Dancer Archive
Thread: There's nothing wrong with dancers asking for tips!
I don't mind afkers, and I'm ambivalent about tip reminders. On the one hand,it ain't me, and it ain't my business- but when joe blow next to me is oh so sweetly reminding my patrons that I'm not actually just this friendly and nice, that in the end I have an ulterior motive, my casual tippers go way, way down. But my regular boys tend to make up the difference as since I actually talk to them and know them, they know my woes, lol. I have never and will never practice tip reminding, mostly because I am actually interested in GETTING tips. I don't care philosophically about whether a waitress should smile or whether a busker should be coy with his hat - in the end, I just care what works, and tip reminders don't.
You can take that any way you like it, in the end, I know I just saved up enough for a PA hall in two weeks on tips alone. I think I might be on the right track.
Sylune is dead on target. Spamming your cantina for tips will p*ss off just as many people as it will encourage to tip you. If you really want to make a little spending cash in your chosen profession, be creative, avoid the use of the word "tip", and try actually interacting with your customers.
Be aware that if you are spamming for tips, you may also get on the nerves of the other entertainers...which means they can put you on their ignore list and won't hear you when you want training.
Beery wrote:The problem is that in this game, dancers' only access to the kind of money that other professions get is through tipping, and if we don't ask, we don't get tips. It's as simple as that.
If it's as simple as that, how come my little Twi'lek entertainer on Naritus has gotten over 20K in tips in the last 2 weeks, without ONCE asking for a tip?
Here are the things that, in my experience, have led to getting good tips:
- Chatting and being friendly with customers. Entertaining them. This is the surest way to get big tips.
- When another dancer gripes about tips, having my character say, "Well, I am not in it for the money. I am in it for the love of dancing. When I hear music as good as this, I just HAVE to dance." (Or something approximately equivalent). This always has led to a HUGE tip every time she has said it.
- Telling someone who suggests she does something that costs money (e.g. buy a Lekku wrap, go to another planet) "Well, I can't really afford that right now, but maybe some day." They realize she is a poor entertainer and they give a bigger tip.
- Being AT KEYBOARD... I have had more than one player give a HUGE tip and say, "You get it all since everyone else is AFK."
You might get more tips because you ask, and if you do and don't mind getting them that way, good for you. I don't care about the amount of tippage because, as I said, I am roleplaying a character, and that character will not beg. She is not in it for the money any more than I am in the Dancing biz for "l33t l3wt" or grinding xp. I'm in it because I love playing her. Just like she's in it because she loves it.
C
I for one will kick out anyone spamming for tips. Its crude and crass and my regulars get turned off by it. "My" group usually has at least 4 masters in it so there is an incentive not to lose that xp.
As said above, the best way to get tips is to be there and interact. If you are in it for the tips you are in the wrong profession.
I guess my point is this...if you want to sit in coronet and race for the few tips out there that's fine. But for those of us who think there is more to the game...make dancing worth while and make it a profession (which means a way to support yourself).
Eljer wrote:
some of us don't believe in the exotic roleplaying, some of us don't think you should be essentially feeling people up just to get a tip.
I don't think it's fair to characterize everyone who says "hello" to people who walk in this way. My character is not exotic, and does not do sexual things while dancing, but she steel says, "Hello and welcome to the cantina," (or something like that) when she sees people walk in. She views this (as I do) as common courtesy.
C
Now, I'm busily building up a Brawler/Marksman.. and now I have this to say.
You people who run in, get healed for a hundred battle fatigue, then take off with no tip, or 50-100 credits? Kiss it.
Inbetween trips to the cantina today I made an easy 20k. Tithing 10% to your healers is NOT unreasonable. Thats 1k to the Dancer and 1k to the Doctor.. or maybe 750 and 1250, since Docs have more expenses and trouble involved.
You come in, tip me 50 credits? I'm going to be insulted, to be honest.
I had a guy come in one night, while I was the only entertainer present on Corellia. He asked where all the dancers were. I was doing something else at the time, so I hadn't been dancing. He had a big ol' chunk missing out of his M bar, so I got up, started the dancing up, and interacted and RPed. Whats he do? Toss fifty credits and takes off. Piece of my mind went his way.
Tip your dancers. Don't be cheap. If all you have is a couple hundred credits, don't worry.. But if you're just being cheap so you can buy that new whatsis with ONE LESS destroy mission - Tip your dancers. What do you do if we all get fed up and quit dancing and playing? Obviously, its not being sufficient, or such threads wouldn't continuously be popping up!
