Dancer Archive
Thread: Curious about opinion on other AFKMers
Do people feel as strongly about AFK samplers? Not only are they earning xp, but they're also gathering resources that will be used to make money in other ways. How do you feel about folks using their toons as Harvesters?
Shinia Whendi
I am in this game for the long haul. I decided that much based on my enjoyment of it the first couple of nights. I am not going to quit after my 30 days free run out. So I don't need to rush my PC(s) through their skills. I want to savor each "level" in each class for each PC. The faster you level through the various professions, the faster the game will get stale, I would imagine. I'd rather still be working on the same PC in 5 months than be on the 5th PC and the 32nd out of 33 total professions.
I am not in the game to become uber while AFK. If I wanted that, I'd play progress quest (www.progressquest.com).
C
Unless AFKMers are putting a serious extra stress on the servers, I'm not sure that I see the harm in it. "Sampling" itself wasn't meant to be a source of serious harvesting - but if you don't have the funds or the lands to build and maintain a harvester and you want to waste game-time harvesting by hand, go for it. If you want to AFKM while you harvest by hand, unless you're putting undue stress on the servers, I don't see what harm there is. What it all boils down to for me is: It's a game. I don't care if someone gets dervies their self-worth from a toon on a screen and wants to powergame and AFKM to feel good. If it floats their boat and isn't putting undue stress on the servers, so what?
There is a difference. Sampling cannot be made to be fun. Usually you are sampling out in the middle of no where, with no one around to talk to.
It'd be like dancing in am empty cantina 24 hours a day. But still, if you want resources, buy them or place a harvester. Sampling is for those few extra resources that you need to get to make that one item, or when you are truly out "sampling" the resources. It should not imho be used as general resource collecting. As a means of getting your skill up to Survey IV, I have no trouble with afk sampling (Survey IV takes hours, I wouldn't wish it upon anyone to sit at the keyboard for hours waiting for a message every 30 seconds).
Sampling every night just to make some extra free resources, I do not appove.
I don't. When you AFK sampling it is something you wold be doing alone anyway.
As an entertainer, it is your job to entertain. I don't mind if someone AFK's off the dance floor with the AFK flag on, but doing it in front of the door tells me that person wants to be AFK and get tips. That is not fair to the others who are actually at their keyboards working it.
too me AFK sampling is just a cheaper way of doing it without harvesters. it really doesn't bother me.
While in theory I can't understand anyone thinking that running a bot is equivalent to playing a game, there ARE times in MMRPGs where repetitive, unenjoyable tasks can be macro'd effectively. Mining in UOL was one such. Surveying and sampling in SWG is another. Both of these are solitary pursuits in the best of cases and while macros don't enhance one's game enjoyment, they don't hurt an already-boring function.
Entertaining is another bag altogether. I am there to entertain, not Bot. Dancers and Musicians are only hurting themselves (and their colleagues) if they become nothing more than unspeaking automatons spamming for tips every 10 seconds. Their image - that most-important aspect of our profession - goes to hell in a hurry. Player resentment builds because it appears that we are getting our titles easily while they are risking death for theirs.
Anytime a player sees me in a cantina, I want them to think, "There's Sinda! She's fun to talk to!" and start up a conversation with me. Whether they tip me or not is not as important as whether the interaction was an enjoyable one and they remember me the next time they need healing.
The #1 job of entertainers is Interaction, plain and simple. And you cannot interact if you are AFK.
Player resentment builds because it appears that we are getting our titles easily while they are risking death for theirs.
I'm a little confused about one thing - how many dancers risk death to get dancing levels? I haven't made novice yet, so maybe I'm missing something... 
This brings an interesting point though - player resentment. I've gotten the sense from a couple posts that some people resent that AFKMers might be getting tips or experience that they aren't "working" for. On the one hand, it's still just a game, so what? On the other, life's not fair. In fact, real life can be more unfair that an AFKMer getting tips and experience while they're sleeping in the next room. Why get upset about something this trivial?
That said, I think AFKMers in cantinas are annoying. They take up space on the dance floor andthey spam the cantina. They don't need to be in a cantina to get experience, you can dance anywhere to get dancing experience. It's only Entertainer Healing experience that is limited to certain locations - but that can rack up 4x as fast as dancing experience if you're in the right crowd. I'd be curious to see how many players actually pay much attention to AFK-Dancers anyway. It always seems to me that folks who come to the cantina to watch dancers prefer live dancers anyway. It would be interesting to try to get a sense for this from the "other side of the dance floor" as it were.
