Dancer Archive
Thread: Why I won't buff
WayneInAustin wrote:First, if you charge it up front, I as a customer dont even know for sure the buffs will take. There ARE circumstances in the game that will prevent the buffs from occurring...
In that case I would /tip most or all of the money back (depending on whether there was some or no buff at all). I'm not saying you HAVE to give a refund, but *I* would. I didn't succeed in what I charged service for, so therefore I'd give the money back. To take your "you pay slicers up front too" example, if a slicer asked say 2000 for a pistol slice and destroyed your pistol while trying to slice it, or made it seriously worse than it was, I would expect him to pay the money back (since now I am going to not only NOT have a sliced gun but I am going to have to go buy a new gun to replace the one he just ruined). Maybe not all slicers would agree but if one charged me 2K for a slice and shattered my gun, and took the 2K and ran, you can bet I would NEVER let him touch another item of mine again (and I probably wouldn't heal him in the cantina either).
If people just would use common courtesy these problems would not exist... sigh.
WayneInAustin wrote:Second, we don't always have a guarantee how long the buffs will last (though I admit that if the buffs do stick, the entertainer should have a pretty good idea by now).
Not sure how I would know if the buff is going to "stick." I am not aware of any way for me to tell that in game. I did a mind buff as a dacner with only 1 tech box right after the patch and the guy got +20% mind. I asked him to send me an e-mail when it expired so I'd know how long a buff like that would last, just for reference, but he never did. So how would I ever know?
Unlike "buff didn't take" there is not a lot I can do about this one. I may not even be online when it wears off 45 minutes earlier than we thought, to give a partial refund (though I *would* refund part of it if it didn't last as long as I had advertised -- assuming I "advertised" which so far I have not, and probably won't).
I for one think 2,000 for a full buff is fine. But like you say, you pay what you think it is worth to you. I have a wookiee Swordsman on another server. I had JUST bought a new curved 2H sword. Nice weapon. Wanted it sliced but I had just bought it and had like 100 cr to my name. I was in anchorhead. Someone did a /shout that he was on the bridge slicing weapons for 1500 per. Sounded like a fair price to me BUT it was not something I could afford, so I didn't pay it... I went and ran some missions to get money but when I went looking for him again he was long gone. Oh well... At that moment in time, the price was not something I could afford, so I didn't buy the service.
Now that same char has 15,000 cr to his name and I would be happy to pay the guy 1500 for a slice, if I could ever find him, so times have "changed" for him and so has "what is affordable."
C
Chessack...
You have valid points. As far as giving money back if buffs fail, I personally would not expect a full refund, because you had to give up at least 10 minutes of your time to service me. Also, I suspect that if your buffs fail it is not your fault, but your customer's fault more often than not. If they already have paid full price, I would think a 50%-70% refund may be in order.
As far as not knowing how long the buffs may stick, you are right... you don't know how long they'll last and neither do I. I was just mentioning that to emphasize my point that there are too many unknowns with a buff to make them a high-cost item.
Maybe a "meet in the middle solution"would be to charge 1/2 your price up front, and the rest when done. If there is no buff (or a crummy buff for some reason), you keep onlythe up-front.I kind of do this with Doctor HA buffs. I usually tip the Doctor after 3 of the 6 buffs.You'll still have the jerks that walk off without paying the last half, but I think most decent players would honor the deal.
Opinion from a customer...
I read most of the first page of this thread, but not the second. I just want to say this from a customer perspective: I am a rifleman. To me, a mind buff is a very powerful and valueable thing. Customers who walk away without a tip are complete *********** (fill in your own expletive). Personally, I ask for a buff by saying "I will tip you well if you can buff me...". Obivously, one could lie and do that anyway, so here are some suggestions that I, as a customer, would NOT find offensive in the least:
-- Charge me up front. Most master doctors do this. Slicers do this.Almost everyone with a service does this. I myself would not find this inappropriate at all. As a rifleman with mind issues, I fell that 1-2K is a fair price for the benefits.
-- Or charge me a small fee up front (500cr ?) and remind me that nice tips are welcome for a good buff. As I said before, these buffs are very valueable. If I get a good buff, it is well worth it to tip you well. If the buff doesnt take, I personally feel a smaller tip is appropriate for your time... maybe 500-1K credits.
Hope this helps. I cant stress enough how much these buffs help us. Please dont abandon those of us who will gladly pay you because of the (hopefully) few arseholes in the game.
Wow, Beery, it sounds like the community on your server isn't very nice. I've only had a few unpleasant experiences on Wanderhome.
Not everyone tips or thanks me, but a vast majority of the people whofrequent thecantina in Mos Espa do tip and are very friendly.
