Dancer Archive
Thread: A little AFK Macro story...
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Chessack
Mon Oct 06, 2003 10:44 am
#1
Here is a true story that happened on my server. Names have been changed to protect the innocent and even the not-so-innocent (except of course, mine, since you already know who my character is).
In Keren cantina, pretty much nobody AFK Macros (AFKMs). It's really rare and even when someone starts they usually don't stick there long. Keren is small. Not many patrons come in so the healing XPs at higher level are just slooowwww. And the group is smallish (usually 3-5 total) so the xp gain is not like what you would see in places like Theed or Coronet. So I assume most of these AFKMers go elsewhere.
However, we had this one repeat-AFKMer who I will call "Pinky." Now Pinky was a nice enough person when she was AT keyboard, but Pinky used to stay present for maybe 10 minutes and then go AFK.
Now, Pinky was clever about it. She didn't do the typical stuff that gives AFKMers away immediately. First of all, she wasn't dead silent, but she didn't tip-spam either. Instead, every so often, and this was VERY rarely, she would smile, or bow, or grin. That's it, just that. And since everyone else was RPing often these things occurred at just coincidentally the right time so that Pinky seemed to be reacting to the rest of us. It was only after an hour or so in the same cantina with her that I realized these emotes were happening very regularly. Direct questions and tells to her going unanswered then provided the final evidence that she was AFK.
Now, when Pinky started frequenting the cantina she was an Apprentice Performer. She was doing Footloose or so, and I was already done with the first complete row of boxes in the dance tree, so my character was a Novice Dancer. But of course, Pinky is an AFKMer...
So after a couple of weeks, I had moved up to just getting Lyrical. Pinky showed up occasionally and had moved past me to higher and bigger titles... Enthraller... Choreographer... etc. About 2 weeks ago, she was "Master Dancer." She came into Keren cantina again and started actively performing a bit and saw my title, "Novice Dancer." She said, "Dejah, are you STILL a novice dancer?"... as if there was something wrong with me because I was so slow. So I had Dejah respond, "What the heck is that supposed to mean?" So in groupchat she said, "Sorry I just thought you were ahead of me." My response was, "I don't know about that but I really don't care. I play my character because I enjoy her, and so I am in no rush." She didn't respond, and shortly thereafter went (you guessed it), AFK.
Now for the fun part of the story. I saw Pinky in Keren cantina again yesterday. At first glance, I saw her doing the lyrical/formal "airplane" as I call it (you know, the jerky arm wave thing that happens sometimes instead of seeing the real animations, when the dancer is far enough from you). I assumed it was Lyrical. But then I got closer (doing Lyrical myself, you know how hard that dance is to control) and I saw one of the moves, and it was Formal... And then I noticed, she was wearing the title, "Apprentice Performer." What follows is a snippet of dialog with her:
Me: Pinky... didn't you used to be a master dancer?
Pinky: Yep
Me: So what happened? Or did you just change your title?
Pinky: I gave it up. Surrendered the whole skill tree.
Me: Oh.... Uh, why?
Pinky: Because I got tired of not making any money and not getting any respect from the other players.
At this point, another one of the dancers sent me a /tell:
Alpha tells you: Maybe if she would actually BE THERE instead of macroing people would tip her and respect her.
So... Pinky the AFK Macroed Master, within 2 weeks of acheiving master (probably less.. I was out of town for a few days), surrendered the entire dance tree because people did not respect her and did not tip her.
Within 10 minutes, guess what she was doing again? That's right, AFK Macroing. And this time, she had a tip-spam message stuck into her loop. "Tips are always welcomed, but never required."
Seems like someone hasn't learned from experience...
Anyway, that was a fun story I thought I would share with you all...
C
In Keren cantina, pretty much nobody AFK Macros (AFKMs). It's really rare and even when someone starts they usually don't stick there long. Keren is small. Not many patrons come in so the healing XPs at higher level are just slooowwww. And the group is smallish (usually 3-5 total) so the xp gain is not like what you would see in places like Theed or Coronet. So I assume most of these AFKMers go elsewhere.
However, we had this one repeat-AFKMer who I will call "Pinky." Now Pinky was a nice enough person when she was AT keyboard, but Pinky used to stay present for maybe 10 minutes and then go AFK.
Now, Pinky was clever about it. She didn't do the typical stuff that gives AFKMers away immediately. First of all, she wasn't dead silent, but she didn't tip-spam either. Instead, every so often, and this was VERY rarely, she would smile, or bow, or grin. That's it, just that. And since everyone else was RPing often these things occurred at just coincidentally the right time so that Pinky seemed to be reacting to the rest of us. It was only after an hour or so in the same cantina with her that I realized these emotes were happening very regularly. Direct questions and tells to her going unanswered then provided the final evidence that she was AFK.