Me, I get annoyed when people spam, "Let me in the group" or "Teach me X" or when I see dancers just doing their thing and stopping every five minutes to yell, "Somebody heal me." I get annoyed easily though. 
When I'm working the cantina, if I don't get healed, I figure the healers must have their hands full. I emote that I'm out of breath and then I sit down. If a healer notices, I get healed. If they don't, then I get a break from hitting my flourish keys for a minute or two.
The #1 job of entertainers is Interaction, plain and simple. And you cannot interact if you are AFK.
Definitely true - but what if an AFKMer Macro-dances in their own home? They're not taking up valuable dance space in the cantina, they're not spamming, they're not taking up a slot in a band group. Isn't that kind of like practicing your dance moves in your bedroom? What real dancer doesn't practice away from their regular dancing venue?
I wish people would stop complaining about it so much so we could move onto better subjects. This horse has already been ground into glue andfast-food burgers, there is no reason to keep flogging it. Most people don't care. Some people can't stand it. Some people love it.
Look, if someone is performing AFK in public:
#1 unlessthey arein a remote location alone almost NOBODY is going to tip them anyway... not like very many people tip anyway
#2 they will likely never become serious performers anyway so once they hit whatever boredom level they desire they will just leave and never come back.
#3 if they keep your group into the high 80+'s for getting experience do you really care if they are afk?
For the AFKers **Please** just stay well off to the side/back area. I think that is really the major complaint.
Tsiella wrote:
I'm a little confused about one thing - how many dancers risk death to get dancing levels? I haven't made novice yet, so maybe I'm missing something...
And death is a risk? With free insurance, and permanent cloning, death is not a risk, its a free trip back to your home town. Oh... you died.... you have all your equipment, are back in town, full health bars, etc.
Anyway, most dancers risk death every day, as the one way most of us make money for clothes and such is either harvester runs, or missions. And with dancer attributes, those mission are very exciting. There are a few out there that can make money as a dancer. They are the exception, the rare case.
AFK macroing in an out of the way location only hurts the entertainer. They gain xp slower than those that group and cantina crawl to the busiest spots. They don't build the repore with either their fellow entertainers or the customers that is very much needed for an entertainer that plans to be an entertainer. And by not concentrating on what they are doing they have little knowledge of songs, dances instraments and what works well with what to look/sound best.
AFK macroing in crowded areas can hurt the industry as a whole but it also lets those that are working at their profession shine. Comparisonscan helpalot when building a customer base be it artisian, medical or entertainer.
As a whole AFK macroing does hurt the game, it adds to server stress causing more downtimes and maintance for everyone and hurts the player economy by adding more goods/services into the marketand less personal interaction to achieve those.
Could you please document how it adds server stress. On a machine limited to 3500 characters its not as if the AFKer is taking someones slot. The macro runs on the client and they are probabaly generating less converstaions traffic (maybe not, some bot spammers are verbose).
Great dancers practice at home and perform for the crowd. I think thats what a lot of AFKers are after deeper reprtoire for their public time. Still last night I saw a master dancer AFK for hours and boy did the customers complian. Rightfully so. Of course I saw another Master Dancer come into the Cantina with her own band, refuse to group with the Entertianers and Novice dancers, refuse to teach, refuse to answer questions about how she got her skills and what she liked/disliked about dancing, and proceed to steal business from novices. Masterful roleplaying of a stuck up diva. So who's worst, the AFK master who isn't there or the one that is there but just mean? So far I haven't seen many great examples of fun master dancers.
By the by has anyone figured out what to do with the awesome stage in the Mos Entha guild house. I'm thinking musicals. Maybe Our Town
to put it gently, i am not a fan of AFK dancers.
i've been to dathomir, and endor. two out of the way locations that have recently been popular. and unfortunately, on 90% of my trips, i see AFK macroers there for hours, under the false guise of 'helping' other players.
you are hurting other players. other dancers, and musicians. the fact that you are doing this in the first place says to me that you don't really care about anyone but yourself. if you continue to do that, the 'honest' entertainers won't be appreciated or tipped appropriately when they DO go to these out of the way places, and i've seen firsthand evidence of that myself.
what makes this matter even more egregious on these out of the way planets is the fact that they are no build zones, so us honest folks couldn't set up a player cantina alternative, even if we wanted to.
that is why i /report anyone AFK macroing in public cantinas, taverns, hotels and theatres. that is my ONLY option, because unfortunately, they aren't even playing the game, so i can ask them nicely.