Have you ever called 911, but there was no one to take your call? Have you ever needed a cop in your roleplay (and as far as I know cops cant be NPC’ed either) but couldn’t get one, because every cop was offline? Ever had to be forced to NPC anyone when you’d rather play it out with another person? Ever wanted an ambulance ride, but couldn’t get one, because every medic was offline? Ever walked all the way to the hospital, only to find the place deserted and empty, when you wanted a doc to rp something out with you? And how about fires…you gotta get Fire Department permission and ensure someone’s there to take care of it before you can start one? But how are you to plan a fire, or any roleplay, when you don’t know who’s who, who’s on, and if there’s going to be anyone to take your call in the first place?

Chances are, for the questions that can be answered “yes” or “no” in the above paragraph, you have answered “yes,” especially if you have been here long enough. Personally, I have witnessed especially more so in Crack Den before I became a cop these problems several times. Chances are, when something like this happens, it either messes up the rp and/or the roleplay wasn’t as nice as if someone had been there to rp the call or whatnot out with you. Chances are, to at least some degree we’re all troubled by this issue.

Personally, I have had to travel all the way to the hospital several times only to find the place empty, which is annoying because I would have to walk all the way there, find it empty, and possibly walk have to walk all the way back to continue rp and wait until later to try again several times before I might be lucky enough to find someone to rp with me. I have also seen 911 calls be unrealistically ignored by the police department. Also, there was another time where a bar was gas bombed and it was reported that several people were injured. Realistically, quite a few cops, quite a few medics, and quite a few firemen would have been needed to rp this out. Instead, myself and another police officer had to play out and NPC all these people, and for me, I would have preferred for it to be when everyone was here. NPC’ing a person or two is fine; two people playing and NPC’ing several others is to me, not really (much of a) roleplay.

The Alterscape sims already have a system in place where sim staff can post onto the sim websites their online/offline statuses, so members of the community can easily find someone that they need. A possible solution to the problem above may be to modify this system and expand it so that Emergency Services Personnel (and maybe even others in other groups in the future) on the Alterscape sims can also post their online status for roleplay planning purposes. This way, if/when a roleplayer would like to do a roleplay that would involve a cop, medic, doctor, fireman, etc, (s)he can look to see if there are any available first, and then IM the person(s) before hand to ensure that a response would be possible and the roleplay can go as planned. This can also save the trouble of going somewhere such as a hospital only to find it empty. This way, roleplayers can ensure that the people they need/want in their roleplay can be there to roleplay, instead of having to guess and check and possibly have to waste their time or end up being told to NPC whom they actually wanted. This way, it can also be ensured that there are enough people to respond before something will happen.

Potentially, there may be a privacy concern with such a system, and I acknowledge that. If it so arises that there is an actual issue with several roleplayers objecting to having to post their online status, potentially we can also encourage using the system, if/when it gets implemented, but make it strictly voluntary to use. It may also take some time and effort too to implement such a system, and we might have to wait a while before it can be rolled out; however, since we are just modifying a preexisting system and adapting it to the emergency services it shouldn’t be that hard to do either. However, even though there is potential for problems, this system has already been made for and is already working well with sim staff; in addition, I have done some research on this topic and there are also other roleplay sims in SL that already have such a system working successfully with their emergency services. Therefore, if its already working well with Alterscape sim staff and emergency services rp’er from other sims, then it shouldn’t be too much of an issue to implement within the Alterscape (CD Hathian and DE) Emergency Services.

If possible, maybe we should also amp up the system a bit so that emergency services roleplayers can post beyond “online” and “off-line.” At the minimum, roleplayers should be able to post “available” and “unavailable,” although from my observations and research, the sims already doing this have enabled their players to post “afk,” “on duty” “patrolling” “busy responding” “off sim” “unavailable,” “off duty,” etc. I have also seen it where officers could customize their status post. Also, since (at least in the HPD) we already have a system where we can post “status updates” into the radio (ex. /93 Officer Cai on scene of Robbery), maybe we can also work this new system off of this preexisting system. Maybe we can even look into having the two systems work with each other (ex. Instead of posting online that your on duty and radioing in 10-41, clicking 10-41 to post that you’re on duty can go for radioing in such).

The logs that can be kept from such a system may be useful to command staff as well. An example of what command staff can do with such a system and its logs is to use this to help them decide who’s really active, and who’s in the group but does nothing (From going through previous posts in the CD and DE forums I’ve noticed that we’ve had issues with this in the past). When it’s time for group cleanouts, such a system can be an additional mean for group leaders to decide who to keep and who to kick out. Since with this system roleplayers are basically posting their status/what they are doing, if command staff so chooses they can also use this system as another mean to track roleplayers, as another mean to keep an eye on roleplayers, as another mean to supervise and lead, etc.

As I have previously mentioned, I have done a little research on this topic and observed for a bit how this is already being done in other sims. One/more of said sims have adopted a rule that a roleplayer may not start a scene that would (reasonably) involve a municipal agency. (And the Alterscape sims I know already have a rule that no fires can be started without FD being available to take care of it). This is so that, unless involvement from a municipal agency is unwanted, roleplayers in the municipal groups can/will have a chance to play as well. In the eyes of one of the sims, to pull off a major crime then RP getting away with it because no cops were on is akin to posting the result for the police department, whereas posting the result of another is a form of powergaming. If/when such a system is implemented for the Alterscape sims, a possibility that may be looked into is establishing such a rule in these sims.

Such a system has already been implemented in other sims and have been working very well in those sims. Such a system has made roleplay and roleplay planning much easier on those sims, and can have the potential to make a fantastic roleplay experience that’s already being provided by the Alterscape sims even better. This can save time, save trouble, and help to increase the quality of the rp on our sims. So, what do we say? ... should we look into the possibility of implementing such a system for our sims?