Dancer Archive

Thread: An end to the plague but-

Tiaga
Tue Aug 03, 2004 3:57 am
#14


Vlnyard04 wrote:
So what is my course of action than.. I have no choice to go to a buff bot...





Ignoring the part about needing buffs...

Have you ever tried searching? The "Search" tab under community...

Do you gnow entertainers and have them on your friends list so you can get in touch with? If not why not? I bet you have waypoints to your favorite weapon or armor shop on your datapad..

A lot of entertainers don't bother trying to compete with the buff-bots, because it's impossible. Buff-bots provide a level of service (Ignoring the interaction) that live players can not compete with. If you seek them out, however, they are out there. You might also check if there is an entertainer channel on your server.

Message Edited by Tiaga on 08-03-2004 04:00 AM



Inside my heart is breaking, my make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on
My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies
Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die
I can fly - my friends
SWG Entertainer.com Fashions by TK

Xyrdre
Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:25 am
#15






Coreena wrote:


The key is "ask politely". Don't command your dancer, they provide a service YOU want. It makes a BIIIIG difference if you end your sentence with a ! or a ?... A "Hey, could you perhaps come to Dathomir to buff me and my group?" is a lot nicer and needs about 10 keystrokes more... Perhaps even throw a "please" in at the end...


I'm playing this game to have fun, i'm not an NPC to be commanded around, so if you treat my like one, be prepared I react to you like a mindless bot... like in not react to you at all...






Yup. Yup yup. This is usually what makes the difference between whether I'm buffing or not. Hell, or even dancing or not.


Basic civilized behavior goes a long way with me. I've been known to give 20 minute lectures to abrasive louts who walk up to me while I'mshopping on vendors and say "Dance."


Look... our skills may be "service industry", but that doesn't mean that we don't have a right to dignity. Piss me off, you'll still be looking for buffs. Show some respect, and I've traveled several planets to help. Not such a difficult concept.





Deila Karlossi , Blue Glowie of Dancers, and become more powerful than you could possibly imagine...
Dreamland
Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:07 am
#16







Amida_Enterprises wrote:

dreamland, you are missing the point hun


We are getting respect from the group of players that appreciates live entertainment, but if we stay in groupchat and can't be bothered to do our jobs then what are we doing ? We are setting the stage for people to stop trusting in our services.


I've seen how the cheff buffs work and frankly was not impressed.. sure, you get a mindbuff without having to look for someone but have you seen what happens when it runs out ? màjor bummer.. puking all over, health goes bye bye.. I think the cheffs are overdoing it with the spices /grin


another alternative is brandy, which is better.. but the point was that people appreciating us DO look for us but that we make it kind of impossible at the moment for them to retain the faith!


It'll get better after the recursives are taken out no doubt.. still I think the people who want to play the game it was meant to be played before this is gonna happen have to be pampered, not lectured or ignored..







Ok first off what are you talking about, noone ever puked all over once from any chef food, the chef foods have no ill effects you just take another when it runs out,Smuggler spiceshave ill effects yes but you can't even give them away anymore. In fact brandy is exactly whatI was talking about in my entire post so its clear to me you only skimmed it and didnt even bother to read it.



And no we dont make it impossible at the moment,I spent all my playtime offering dance buffs on dantooine yesterday till the buffbots set up shop. Back when the hologrind first started i was in the midst of doing tka, and there was no such thing as mind food or buffbots, and i got mind buffs without too much trouble at all then, even in the midst of the rediculous anarchy of hologrinding entertainers. In fact in the time i spent at dantooine mining outpost there were more live entertainers there than myself available to buff.



You know what there isn't always a Doctor available to buff either, particulairly on the less populated servers. So why areentertainers so at fault for not being always available? Ill tell you why, because people have been conditioned to expect free 24/7 access to them simple as that. Its the way it is when your dealing with live players, there will be times when you cannot find one to offer the service you want, and people better get used to it. Thats where interaction comes into play as one of the other posters mentioned above, add people to your friends list, make connections with them. If you know severalentertainers that buff and make friends with them it's no problem to ask a friend for buffs. Doctors dont like being made into an object either, if you ask them they will tell countless horror storries of people just expecting them to serve, and i didn't become a dancer to "serve" people either. I enjoy it for interacting with fellow entertainers, and yes i get something from helping a polite customer out with a mind buff, thats why i do it. Were never going to be available around the clock though and i don't think we should be expected to.



