Dancer Archive

Hmm, maybe the end of Holocron'ing really is having a beneficial effect. We can only hope.

I had an odd experience last night. I walked into Coronet Cantina on TC2 and it was...empty. I've never seen it that way. Then again, I don't play all that much on TC, and when I do, I hang in my player city cantina.

I've noticed it little by little over the past month. There seems to be slightly fewer people grinding the entertainer profession as each week goes by. A couple weeks ago I was in Coronet on Kettemoor and the group was only slightly over half full. More and more people are ATK, and there's even a little chatter going on in group chat from time to time. I think little by little less people are grinding and waiting on the quests. Between 9 and 10 people might unlock but not know it, so they may just not bother, there'll be less then. And, then finally with 10, the only people grinding entertainer professions will be people who want to be entertainers!

Even if some are gonna be buffbots, and even if some are just grinding afk but plan to perform once they reach master, the reality is that nobody will be there unless they want to dance or play music, for whatever reason. That's a good thing. The hologrind made it easy for people to figure out how to afk, and there are some holes in our profession that have been irreparably damaged. But, the atmospheres in the Cantinas are going to change for the better, I'm sure of it.

The only thing that struck me funny was this. Maybe it deserves it's own topic, I dunno. I've always played on Kettemoor until recently when I decided to level up a dancer on Tarquinas to be with the lovely FuschiaD. I never realized that different servers indeed have quite different cultures. On Kettemoor, you almost *never* find a buffbot in Theed or Coronet. Most of the buffbots don't even go to public Cantinas in out of the way places like Dathomir or Yavin IV. They mostly stay in the player cities. As such, the buffbot damage doesn't seem quite as bad. But, on Tarquinas, they're all over the place! Multiple buffbots in the major public Cantinas. It's enough to drive me nuts. I suppose that if I am to "compete" on Tarquinas for buffing, I'm going to have to work even harder. I guess I'm up for a little challenge. But, I'm almost afraid that I'm going to go on a rampage, LOL. These buffbots really need to be stopped. I'm afraid of the fact that on certain servers, such as Tarquinas, our profession will be more damaged than on other servers, such as Kettemoor.

Fuschia did, however, point out to me that because Tarquinas has a lower population overall it's probably a lot harder to find a live buff there than on Kettemoor. That's probably true. I suppose one can't blame the population for doing what they feel they have to do in order to get a buff. But, I am hoping that once the hologrind is over, and the ratio of live performers to afk performers swings back into the favor of the live performers, things will change, a revolution, if you will. Right now, as much as I hate to admit it, the afk'ers OWN the Cantinas. They outnumber us about 10 to 1. We're at the mercy of a system that created this. And, we're at the mercy of the majority. And, the majority could really care less about us or how we feel.

But, after the hologrind, while there will still be afk'ers and buffbots, I'm sincerely hoping that those of us that stuck with it, even those of us who have dropped or stayed away from the public cantinas like the plaque will go back. Sure, there's something to be said for the player city cantinas. But, I think there's something to be said for returning to our roots and reclaiming what is ours. If we go back, and cultivate a culture like it was in the beginning with the up and coming newbie entertainers...well, maybe, just maybe, we can return to at least a fraction of the former glory that was the entertainer profession back in July 2003. It's really up to us to "train" the up and comers on what it means to be a real entertainer. It's up to us to return to the public Cantinas and make the live people outnumber the afk people...if not 10 to 1, then at least 3 or 4 to 1. That would be enough, I think to get the revolution started.

The hologrind *really* brought us down. It really lowered our morale. But, it's going to be over soon, and this is our chance to reclaim the Cantinas. Let's make an effort to do so, and see what happens.

Ahazi as well...

Slowly, gradually, I've been seeing Coronet and Theed (and to a degree, Bestine, which was never as bad) starting to clear up. 5 pm pacific one day last week, the main floor of the Coronet cantina had only two ATK performers... and no AFK at all. Sure, the front entryway was packed, but the main floor had opened up. At least for awhile... but this never used to be the case.

I think many of the hologrinders are sick of the grind, and may just be waiting for the quests. Gradually they're deciding to just wait it out.

I mentioned in the thread on my poll that the AFK thing may, after the end of the hologrind, not be quite as big an issue as it has been for a very long time. I think we're starting to see the beginning of things getting better. Watch and listen...

Well, we had all we could stand a few days ago, in the player city where I live. Buffbots (belonging toplayers/PAs who don't live in our town, they just like to hunt there)had taken up 24/7 residence on the stage in the cantina. Why they thought they all had to pile up there on the end of the runway, is beyond me.After several days of polite e-mails requesting they kindly move off the stage when going AFK so live entertainers could use it, and receiving rude responses to our requests, the bannings began.No more buffbots in the cantina, no more afk alts clapping & cheering, no more probots hovering over the stage healing the buffbots, no more afk healer character spamming away to keep himself from getting knocked offline.

I've always been a live and let live kind of person. I've always held myself to very stringent boundaries regarding interference in the game play preferences of others. (we never asked them to leave the cantina, just to get off the stage.) It is the toughest decision I have had to make in my time as mayor of our little PA/Faction independent, role-play focused town and I'm glad we've chosen to toss them out and take back our cantina.

None of the offending characters are hologrinding. While I'm certain that the end of the grind will relieve the crowding in the NPC town cantinas, I don't think it is the answer to end all our concerns. I was a dancer before the hologrind and, while buffbots were just getting started at the time, afk healing entertainers were prevalent. At least when the hologrind is over the greater problem..players periodicallybeing forced to break their activities to do something they don't want to do, ie: stop hunting/fighting to get healed/buffed, will become more obvious for what it is.

I keep looking for a Koster quote from a few years back about how players will always find a means of getting around anything that stands in the way of advancing their character (either in experience or monetarily)via their preferred playstyle..hate it when I can't find what I'm looking for. Hopefully, the day will come when developers realize that making a timesink that isrepetitive, boring and inconvenient just invites the players to find a way to avoid it.