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Overcoming the play-to-win mentality

Limitless

Retired Admin
Joined
Mar 20, 2019
Messages
4,416
Well then, what on Earth is 'playing to win'?

In the most basic of terms, it is roleplaying with the idea that you should win every scenario, as if it is a single-player game. Then, this desire to win every scenario translates into taking actions that are unrealistic, outright against the RCRP rules, or in a grey area of being acceptable. This results in hurt feelings, complaints, punishments and most importantly - ruined roleplay scenarios.
In fact, playing any sort of shooter, racing, skills-based game or other, even in multiplayer, is often played with the intent to win - playing just to have fun is pushed back a bit as a priority and people destroy their keyboards or other peripherals in anger of losing.
The core differences between most multiplayer games and a heavy roleplay server are: 1) there is no leaderboard you can climb on top of - while an individual IC scenario does, technically, have a 'winner' and a 'loser', in the grand scheme of things you can't 'win the game'; 2) the gameplay is character-driven - there is no set story for the player to follow and this is, in the ideal scenario, the primary generator of entertainment.

Play-to-win is in itself not a sign that you are a bad roleplayer, only that you are human and have vices and a desire to be a victor. If there's anyone says they have never at least considered doing something in the grey area OOCly to get their character out of trouble, I would say they're lying. I have outright played to win in my early days too. What is a sign of a bad roleplayer though, is not realizing your wrongdoings and how they impact everyone's roleplay experience and attempting to overcome them for the future.

How to stop playing to win?

-> Stop thinking that your character's loss is your loss. It is natural to be trying to win because your character is most likely wanting to win as well, but you'd only be employing realistic IC means to win, and not resorting to cheating or GTA physics exploits.
Maybe you made a mistake you didn't want to make, but start thinking about it in a way that furthers your character's development, if possible. How come the mistake that happened came to happen and if you made a mistake then how can it be attributed to your character instead of you? Extract the lessons both you and your character can learn from the situation and say: "My character did X because Y and that resulted in him losing the situation, but next time he will do Z."
Stop encouraging others to think that an IC loss is an OOC loss, too - don't tell someone they suck at shooting or driving, because they may be deliberately doing it to act in accordance with their character development. And in the (high likelihood) that they aren't being bad on purpose, its just an asshole move to ridicule someone.

-> Stop thinking that your character's IC enemies are your OOC enemies. They are not. This is the cause of a lot of the toxicity on RCRP; the fear of losing to an OOC enemy contributes to playing to win, DM, MG, PG, etc... In fact, being able to chat with the player behind your character's enemy and have a laugh about what happened is extremely liberating and enjoyable. Maybe don't overshare in order to avoid subconscious metagaming.
Don't bash other players, make fun of them, embarrass them or brag about your character winning. Don't respond to people who do it to you.

-> Don't talk in first person about actions taken by your character. Talk about his/her actions and desires in third person. This way you will train your thinking to distinguish between you and your character. You're not the same person as them - it is like watching an interactive TV series and the characters, even though you may love them and relate to them, are not real and live only within their story and their world. Thinking like this will liberate your consciousness and you will be less influenced by losses incurred by your character.
Similarly don't talk about other players' IC actions - talk about their characters' actions.

-> Don't flex on people for beating them in a brawl, shooting, vehicular pursuit, or the like. Don't upload avatars, signatures, or post comments that are clearly targeted flexing on another player. If you think their behaviour towards you makes them deserving of being ridiculed then be the bigger person and just move on.
This helps with fostering a better OOC atmosphere for everyone and ceases the thinking of "if I get killed here he's going to laugh a me publicly".

-> Be wary of the limitations of the game and apply realism criteria in your decision-making process, even if the outcome is not in your character's favour.
The fact that GTA allows you to sprint-jump and vault over a massive fence doesn't mean you should do it. If you are in a club and the music is playing, keep in mind that the actual range you'd be able to hear someone is actually quite low - SAMP will stream to you the chat of people standing 10 meters away but you wouldn't be able to hear anything more than 1-2 meters away, and in reality many clubs are so loud you need to shout in your ears to hear each other. In contrast, if you are in a quiet house, you might be heard through walls if you speak out loud. At night it would be very difficult to recognize faces (and thus players) unless they are lit by a street light or a car's headlights, etc; despite that SAMP will stream to you the nametags and you might think that GTA is bright enough, in reality the occupants of a car at night are near impossible to recognize unless you are standing very close, and if you are also driving a car, got headlights in your face and have a second to see them, it is 100% impossible to recognize anything, not even car color. During the day glass would have glare and it MAY be difficult to see anyone sitting inside of a car; it would also be difficult to see and remember someone if you only saw him in the rear view mirror while trying to evade.
If you have a realistic approach that is not "play-to-win", you would not complain if your character is heard through a wall in a small suburban house (given the right conditions), you would not let your character 'hear' what people in a crowded and loud nightclub are saying to each other five tables away, you would not make a U-turn, at night, to follow the guy your character has to kill just cause he drove past you as chances are he wouldn't be recognizable.

-> Give other players a fair chance to respond to your /me. This is really straight-forward - let others respond to your /me before you start bombarding them with /me lines and pushing the roleplay forward (which is borderline powergaming).
Picture this. You're standing next to the open passenger window of car. The driver knows you are there (because he's talking with you) and has roleplayed being wary of you including keeping the car in gear. You want to unlock the car and enter so you type in:
/me reaches through the window and unlocks the door.
What do you do next? If you have a play to win mentality you will immediately jump inside the car. Realistically, reaching into a car and unlocking it is very obvious and takes a few moments especially if you are not familiar with the car's locking mechanism. By the time you open the door and attempt to enter, the driver would have easily driven off especially if he was roleplaying being ready to do so.

P.S. This is a rather basic guide written on a whim. If I missed anything please PM me or reply below and I'll adjust accordingly.

 
Last edited:

SlimSteez

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2017
Messages
66
To lose is to win.

As highlighted, I was also at the same stage where I only saw myself winning in every single scenario and I did not realise how much of an impact that had on others. I do not remember how exactly I came to my senses, but I think it was something along the lines of "Fuck it, let’s see where this goes." I remember that first "loss" which turned out to be better than I imagined simply because it introduced a different scenario that I did not experience before.

Ever since, I tried to set an example by doing the same, giving a chance where feasible and I can say that my personal quality of roleplay has drastically improved. Why? Simply because you start to look past the limitations and introduce realistic aspects – making roleplay a lot more enjoyable. Looking back, there were even instances where players thanked me OOC for cooperating and not bitching about everything. It makes roleplay flow for everyone involved and gives time for you to sit back and reflect on the scenario you are involved in.
 

Limitless

Retired Admin
Joined
Mar 20, 2019
Messages
4,416
Added: Don't flex on people for beating them in a brawl, shooting, vehicular pursuit, or the like. Don't upload avatars, signatures, or post comments that are clearly targeted flexing on another player. If you think their behaviour towards you makes them deserving of being ridiculed then be the bigger person and just move on.

There are still people on this server who clearly have to read and understand this.
 
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