Character Locking

Howdy!

Hope you're all well! I wanted to create this thread to make you all aware of some new staffing tools and policies that'll be coming very shortly into effect. What we wanted to create is something somewhere between a "slap on the wrist" and a ban. We're very aware as a staff team that the standards as far as we're concerned, have dropped from gangs, factions and individuals as a whole. We want to push for higher standards and be less complacent with edge cases, grey areas and "borderline" RP.

In order to facilitate this, we're now going to be issuing timed (and indefinite) character locking to characters seen to consistently involved in lowering the standards of roleplay on the server. If your character is locked, you simply won't be able to play as that character for the given period of time. These character locks aren't going to be appealable. They will not count in any way towards the Fair Bans System however, they may be used to show "bad character" if needing to appeal a ban.

Additionally, we're also going to (in severe cases) start looking at issuing staff imposed blacklists from groups where we believe that the influence certain players bring to groups is collectively decreasing the quality and standards of RP presented by said group. This would remove (and prevent re-joining) the character from said specific group. In worse cases, we will also be able to prevent characters from joining any groups at all!

These aren't changes that we're making lightly, but we do hope to really nail down the precedent that we will not accept sub-standard RP. 

It's also worth considering that these are new changes and all of the nuances have not yet been decided, this will be initially overseen by Staff Leads & Management to ensure consistency and fairness.

Any questions? let us know below!

Cheers,
Gordon.

A new way that could teach people to play and rp more than one character

Sounds like a good idea to me, should add a level of thought before acting out and doing silly things

Should make use of the prison and just issue more life sentences but I see the purpose and seems fair.

tbh i think this is a good change as it gives ppl another way to be basically given another chance, and also encourages ppl to play on more than one char

Its a game and most people are just trying their best with what they are given as Albert said make use of prison sentences.

AdamMono said:

Its a game and most people are just trying their best with what they are given as Albert said make use of prison sentences.

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These aren't tools that we intend to use on people who are "trying their best", it's for those who consistently demonstrate poor RP despite being educated and advised otherwise. Prison sentences were considered, however we wanted a way to completely remove the character from RP temporarily, imprisoning them still allows the options for break-outs, etc.

Albert Winsford said:

Should make use of the prison and just issue more life sentences but I see the purpose and seems fair.

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The ree from this just comes back on police for that though, for something that is likely a rules issue and not a crime issue. So kinda 2 separate tools really. 

I.e. you can get a life sentence whilst providing good high quality RP and could get a Character lock without breaking many major laws

Me Ron and Clagg after this update: 

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So gordon let me put it to you this way, this is specifically for bad RP not a consequence to something you've done in RP (with high quality RP and ensuring that the situation is fun for everyone). For example 229 are in a situation with police, as long as everything is above board there is not going to be a character "lock" handed out because of this.

By consequence I mean you've had a fight with someone or your character has done something in RP, it's targeting those that have done something that is poor/borderline rule breaks.

But there would be if a 229 member was constantly causing issues with police/gangs and providing low quality RP.


 

KCAJ said:

But there would be if a 229 member was constantly causing issues with police/gangs and providing low quality RP.

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Literally this  That´s what the character lock is for.

Just generally people being caught over and over providing low quality roleplay. Gangs, Police, NHS, G6 - all across the board. Everyone^^

I think this is what's needed in the city, it will definitely make people think twice about their RP and gives a chance to use other characters. I think the police will benefit mostly from the new changes (from what ive seen as NHS) as its so hard to do that job when people just randomly take a cop/ run them over ect with little to no RP. good idea!  

Albert Winsford said:

Should make use of the prison and just issue more life sentences but I see the purpose and seems fair.

Click to expand...

I see your point, but it wouldn't always be related to in RP imprisonment.

That would limit us somewhat to needing in RP captured evidence of actual crimes that would hold up in court. Whereas providing sub-standard roleplay doesn't always involve that.
Imagine a police officer, who RP is a little shit, but if you look at the letter of the UK Law there isn't much to say about it, and there isn't any obvious RDM rulebreaks that would lead to staff punishment. It gives us the option to give them a pause from this RP and go do something else and see if they can improve. If not, there are always harsher punishments (blacklists, bans etc.) possible.

Furthermore, life imprisonment is pretty harsh, whereas sometimes removing someone from a certain environment, say a specific gang with a bunch of friends that pull the worst out of them, might be enough for them to improve their RP standards.

And sometimes people might be allowed to play on the server, but just not be able to provide high enough quality RP to warrant a position in a whitelisted gang, after multiple problems

Similarly to this we have always had faction blacklisting systems which are out of game (due to an interview needing to take place first).

Essentially all we are doing is
A) Including whitelisted groups and gangs into that system
B) Giving ourselves the option to give people more targeted "punishment" / adjustments and deal with situations of poor RP that don't necessarily directly break certain rules and are harder to police.

