional CS GO teams? What has changed?
Roleplay and "events
For the past few years, I and many more have seen the type of roleplay change. It has gone more towards a more unserious type of roleplay. Where the goal is to spend as little time as possible on stuff. Where even the shortest traffic stop is a pain in the ass. Where gunplay has completely taken over the "arena", where it feels like people care more out their K/D score than the interactions they have during roleplay.
Roleplay on PERP has always been a bit unique, its really never been the super-serious game mode many players want. And as I said above, it will never be that game mode either. But how come gunplay has completely taken over? Is it the strive to be the best that keeps players playing on the server these days? I personally have a very hard time understanding the mindset of some players. Where the time between each shootout must be kept to a minimum or they will leave for the day. Is this what PERP has become? a Team Death Match server? where some poor players get caught in the crossfire while trying to set up a newspaper stand.
I would really like to know why people join PERP every day, what is it that keeps them playing?
Something that maybe deserves its own section, is events. But it personally think events have an impact on roleplay.
So there are three types of events, Pre-scheduled OOC Events, Roleplay Events, and Random OOC Events.
I personally agree that OOC events are good and fun, but they should be planned in advance! For several reasons, such as it is a roleplay server, where random OOC events interrupt roleplay situations. I can instantly remember 4 situations where roleplay has been interrupted by events starting out of the blue. Having all the suspects in your car disappear, or having everyone robbing the bank disappear is not really what I consider fun.
What makes these often spammed OOC events so fun? Do players play because of events instead of the roleplay? and why is it even allowed to interrupt proper roleplay with OOC events that have not been announced ahead of time on the forums? This is after all a roleplay server.
If we move on to roleplay events, which could be something really good! From what I have seen its mostly gunplay events, again fueling the gunplay driven roleplay. Like I said in the shoutbox, roleplay events should happen every day of every week. These events do not need to be anything fancy like robots taking over the city or shit like that. It can be simple things, such as dead bodies popping up forcing the police to investigate, and stuff like that. Explosions and gunfire are not the answer to everything. I think it would be in the best interest of the community to actually show newer players that we are serious about our roleplay. We state that we are a serious roleplaying community, but in fact, we are a Team Death Match server most days. I am not saying that gunplay should not be a part of the game mode, all I am saying is that it should not be the driving force, interactions should!
Finishing off I would like to express my thoughts about the role, Community Manager. This is more aimed towards the role and not directly at the person/persons that are holding/have held it.
It's a great idea. The plan for it was amazing! A person that handles the roleplay, development, and community relation parts. This is something PERP has needed for years. Someone who spends his time in-game, making the gamemode better, and making sure players are enjoying the server.
But, unless you are blind, dumb, or dead you will realize this is not what the role has become. I would currently describe the role of "OOC Event Manager with more permissions". nothing more, nothing less.
So whose fault is this? I would say it no one's fault. It's more an issue of mismanagement and inactivity. No one seems to be putting pressure on the CM to perform tasks, which leaves the CM to do whatever the CM wants to do. Which is something that is never good, it decently results in poor performance and nothing being done.
If we take a look at the short history of the CM rank we do barley see any achievements. Other than one failed community meeting I personally have not seen any push for change, or improvement.
This does not mean that I think the role should be removed. I just think as I have said before. Should be a secondary role, with proper supervision. The role should not come with any permissions, it should be an administrative position. And should not be treated as an Event Manager role, that was not its created purpose and in my opinion, is just fucking retarded.
I think removing the CM role from its current holder, holding a community meeting, sending out a community survey, and then making an action plan will be a very good step in the right direction.
Thank you for reading. And again I am sorry for all the text, but these are things that I have wanted to say for a while, but been unable to.
