Dancer Archive

I started as an AFK dancer- back in my early days. I'd been hoverng around one city- DG on corellia- and was too new / poor to travel much. The city was largely unpopulated, and the cantina never had an entertainer.

First, I took entertainer just to heal my own fatigue from my scouting efforts, then I started seeing other players who really seemed to have serious mind injuries, so I set up a macro and AFK'ed while grading papers or working in another window- figured I was doing the local player a favor.

When I'd earned enough to travel some, I nearly had a stroke when entering the Coronet cantina. Until that point, I'd figured entertainers were a rarity....

Since then, I try not to AFK. I never AFK spam, and I've tried to be responsible in not hindering other peoples' experience. It took me largely 2 months to get master dancer, and most of this was spent on the last 2 healing XP skills.

To be honest, I feel more guilty that I finished the lst 25k xp through "mind disease" parties just to get the darn thing finished without spending more time on dathomir.

Just a little advanced warning.. I'm rambling a lot today. Not getting any sleep does that to me.

Part of it is the approach you take. I just mastered TKA over the weekend. ... Well, I finished TKA master over the weekend. Have been at it for awhile now. Months even. I had fun getting there.. But, once you are soloing rancor missions where do you go next? (I still grin at the comment someone made when I accidentally knocked off the first two rancors of their mission between when it spawned and the time it took them to get to it's new waypoint.. While I was wearing a master dancer title. "And that was from a master dancer. I think I need to start dancing." ... And yes, I did apologize to them, and it didn't seem to be any hard feelings.)

I haven't had that problem as a dancer. I keep finding new places to go. But you know what? The dances I do most I got at novice dancer or below.

Yes, I mastered dancer without going AFK. (Well, I did for 5 minutes at dancing II in entertainer or something when I learned what macros could do and wanted to give it a try.. But I didn't know about looping macros then so it was just a really long one.) Since then, I have been capped in dance xp for months (900k), mastered entertainer and musician, and am nearly capped in musician xp again. (At 700k out of 900k). I didn't even use a macro most of the time. When I hit formal (Dancing IV) I was appalled at what the macro made me do.. Back then, formal flourishes 5-8 were the same as basic flourishes 5-8, and 4 was the same as formal 3. I'm not entirely sure it's much better now. Though the jerky movements do make for an interesting martial dance if you hold a sword and do it facing a partner. I've got a routine worked out where we actually get within striking distance as we're swinging around and it looks like we actually are engaging in a choreographed sword fight. I also learned the fine art of controlling the movement then. People joked that if they kept going, sooner or later they would dance themselves outside. Well, I could dance myself outside, around back, and back inside the back entrance. I didn't of coure, but I could if I wanted to. From that point on, nearly every single one of my flourishes has been by hand, through all of the dancer line, and all of the musician line, in ever cantina, camp, performance, everything. I've also done bandflourishes for the dancers AND the musicians at the same time for a show (Musicians require twice as many flourishes to keep going) AND was still able to talk in group to give direction to the other dancers. But I'm crazy that way.

So what do I do? Well I try and make a name for myself. Admittedly I've been slacking on that lately, but I'm getting a few things in motion. I do performances, work on dance routines, recruit new talent. My latest thing is to try and start a new troupe by first starting a dance school teaching things from a different angle than normal. (And as a result, joining the holocron sculptures around the twin force crystals decorating my cantina, I now have a complete set of all 8 CoA act 1 disks on the floor as marks for the dance school. )

I try to show entertainers who have only known the crowded zombie cantinas what being an entertainer is all about. I try and improve my skill at instruction. Much of what I can do I can now explain to almost any entertainer and they'll pick it up really quick. I'm talking about synchronized dance changes, synchronized effects, positioning.. Not to mention many of them haven't even done synchronized dancing.

To be honest, to me TKA was a lot simpler than dancing. Sure, you couldn't just write a macro to do it for you without eventually ending up an AFK corpse (I always make sure to point and laugh when I see those) but it is fairly straight forward. I find myself doing the same thing over and over again. It either works well, or it doesn't work at all. The only skill I was using is picking the fights I could win. And I've never been known at doing that well. I think I got it from when I played an enchanter in EQ and kept taunting the puller until they actually gave me some work.

