Dancer Archive
Thread: Evil Idea to (temporarily) fix buffbots!
Specman wrote:
I just find it funny that you complain because you cant even compete with someone who is AFK, whos the better entertainer?
*snicker* You don't REALLY want me to answer that.
Buffbots are the bane of all REAL dancers' existence. Theytake away our business. We have to use whatever means we can to fight back. Obviously, you are not a real entertainer. Therefore, the answer to your question is obvious: me.
As much as these "entertainers" "help"... I'd much rather be a real live performer and entertainer rather than some mindless zombie.
Why not just remove the command that lets them join? I might be missing something, but in all honesty, I see no reason to have a slash command that will let you autojoin a group. If we HAD TO BE PRESENT to join a group, it would seem like Buff Bots would go away (being replaced by **edit** Bots on the forums of course).
Just a thought.
-F
Disbanding every hour is not a perfect solution either because that means a) You're tied up for an entire hour unable to give buffs. and b) We can always go back and group you after that hour is up. hehe. If you disband more frequently than every hour you aren't able to give away the free buffs effectively because the people that try to group with you run a higher risk of being disbanded before their buff is over and getting irritate by having to start all over again. The key for you,I suppose, is to try to find out the perfect /disband time ratio to be the most effective.
Also, the closer your buffbot is to the people who want to do live buffing, the easier it is for one or several of us to take shifts and go regroup you at the appointed time. For example, if you're buffing on an adventure planet and I'm the only other one there in an outpost cantina, I can continuously group you over and over again. If you're in a player city close to a major hub, one of the live entertainers can take 10 minutes out of their time to bike over to that close player city and group you again. As I said, do it in shifts. If you're far away from anyone who wants to make money buffing at any given time then we won't care because you won't be taking away our business.
And, we can get organized if we have to. Despite the fact that there are 10 times more afk entertainers than real entertainers because of the hologrind, the afk entertainers can't do anything actively because, well, they're afk lol. So, we do have the upperhand in this. Now that word is starting to get spread, don't be surprised if entertainer unions start popping up to combat this menace. And, from my point of view, when that happens, you will be powerless to stop us. 
Specman wrote:
Omg,I see the error of my ways, i'm going to go change it right now!. I'll delete my second account and cease the source of income I have made for myself. this will make me have to run 3000m to the nearest player city to just get my BF healed. Until all you so called "Live" entertainers start filling the cantinas of player cities EVERYONE can come to mine and get free buffs allllll day long. In the AFK resopnse on my dancer AND in her profile it says how to get a hold of me and I can blow bubbles or do WHATEVER you "Live" people do.
Drygo wrote:
Fuschia,he's still talking because he underestimates the tenacity of a large group of entertainers who have a great deal of experience and are driven personality-wise to be social, organize, and be creative.
There is no large group of entertainers anymore and that's the point. The large group of entertainers you refer to hasn't been seen in the game since the first month of the game when the glaring lack of content sent everyone off in search of more interesting ways to spend the time they logged into the game.
The entertainers were all leaving the profession even before the holocraze started.
Vermicious_Knid wrote:
I actually think the "group and leave" thing is funny. It's within the boundaries, you aren't breaking any code, and it's fairly creative. If that's how you want to spend your game time, you'll have fun anyway. And it could become kind of a challenge between groups/guilds.
I say more power to you. Do what you have to do. Conflict like this sometimes brings on solutions that work for everyone.
You're right. You never know what may become of this. I've heard several people use the argument that there is a dearth of available dancers and musicians in the player cantinas. So, some of the guilds have "bots" to alleviate this problem, and most of the time this doesn't affect the live entertainers in most of the NPC cities. I can understand that line of thinking. Even though in my ideal gameworld, afk wouldn't be an option, I'm also reasonable enough to realize that if it doesn't directly affect my gameplay, then I really have no business complaining about it. It's reasonable to assume thatat this stage of the game's evolution, most of those player cantina buffbots do not negatively affect my gameplay due to the fact that there is no shortage of people looking for buffs and paying me well for them in the places that I do decide to work. I will also admit that, being one of two master dancers in my guild that regularly play, and no master musicians, there have often been times where I have buffed my entire guild for a hunt or raid, and been unable to find a buff myself. I often wish there was a way for me to get one too without having to travel from city to city hoping there is a master dancer or musician for MY buff so that I can go out and enjoy the fray with a reasonable chance of survival as well. I certainly would never suggest that my guild get an afk buffbot and if they did I'd probably protest vehemently. However, I do understand the need and the lack of providers.
