Dancer Archive

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Chessack wrote:


What I am sure of, is that things need to change, and taking BF out and putting in a more positive role for dancers sounds like it might work. At least, it's worth a try. As you point out, what's going on right now, is not working at all.

C

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BF healing was all about working around a time element. Yes, there were clothes that helped reduce the time needed to heal BF, but they were available to everyone, and they really only meant that there was less pressure on us to fill in the time. I do not think patrons really give much thought to the time needed to tend to BF. In fact, patrons only really care about the time needed to tend to the BF if the act before them seems boring or uninteresting. And I agree. The patrons get a lot of that with unattended entertainers.

But that is the thing that we live entertainers can work with. We can make the time--however long or short in truth--interesting so the patron does not have to be bored. And when thevariable betweenDancer A and Dancer B isa mere time element difference, the response of the patron is to gravitate toward the source that can occupy his or her attention, rather than watch the ctrl-c screen tick down.

Now buffs also have a time element associated with them. And I agree that, like BF healing, the time element of buffing is something that we as live performers can always overcome. I cannot tell you how many times I have done a buff in the pre-CU days, and entertain for ten minutes past the time when the buff was done, only to hear from the patron, "that was quick."

However, when we talk about enhancement functions, the time element is not the critical difference between Dancer A and Dancer B. Buffs also have a magnitude element associated with them. And while a skilled performer at the keyboard can work to mitigate the time element for a patron by creating an interesting show, the magnitude element has nothing really to do with the show.

In fact, the magnitude element is the determining factor in deciding to patronize Dancer A over Dancer B. A 17% increase is better than a 16% increase, and so on. And the thing about a magnitude element is that the things that determine the magnitude of the buff depend on:

1) Skill boxes

and

2) Loots

So as a result, if our viability as performers and our ability to attract an audience depends on maximizing the magnitude element of the buff, then the only real things we would need to do as performers is to maximize our skill boxes, and maximize our loots.

Now certainly, one could decide as a performer to work with the time element. But there is nothing a dancer can really do on the cantina floor to overcome a difference in magnitude. The factors that determine magnitude have nothing really to do with the things the dancer does while performing, and have everything to do with the inherent qualities of the skill animating character.

We saw this in play with buffbots before the CU. A dancer may be charming. They may even be rather skilled in terms of skill progression. But unless they can duplicate the buffing effect of the +125% buffbot next to them, they simply have no means to overcome the difference in a sheer mathematical sense. Couple that with the ability to buffa large numberof patrons at the same time, and even the most entertaining of entertainers has no real means to overcome the discrepency.

Many times I have been able to earn a lot simply by being around the buffbots before the CU. But that was before /covercharge, when a dancer couldn't force a tip for a /watch. I have also been able to gain an audience in the cantinas simply by being available for those things that still only worked with a time element, such as healing BF.

But if the only things that we have to attract an audience in the daily running of the servers have a magnitude element associated with them, and the dancer can merely skill animate and force a tip from those who attempt to /watch, then a single master dancer in a +125% costume leaves every other dancer who cannot duplicate that in a difficult situation.

Because even though a dancer may take great pains to greet every patron, create an amusing atmosphere, and work hard with the only things they can, I would venture to say that in a game that only has statistic enhancements as a draw, patrons would rather pay to have a large buff administered in a boring way, rather than have a smaller buff administered in an amusing way.

Some dancers here have "the +125% costume." And I am sure that it gives you great comfort to know that the costume you possess will "pwn" Sirii Ajaan and those like her every time in a world of enhancement-only dancing. You'll get the return on your investment you and your guilds paid so much to expect.

Frankly, I never had the inclination, the means, nor the guild to get a 125% piece of loot. But at least I always knew that there was some facet of the game that did not depend on loot, where it actually made sense to change costumes to add variety to my routines. Nor do I want to be part of something where I am judged on the loot I buy or am given, and not by what I do inside those grey walls of the cantina. These used to be a group of professions where someone who made the effort to be entertaining made a difference in things like Battle Fatigue and wound healing.

Many have said here that nobody really cares anymore if they are amused in the cantina or not. And if what is at stake is a buff that is higher in magnitude, I would certainly say yes. If I were shopping for armour, I would buy from the armoursmith with the better armour, not the armoursmith that told better jokes.

But there is nothing within Battle Fatigue that really depends on magnitude. Everyone gets their BF healed, and the only real element is time. And it is because the differences between two dancers in a Battle Fatigue game are differences specifically in the rapidity of the procedure that it gives the entertainer a reason to be entertaining. Because ifhe or shecan make the time more interesting for the patron, and make the time go by faster for the patron, then he or she can still compensate for the lack of BF healing speed through player decisions on the cantina floor, while play is in progress.

But what advice can you give a master dancer who is dancing next to a +125% master other than to get a +125% piece of loot? I may be good, but I have yet to see how a polished improvisational act at the keys can make a +25% bonus appear.