My lack of tips is something of a running joke for me. I don't expect anything from anyone, since most people are just cheap, oblivious or somehow afraid of looking "gay" or something if they tip the male dancer who has just healed all their mind wounds. Having said that, there are consistently good tippers out there (Atock, Primo, et al) who help me stay afloat. People tipping 500cr or 1000cr are few and far between for me, but I appreciate them very much. Even the 50cr tips get a 'thank you,' since at least they went to the trouble of remembering it.
The main thing that bugs me, really, is that I can't afford to give more tips to the medics who hang out in the cantina and keep me dancing. I usually -lose- money by dancing, since I end up tipping my couple of medics more than the dozens of people who I heal give me. I like to take care of those who take care of me.
Just gives me a reason to get outside and shoot some people. 
So I logged in and happened to be in the cantina. I noticed it was a little quiet. I wandered into the main room, near the front door, and to my utter surprise, there were 3 or 4 fighter types there but not one single entertainer. Nobody AFK. Nobody dancing. Nobody playing music. The people there had some large chunks out of their HAM bars and were probably looking to heal.
Now normally I don't keep any titles on my PC (I think that ruins RP), but when you log in, the stupid game automatically re-puts them there. So they could see I was an "apprentice dancer" I guess. Anyway, all 3 or 4 of them said, "Can you entertain us please? We're desperate."
I was not planning to do this... I was still pretty far from Novice Dance and wasn't planning to try levelling it just then. But, they needed healing, and like a medic healing is one of our (entertainers) jobs. So I said, "OK, but it'll have to be a dance without music," since while I know some music, Dejah is primarily a dancer and in any case, if I was going to go out of my way to heal when I wasn't planning on it, I figured I'd at least grind some XP while I was at it to get closer to Dancer.
So I started dancing and several more fighters came in. I guess there was a big ol' PVP war going on outside. People were coming in to heal but there were no other entertainers. So they all sat and watched me do Formal. Everyone was grateful and thanked me. Then another 2 novice entertainers came in. One played music, the other danced basic for them, and the healing zoomed by, I guess. One of them had some medic skills and even though he was healed up himself, he stayed and healed us in action so we could keep healing BF and mind wounds on everyone else.
They all tipped, and tipped generously. Most 500-1000 cr, a few 100-200. I made 6000 cr in 1 hour. That's the most I've ever made that fast.
Not once did I or the other 2 entertainers who joined me ask for a tip. Not once. I thanked everyone who tipped me. A couple of people tipped and ran but I sent them a /tell to thank them anyway... both of them /replied things like, "No, thank YOU. I needed the heal." One guy came in with 474 BF. Sat there a while healing. Tipped us 500 cr each and said, "I wish I had more. You guys rock."
So... to the people who think you have to ask to get tipped... no, you don't. Sure there are some people who take us for granted, but there are just as many who appreciate what we do, and recognize that they need us to keep doing their job.
C
Asking for tips may get you some, but asking for tips makes the tippee feel forced to tip and anyone who feels forced to tip will do so grudgingly and normally for a lesser amount. You will also run off a large number of potential tips as many many patrons have stated that they won't tip the people that spam for them.
The waitress analogy was off. In RL how much would you tip a waitress that after plonking your food down looked at you with outstreched hand and said tip me, and kept doing that until you gave them a tip? While I might give them a tip in order to get them out of my face it would be a small one and not my normal 20%. If I encountered that type of behavior often it would remove my desire to enteract with waitresses in general and I would start cooking for myself (learn novice ent).
Spamming for tips hurts not only you but the rest of the entertainment community. I don't group with tip spammers nor do my non dancers tip on command.
Beery wrote:I rarely get tips if I don't ask. When I do ask I'm usually given a couple of medium-sized tips right away. They may give grudgingly when asked, but if they're not asked they generally don't give at all.
Clearly, our experiences are diametrically opposed. I kept track today. I played a lot... Probably spent about 4 hours total dancing. I made about 9K in tips. Never once asked for a tip.
It's hard to keep track in a crowded cantina but Keren's on my server is pretty quiet most of the time. During the evening I danced there for several hours. There were only 2 or 3 patrons at a time if that, so I could track who tipped and who didn't. Tips ranged from 50 to 1000. Most were around 100-500, tending to the lower end of that range. I tracked who tipped and who didn't. Over 50% of people tipped me (21 of 36). Most of them tipped lowish amounts (100 or so) but gave equally to the entire band (so they gave a total of 500 or so in tips, but spread it around, in most cases).
Nobody asked for a tip all night. 50%+ of people tipped. That's my experience.
You ask for tips and claim only 1% tip you.
Are you still trying to tell me that asking for tips doesn't tick people off to the point where they won't tip?
Something does not gel with these numbers...
C