Dancer Archive

As an entertainer I feel afk/macro should be stopped. It can be implemented atleast via public cantinas. You can make a bathroom/kitchen run while regenerating or just plain sitting your bootie down. If I am group leader I will not keep someone in group who goes afk for more than 15=20 min. If you have other issues going on that take longer either log or sit down. Why tip anyone when ppl can come watch afk person..get healed and can leave not feeling guilty regarding no tip?

Plus so many dont just macro flourishes afk they also macro annoying ignorant messages every 5 secs for tips/watch me for exp etc.Those who macro so they may converse more easily I have respect for....those others well enough said. What honor is there in having master if your pc did all the work while you slept?

Not a popular response I know but SOE could prevent afk/macro in public cantina and I feel they should.

"What honor is there in having master if your pc did all the work while you slept?"

This is the crux of the matter. Sure, AFKers make the group XP, and if their macro is good, they heal as well as(andoften better than) those who are there in person who don't use macros. But the realissue hereis one of honour. If the character does all the work while the player sleeps, any experience gained is gained dishonourably. That might not make much difference to the few people whose only care is winning at any cost, but for most people how you play the game is at least as important as winning.

I have a macro, and I freely admit that I've used it for long periods (6 to 8 hours)on a couple of occasions.But after one or two long AFK periods, it just began to feel like I was cheating, and soI haven't done it since. Now I still use the macro, because it's a goodway to maximize efficiency while allowing me to greet customers and talk to the other entertainers, but when my character is dancing, I'm always there - it just feels right to be there to experience the work being done. The mechanics of it are the same, but it feels more healthy in a psychologicalsense.

"Not a popular response I know but SOE could prevent afk/macro in public cantina and I feel they should."

The problem with that is that it would make the entertainer professions extremely tedious, and it would curb efficiency while making that part of the game less realistic. The problem is not with macros per-se. The problem is how they are used. There's nothing wrong with a player using a macro if the player is present while he or she is using it.

Here's my solution:

1. Limit entertainment macros to 25 commands - that's more than enough to allow theentertainer to work through the flourishes with pauses and tothrow in a couple of effects.

2. As mentioned in an earlier post, no specificstartdance command. Players shouldn't be able to loop a dance macro infinitely.

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Beery wrote:

That might not make much difference to the few people whose only care is winning at any cost, but for most people how you play the game is at least as important as winning.

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I can only shake my head at people who think this way.

Duh. * knock on head of idiot who wants to win at all costs * Wake up. This is a roleplaying game. Nobody wins in a roleplaying game, in the conventional sense. If the roleplaying is good and fun, then everyone "wins." If it sucks, then everyone "loses." You can't "beat" other players in an RPG -- not even one that features PVP like this one. Your character can beat their character, but if the roleplay is good throughout, both players win.

And no, this is not some "touchy-feely carebear" attitude. It is the reality of the roleplaying game. Some of these people ought to go find an old copy of Champions, 4th edition (aka. the "big blue book") and read the first section in the book, entitled, "What is a roleplaying game?" It's all explained there in black and white at about a 6th grade reading level, so maybe these imbeciles would get the point. Yeesh.

Note, Beery, I was not saying this about you... but rather about the idiots who think the game is about "winning" in the conventional "I beat you at Monopoly" sense.

C

Chessak Said:

I can only shake my head at people who think this way.

Duh. * knock on head of idiot who wants to win at all costs * Wake up. This is a roleplaying game. Nobody wins in a roleplaying game, in the conventional sense. If the roleplaying is good and fun, then everyone "wins." If it sucks, then everyone "loses." You can't "beat" other players in an RPG -- not even one that features PVP like this one. Your character can beat their character, but if the roleplay is good throughout, both players win.

My response:

There is indeed "winning" in an RPG for many people. "Winning" is having the nicest or the best or the most or the highest. It's not direct competition, no... but there's a Real Life saying... "It's all about the Jones's" The "Jones's" being the neighbor who just bought a big SUV, so you have to run out and buy a bigger one. Having the the biggest SUV on the block is all that matters. Or the nicest house. Or the best country-club membership.

A "Master" title is important to some people. To me, it means gaining access to the skills listed under that title. (Some Masteries aren't worth it, IMHO... like Entertainer Mastery. The Skill Point cost to fill 4 disciplines vs. the benefits gained are personally not worth it to me).

No.. there's no medal ceremony at the end.. in an RPG, there really isn't an "end", unless the game is closed up after many years. But some people gain a sense of satisfaction from having a title. Go figure!

