Dancer Archive
Thread: Petition to boycott cantinas until something is done about AFK Entertainers.
Disclaimer: If you like AFK Entertainers,feel free to comment but please act civilly and keep your flames down. This is mainly a petition for those of us whoare fed up with AFK Entertainers and want something to be done about it.
I, as a Master Dancer,am maxxedout on xp. So whatincentive do I haveto frequent a cantina other than the social aspect that drew me to the profession in the first place. Yet all I see all when I go into any cantina are...AFK Entertainers.
Have you ever tried having a converstation with an AFK Entertainer? The conversation doesn't flow very nicely does it?
...and this is just one of the many problems caused by AFK Entertainers.
Currently, cantinas are nothing but ghostrooms with nothing but lifeless "NPC AFK Entertainers" frollicking foolishly all over the place.
Many of us entertainershave been complaining about AFK Entertainersfor weeks, and still...the Dev's have done nothing to remedy this situation.
I am left withthe impression that although the Dev's realizethis to be a problem,theynevertheless allow for itto happen in aneffort to compensate forsevices that are direly neededin the game, but whos profession was poorly designedand therefore unable to effectively satisfy its demands. So that instead of doing something about the problem, they instead do nothing to the detriment of all of us who havehave made this their primary profession and seek to instill respect and pride into it.
This is not right and much of the fun of playing the profession hasbeen sucked awayas a result.
Please do something about this already!
I go to a cantina. I see an AFK entertainer and I see one talking to people, who greets me, /winks, trying to drum up a good tip, probably. I watch/listen to the one actually sitting there at their keyboard and talking to me, then /tip them when I leave, because I respect their integrity and determination for their class that they don't simply throw up a macro and go eat dinner. Or sleep.
Boycotting Cantinas won't do anything except give the AFK entertainers a more exclusive cut of the XP. What we need for entertainers is more activated, targeted skills like /playfor or /dancefor in addition to the buffs that work much more effectively than the passive watching/listening. Slow down passive watching/listening xp and heal rates, then give entertainers targeted commands like that to force more entertainers to remain at their keyboards to get xp. It also gives you a more legitimate reason to expect tips, since nobody tips the AFK goon plodding around the cantina for XP.
Speaking as a non-entertainer, I very much appreciate the dancers and musicians in this game. Entertainer characters are sometimes the only people I see roleplaying, so I often look forward to going to cantina's. AFK players in the cantina are killing the joy of this. I know someone who never tips the dancers because he assumes they are all AFK. I make sure to never tip an AFK entertainer, because it does ruin the atmosphere of the cantina. Hopefully this will be addressed after the dev's fix the major problems with some of the other classes. My thanks again to all the dancers and musicians, you are very enjoyable company...Tzitzimime - Radiant server -Gypsy Pikeman Bantha Herder
Many of us entertainershave been complaining about AFK Entertainersfor weeks, and still...the Dev's have done nothing to remedy this situation.
Not true. Many of us were complaining about AFKers 2 months ago, and the Devs HAVE been working on a solution.
I know from our perspective it seems like a small thing to fix, but from a game coding perspective it's not that easy. Whatever they do, they don't want to nerf us or nerf the macro functions of the game which have legit uses.
Right now, the targeted buffs are on Test. That's step #1. (AFK zombies can't target and buff.) Step #2 will be to bump entertainer mission rewards and make them non-AFK-able- also in the works. Step #3, which may take longer, is to change the auto-AFK feature so that it either kicks you out of the game faster or removes XP gains after 10 minutes. We don't know what their final solution will be, but to claim they're not working on it is not true at all.
Read some of Ravenmist's posts here for more of the story. Then we won't be making false accusations against the game Devs. All we need is some patience because they have the entire game as their main concern, while all we're concerned about is the status of the Dancers. That's quite a difference in perspective.
Sinda wrote:
Many of us entertainershave been complaining about AFK Entertainersfor weeks, and still...the Dev's have done nothing to remedy this situation.
Not true. Many of us were complaining about AFKers 2 months ago, and the Devs HAVE been working on a solution.
I know from our perspective it seems like a small thing to fix, but from a game coding perspective it's not that easy. Whatever they do, they don't want to nerf us or nerf the macro functions of the game which have legit uses.
Right now, the targeted buffs are on Test. That's step #1. (AFK zombies can't target and buff.) Step #2 will be to bump entertainer mission rewards and make them non-AFK-able- also in the works. Step #3, which may take longer, is to change the auto-AFK feature so that it either kicks you out of the game faster or removes XP gains after 10 minutes. We don't know what their final solution will be, but to claim they're not working on it is not true at all.
Read some of Ravenmist's posts here for more of the story. Then we won't be making false accusations against the game Devs. All we need is some patience because they have the entire game as their main concern, while all we're concerned about is the status of the Dancers. That's quite a difference in perspective.
