Dancer Archive
Thread: Let's Do Something Else [List Updated 08 March 2005]
Schardour wrote:
Eh?
I'm not really opposed to the three new bullets either and I'm actually for two of them pretty strongly, but I would have answered differently if those had been on the first draft... it was just a joke though, honest. Just teasing you. /flower
Panthu wrote:
I had written "I like all those" in my reply before you edited in the other three. It's no biggie, I edited, I was just teasing you.
Your threads have been really good lately... are you a DPT in training?
Jagii wrote:
...How about the "bard" role? I feel that bard-like abilities should go to squad leaders. Unless the developers state otherwise, I think all the combat-related stuff should stay with the combat-centered professions. It's fine with me if you sing a song and it has a positive psychological affect on your allies, but the effect shouldn't go beyond that.
Summary: I don't think there should be an in-game mechanic to actually make an entertainer able to negatively affect the enemy or to positively affect an ally while they are actually dukin' it out. But as always, that's just my personal opinion. If you entertainers seriously think that this kind of combat role is part of your profession, then so be it. It just really doesn't make sense to me.
= Andrew
Chilastra.Palacek
I'm proposing the idea that entertainers offer a bonus to the groups while in combat simply as a means to make entertainers more a useful member to the team. No it doesn't make sense but then again why should I be able to harvest more animal hide or meat simply because a ranger is in my group? The only reason for that is to make groups want to include a Ranger in the group when they go hunting and thus make the ranger profession more useful. We already provide aa positive bonusto people while they are actually slugging it out because the mind buff we provide lasts for 2 hours or until death. So it's not really stretching things too far to have some bump for groups that include an entertainer. I'm not suggesting it be some "Uber" game breaking bonus. But obviously it would need to be high enough to counteract the drawback to including an entertainerin the group.
Am I 100% convinced we need this role? No. I'm just offering ideas to provide functionality and desireablity for combat players to seek out and interact with an entertainer. I'm basing my ideas on what other professions have and do that help provide bonuses to groups. And to be quite honest, I'm also basing it on the fact that I enjoy combat. I like shooting things. But if you see a Master Dancer on the street holding a rifle is your first thought "hey I need another member for my base raid team,let me ask her."? I doubt it. But if having me in your group meant that your CM took less damage or that your doctor's mind would regenerate faster, then you might consider asking me to join. And that's my goal as a support character. I want to be able to help my group not just with my combat skills but also as an entertainer. Now maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe we can only have pre or post combat support roles and if that's the case then c'est la vie. But I think there's a lot of potential for this class that's long been over-looked simply because we have limited our imaginations as to how to make the entertainer professions more desireable.
cheers,
Ikewe
Message Edited by PoetDancer on 03-09-2005 11:08 AM
I understand what you want, but I think it is impossible. We can never go back to the way things were at launch, which is sad but true. I remember learning my craft in Theed cantina, enjoying the company of live players, entertaining patrons who really appreciated me and tipped me well and did their best to roleplay and even be amusing themselves.
Those days are over. Even if AFK mechanics are taken out tomorrow, the playerbase has been polluted by their previous existence. Many combatants have lost respect for our professions, or started without any to begin with, due to the environment we suffered with for the past year and a half.
What we really depended on for revitalization of our game was some content, tools, and consideration from the devs that would make up for what was done to us by the power gamers, the AFKers, the Jedi grinders, the buffbots...
It's probably not going to happen, and unfortunately, we can never go back to the way things were before all of those wounds were inflicted.
Panthu wrote:
Instead, it looks like changes will be made around us andnot for us like I had hoped. Just because some people are too married to this idea of "passivity" and "boring spaces." *shrug* Changes to the game will be happening, but Dancers will be allowed to stay in empty Cantinas with nothing to do but amuse themselves for hours. Awesome. Great.It seems you mayhave won, Sirii.
What will these changes mean for me? I won't stay in a Cantina doing nothing hoping someone might come by for me to amuse while they get a passive buff. I'm sorry, I have access to chat rooms that cost less than $15 a month. I was always attracted to the pretty things about Dancer, but in the end, I am a gamer and I want a game. It is annoying to me that I can't use the dance emotes in the game or the character modification tools in the game if I don't also agree to basically pull out of the game in every way that counts.
