Dancer Archive

Couple of things here. First of all, thanks to you and to your colleagues for the civil debate. I enjoy it very much, in life and in game.

Second, I do nothing for free. My guildmates will tip me or they will quickly experience the bottom of my composite boot. My master doc always gets tipped, although I spend the money right back helping out guildmates.

I have donated several times the sum total of the tips I have gotten from guild members back to the guild. It's one of the ways I help with the treasury. My combat character is a rifleman/scout and my alt is a master doc/merchant. I am in the process of changing that to a main master rifleman/master doc and an alt master dancer/master musician/merchant. I run three lucrative vendors. I make money hand over fist, and I donate quite a bit to the guild and the city. I still get tips from my guildmates to remind them that "nothing's free". We certainly help each other out with donations of money, resources, whatever as needed, but I always pay for the services they give me and I ask for payment as well, even if I just give it back in some way.

So, what I am not is a free buffbot. I also tip our guild dancers and doctors when I use them.

We keep our entertainers atk when possible, even if they're playing another character. So, they quickly know when someone has them grouped. Or, others have ways to get the account ungrouped if necessary, since many of our guildmates are roomates, college dorm mates, siblings, husband/wife, whatever.

Someone's been grouping entertainers and leaving for quite a while. Most of the time it's just some bonehead who forgot to disband, but it's been happening since I started playing.

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.

---

Drygo wrote:

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.

Oh, and I realize you're not doing it for money. That's the problem. If you charged for your services, so that MY services were competitively price (ie NOT free, and viable as an income), then most people wouldn't care as much. It's the fact that you are providing a service that is my PRIMARY income for free. It doesn't matter how good I am it, most people will choose to get something for nothing, as always. Therefore, I get screwed.

Message Edited by Drygo on 04-28-2004 12:34 PM

---