HL2RP Why do HL2RP servers Fail?

i think it's drama a lot of the time, someone gets mad at x for something that happened x amount of years/days ago, they bring it onto the server they consider 'their' territory, server gets torn apart by drama, owner usually always loses out in such cases, then pop dies.

 

This reminds me of a post I recently read in TNB. It kinda tackles the issue I'm quoting. I'll spoiler tag it for those who don't wanna log in to read it:

Spoiler

This is a really wanky post I made for something else, but I feel like it applies here.

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Heads-up, people. I'm about to get really wanky.

So, hypothetical situation, inspired by a situation I was in. You're walking down the street, on your way to the bar and a teenager - probably around fifteen - starts insulting you. How do you, or the majority of people, react? If you're me, you ignore them, and if they keep it up, you shout and argue and insult them back. That's about it, though. If they really upset you, by hitting a sore point, you might get up close and start shouting at them, make them fuck the hell off. In an unusual situation (mostly because it's criminal), a fight might break out, and even then, the majority of the time, people'll usually back off with some bruises and a sore ego. And in one or two rare cases, things get out of control - exceptionally out of control - and blood gets spilled, and someone winds up crippled, or dies. But here's the important thing: that's rare. Even when someone mugs you, that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to kill them, criminal or not. Murder and serious assault is still only a fraction of all major crime committed, for any and all demographics.

I'm starting with a practical example, because that, I think, really helps me explain my point: conflict is good for roleplay, but escalating it too much is bad for roleplay. Let's look at why, shall we?

Most writers can tell you that good drama relies on conflict, to some degree, to make things interesting. Imagine a couple eating breakfast. In one scenario, they're happily married, and calmly discuss the upcoming day, their carpool plans, and the possibility of a tennis game in the evening. In another, the husband's hungover and mad at his wife for cooking such a greasy, unpleasant meal for breakfast; his wife feels alienated and cheated with his best friend when he was out last night. In one of these cases, one of these would be far more fun to watch (and write) than the other; the conflict makes one interesting and dramatic to observe. (You can't disagree with me on this; literary majors have been talking about this since the middle ages.)

That's also not to say that a situation without conflict can't still be needed; other genres, such as romance or tragedy, rely on significant periods that are free of conflict. This is also why some romances or tragedies as traditionally classified as 'dramatic romances' or 'dramatic tragedies' - conflict between major characters is part of what makes those stories interesting. Got it? Good. Drama, and conflict, makes for interesting stories and role-play, as if the player characters agree on everything, it's hard to have any substantial developments without an external force, like a big bad NPC.

Now, I'm going to go back to literature here, and tie this back into my original point. When our characters escalate conflict, it stops creating story, and instead kills it. Major characters in any work do not, typically, die as a result of an argument in the street or insulting someone on the internet. Not even The Wire or Game of Thrones are all bad. While character death does occur, it's the result of multiple, protracted conflicts, that allow for a longer, narrative arc to be created. While there might be characters who do go off the handle that easily (just as in real-life), they are rarely explored, mostly because they're incredibly dumb for the story. In essence, when your character threatens to blow someone's brains out at the slightest provocation, it makes people less likely to create situations where conflict and drama can occur.

That's not to say your character can't be a hardass or someone overly sensitive who over-reacts, but on my observation, characters on the server escalate conflicts to a point where it becomes safer, and more effective, to never start a conflict in the first place. And that cuts off major avenues of roleplay. We wind up escalating the conflict to the point that instead of creating story, we were actively aborting it.

So, what am I saying?

When you're in a situation that's rife with conflict, that's an incredibly good thing. You're creating interesting developments. Don't destroy that by playing a hardass who doesn't give a fuck and kills anyone who even remotely gives them a challenge. (basically, please let me play my shithead that insults you but isn't worth your trouble. ty.)

I think part of the issue is that people play their characters as too extremist/triggerhappy, and finish all conflict as soon as it's born. This ends up killing roleplay, and making people bored.

 

They fail because they're either too attached to the lore, or they disregard it entirely.

Simple.

 

Way to drop a lot of other different factors and leave it to just one, but I digress. When it comes to lore and atmosphere I think people could add stuff but as long as it remains within the atmosphere, otherwise it's just as good as playing a slightly HL2-themed DarkRP.

People have shit like stores pretty much because of what I said about large populations affecting decision-making and turn RP into RPG. For example if you got a small group of protagonists in a story set within the HL2 universe then there's no reason to have Combine businesses or stuff of the like because you can actually carry a story along, not do stuff that's got nothing to do with the story to keep people entertained.

 

I think he means the "ur malnourished you cant swing that at me haha bucko im superior because im a cop"

A good example is when the Combine put something in Dr. Breen's water to ensure the population slowly misplaces their memories and turn-over in a submissive fashion. However, in-game that can't really play out well because if someone's dehydrated and you toss them a can of water, they're forced to just go "whoops fuck me i have to drop all my character progression wow dude who i am!".

It's good lore wise but wouldn't work out in a roleplay scenario.