I gave up master TKA already. I had already made the decision to do so before even reaching it, I only continued because by the time I made up my mind, I was within a few hours work of master. It was convenient to get at the time. I knew I would kick ass with TKA. Anyone would. I knew that stuff I used to stay preferably several planets away from now is barely a minor annoyance.

I know not everyone is that way. That is why the game tries to cater to a diverse set of players. Some people enjoy trying to see who can get the best equipment.. Er.. Sorry, the ph4t l3wtz, to use the vernacular. (Okay, to be fair that is also a segment of the player base and doesn't necessarily represent the majority.) Some people like to find big things to kill. Some people like to build brand recognition for their armor or weapons. Some people like to run large multi-million resource mining operations. (One guy on my server heads an operation boasting over 500 harvesters. That's his thing, and he takes pride in it.) I think it does a great job in providing such immense diversity, beyond any other MMORPG I've seen. Unfortunately the group used to being catered to doesn't agree.

I'm going to be working on tailor. I've finally had it with the lack of tailors who give a decent effort into mens clothing for dispaly and on vendors. So I'm going to make a mens clothier. Womens stuff on the side of course, no need to turn away all the lovely ladies. But I plan to have at least one vendor and a showroom dedicated to mens fashion. That and my dance school (Which will conveniently go hand in hand I hope) is my thing right now.

That may all seem off the original topic of dancing.. And it sort of is. I'm rambling a lot today. Have I mentioned that? However I have a point here... When it comes down to it, we're all playing the same game. And I don't just mean that we are all playing SWG. I mean that everyone's goals are the same, it's their means to that goal and their measurement of success that differs.

That goal is to achieve something. Yes, even the socializers. And we are all here to be social. Yes even the soloing achievers. You can't really have one without the other in this game. If the person who just wanted to go out and solo the whole time didn't want to be social, they would have gotten a single player game, saved a bunch of money, hopefully had a very well done story unfold in their lap as they progress, and felt accomplishment when they finally finish the game. Yet they come to SWG. Some of them may want to prove to the world that they don't need help and can survive on their own. Such rites of passage are an integral part of numerous tribes and societies, past and present. Or maybe they want to be social, but don't know how, and that is their way of trying. Or they are playing here because their friends are. Those are all being social. Deep down, intentional or not, there is a social reason to play a MMORPG.

I won't go into too much detail, as there are as many styles of play as there are players. Bringing this back around to dancers, the other side of the coin so to speak, we're supposed to be the socializers.

Yet, the first few names of regular posters here, and some very avid socializers at that, I could name at least one thing they are trying to achieve. My achievement is finding ways to get a group of dancers together for a performance and continue to amaze audiences. It's not an easy task. If you want to keep people enthralled, you have to keep outdoing yourself. That is my achievement, but it isn't everyone's. Someone who is a pure socializer just is an achiever by a different name. The person throwing the party is trying to show they are one of the team. Their reward for the achievement is in turn being invited to parties. Even people mingling at parties tend to try and convince people they fit in.

Playing a dancer is no different in SWG. There are many achievements you can go after, many of which others wouldn't call achievements. Sometimes the people going after them wouldn't even call them that. But in the end, that's what they are. We are all playing this game to achieve something, and to have fun doing it.

While I wouldn't give up my dancer skills for the world, in the end, it is no more important to my achievement than the PvPers uber template is to them. It is a means to an end. If anything, having high dancer skills is less important, because as many people like to point out, you do the same thing from novice entertainer to master dancer. Some of the great dancers I've had the pleasure of working with never made master, or even close. I know exactly how much skill most of them had because I personally trained them on many occasions. That never stopped us from putting on a damn good show, if I do say so myself. I can even dig up posts on the SWG forums here with accolades for my troupe if I felt like doing lots of digging. People are just not used to that style of gameplay. In truth, combat is no different. You do the same thing from novice to master. You shoot things. New planets, POIs, theme parks, PvP, those aren't part of the profession any more than performing at a planned production in a theater is part of being an entertainer. They are something you go out and DO. The profession itself is just a means to an end. If you just sit in Theed killing nunas, you'll be bored to tears in no time. When you go into a cantina, find a group, and just set a macro ignoring what you are doing as far as dancing goes, you're doing the equivelent of killing those nunas.

