The State of Gang RP

[TheT]

I have seen so much back and forth about cops and crims, crims and cops. It’s the same thing over and over again. One side is too powerful, it’s too easy to get guns, this is unfair, that is unfair. The biggest issue that I see in the state of the server is the lack of gang beef. There’s too many reasons for crews or gangs to want or have to work together rather than find any reason for there to be beef. There’s no room in the server for competition because anyone and everyone can get their hands on anything. The reason the back and forth with the cops and crims will never stop is because the crims aren’t fighting each other, and everyone likes a good gun fight. SO, what happens? Ambushes on cops, shootouts with cops, cops being dicks because they’re getting shot up. It’s a never ending cycle. There needs to be reasons for gangs to have issues with people or there will never be a war. I also think that there are too many people that decide to get a group together and want to make it a “name”, but when any kind of heat comes their way, it turns into “oh we’re just a crew of friends who rob stuff together”. It’s too easy for people to start up a new gang, or biker club or whatever you want to call it. Your main gangs should be putting these new crews in check and testing them to see if they can battle through the test. South side gangs are usually notorious for putting new gangs to the test and seeing if they make or break it. However, the state of the south side is actually embarrassing if you want my honest opinion. We were told that they wanted the “lore” gangs to be more “lore”, but we have rarely around Vagos and Ballas as best friends, GSF hardly gets in city, and there’s random people and civilians that own homes in south side areas. It makes no sense. We have a former car dealership putting more people in check than people who claim to be a gang. That should tell you everything you need to know about the state of Gang RP. If you want cops to spend less time in shootouts, and more time investigating scenes and putting together evidence, and the talk about police vs crim balance/imbalance to stop, there needs to be more ways to create hostile interactions between gangs. Your balance comes from the gang beef. No one respects or fears the police because that’s the only hostile interactions they can get. 

[lords8n]

I agree with everything you said there. It would be nice to feel more gang-ish fear on the streets.
But also keep in mind that gang on gang wars are extremely expensive to the gangs.
A sustained gang on gang war can completely drain a gangs inventory and funds in short order. Same goes with hopping from one gang on gang war to another.
I'm not sure there's an economy right now to support anything more than small gang on gang skirmishes.
I believe this is why gang leaders look for fast resolutions to gang on gang issues.

It seems the big fight in today's economy is for money, product, and inventory, not pride and respect, for which it unfortunately is the police that stand in the way.

[phvntom]

Most of the RP involved with gangs is internal.
Gangs/groups are creating RP for themselves, their members, and some other groups that will respond to that RP. Gangs don't just pop up and get permission to have MLOs/Interiors as well as respect from the other gangs without actually doing things in RP. Some gangs/groups are doing things for their own fun/RP, while others are ITCHING to do something different and form a story with multiple actors but it never gets the proper grease to keep it moving.

It doesn't help that there is a history of gangs airing out complaints via reports/ooc when certain groups DO create a worthwhile conflict. People want the chance to use the "pen" (Roleplay) before using the "sword" (violence) and most of the time, the pen never happens. The cases where there is a gang sit down or both groups get to air their grievances, some of them don't make sense. It's usually some OOC bleed of "you can't tax something that isn't in your turf" or "I can't believe you would do this to us after xyz". 

There isn't any real weight to fighting other gangs. No one loses anything, gains anything, and nothing within RP really changes. People don't create a reason to fight and nothing is done organically. That is both a RP problem and a mechanics problem. Because of this, everything is reduced to a nuisance and when people fight it's until someone taps out. They say "Alright that was fun while it lasted beef squashed" and the "winner" gets RP bragging rights. "We beat X gang, they suck lol" 

It's a layered problem as I could continue to exhaust the issues. To save everyone from a wall of text I feel what I've composed here are the main issues regarding gangs and gang conflict. PD also have a hand in why gang conflict is stale/not happening because the escalation they bring hurts both parties involved. One loses items, time, and anything in between, while the 'winners' of that altercation have a chance to escape with said items but ALSO lose time, money, and items upon capture. I don't believe that PD should be ALLOWING full on warfare without intervention but I believe more consideration for RP and the rules needs to happen before six to eight (extreme cases of ten to fifteen) come in and shut everything down. That is their job but when the first responding officers start immediately mowing down anything without a badge they're teetering on rule breaks and shutting down RP. 
It is hard out there and not everything will be perfect or what anyone might want to play out but currently there is much to be desired within the community.