Lorilei

P.S. Most of the best Master Dancers I've met don't wear the title. They use one of the other Dancer titles... Captivator or Enthraller or Choreographer.

So many people that I used to dance for while dancing for hours in the cantina are constantly giving me /tells asking me if I will be dancing in the cantina. I am working my way through tailor now, although I will try and dance in the cantina at least once a day. But once the AFKers show up, I am out of there.

Sometimes, if I am around the cantina, I will go in there and dance for the person. Other times I am too busy doing harvester runs and I feel bad that I can' t help them.

I was thinking about telling people that they can always just stop by my house too, and I can dance for them there, but does that seem too whorish? Like I could be a BF and mind wound call girl. hehe. I was thinking about putting some sort of thing next to my vendor that would say, "give me a /tell if you need mind and battlef atigue healing".

The people I used to dance for hate the LAMErs. For some of them, it never used to bother them, but now that the cantinas are full of them, they are starting to see the light about how bad it is and miss those of us who used to actually entertain!

I AFK macro because quite frankly, I love the game, but I do not have time to be playing it constantly. I work 5 days a week, don't get home until 7-8PM, and do NOT feel like getting on the computer after sitting in front of one all day.I do, however, have respect for the RP's in the cantina, and I go off by myself way in a back corner/room where nobody goes and dance away. So I'm not sitting in the middle of everything just being annoying and taking away from the other players. Plus my macro doesn't last that long because he ends up getting tired and stops dancing. When I am up in the middle of things, especially where healing is concerned, you can be sure that I'm right there behind my char RPing.

I feel for you, Blaine. (And I'm not being sarcastic).

I, myself, have LAME'd out of sight as a means to somewhat accelerate my progress.I have since cut way back on this, because I have the ability to play 3-10 hours per day, if I choose, and have found myself wondering how much I'll enjoy being a Master Dancer without any goals to work for.

I am not very much against LAMEing somewhere out of the way. It's a slow way to LAME, with the lack of stims from medics, and not gaining any group experience at all, but it's still faster than not LAMEing.

I'd like to share something with you... I always /tip for training. I know that most people don't expect it... and many are needing the Apprenticeship points. Some /tip it back to me, and that's their choice... but I feel that we don't really appreciate what we get for free. If you want something, paying for it helps you value it that much more, whether the payment is in money, or in time and effort. Those who have achieved Master Dancer or Master Musician while at the keyboard have every right to be proud of their accomplishment.

Those who Master in Dancer or Musician by LAMEing have a false pride in the appearance of having accomplished something.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't LAME, Blaine... but I do know that even if it takes you a year as a casual player, when you finally get that odd crashing sound and music and that system message indicating that you have qualified yourself for the last of your disciplines (and you should have enough App Points by then to get Master immediately)... you'll want to go out and celebrate. It'll feel really, really good. The LAMErs don't know what they're missing.

Lorilei

Speaking of paying, I neglected to mention the purchase of a $2500 computer just so I could play the game.

Ok, it wasn't _just_, but it was definitely the deciding factor. (I first got addicted watching my S.O. play for hours, and decided to get it for myself. Ran out, bought the game, and a cable splitter so my bro wouldn't freak out about sharing the 'net, got home, andthe gamedecided that my processor didn't exist. AFTER registering and all. Took about five minutes of internal debate: "well, the floppy drive's busted, the burner never worked, and I would love something a bit faster and less likely to crash when I have Painter, Photoshop,cuteFTPand IE open all at once...")

So I would have to say there's definitely dedication here.

Well, speaking of paying, I neglected to mention the purchase of a $2500 computer just so I could play the game.

Well, not _just_, but it was definitely the deciding factor. (Got hooked watching S.O. play for hours, bought the game and a cable splitter so my bro wouldn't freak out and we can both be on the 'net, installed and registered and got a subscription, downloaded all the patches, hit "play" and the game decided my processor ceased to exist. Took about five minutes of internal debate: "well, the floppy's busted and the burner never worked and I'd like to have something that's less likely to crash when I've got Painter, Photoshop, cuteFTP and IE open all at once...")

So I'm fairly certain I'm not lacking in the dedication department. And I will be JUST as psyched as anybody else when I finally reach my goals.

The heck. when I hit "submit post" the first time, it took me to a completely random thread so I made my way back here and hit refresh, and my post wasn't there... so I retyped it and now they're both there. sorry.

To stop AFK-ers profiting when they're AFK, why not simply institute a /sit command when a player has been AFK for more than 5 minutes?

Actually, that wouldn't work. You'd need a /dump command along with it.