I know what your point is, and my point was that there are alternatives to mind buffs, its not some calamity inducing incident that totaly stops someones ability to play the game because they can't get them, as many people are trying to make it out to be.




Message Edited by Dreamland on 08-03-2004 09:25 AM

Message Edited by Dreamland on 08-03-2004 09:29 AM

Reachwind
Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:27 am
#17

Quite frankly there are not enough ATK playedentertainers on some servers to even heal the BF of players without AFKers aside from during primetime. A year of no needed improvements, the transition to the playerbase becoming buff bot junkies and constant mistreatment of the players who enjoyed the social play style have left most servers without real entertainers.


I don't see how this change will work at present. They need to offer more incentives to become an entertainer for the regular player and not just the social type. A couple of easy to implement ideas would be;



  • Higher payouts on dance missions as you increase skill. (If dance missions paid like combat missions then people would be dancing their asses off - especially those of us who get bored with combat as it is.)

  • Increased defensive abilities. (if dancer gave the defenses of say fencer for example there would be a million dancers).

  • The ability to self buff. This one alone would encourage a lot of people to pick up the skill in an age of no buff bots.

I still don't forsee the removal of recursive macros saving the profession but I hope I am wrong.

Dreamland
Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:31 am
#18






Reachwind wrote:

Quite frankly there are not enough ATK playedentertainers on some servers to even heal the BF of players without AFKers aside from during primetime. A year of no needed improvements, the transition to the playerbase becoming buff bot junkies and constant mistreatment of the players who enjoyed the social play style have left most servers without real entertainers.





If you read thunderhearts followup post hes already stated that concessions have to be made to help people get healed in off peak hours.


Hopefuly this change will atract more entertainers to the profession and those concessions will be no longer a necessity in the future.

Message Edited by Dreamland on 08-03-2004 09:33 AM

Sigrun
Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:14 am
#19






Amida_Enterprises wrote:

Now it will be up to us to prove the change is for the better!


This means we will have to be approachable and willing to buff ppl who ask for this politely and are willing to tip for this.


This means that excuses like 'the spatial is a spamming ground' or 'why bother, the buffbot is dancing' will no longer apply!


In short, we'll have to repay the kindness visited on our profession by fully being supportive of the community that needs us.


A friend of mine was online for over 2 hours before he was able to get a buff, and that was on dathomir from a buffbot, his last resort. I can feel his frustration when he told me: the next person I hear whining about buffbots is gonna get a few new scars mighty quick'


Had anyone been atk ànd watchfull of the cantina they'd have made money, but nooo, it's easier to post in the forums how bad we all have it and how hard it is to earn a buck. this was in corolag cantina so not exactly a small backwater cantina, too..


Not saying this is true every day, nor in every cantina. just saying this will have to change if we are to keep the changes to the macro system.


I'm not without blame, I had also given up on buffing pretty much but when this change is implemented I will do my darnest best to do what we are meant to be doing! dance and be entertaining, while giving ppl more of a fighting chance..






The solution is right there in your own words. Don't let an (AFK) flag above someone's head scare you out of a cantina. Go there anyway. Buff people anyway.


Some people won't talk to you, but oh well. They're not going to talk anyway.


But people will definitely use your services. Most people I talk to ingame and on the forums prefer to deal with "live" entertainers, and they'll pick one over a buff-bot every time that one is available.


The rest are anti-social and this won't change their behavior one bit.


Solve the problem yourselves. Go back to the cantinas and entertain. You don't need any code change to do that. You just need to not give up.




