Dancer Archive

Does it affect our gameplay? It doesn't have to. I have been making a decent living in the cantinas even with buffbots around. I do admit I do not log on as much as I used to. But I am but one dancer on one server. It takes many to service a galaxy. And I cannot speak for the dancers here, but rest assured dears that the ones who used to like to play this thing are leaving the professions and leaving the game. That is not speculation, that's a fact. On Bria, the largest server, I can only count about 25 individuals who actively play these professions. Only 25. And I'm not even saying that its for the best or not that this is happening, only that it is occurring now as we speak. Why do they leave? They simply don't know how to have fun anymore in these professions. I think many of you who buff unattended also do not know how to have fun anymore. And that is why those of you who even enjoy this profession in the slightest, yet see nothing wrong with unattended buffing to consider the probibility that even you too will become marginalized if you do not make some effort to give the patrons more than BF healing, mind wound healing, and buffs, and that means being at the keys putting some effort into amusing the patrons. And it doesn't even have to be about sexual things, CatFleaX. There are a thousand ways one can entertain at the keyboard.

And its why I stress to the ones who make an effort to play this profession to concentrate on what the bot cannot do in order to compete with them: attentive, spontaneous, immersive, witty, and creative play. No dears, its not about nine self-repeating songs and about the same number of dances. Because there are hundreds of emotes, plenty of mechanical tools such as /changedance, and plenty of dialouge types and techniques. In fact, the techniques of what we do are so rich that even after playing the greater part of a year, I have not mastered the application of them all. Don't get me wrong, its HARD work. But if you do it right, you'll get comments like the one I had last nite, "Wow! This was the absolute BEST roleplay experience I had for months! It was like a real cantina in there." And no, CatFleaX, I did not engage in cybering. I facilitated the immersion of a table full of Imperials into the game world by talking about intergalactic politics. After all, we brunettes have been known to talk about important things on occasion.

But buffbots do not give anything else but the game mechanics. That's why the customers come to them. And indeed, it is your choice to give them these things and nothing more, just as much as it is the patron that may choose to receive them and nothing more. But to all of those who are alts, as well as those who unattend regularly, enjoy these times while they last. Because right now, you are realatively rare and for all intents and purposes, optional. Its your time now, CatFleaX. You are doing something relatively novel when compared to the other entertainers in the game. But don't try and dress it up for anything other than it is: an uninspiring and utterly bland piece of code that allows you to influence the game world while not being a part of it. And yes, its true that you provide something that people have the choice to use. And I hope for your sake customers will still have the ability to choose between a hologrinder, a career entertainer, and a career buffbot. But as I argue in my post, oncea buffbot'srole in the healing cycle becomes less a matter of convinience and more a matter of need, you will start to feel the latent animosity that right now is not all that apparent to you.

Right now, thereis still a sea of hologrinders and aspirants in the major cities. Flash forward, however, and you will find that holosea gone, the aspirants with master titles, and the rare, few of us who still play this thing live. You may have people who actually enjoy sitting at the keys now and then, like CatFleaX. You may also have many, MANY second account buffers who make no bones about the fact that they never intend to play the character at all.

And for awhile, you will also have a legion of patrons who run to the buffbot, let the buffbot do its work, press alt-tab to check the forums, tip, and leave. They will do this day in and day out. But each and every time they use a buffbot, they become less and less convinced that you do a service that is worthwhile, and more and more convinced that their gameplay experience would be a whole lot better if they just didn't have to worry about entertainment services at all.

Why is that? Because everybody else in this game besides unattended buffers have toput forth some effortinthe game world to advance and succeed. Crafters must buy power and pay maitenance, combatants must take missions, and scouts must gather hides. Andwhen players live in a galaxy where most of their entertainment services come fromvaccant, unattended entities, each and everyonewillinvariably say to themselves,"why should we even tip or somehow be grateful to these unattended characters that do nothing but set a repeating macro, yet feel entitledto our respect and credits simply to give us some service that SOE feels we need?" Indeed, how will you respond, CatFleaX, when they argue this to you? Will you use your same old line of "I provide a service, and its up to you to use it or not" along side of all the other lot mules, guild alts, and second accessory accounts? That won't cut it anymore.

Because your customers at this point will not be asking for entertainment to be enhanced for your sake, and many live entertainers who would benefit will have long since cancelled our accounts. They will be asking SOE to eliminate these professions entirely, and give actual players such as doctors or chefs the opportunity to provide the same services. And its not going to hurt you when they put forth the convincing case that they should eliminate these professions, it will hurt players like me, who have tried to play these professions the way that SOE originally intended them to be played. Because there is something inherently problematic in the notion that a player need only spend the effort each morning to press F1, and dispense their mechanics for an entire day for players they do not see, for reasons other than enjoying the things it does, without the least amount of effort to sustain it, perpetually, and without any sort of "endgame goal" for it to be anything other than it is: a 24/7 dispenser of mechanics.

And if it ever gets to that point where the entire business of entertainment is to get mechanics from a vaccant entity, then the patrons will have every leg to stand on when requesting these professions be removed. Becauseentertainment at this point become a farce of what a playable profession should be, an embarassment for the development staff, a nuciance for the patrons, and more of a headache to actually play than to let the system play for the entertainer. And even though I enjoy and am good at entertaining, I am but one voice. For every one of me, there are ten of you who do not give SOE any reasons to keep and sustain these professions. In short, players like you who abandon play for the sake of dispensing the mechanics do not give SOE any incentive to keep and develop these professions. You only give SOE, the patrons, and the development staff reasons to think it was a mistake to include them at all. And that is what will ultimately will affect me.

Because I can deal with you buffbots in the game world by concentrating on the things you can't do. What I cannot deal with is when the very underpinnings of this entertainment concept in the game are neither practiced, nor adhered to in a manner that makes sense by themajority of the entertainment characters. Because my lone voice will carry no weight if SOE gives out the question to the playerbase of, "We are thinking of eliminating these professions from the game due to the fact that most of youfind no reasonto actively play it." Because by the example of you, many other buffbots, and the customers who are trying to figure out how service from a vaccant entity somehow enhances their gameplay, my lone voice will not in and of itself convince SOE to keep them.