Dancer Archive

An excellent start to the commentary, everyone. Please continue, and encourage others who share concern for the future of theentertainer professions tooffer their views here as well. This issue is likely just as pertinent to Musicians and Entertainers, as well as possibly ID's and others as well. I posted it here in the dancer forum more as a result of some of our recent threads, though the issue is not restricted to dancers alone.

In a few days, I will address some of the specific thoughts provided in this thread, and will add my own as well. My initial twin-massive posts were intended to raise the question and begin discussion, yet I myself have yet tooffer my personal take on the situation. I wanted first to simply raise awareness and get the general opinion of the community before entering my own thinking directly into the mix.

I don't think it was such a bad thing that people found out how to macro the profession. Sooner or later, people will find ways to circumwent any limit in the game through cheats, exploits, macros or third party tools. So this was bound to happen as it did in any other MMORPG I have played. However, the reaction from the DEVs was non-existant. They tolerated this behaviour. They even made it legal.

With this non-reaction, I think they showed they simply don't care for us. The beta phase is over, their girlfriends don't play any longer. What was that profession again ?

An excellent well thought out post posing some fundamental quesstions that we all need to give some serious thought to (devs included).

Personally I think our next question if Panthu doesn't get permission to post the comments from the Correspondent forum has to be asking the devs to define the role of entertainers in SWG as they see it. Both from the start of the game, now, and in the future. Only then can we really focus our discussion and ideas on something that may stand a chance of addressing the real issue behind all of our requets which is more fun gameplay and as you say a PROTECTED role within game.

If we lost entertainer I'd be devastated as it is one experiment I've loved being a part of (as evidenced by the band). For the most part I think part of the reason entertainers are resented is that they are not there when needed by the patron. Although removing buffbots would initially cause an uproar, ultimately this might attract more real entertainers to the profession so there would be a higher chance of a real entertainer being available when the patron needs it. A little damage control will be needed I think, but the ultimate result could be worth it if it revitalised our profession and returned it to being valued by the masses.

For my own part, Being both Master Dancer and soon, a Master Pistoleer, I've been seeing 'The Dev's hate us' on both profession boards I tend to go to. I'm all kinds of in favor of a question to the developers concerning a definition of our role in the game. The Pistoleers have pretty much come to this conclusion too, as they seem to have been the most ignored ranged combat profession since rollout. The thread in which they discuss this can be found here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pistoleer&message.id=49051

I'm yet another Dancer that's stuck it out, but has flagging hopes. The most frustrating thing is that being an innately social profession, interaction is the beating heart of the concept. Yet we seem to have no true interaction with the people running the game. This has GOT to be fixed. And in order to do it, we need to get some interaction with the devs going on so we can encourage some understanding.

"God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players (IE: Everybody), to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."
-from 'Good Omens' by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

From the state of the game and as a Master dancer involved in the GCW, I can say that SOE doesn't appear to care about any profession other than Jedi atm. The quest to become one is what turned the thriving communities of November into the wastelands of today.

Dancers have been wounded by the grinding, in the one way that cannot be developer helped, which is our social interaction in the game, which is only aggirvated by the endless spam and afk macors of those that treat it as a grind to be dumped ASAP.Most players no longer have a concept that a dancer should even be a living player any more and we've become little more than a necessary spamming session, in their eyes.

This doesn't give SOE an excuse to nerf us or fail to fix the functions that do not work.The current inability to speed buff and the loss of dancer musician teams to simo buff is nothing less than a sick joke to those of us that have been in this class for months.

We are ignored because this game has become a poor version of jedi academy and SOE can't grasp that some people might actually enjoy playing a profession rather than just grinding it. Some of us even looked forward to the day we didn't have to go for experence any more.

My experience with being a Master pistoleer as well, is this. Prepared to be lied to while they do anything for the new jedi. I've been fed the combat balance line since November on the pistoleer issue. Any promises made to dancers are probably on the same time table. While jedi are looking at yet another content change with the loss of perma death, the new system, more choices, a new damage type just for them, armored robes, new composite rules redone after they complained, and more jedi powers, we dancers can expect our profession to be fixed shortly before 2010...

Lord knows that for quite a while I wason these boardswith a few others that kept saying "Keep your chin up" and "Things will get better" and "See? Hutt Casino! We're getting things! "

However, I have to admit that I'm at my lowest point now. Seeing as how TH's response to our question not only said "No, not now" but also gave a reason that was completely wrong, I can't help but feel at a loss for the entertainer professions.

First, let's look at the obvious. I've been on these boards for a very long time. I'm not someone who started playing since beta, but I've been around. And I have yet to see ANY red name tags post on these boards. Not a single one. Even a message of "We hear you" would be enough to lift my spirits.

Second, I'm not being the least be hopeful that the AFK macroing will be dealt with. Why would they? Not only are we waiting around for the devs to make the entertainer professions better and thereby getting our $15 a month, but they're getting $15 a month from people with a second account for the sole reason of having a buff bot! If they kill AFK macroing, they kill all that extra income.

Please please PLEASE don't get me wrong. I LOVE being a dancer, and have even been considering dropping some of my combat and CH skills to also be a musician as well. But let's face it, this is a combat game. They'll deal with the loudest voice, and right now the entertainers aren't it. In fact, our numbers are dwindling fast.

Anyway, I'd like to also applaude Deila on this post. Exceptionally well written and constructiveand, as stated, straight to the point. I'm sorry if my post is way too negative, but I just felt I had to lay out my feelings on this subject. Hopefully I was able to add to this brilliant discussion.

Hi folks.

I'm a musician, not a dancer, but I found this thread to be very well thought out and a constructive way to lay out the issues that affect all entertainers.

My only fear is, if the question is asked "how are entertainers meant to fit into the Star Wars Galaxy, and what is the Devs' vision of our profession?" - the only answer we'd get would be as tremendously vague and disappointing as the last set of answers. The answers would be:

"A lot of things will change with the combat revamp. Stay tuned."

-or-

"After JTL, we'll take a look at things."

The Devs are currently in a unique position to completely forsake the player base for the almighty Jump to Lightspeed. Expect no less, we're most definitely not the priority. We - meaning the current SWG playerbase, not just entertainers. Let us not delude ourselves, our money is going to a game we're not even playing.

Expect no kind of changes, band aid or otherwise, for 6 months to a year.

How does that make you feel? Makes me pretty sad I just started another account for a) more storage and b) to have a Master Entertainer band member, just so I can play a Mandoviol. More money for Jump to Lightspeed.

To get people interested in playing the profession it needs to be a hell of a lot more interesting to play. Content.

An interactive dance system. A healing system that an entertainer would actively initiate instead of passively. Solo mission content that is both profitable and challenging. More rewards for the people that need to watch the dances. Forcing down time is not an answer or a way to help cement the dancer role in the game... People that watch should get a sizable reward for investing time in watching.. This was the intention of mind buffs. Adding the chef buffs that did the same but faster and less time intensive wasted this possible avenue. A better dancer given onlyreward is needed.

My idea was a VIP card could give to entertainers, and the entertainer would "punch" it. This would encourage favorites entertainers, and people who watched could turn in these cards after so many "punches" and get some loot. Something good, obviously. Not like a CDEF rifle or something.

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Panthu wrote:

Ok, I'm necroing this thread and reposting in the Corr Forum!

Watch out people! Panthu is fired up!!

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YOU GO GIRLIE!