 

I wasn't disagreeing, just adding my two cents on his point. IMO the whole water thing doesn't really make sense because people are revolting at the end of HL2, I say the guy's just paranoid or has a mental issue.

The malnourished argument isn't so much lore but people looking for shitty ways to avoid conflict.

 

It must've been the water.

OT: have we considered that hl2 as a whole would have to be rewritten to be produced as a self-sustaining roleplay story, because the story doesn't center around citizens, it centers around GF and his buddies.

Perfectly canon hl2rp would be super vague and super boring because there'd be nothing to do.

Also, cps had beating quotas in hl2, just sayin.

 

You only need to rewrite it if you plan to sustain 20-40 people with different types of characters and faction-wise perspectives at the same time all day every day. If all the protagonists are citizens then you only need to focus on the civilian side of Half-Life 2, which doesn't need to have all the flashy shit people put in roleplay to make it interesting if you have a good story. Sure, you can fill a couple holes but you don't need to go with something completely irrelevant to HL2 such as normal citizens owning businesses.

If your story is something along the lines of a group of civilians who live together in an apartment building looking to escape the city through the Underground Railroad, then that goal by itself can make a lot of HL2RP inventions irrelevant if you know how to pace the story and what events to have from time to time such as CPs inspecting their building and removing an important piece to their quest and having to work around that.

 

I think there's a huge ass difference between following HL2's lore and just making your server a carbon copy of HL2. Adding a few extra things here and there doesn't really ruin the immersion as bad as some people may think, but 95% of servers with "no swearing lol" or whatever other stupid obscure laws that exist just to exist are what kill it for me, honestly.

And to be honest, HL2 was missing a lot of stuff anyways. Like AKs for example. Eastern Europe, and not a single AK? The fuck, Valve?

 

Hl2 Beta had AKs, but they were cut.

anyways, I agree that the swearing thing is overkill, but I feel like a lot of the combine laws the admins make up are in compensation for what the cps are supposed to have in oppressive force.

 

The weapons mirrored one another too much. In the end of the day, it resulted in Gordon having an abundance of weaponry when he only needed the small amount that you see in retail Half-Life 2.
(AK-47 served the same role as the AR2. OICW same as SMG1. SMG2 as SMG1. And so forth)

The idea that "valve got rid of it because of play testers" should be dismissed. Nearly all cut-content was scrapped because Valve either believed it didn't meet their expectations of how Half-Life 2 should've played out or game-play technicalities.

 

Incompetence, mostly.

 

Externally, the staff.

Bad staff can make the experience horrid. I wouldn't wanna play knowing somewhere on the server an admin is stashing weapons to be ulti-meta king.

 

I agree with this, and also in addition I believe that isolated groups, (circlejerks) as they are often called can ruin an experience. Some servers I've been on have had people that just refused to interact with me because I was new, and it gets worse when they have an admin amongst them, it becomes hard for new players to integrate into that.

 

Also, the costs of CW gamemodes and the cost of a reliable server host REALLY add up.

 

If you can't pay for it.
Don't do it. It's simple.

 

Yeah, no, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying it's very expensive and that's why people usually give up on them easier. More money than it's worth sort of thing.

 

Mmm, yeah.

It either leads to the servers shutdown or the owner pumping out donations at ridiculous prices.

 

People don't realize the costs of running a server, long term wise. If you wanna start a server, easily costs 40 bucks. After six months if you gain a playerbase, you need to start making things for the server, if you can't you hire someone else to do it. Which costs money.

 

No I'm not.

OT: I don't know about all of it being stagnant. As Jericho said, it's all about using what you're given. However, as a player, it's also your job to make an interesting character that others want to be around / look forward to roleplaying with. As I did on some server a while ago, I made Dexter Grey. Was an old man that greeted most newcomers to the city. He worked two jobs and encouraged others to start working so they could afford furniture in their apartments -- especially a bed(they weren't given, so once you were assigned an apartment, you were guaranteed to sleep on the floor for a while until you could afford one). Instead, however, we all got together and bunked in the same apartment. I think we had up to like seven people in a room, and we all had a great storyline going on. It was all improv, of course, as most roleplay on Gmod is, but it was great, nonetheless.

Jobs. Jobs don't have to be that darkRP shit, but make payments for CWU based on the amount of work they do. Not hourly wages, or anything to do with time. Say a guy comes in, and assembles fifty request devices. Does all of the actions -- so about a hundred or so /me's right there. People are likely to join along, but I digress. This guy's gonna get paid very little to a moderate amount for fifty request devices. So, probably 50 - 150 tokens right there. A bed probably goes for about 20 - 50 tokens, while couches and shit might even be more.

You get shit pay, but it's rewarding, nonetheless. It's something to do.

Give people something to do -- even as a player. Give them something to look forward to. Make an interesting character. It doesn't have to be a depressed guy who hates the Union and whatnot. Could just be a standard citizen that's not really in favour of the Union but doesn't resist it either.

It all starts with you, essentially.