When I took uppistol, so manyof my customers offered to take me on missions andhave helped me get my skill up.
We have lots of regulars who come by and it's just a great atmosphere. I'm sorry to hear not all dancers have a similiar experience. Even when we do get someone in there who wants to be a jerk, one of the regulars (or several) will defend us.
If any Wanderhome (Mos Espa crowd) are reading this.. Twinkles thanks you for your patronage and the respect you've shown us dancers at the cantina! LOVE YOU LOTS!
Love,
Twinkles - Master Dancer, Wanderhome
Co-Owner: Laughing Lizard Lounge
Beery wrote:
I won't be using the new mind buff feature because the arsehole customers rarely gave me any respect when I was healing them for free. They routinelystole heals and walked out without a word of thanks, so now I'm withholding my service from them. As they sow, so shall they reap.
I never use my dancer or musician titles anymore, I've stripped all my healing skills from my character to make room for pistoleer skills, and I only perform for my own enjoyment. The ingrates can get their heals elsewhere from now on. The mind buffsare a case of'too little too late' as far as I'm concerned.
Funny, I had amazing customers when I was dancing, and usually got about 1000 / hr on a very slow night, up to 5000 / hr on a really good night. Course I was the type who would talk to my patrons. It's your job as the entertainer to initiate conversation and put the person at ease, and anyone who does that for me gets great tips, 1 - 5k. Iearn plenty of loot easily and share it out to entertainers and healers. I've also given away holocrons (decoration type) and all types of multiple quest items.People who are AFK Ialways give about 100. Someone who is just there not engaging meI always give a couple hundred. The entertainers that ignore me outright and then smile at guys (i have a female char) I give them 1 credit. Yep, 1. And when I get nasty tells I reply 'next time don't be so rude.'
I don't usually say thanks because I'm in the cantina to heal and get back out of there. My tip is thanks enough and will rate what I think of your entertaining ability.Being entertained in a freeentrance cantina is a passive mode of relaxation for the observer, and some people just want to chill and watch / listen to the show. Patrons don't owe you ANYTHING. It's up to the entertainer to entice them into paying. If you don't find fulfillment from providing an inherently free service, then you're right to get out of the entertainer profession.
-- Ypi
Maybe I have just been extremely lucky, I don't know. There have been nights when I danced in Anchorhead for hours and gained mad xp and not a single solitary credit found it's way to my pocket. There were nights when I /tipped the novice medics twice more than I made. Most places I have been though, I have made good money and I have had very pleasant interactions with my customers. I've run into two...maybe three really rude people and I've /denyservice'd them and put them on ignore.
Medics have healed me, customers have tipped me, and I'm fairly comfortable in my existence as a dancer. I expected nothing because I'd already read that dancers were poorly treated and even more poorly paid. I've made wonderful friends, good acquaintances, and had a good time. Maybe it's the server I play on (Starsider, love you guys!)or maybe it's because my expectations were so low that I've been pleasantly surprised at my success as a dancer. Either way, I'm very glad I stuck with it and I'm thrilled to be able to do buffs now.
I'm sorry Beery's experience has been less so. I hope she finds something she can enjoy andfor which she can feel appreciated.
"Course I was the type who would talk to my patrons. It's your job as the entertainer to initiate conversation and put the person at ease, and anyone who does that for me gets great tips, 1 - 5k."
Come on now - this is Entertaining 101. Of course you need to put the customer at his ease. I know how to talk to them, and I can easily tell if a customer wants to interact, or if he doesn't. I learnt that stuff before I bought the game (I work in the service industry IRL). That's not the issue. The issue is that 90% of customers (and maybe it's just in my favourite haunts and on my server) respond to good service with not even a 'thanks'. Now maybe I'm being unreasonable in expecting that more than 10% should at least thank me. If so, I guess I am in the wrong profession - and I've quit anyway, so it's no longer an issue either way. But somehow I think I was being disrespected during my tenure as a dancer. I don't know of any real lifeprofession that expects 90% of its client baseto be unresponsive or downright rude after getting a service. If there was such a profession, I would think it would be as unpopulated as... well, as entertainers (or doctors)are in this game. I wonder why that is? Hmmm.
Are you going to post nothing but ad-hominem attacks on my character? Poor way to discuss a subject - actually, it's a way of avoiding a subject. If this subject is painful for you, I suggest you avoid it in more effective ways.
You just sound rather unhappy..maybe thats the wrong word..bitter perpahs about ever being a dancer. The way you say saw the light, makes dancing seem like this horrid thing your glad to be rid off.
We've all heard coutnless times, about how poor your were treated as dancer.