Now, when Pinky started frequenting the cantina she was an Apprentice Performer. She was doing Footloose or so, and I was already done with the first complete row of boxes in the dance tree, so my character was a Novice Dancer. But of course, Pinky is an AFKMer...
So after a couple of weeks, I had moved up to just getting Lyrical. Pinky showed up occasionally and had moved past me to higher and bigger titles... Enthraller... Choreographer... etc. About 2 weeks ago, she was "Master Dancer." She came into Keren cantina again and started actively performing a bit and saw my title, "Novice Dancer." She said, "Dejah, are you STILL a novice dancer?"... as if there was something wrong with me because I was so slow. So I had Dejah respond, "What the heck is that supposed to mean?" So in groupchat she said, "Sorry I just thought you were ahead of me." My response was, "I don't know about that but I really don't care. I play my character because I enjoy her, and so I am in no rush." She didn't respond, and shortly thereafter went (you guessed it), AFK.
Now for the fun part of the story. I saw Pinky in Keren cantina again yesterday. At first glance, I saw her doing the lyrical/formal "airplane" as I call it (you know, the jerky arm wave thing that happens sometimes instead of seeing the real animations, when the dancer is far enough from you). I assumed it was Lyrical. But then I got closer (doing Lyrical myself, you know how hard that dance is to control) and I saw one of the moves, and it was Formal... And then I noticed, she was wearing the title, "Apprentice Performer." What follows is a snippet of dialog with her:
Me: Pinky... didn't you used to be a master dancer?
Pinky: Yep
Me: So what happened? Or did you just change your title?
Pinky: I gave it up. Surrendered the whole skill tree.
Me: Oh.... Uh, why?
Pinky: Because I got tired of not making any money and not getting any respect from the other players.
At this point, another one of the dancers sent me a /tell:
Alpha tells you: Maybe if she would actually BE THERE instead of macroing people would tip her and respect her.
So... Pinky the AFK Macroed Master, within 2 weeks of acheiving master (probably less.. I was out of town for a few days), surrendered the entire dance tree because people did not respect her and did not tip her.
Within 10 minutes, guess what she was doing again? That's right, AFK Macroing. And this time, she had a tip-spam message stuck into her loop. "Tips are always welcomed, but never required."
Seems like someone hasn't learned from experience...
Anyway, that was a fun story I thought I would share with you all...
C
Boogop
Tue Oct 07, 2003 12:07 am
#2
Yeah, she's definitely in it for the wrong reasons and will be disappointed in any Entertainer tree she goes up.
My dancer will pay her dues in Coronet, but when she's advanced enough she'll go on her tour. Hang out in the deserted cantinas, chatting up whoever comes in, wearing her nice outfits, dancing her favorite dances.
Chessack
Tue Oct 07, 2003 12:34 am
#3
Another fun add-on to the story...
In late July when I started playing this game, I wanted to start on Naboo (I loved it in the movies) and the only city they would let you go to at the time to start with was Moenia. Figuring the other cities were for more experienced players I stayed there for a while. In Moenia there were about 10-15 entertainers at a time... Always a few were on AFK Macros but most of them were present.
At the time, the cantina activity was Theed, #1; Moenia, #2; Kaadara, #3; and Keren, #4 (last place).
Eventually in Moenia more and more people became AFKers. Soon I was the only one active. After getting sick of the AFKers and while I was learning to sample, I gave up on Moenia and started wandering. I found AFK-ness in Theed (with 20 people, and 18 or so being AFK) and in Kaadara... But when I blundered into Keren (quite by accident, because the cantina just happens to be right up the hill from the shuttle port and it was in the direction of the resource for which I was surveying) I found only 2 entertainers and 2 patrons, but they were all active and RPing (imagine that!). So I joined in with them "for a few minutes" and the next thing I knew the entire Saturday afternoon had gone by and way past dinner time... Heck I even made dinner really fast in the microwave and ate it at the keyboard (something I had not ever done with SWG before, at least, though I sometimes have with other games).
I ended up going back to Keren a lot and eventually it became my main stomping grounds. Meanwhile... Kaadara emptied out... shortly followed by Moenia... And so as of a few weeks ago, if you ctrl-v and open the cantina list, the only two manned cantinas were Keren and Theed... Keren went from being the least active/manned cantina to the second-most. All due to AFKers.
And now the last few days, even Theed does not have a star next to its name. Now, it may still be manned because people don't always remember to hit that button, but clearly something has changed. Whereas a month ago the "register" flag was set in all FOUR Naboo cantinas on my server... the last week or so, it has only been set in Keren. Theed has become known as the AFK cantina, and when people are looking to be actually entertained, we are now hearing that they are being told (by other players) to go to Keren.
Interesting, no...?
C
In late July when I started playing this game, I wanted to start on Naboo (I loved it in the movies) and the only city they would let you go to at the time to start with was Moenia. Figuring the other cities were for more experienced players I stayed there for a while. In Moenia there were about 10-15 entertainers at a time... Always a few were on AFK Macros but most of them were present.