To some people, the end to which they use the professions as a means is the master title. There are many reasons for this. Player cities, guilds trying to fill a void from within, holocrons, badges, just because it's there, to wear the master title so other PvPers think you're harmless... Those are the people that find it boring.

I admit I'm guilty of that. Well, I did go to Jabba's. But that was because I wanted the twi'lek portrait. That's the only theme park I've done. The only real PvP I've done was yesterday when one of the server's griefers came into my cantina and thought it would be funny to duel the master dancer there, who just happened to also be nearly master TKA. He laughed that one all the way to the cloning center. I've only joined a faction long enough to do quests that require it. (I'd have gone rebel too if they also gave me a new painting.) I've been to few PoIs. Haven't seen beyond the entrance of the geo caves. Don't even have a clue what a Krayt looks like, or where on Tattooine to find one. I have seen a Kimo, and decided that anything that gave me that much scout xp for not being detected was something to stay away from. Far away from. Several planets, at least. Never tried to fight one. Theres lots I didn't do. So, in part it is my fault I didn't find much interest in TKA. But, at the same time it just wasn't my thing. So I moved on.

I don't expect everyone to go out and put on a server-wide performance of astounding porportions, or even a small performance for a private wedding in their guild. No more than I expect everyone to march right up to a recruiter and join a faction. In multiplayer games, most things don't just fall in your lap. You have to go do something. This game is quite unique in that the spectrum of what you can go out and do is so broad. People just don't know how to do this with any non traditional professions. They are looking for things to do in the usual places (End game, "boss" encounters, dungeons, loot, raids, etc) and are finding it lacking because they aren't noticing the vast expanses around them of other things to do, or perhaps they just aren't interested in doing those thing. But, I don't expect every game to be for everyone, either.

Did I mention that I'm rambling a lot today?

Chessak, get out of my head!

...

On second thought, keep posting my thoughts. You ramble less.

On the subject of practice... The troupe I was in would practice every week. We'd try new things, polish up things we are a little shakey on, see what works and what doesn't, and if a show was coming up, work on some routines. It's like the difference between a guild that always goes out hunting together and has tuned their skills to a well oiled killing machine, and a similarly sized group of people you just throw together who stumble over each other, see the cloning center more than they see battle, take an hour just to decide which direction to get missions in, or if they should skip the missions, or head to a POI, then another hour getting people to replace the ones that left...

In a way, I guess people like us are the entertainer equivelent of the traditional uber guilds. We put time into becoming the best at what we are, it just isn't anything combat related.

We would always court new entertainers for the troupe by inviting them to practice. We had several who didn't come back a second time. I asked a few why not. Their answer was that they didn't feel they had what it takes. That they were intimidated by what we have been able to do. It's unfortunate, because some of these were very good dancers by their own right, and would have made great additions. We were willing to work with anyone who was willing to learn.

Sadly, like sometimes happens in the uber guilds I'm drawing an anaogy to, eventually the pressure got to be too much. Like a house of cards, things started to collapse. Some cards hadn't fallen yet, but it was inevitability. I saw it happen. I knew it was happening. I think we all knew it was happening, though to this day, it still remains unspoken among us.

So you see, entertainers aren't just something fun to do. If it's the kind of thing you enjoy, it's a completely different style of game play.

One of my goals as correspondent (*puts on his blue hat*) is to bring out that unique style of gameplay, and make it shine, instead of trying to shove it into the normal mold. It is not an easy task, since in the end, my voice to the devs is that of the community, not my own. I don't really have any more influence over things than anyone else does.

Tiaga,

Wow...you are in the top 5 uber posters of all time. By the way, should you get your line of men's clothes up and running, please look me up! I get things here and there, but it will be nice to have someone I know I can go to for these things.