Ingame Names: Sif @ Bria, Chilastra, Flurry, Naritus, Starsider | Hiordis @ Kettemoor | Freya @ Tempest
Quotable: It's pretty freaking underwhelming when the story turns out to be you, alone, in a field, for two weeks, punching toads. | At least SOE lasted a year before they went Turbine on us.
Tiaga
Tue Aug 03, 2004 1:30 pm
#20



Vlnyard04 wrote:


Tiaga wrote:
Have you ever tried searching? The "Search" tab under community...

Do you gnow entertainers and have them on your friends list so you can get in touch with?

Message Edited by Tiaga on 08-03-2004 04:00 AM


To answer you question Tiaga yes I do as much as possible add entertainers to my friends list . Like I've told just about anyone who will listen I always try and deal with players and not afk'ers. Personally I don't understand why you wanna log on the game just to go afk. I am also fairly new at this game and only been playing a lil over a month so maybe I don't know nearly enough ppl. I dunno.

This is obviously a touchy subject with ppl, judging from the responses and there are a few things I'd like to reply, but I'm not gonna start a flame war. It's a game bottom line. No matter what point is made everyone will play the way they feel it should be played so there's no point in continuing this, at least as far as I can see. Wishing everyone good luck, have fun in the game be safe and happy hunting/entertaining. Pls don't quote me anymore as I won't be joining in on this discussion anymore thx





Unfortunately there is really no way to tell how available buffs will be after. See, a lot of masters just don't go to the cantina to buff. With the bots, theres no point. You may prefer live entertainers. A lot of players give at least lip service to live entertainers. But in the end, the majority head strait for the bot. The bots provide a level of service no live entertainer can match, and trying to compete is just asking for frustration. As a result, most entertainers I know hardly ever go to the cantina.

I'm starting to see that change, at least on my server.



Inside my heart is breaking, my make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on
My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies
Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die
I can fly - my friends
SWG Entertainer.com Fashions by TK

HalasterTheBlack
Tue Aug 03, 2004 1:38 pm
#21






picklesSW wrote:
"Solve the problem yourselves. Go back to the cantinas and entertain. You don't need any code change to do that. You just need to not give up."

Before asking anyone to do that, try walking a mile in our shoes. Pick up a slitherhorn, go to Coronet, stay at the keyboard, try to be social and make a living, and see how well you do with the constant spam, the buffbots, the people dancing on top of you, the crowding near the door and the horribly anti-social atmosphere that has been created. Let us know how much you enjoy your stay there.






I avoid Coronet like the plague. Too populated.


I did that in Theed though. And in Moenia. And then *gasp* I went to the adventure planets. There, I found the rare AFK entertainer, and bunches and bunches of tired, battle fatigued adventurers falling all over themselves to pay me to help ease their tired minds.


And... again *gasp*... they talked to me while I danced for them!


Walk a mile in your shoes? I did. It's not all that bad if you don't allow yourself to be offended by the text, "(AFK)".


How about YOU walk a mile in MY shoes now? Go get 900 BF at 1:00am PST and see how long you spend finding an ATK entertainer to heal that up so you can defeat someting touger than a gnort again. Let me know how much you enjoy the quality down-time.


Then go master Weaponsmith without using the /macro or /ui action toolbarSlotXX commands. If you're ona server that I play, I'll even buy you the resources just to watch you do it. Let me know how much you enjoy the mind-numbing clicking.


(Sigrun == me, too lazy to change accounts).

Message Edited by HalasterTheBlack on 08-03-2004 04:50 PM




Sif | Sigrún | Zondor | Gorgeth | -=Valkyrie Materials=- & [Valkyrie] Weapons
North Coronet Mall (244, -3540) - Weapons
South Coronet Mall (-100, -5760) - Resources

Theed, Naboo (-4370, 3425) - Powerups
Weesa pleased to bringya desa news dat mesa, JarJar, isa now da SOE Lead Producer.

Drygo
Tue Aug 03, 2004 3:26 pm
#22


Double post...something weird happened.

Message Edited by Drygo on 08-03-2004 03:30 PM



- I support hawtpants
Vlnyard04
Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:11 am
#23






Tiaga wrote:

Have you ever tried searching? The "Search" tab under community...

Do you gnow entertainers and have them on your friends list so you can get in touch with?