So the exciting new announcement is that many of us will now have a lot more skill points to devote to another profession or we'll have an additional bit of spending cash when we cancel the account? Great.... It's what I always expected but was repeatedly reassured would never happen.
Ikewe
This just feels like a different type of post then we've seen before. If it's bad enough to do that to you. Then there is no hope.
I'm going to do something I haven't tried to do in....well, forever. I'm going to attempt to get this thread....*gasp*....back on track!
Schardour wrote:
This is supposed to be a......
BRAINSTORMING THREAD!!!
Do y'all know how long it took me to color that!?!? I didn't do it for no reason!!! Let's get pumped, boys'n'girls! I want to see those creative juices flowing!
I would love to see us give a big enough advantage to a high end group of hunters that it would be to their advantage to seekus out and takeus along. Protecting us and keeping us alive while fighting beasts would add another dimension to their hunting styles. I know some would prefer to not change their "spam specials" style, but many many veteran combatants I talk to would like more challenges in actually using their chosen combat profession as it was meant to be used.
Panthu wrote:
PoetDancer wrote:
And I'm afraid Fuschia, Drygo, Panthu, and Ikewe that we simply care too much about the environment of the cantinas and our own self-respect to do that which the profession will require of us at that point.
The game is changing. There are changes being made that we can not control. Combat is the main game and always will be. I had hoped that we could make changes to preserve what I most love about Dancer: the frilly things, the dancing, the parties, so on. These things need to make sense in the greater game though. We need to understand where we fit in and changes will have to be made to our professions to keep them in the greater game.
Instead, it looks like changes will be made around us andnot for us like I had hoped. Just because some people are too married to this idea of "passivity" and "boring spaces." *shrug* Changes to the game will be happening, but Dancers will be allowed to stay in empty Cantinas with nothing to do but amuse themselves for hours. Awesome. Great.It seems you mayhave won, Sirii.
What will these changes mean for me? I won't stay in a Cantina doing nothing hoping someone might come by for me to amuse while they get a passive buff. I'm sorry, I have access to chat rooms that cost less than $15 a month. I was always attracted to the pretty things about Dancer, but in the end, I am a gamer and I want a game. It is annoying to me that I can't use the dance emotes in the game or the character modification tools in the game if I don't also agree to basically pull out of the game in every way that counts.
Who cares if I can change my make up if I have no way to go out and play with others who will see it? Who cares if I am great at expressing myself with our fancy dance emotes if there is nothing to be expressive about? That's where we are headed. Locked in empty cantinas with these really cool player tools that no one will ever see. Pfft, no thanks.
I hate to say it, but I think that Pan's assessment is accurate. As things stand today. I don't know if that can change in the future, but this is looking like the direction rightnow.
I've been fighting very hardfor additions to the entertainer experience that would add gameplay for the so-called 'social' players- something to do besides justsit around and wonder if someone else would float on by. A game to play beyond using the tools that we do have to create shows, andhoping that someone cares enough to come see it.And honestly, it seems as though thusfar I've plowed headlong into a brick wall.
How we serve combat mechanically, without infringing on combat players' fun, seems to be the order of the day. Beyond that, we're supposed to enhance other players' fun to the best of our abilities, and presumably hope that this is fun enough for us to be our gameplay. That may be perfect for some - but I don't think that it reflects the overall feelings and wishes of the entertainer playercommunity. I believe that the truth is as Pan said - in the end, if you're a gamer you'll want a game to play.
Questions for the community members:
- Is the term 'social playstyle' even accurate as adescriptor? Is being 'social' the gameplay for you?
- Is 'socializing' enough of a gameplay experience for you that it stands alone as something fun enough by itself?
- Is 'socializing' rewarding enough for youthat it can really be called a playstyle in and of itself, or is it more that there's a difference of approach to rewarding gameplay that isfound in the players that make up our community that has been so dubbed as 'social'?
- What other thoughts do you have about the 'social' term, in how it relates to your gameplay experience?
Edit: Wait - strike that. Don't answer those questions here. Those are probably important enough questions to hold their own thread.
Message Edited by Xyrdre on 03-11-2005 05:25 AM