I do not mean to come accross as argumentative so pleasedon't take it as such Sinda. I truly did not mean to be accusatory but to classify me as one who is making false accusations isinnacurate.The fact remains that nothing has been done about it. And by your own admission,has been a lingering concernfor months.
Step #1, The "targeted buffs,"do nothing to remedy theAFK issue. This is like comparingapples to oranges. AFK'ers could care less aboutnot being able to target someone for a buff. All they care about isgaining the xp necessary to attain master status...
...and I don't even have to get into Step #2.
Howdoes making entertainer missions non-AFK-able impact the prevaling AFKproblem?
Once again, yes,we know they aremaking these changes. My question to you is what do these changes have to do with the prevailing AFK issue?
Now Step #3...this is what we need. But there is no indication that this is actually taking place, is there? Currently it's just wishfulthinking on all of our parts.
So please do not accuse me ofmaking false accusations. It has an undeservednegative conotation toit...and does justifiablyrefutethe pointof this post, whichs is...
...that to date, nothing has in fact been done about this issue.
...that to date, nothing has in fact been done about this issue.
I agree that something has to be done but boycotting the cantinas would just leave the afk-ers to have it to themseleves and they dont care if we boycott it or not. But there is something we can do until a better solution arises. Report them. Everytime u see an afk macroer who has been there for at least an hour or who u know is constanly afk macroing report them. It s a violoation of the EULA and dont let anyone tell you that its not. I asked a CSR and he said It was but that they arent going after them because its not a priority. He also said that i was welcome to report them though. If we start reporting them it will become a priority. I have never reported anyone before and Im not the type of person to run around reporting people but the problem is getting worse and worse. Start spreading ther news that it is indead a violation of the EULA and that its a reportable offense. Even if the CSRs do nothing with the reports just the fact that what they are doing is a reportable offense and a violation of the EULA would stop some of them hopefully.
something has got to be done its getting ridiculous
DaraShaku wrote:
And for anyone who hasn't noticed, Xiana has placed this thread in SWG Discussion, as well. If you're feeling brave, have a peep in there, to see how the 'real world' of SWG views this issue...
Yes please do...because although there are some that for obvious reasons disagree (those that wish entertainers where NPC's),the large majorityhave beenoverwhelmingly supportive.
I think you guys are really taking this overboard. When I play during the day and need healing from an entertainer I don't pick one that is AFK. I pick a real one who is doing their job. There are times during the day in Dearic, Talus that there are no entertainers and I appreciate it if there is an AFK. So you are pretty much saying its my tough luck if I need healing and there isn't an entertainer on?
I don't like AFK entertainers anymore than the next person. I refuse to group with them, and I boot anyone in my group who goes AFK for a long period of time. Having said that, however...
There is a lot wrong with the game (there's a lot right too, I'm not dissing the game, I love it). AFK Macroing entertainers is definitely "wrong" as it violates the terms of service. For those of us who dance, and for roleplayers, it's a big problem. However, as an overall priority, it ranks fairly low, because balancing, quest fixing, bug squashing, etc is (and should be) a priority at the moment.
Most of the community, I believe, supports us, in that they won't watch AFK entertainers, and they won't tip them, if they're given another option. A new character I started picked up novice entertainer and was dancing in a cantina, along with a Skilled Musician who was AFK. I got tipped, and watched, because I was at the keyboard interacting, even though the AFKer could heal better and faster than my novice entertainer. Not just by one person, but by six. Not one watched the AFKer.
For now, it's up to us to police our profession. The devs can help us, by providing the targetable buff for instance, but we need to recognize that overall, the AFK issue isn't a priority right now in The Big Picture. We have wide support in the community at large, and it's up to us to be at the keyboard, socializing and kicking out the AFKers, until the devs have time to devote to the matter fully. Until then, use what methods you see fit to discourage AFKing, and to discourage rewarding AFKers, and see what works and what doesn't.
"Yes please do...because although there are some that for obvious reasons disagree (those that wish entertainers where NPC's),the large majorityhave beenoverwhelmingly supportive."
Well, they're supportive of supporting active entertainers over AFK ones, but most of them aren't supportive of banning cantinas, and will use the AFK entertainers when no active ones are around...most of them just won't tip the AFKers.
Step #3, which may take longer, is to change the auto-AFK feature so that it either kicks you out of the game faster or removes XP gains after 10 minutes.
Thats easy. Remove Checkbox. Estimated developer time: 2 minutes + recompile + test. Update Database for those who had AFK disabled: Esitmated developer time: 3 minutes + test + runtime ( estimated: 2 minutes including commit ). Make AFK execute the already existing command /dump client side: Estimated developer time: 30 minutes + recompile + rest.
As they did not manage to do this, it can only mean two things: They don't want, they have more important things to do, or they are plain stupid. I really hope it's #2...