Message Edited by Tiaga on 08-03-2004 04:00 AM




To answer you question Tiaga yes I do as much as possible add entertainers to my friends list . Like I've told just about anyone who will listen I always try and deal with players and not afk'ers. Personally I don't understand why you wanna log on the game just to go afk. I am also fairly new at this game and only been playing a lil over a month so maybe I don't know nearly enough ppl. I dunno.


This is obviously a touchy subject with ppl, judging from the responses and there are a few things I'd like to reply, but I'm not gonna start a flame war. It's a game bottom line. No matter what point is made everyone will play the way they feel it should be played so there's no point in continuing this, at least as far as I can see. Wishing everyone good luck, have fun in the game be safe and happy hunting/entertaining. Pls don't quote me anymore as I won't be joining in on this discussion anymore thx


picklesSW
Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:24 am
#24

"Solve the problem yourselves. Go back to the cantinas and entertain. You don't need any code change to do that. You just need to not give up."

Before asking anyone to do that, try walking a mile in our shoes. Pick up a slitherhorn, go to Coronet, stay at the keyboard, try to be social and make a living, and see how well you do with the constant spam, the buffbots, the people dancing on top of you, the crowding near the door and the horribly anti-social atmosphere that has been created. Let us know how much you enjoy your stay there.




Rubicon49BC
Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:58 am
#25

I have a buffbot myself on one account and I will gladly retire her if I am confident enough that I can find mindbuffs at the times I play at.


With the end of the hologrind in sight, it should become clearly apparent how many entertainers are buffbots, who are AFK-hologrinders and who are actually ATK.


A few issues remain of course:

- Will there be enough entertainers to fill the gap of the buffbot? Also on irregular hours?

- And will the entertainers be willing to buff? I originally made my buffbot not because I saw a lack of entertainers, but because I saw a lack of entertainers actually dignifying me with answering a question or acknowledging my existance. And yes, I am always polite.

- One issue which remains very problematic I fear is that entertainers will be at places where there are a lot of people to keep them company, which is not usually the place where many of the combat people hang out. And with Player cantinas, the number of places for an entertainer has multiplied, but there are in most of the more remote places not enough people to keep them company. Perhaps one small contribution might be to restrict cantina's only to metropolis player cities, so that there is not so much dispersion of entertainers and customers...






Colonel Malachon Draco, Imperial Army
Commander of The Imperial Order
Starsider
Sigrun
Wed Aug 04, 2004 6:35 am
#26






Drygo wrote:


I am so so tired of people making the statement, "if you only tried hard enough." Please. I have tried, and I've tried very hard. I repeatedly have tried to compete with the buffbots, only to literally waste hours upon hours of my time because I couldn't get but one or two stray customers. You will never convince me that if only I try hard enough. It's insulting and implies that I don't know what I'm doing or how to play my profession, which is so far from the truth that it's not even funny. I will *not* be in a Cantina trying to sell buffs if there is a buffbot there. Why the hell should I waste four hours of my time on perhaps two customers?





Sorry, you might, in fact, need to try harder.


Just the other day, I was spinning through Theed... on Kettemoor, I think... and I spotted a throng of blue dots (I'm neutral - they're all blue)over by the fountain. Curious, I sprinted over there (is there any other way to move in this game?) to see what's doing.


Well, what was doing was about half a dozen bots throwing effects all over the place for about a dozen musicians and dancers doing their thing. And around that group of entertainers was... *gasp*... a bunch of people watching them, cheering them on, generally having a grand old time.


There was no spam that one typically sees coming from AFK dancer-bots. There weren't even any (AFK) flags flying overhead.


Just a group of entertainers and their audience, having a damn fine time.


All of this during a time when the controls still exist to create looping macros.


Hmm.




Ingame Names: Sif @ Bria, Chilastra, Flurry, Naritus, Starsider | Hiordis @ Kettemoor | Freya @ Tempest
Quotable: It's pretty freaking underwhelming when the story turns out to be you, alone, in a field, for two weeks, punching toads. | At least SOE lasted a year before they went Turbine on us.
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