At the time, the cantina activity was Theed, #1; Moenia, #2; Kaadara, #3; and Keren, #4 (last place).
Eventually in Moenia more and more people became AFKers. Soon I was the only one active. After getting sick of the AFKers and while I was learning to sample, I gave up on Moenia and started wandering. I found AFK-ness in Theed (with 20 people, and 18 or so being AFK) and in Kaadara... But when I blundered into Keren (quite by accident, because the cantina just happens to be right up the hill from the shuttle port and it was in the direction of the resource for which I was surveying) I found only 2 entertainers and 2 patrons, but they were all active and RPing (imagine that!). So I joined in with them "for a few minutes" and the next thing I knew the entire Saturday afternoon had gone by and way past dinner time... Heck I even made dinner really fast in the microwave and ate it at the keyboard (something I had not ever done with SWG before, at least, though I sometimes have with other games).
I ended up going back to Keren a lot and eventually it became my main stomping grounds. Meanwhile... Kaadara emptied out... shortly followed by Moenia... And so as of a few weeks ago, if you ctrl-v and open the cantina list, the only two manned cantinas were Keren and Theed... Keren went from being the least active/manned cantina to the second-most. All due to AFKers.
And now the last few days, even Theed does not have a star next to its name. Now, it may still be manned because people don't always remember to hit that button, but clearly something has changed. Whereas a month ago the "register" flag was set in all FOUR Naboo cantinas on my server... the last week or so, it has only been set in Keren. Theed has become known as the AFK cantina, and when people are looking to be actually entertained, we are now hearing that they are being told (by other players) to go to Keren.
Interesting, no...?
C
Sinda
Tue Oct 07, 2003 12:40 am
#4
Great stuff, Chessack. Thanks for sharing. I think this is a very eloquent answer to those who want to claim "What does my AFK macroing hurt?" Answer: More than anyone else, it hurts you.
Boogop
Tue Oct 07, 2003 12:57 am
#5
On my server, Kadaara is one of the quiet, non-AFK, a few live entertainer - places. Very nice.
Of course it's also the huge-pet-petting-zoo.
TheSkankinSpiv
Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:43 pm
#6
I'm not a dancer anymore but I remember the days when this was just becoming an emerging problem. Yes I am necroing this, but I'm only necroing it after finding it in search and figuring you guys would enjoy it. If you don't, I'm sorry.
Aynianu
Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:32 pm
#7
Nice yes 
quite familiar, was wondering what server they played on to see so many non afk in one place, but now its clear after i see the date..
quite familiar, was wondering what server they played on to see so many non afk in one place, but now its clear after i see the date../mourn good times
/pray they come back soon
Esharra
Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:17 pm
#8
My first thought was "heh..Chessack! Where you been?". As I read on, it looked familiar..checked the date..yeah. /sigh
Panthu
Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:56 am
#9
Mine too. *sniff* Oh well, these old threads are always a bummer.
Esharra wrote:
My first thought was "heh..Chessack! Where you been?".
Tiaga
Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:12 pm
#10
Somehow I thought to check the date before reading the post. I think I'm getting too used to /necro.. When I see an old familiar name, both "Are they back?" and "Is this and old post?" come to my mind equally. 
Sighryn
Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:22 pm
#11
This thread has reminded me of the first time I encountered an AFK dancer, and why it made me angry. It's not one of the reasons I think I've seen...
It was back in the first months of release. Late night, dancing away on Mos Eisley... I was ready for the fourth box of dancer and there was a Novice Dancer right there. I sent a /tell to ask for training... no reply... it took me quite awhile to figure out why. That was when I didn't even know how to write a macro...
TheSkankinSpiv
Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:35 pm
#12
Sighryn wrote:This thread has reminded me of the first time I encountered an AFK dancer, and why it made me angry. It's not one of the reasons I think I've seen...It was back in the first months of release. Late night, dancing away on Mos Eisley... I was ready for the fourth box of dancer and there was a Novice Dancer right there. I sent a /tell to ask for training... no reply... it took me quite awhile to figure out why. That was when I didn't even know how to write a macro...
I remember my first macro. I rarely used it because it was more fun deciding what my next move would be.
Tiaga
Thu Jan 06, 2005 5:57 pm
#13
TheSkankinSpiv wrote:
I remember my first macro. I rarely used it because it was more fun deciding what my next move would be.
I discovered macros pretty quick, and used a macro to get from novice entertainer to dancing IV the first time.
Once I hit formal, I didn't like what the macro was doing for me. Been hand flourishing ever since. I later regretted having used a macro for the entertainer boxes, once I discovered I knew everything formal to exotic like the back of my hand; the ins and outs of every single flourish. Basic, rhythmic and footloose I knew nothing about.
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