As for the topic at hand, I afk'ed once on my way to Master Dancer. I went to the store for 30 minutes one day and left my character unattended and macro'ing because I was so close that I didn't want to lose any time. Beyond that, no, I've always been at my keyboard. And, I'd even say that 90% of the time I didn't even macro. I /flourished and /technique'd manually. But, it's what I enjoyed doing. To me, the fun of the game is the "getting there." Once I'm there, I have nothing else to do and it's boring. I'm one of those rare game players who actually enjoys the process. That means I advance in my chosen professions slowly, to be sure. But, then again, I never choose a profession that I know I'm not going to want or enjoy.

I guess most people don't, and the reason they are now is due to the holocrons. I won't get into that here. But, I'm sure that's part of the reason why some people who post are frustrated. They're doing something they don't want to be doing on the off chance they get a jedi slot. Me? If things stay the way they are, I will most certainly never become a jedi. I choose my professions because I want them and want to have a specific template and persona in the game. That means mastering, at most 3 professions, much less 5. If there is ever another way to becomea jedi I might pursue that. But, not everyone is playing just to become a jedi, and I'm one of those people.

So, if you're not trying to become a jedi, I would follow Tiaga's advice, and drop the dancing thing if you're not having fun with it. I have a lot of fun with. I'll be glad when the holocron thing is done so that the only entertainers there will be people who want to actually entertain. The comeraderie isn't as prevalent as it used to be, and I kind of miss that. I have nothing against afk'er or holocron grinders per se. But, it was just a better atmosphere before it happened. But, if you truly want to be a dancer, try not to look at as a grind. Enjoy the process. Enjoy playing around with the flourishes and the dances and the new lights and smokebombs. Chat with the group your in, chat with your customers. It pays off not only in the tips you get but the contacts you make. Need a harvester, need some clothes, need some armor, need a group to hunt with? I think we entertainers actually have an advantage when it comes to that stuff, because our profession, by definition, allows us to make contacts.

And then once you make Master Dancer, you'll see your income increase exponentially because people are ALWAYS looking for buffs. Some people claim that chefs and/or how long it takes to buff somebody takes away from our profession. But, I can tell you that not once have I stepped foot into a Cantina with a decent population (such as Theed or Coronet) and not been bombarded with /tells asking me to buff them. You can easily make 100K in a 2 hour play session on any given evening after your real life work.

There are issues I don't agree with and things I'd like to see changed. But, I think the dancing profession is well worth it in the end. And, if you are a social creature, it's well worth it for the process as well. The contacts you make and such. And, if you really want to perform and put on shows, there are people who like to do that sort of thing as well if you take the time to look.

So, I have gotten a little bit off topic here. But, I just wanted to point out that, yes, it can be an annoying grind, if that's how you look at it. But, there are numerous advantages to not going afk, providing you are not a hologrinder. And, I'm very glad I didn't go afk because it's made the immersive game experience all the richer for me.

At keyboard for 5 days of my normal gameplay... Master

AT KEYBOARD... it goes faster if you are at keyboard and making sure the group is actually entertaining with you...

NeoTheTroll..ill need to name my alt that!

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NeoTheHutt wrote:
NeoTheTroll..ill need to name my alt that!

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You have to! I want sig credit though... then I can be famous by proxy.

I did every bit of my Master live and without a macro

I don't go afk and i currenlty only have a macro for bandflourishes

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Nagabacca wrote:

Thanks for all the interesting replies.

Tiaga/Chessack, i hadn't even thought of the possibilities of performing dance troupes, very cool

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Two things that make dancer LOTS of fun: My band/dance troupe (Yay Solar Flair!) and dancing at the starport. I started the starport dancing out of boredom, but it's kind of become my trademark. I love the reactions I get.

I usually play something on the Mandi at starports, particularly when travelling alone (which is most of the time). But yeah, I like to do the same thing and often get good reactions. Not many people hear Ceremonial, I think. Most Masters of Entertainment are Hologrinders, who dump the profession 5 minutes after mastery to get the next one going, so they are not likely to sit around playing Ceremonial for very long.

C