As for conflict solution and my point of responding to your posts...well, you never know, if the master dancers and master musicians who are live, at the keyboard performers find that the buffbots get to a point where they are taking away business more often than not, they (we) may decide to try to spend more time in the player city cantinas since they'll have to travel their to /group them lol. I think, despite all the arguing back and forth, and what some people may claim, I think most people probably would rather a live person there to talk to during the buffing process. And, that's good for everyone. The guild I'm in is fairly large, and there's almost always somebody in town. But, even so, there are only a limited amount of things for me to do while I'm there. And, I'm not about to stay there all day bored out of my skull waiting for someone to come in. But, as things evolve, if there were a regular group of atk entertainers that hung out there, I'd love to be able to spend more time there, listen to some good music, dance, have some good conversation, and be more available for my guild instead of saying, "Meet me in Theed." Possibly even, in the process, have enough time on our hands to actually come up with real performances to showcase in other venues.
Heh, ya never know.
Over time you'll get yourselves banned from player city cantinas. Most of them don't do it for money anyway, they do it to keep their members healed. My buffbot goes live shortly and the last thing I need in this game is money.
And if you're going to use a squad leader and a combat medic to disease the buffbots, at least you're creative.
In the end, though, you're trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.
If you want long-term income as dancers you need to find ways to make people want to come to you instead.
I say this not to offend you, I say it as a guy who is about to waste a week of my life and 250 skill points making a dancer/musician because, despite the fact that the entertainer community keeps complaining about the lack or work, there is an unmet need for mind buffs.
Many of the posters here don't even seem all that eager to provide the buffs, seeing them as a "favor" or an afterthought. However, you do seem very concerned that others are providing them. You can't have it both ways.
Either work as the market demands or do something else. Supply and demand is as consistent as gravity.
And a union won't help. Doctors have been trying to form unions as long as the game has been around. It just doesn't work, because anyone can grind master doctor in two days, just like they can grind musician/dancer. If the union won't produce, then you get "outsourcing", just like in real life.
Vermicious, that's the thing. See, I'm usually a reasonable person, lol. Honestly, as long as your buffbot isn't personally taking away from my business or that of another Master Dancer, then you and I will probably never have harsh words. I can't speak for everybody else. All I care about is that my livelihood, and the livelihood of other master dancers and musicians is taken care of. Most of the time, I readily admit, I go into any given Cantina and I am bombarded with gladly paying customers and too many /tells to keep track of. However, there have been TWO times in my career--once when I went to Dathomir, and once when I went to Moenia, where there was an afk dancer providing buffs. BOTH of those times I had spent my money for shuttle tickets, and my time for shuttle waits, only to have to make a return trip, costing me more time and money because my buffs were no longer useful because of the free buffbot. In those instances, that's where I have a problem. At the time I felt I had no recourse and could do nothing but pout and complain about it. Then, the lovely Fuschia enlightened me to the very obvious solution.../join them and they can't buff for free!
So, like I said, the vast majority of the time, it's not a problem. However, sometimes it is. And, I can foresee the future with this. This is going to catch on, just like every other "exploit" or way to screw over game mechanics because people don't care about actually playing the game the way it was meant to played. It's always, how can I screw with things to give me the best benefit possible instead of enjoying the game the way the devs intended? I know buffbots will become more frequent. And, I guarantee you, when they do, when they more frequently encroach upon my income and that of other live entertainers, they WILL more frequently be grouped to prevent them from doing so. That's just how it is. And, then you may be sitting there wondering why you're paying an extra $15 for an account that's going to be pretty much useless.
Message Edited by Drygo on 04-28-2004 12:34 PM