I have almost a year and a half's experience on FiveM, beginning my journey into this hellscape of a game on March 3rd 2018 on a server called BadlandsRP. I stayed there for a great deal of time, over a year. I didn't get far in their LSPD's chain of command due to animosity between myself and the higher-ups. Other servers I have played on (in reverse chronological order) include:
- Wandering RP, my previous "main," where I reached the rank of Lieutenant before leaving due to declining popularity within the server.
- San Andreas Republic, my guilty pleasure menu-based server where I play when I want a more relaxed level of RP.
- American Dream RP, an economy based server where I ranked the rank of Commander in the BCSO before being booted for dual clanning. Pfft, like I needed them anyway. It wasn't the most memorable experience of my FiveM career or anything. Pfffft.
Prior to FiveM, I did text RP in World of Warcraft for 3 years, playing every type of character and more.

My favorite aspect of roleplay, and the reason I still do it to this day, is the ability to do what, due to my own physical limitations, I cannot attain in real life. Be it zooming around in an FPIU chasing baddies, saving lives as an EMT, or even running for more than 30 seconds at a time, roleplay allows me to break the boundaries of what I can do and enter the realm of what I dream of doing. I've spent many, many hours roleplaying, and I intend to spend many, many more.

Roleplaying is the act of stepping into the life of another person in every aspect. You become their past, their aspirations, their issues, and their aptitudes. You, the player, are only the controller of this person, and it is your duty to act in a way that best reflects this character. You do not get to be yourself in roleplay, that's called going outside.

Austin Harris, born March 3rd, 1987 in Richardson Texas, was an only child to a single father. He never had a mother figure growing up, and his father made damn sure that his influence would fill the void. His childhood was less than comfortable, being forced to do work at his father's recycling business as soon as his age hit the double digits. He fled from his home the day after he graduated high school, using every penny he had on a one-way plane ticket to Los Santos International Airport. The next years of his life would be spent in and out of homeless shelters, cardboard boxes, and ratty hotel rooms, never finding a place for himself in the city. He worked minimum wage jobs to keep himself alive, often eating one meal a day to keep a paycheck lasting until the next. While he was living in the slums of La Mesa, he found himself holed up under an overpass by the La Mesa San Andreas Highway Patrol station. He was fascinated by what he saw, how the officers worked from the glimpses he could catch. He knew, then and there, what his calling was. Money spent on the occasional luxury was then spent on a gym membership, and slowly but surely, he began to get himself into shape. Now, he's finally ready to show the State Police that he's ready to join their ranks and don the campaign hat, the khaki uniform, and the seven-pointed badge.

Austin wants nothing more than to be, not the best police officer in San Andreas, but a great officer. His goals are down-to-earth; he's spent his childhood getting nowhere and he knows what it's like to fall short of greatness. Therefore, he lowers his bar so he isn't jumping as high. He doesn't expect to be a stud in every police chase, an expert marksman, and an excellent detective. All he wants is to perform his duties to the best of his potential, and nothing more.

Acceptance will mean that Austin is finally eligible to put in his application for the San Andreas State Police. Excited to be a trooper, he's been training his calisthenics and watching a lot of Broker Eight Eight on his eight-year-old iFruit using Bean Machine WiFi. This will be the next step forward in his life, finally able to do what he knows is his destiny, even if the reason is shaky at best. Austin's confident as all hell that he'll pass the exam with flying colors, and kick-start the next chapter of his time in San Andreas.

This chicken, who will henceforth be referred to as Gertrude the Magnificent, is the finest hen that San Andreas has ever produced. Her feathers have a stunning, golden sheen and her beak has been bred to absolute gorgeous perfection. But alas, she has no home. Gertrude the Magnificent and I are kindred spirits. Two souls destined for greatness, but lost in the sea of men and chickens alike, born more fortunate than we. On this fair day, Gertrude the Magnificent was craving the finest grain from the farms of Grapeseed, and who was I to deny her wishes? With no automobile to call our own, we settled for the most private of transportation I could muster. The finest cab in the city, yellow and blue decorating the Minivan ever-so-stunningly, the perfect carriage to bring us to our place of destiny. Off we were, Grapeseed awaited.

/me keeps hands at 10 and 2 with licence, registration, proof of insurance, and permit to carry
"Hello, Trooper. Here is my vehicle information and my permit to carry."
/showid
"Yes, I understand my mistake. No, I will not disregard traffic devices again.
"Thank you, Trooper, have a good shift."
I would be as compliant as I could to make the Trooper feel as safe as he could so the stop could, in turn, go as smoothly as it could. Bonus, it increases my chance of getting off with a warning.

RDM is the act of engaging in combat with another player, regardless of the weapon used, without verbal initiation and a proper in-character reason to initiate combat. RDM would not be shooting someone while they are held at gunpoint, but it would be if they are held at gunpoint and you have already taken their wallet, phone, and keys. RDM would not be an SRT sniper watching the exit to a bank during a robbery, but it would be a gangster on top of a roof shooting someone while they're getting gas at the Grove Street LTD. VDM is similar in the way that there is still little to no roleplay involved, but it is accomplished with a vehicle, leading to scenarios that could not occur with a firearm, and vice versa. It would be easier for me to sideswipe a trooper at a traffic stop than it would be to stop next to him, pull a gun, and pop a cap in his ass. On the other side of the coin, vehicles do have their purposes being used as a weapon in roleplay without being considered VDM. A PIT maneuver performed by an LEO is the best example of this, but smashing through a roadblock or trying to use your vehicle to stop another are acceptable and realistic within roleplay.

Metagaming is the act of taking information learned out of character, and using it in character. If I were to watch somebody live on the server, and they're making cocaine at a specific location that I don't know about, it would be metagaming for me to go there, regardless if the streamer is still there or not. I did not take any in-character actions to find that location, and my character had no reason to go to that location. It was an entirely out-of-character decision, which led to an in-character gain, which is unfair to those who keep everything strictly in-character.

Powergaming is the act of manipulating a scenario to result in you "winning" it. If I were to shoot you, and tell the paramedics that you were 11-44, that would be powergaming, as I cannot confirm that you are deceased and I, as a single player who does not control your character, do not have the power to end your character's storyline right then and there because I felt like it. Powergaming could also be creating advantages that you really shouldn't have, like super-strength, massive lungs to run for an hour at a time, impeccable driving skills, and a convenient wealth of knowledge of whatever the topic may be at your fingertips, whenever you happen to need it.

Metagaming is using already established information that someone else created and using it for yourself without ever actually learning of the information in-character. Powergaming, however, is creating this information yourself and rejecting the information of others in order to further yourself. Metagaming, though nigh-universally malicious, can at the very least help further a story line if left uncaught, while powergaming does nothing but encourage a must-win attitude in a setting where it's okay to lose.