Ok, time for a more serious post regarding this topic.
The thing is about roleplay games is quite often, in order to work as intended, people have to assume there role a bit more seriously than people on PERP do, as well as choosing a valid role and sticking to it for quite a bit.
Unfortunately, in PERP, there's only 2 things people want to be, cop or criminal. Why? Because police is probably the most action packed and hands on role on the server, whilst criminal is easily the most profitable. Lets stop trying to find any and every reason to shoot someone and start having fun doing something that isn't killing and attacking people. Nothing wrong with PVP, it's just that seems to be the real reason anyone comes onto perp nowadays.
If we had more rewarding professions besides cop, drug dealer, or fisherman, roleplay would flourish, but in reality, those are probably the most viable way to make cash. I've probably tried every single roleplay profession humanly possible on the server, and I can tell you that out of literally everything I've done on the server, I always go back to being cop and being a criminal because those are the only viable options for making money besides selling VIP.
We can't just pin the blame on Orange people or cops and maybe we should all look at ourselves and how we play this game and contribute to "improving roleplay". Fuck, roleplay as anything you want, be it a drug addict, Salesman, landlord, guard, hooker, builder, literally anything, and stick to that role for a day or two and maybe roleplay will happen more. Maybe if some of us took a break from crime or cop grinding then maybe we'll see a difference in how the server is.
Another key problem is the report function seems to be some peoples favourite weapon, and people are so hellbent on "winning" this game that they're forgetting what we all came here to do in the first place, which was pretending to be someone we aren't for fun. Take up a temporary in game profession, hell, maybe even parody the profession you've chosen, because that's fun as fuck.
And for words of improvement on criminal RP? I dunno, I guess criminals could focus more on killing and robbing each other rather than robbing people taking up legal professions. I mean sure, It happens and sometimes I understand robbing a bazaar shop owner can score some mad prizes, but keep it as something that's unlikely to happen to them so they actually gain profits and motivation to carry on. And by robbing other criminals, you're robbing people as morally reprehensible as you, maybe more so even. I'm not saying you can't rob legitimate businesses, but at least make it so your actions don't completely ruin there business. If legitimate business people get robbed too much it'll deter them from doing anything other than power growing or working a city / government job.
Oh, and if we keep punishing people for things like killing opposing criminals and wrecking a stolen car unintentionally through wreckless actions then we might as well just remove the crowbar entirely.
I don't know what else to say really.