KCAJ said:

So gordon let me put it to you this way, this is specifically for bad RP not a consequence to something you've done in RP (with high quality RP and ensuring that the situation is fun for everyone). For example 229 are in a situation with police, as long as everything is above board there is not going to be a character "lock" handed out because of this.

By consequence I mean you've had a fight with someone or your character has done something in RP, it's targeting those that have done something that is poor/borderline rule breaks.

But there would be if a 229 member was constantly causing issues with police/gangs and providing low quality RP.


 

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There would still potentially be RP related reasons that this is used.

To name a few.

Someone who constantly bleeds out and cuts off RP with medics and has been shot in the head every day for 4 weeks, might be in a coma for a week.
Someone who constantly breaks out of prison and has an ever increasing sentence, might be placed in a supermax facility to serve out the remainder of their sentence.
A police officer that pushes the limits and is super keen on getting the win might be locked for a week

But to be honest, I think the above two still have an element of poor RP and a win mentality, so maybe they aren't great examples.

Stuff like that might still occur.
But most importantly @KCAJ don't expect people characters to be locked tomorrow. (we need to build the system first of all xD). Character locks will initially only be handed out by the leads and will be for repeat offenders and this will of course include warnings and trying to educate people first. You will never just get a character locked off of one situation.

Recon9 said:

I see your point, but it wouldn't always be related to in RP imprisonment.

That would limit us somewhat to needing in RP captured evidence of actual crimes that would hold up in court. Whereas providing sub-standard roleplay doesn't always involve that.
Imagine a police officer, who RP is a little shit, but if you look at the letter of the UK Law there isn't much to say about it, and there isn't any obvious RDM rulebreaks that would lead to staff punishment. It gives us the option to give them a pause from this RP and go do something else and see if they can improve. If not, there are always harsher punishments (blacklists, bans etc.) possible.

Furthermore, life imprisonment is pretty harsh, whereas sometimes removing someone from a certain environment, say a specific gang with a bunch of friends that pull the worst out of them, might be enough for them to improve their RP standards.

And sometimes people might be allowed to play on the server, but just not be able to provide high enough quality RP to warrant a position in a whitelisted gang, after multiple problems

Similarly to this we have always had faction blacklisting systems which are out of game (due to an interview needing to take place first).

Essentially all we are doing is giving is 
A) Including whitelisted groups and gangs into that system
B) Giving ourselves the option to give people more targeted "punishment" / adjustments and deal with situations of poor RP that don't necessarily directly break certain rules and are harder to police.

Click to expand...

This makes it much clearer, I fully support it. 

There are plenty of tools available for punishment. I don't believe any more were required. How does someone enter into a whitelisted gang if they don't know how to roleplay? I thought the whole goal of whitelisting was to guarantee that groups provide high-quality roleplay and stories. I believe this and a few others, such as the "common sense" rule, are vulnerable to abuse.

6AN6 said:

There are plenty of tools available for punishment. I don't believe any more were required. How does someone enter into a whitelisted gang if they don't know how to roleplay? I thought the whole goal of whitelisting was to guarantee that groups provide high-quality roleplay and stories. I believe this and a few others, such as the "common sense" rule, are vulnerable to abuse.

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The tools available to push things are targeted towards criminals though - I’m not talking about bans here, I mean like Recon mentioned, someone who constantly breaks out of prison for example, or a cop just constantly going for the win. 
 

Gangs have been imprisoned before for constantly doing things like this, but that was never applicable to Police, NHS etc… now it can be applied with this if Police are doing stupid things, or NHS aren’t fully roleplaying before reviving people or whatever. 

I like it, as long as it’s properly controlled and can’t just be handed out based on 1 or 2 situations being spectated. 

This could be very interesting. Like the idea behind it. Might be a bit extreme, but what about blacklisting everyone from joining a new F6 group once you have left one. Could eventually be appealed if there is a strong RP reason to do so. Would limit gang hopping and make people consider their choice when joining a new group, and eventually making new characters for a different group. 

Personally with the whole locking character thing I understand the reason why you would implement it. To make people rethink their actions before going into certain situations. I believe in only the extreme circumstances a character should be locked. It would be intresting to know what type of rulebreak/s would cause someone to be locked indefinately?

I believe that if you want the quality of the roleplay to increase is to put a whitelist to get into the server. New players would have to write out an application regarding powergaming/metagaming a little character story. Nothing like these 10,000 word applications. Basic rules you should know when roleplaying. My personal experience with this server is that is you was to put the majourity of gangs into a "Serious roleplay server". I'd bet my bottom dollar that they would be banned within a week.

I think the implement of /do would also improve the quality of RP to allow people to further their expression or feelings/injuries while roleplaying. I understand that there are a wide selection of animations to use that could be used instead of /do but this takes time to search for the specific anim.

Cheers Recon I appreciate the lengthy response and the clarification on what kind of issues might lead to someone getting their character locked, and thus as I thought will be a combination of poor RP and repeat offenders.

Along with some RP issues that might lead to a character being locked for the sense of more realism.