Dancer Archive
Thread: Ok if they can fix the AFK surveying why not AFK dancing?
Something I'm curious about, though: how did they "fix" AFK surveying ? I did a good chunk of my surveying XP while AFK with nothing but a simple in-game macro. I learned how to do it from a couple other people.
Also, I'll like to refer you to the knowledge base in regards to the policies as they stand.
article soe7122 - indicates that it is not against policies to AFK entertain or sample, as long as the player is using only the ingame macro system (eg. no third party software).
article soe7030 - indicates that AFK macroing (anything, not just entertaining/sampling) is okay, as long as there are no third party programs involved.
As I see it, until SOE changes their policies regarding AFK/unattended macroing, nothing is going to change much with SOE implementing ways to "fix" entertainer as suggested. Improve it so being at keys would be more rewarding, perhaps.
MAcroing Entertainment is ok, perfectly acceptable and even desirable.... i want someone to macro-AFK on endor and dathomir.
Oh, it's acceptable because you want it ? Great. Lets hope you never want credits for free or 90m poisons or defense stacking or kill stealing.
nvoigt wrote:
MAcroing Entertainment is ok, perfectly acceptable and even desirable.... i want someone to macro-AFK on endor and dathomir.
Oh, it's acceptable because you want it ? Great. Lets hope you never want credits for free or 90m poisons or defense stacking or kill stealing.
I don't think that's what he said at all. He made two different statements:
1) AFK macroing is acceptable.
2) He wants an AFK macroer on endor or dathomir.
And he's correct on the first one. While it may not be how the game was intended to be played (or not played) we can't ignore the fact that it has been OK'ed by SOE. Until that changes, we will have the AFKers in the cantinas, like it or not.
As for the second, I can't really blame him there, and I've seen MANY entertainers leave their dancer characters in the advanced planet cantinas so that battle-weary hunters can get some much needed healing. This is the only case where I don't question masters AFKing. I'm usually quite grateful for the dancers that come to the advanced planets, AFK or no.
*waves to everyone*
Been reading posts and complaints about AFK dancing for awhile and I finally decided to put in my two cents on it.
There were a few questions asked here. "what happen to the days when you went into a cantina and you could joke around with your fellow dancers/musicians?"
I think player cities might have something to do with this. Not the main reason, but definately part of it. Players are going to go where their friends are, where their PA travels. So if a bunch of my friends moved to a player city (or started one), I"m going to spend most of my time there socializing. But, entertainers go where the traffic is, and player cities seem to be bare nowadays. So the point is a hard one to prove.
As for afk'ing it...I personally don't see the problem with it. I look at it this way...When I was leveling my dancer, there were a few people in the cantina coming to get healed. Most of the time they themselves are not even interested in a conversation (I'm not saying ALL just most). Meanwhile I'm surrounded by mindless bodies dancing. There's no conversation going on in the cantina because of these situations. So who would want to sit at their computer and flourish for hours and hours. Yes I understand that's not what dancer is all about. There's dancing routines and combinations I could create. Plenty of things in which I could do while leveling dancer. But finding a conversation in a cantina is few and far between. So it's kind of like a catch 22. I don't wanna afk it. I don't wanna become a mindless body dancing. But staring at the monitor without anything going on seemed I was slowly becoming one as is.
It was easy to level entertainer when at least 75% of the players in the cantina were actually there at the keyboards talking. It helps the time go by while dancing.
A few things before I end this post.
I'm not a hologrinder. I did this because being a dancer fit my character's storyline. I am starting a band with a fellow roleplayer as it is.
I did afk grind through dancer. I did when I went to sleep or in the early mornings. When I was home from work and playing the game I was at the keyboard the whole time.
It's their money let them spend it the way they want.
Mastering entertainer/dancer/musician is time consuming. And in the given situation with cantinas acting like a morge...who wants to hang out there the whole time? So get the mastering out of the way so you can start a band and create songs and routines and find another aspect in which to enjoy dancer.
That's exactly what I have done.
It's just a difference of opinion. No reason for anyone to get upset. LOL a little disclaimer there.
I was thinking about this. What would happen if you tried toput ona show.. but during parts of it each of the entertainers got a littlemessage and had to perform a completely different flourish? It would through the whole thing off .. andlook very bad (unless you could account it to a solo? Hrm). So.. that's why I think the fix for surveying won't work for us.
Just a li'l thought.
nvoigt wrote:MAcroing Entertainment is ok, perfectly acceptable and even desirable.... i want someone to macro-AFK on endor and dathomir.
Oh, it's acceptable because you want it ? Great. Lets hope you never want credits for free or 90m poisons or defense stacking or kill stealing.
hey, some of us CMs are actually trying to get that 90m poison/diseased thing fixed
at least i've been bugging Texxie about bugging the devs about it 
just because the game allows certain things doesn't mean it's "ok". things are called "exploits" for a reason... i wouldn't say afk macroing is an exploit, although it's certainly not "desirable".
Pappi wrote:
just because the game allows certain things doesn't mean it's "ok". things are called "exploits" for a reason... i wouldn't say afk macroing is an exploit, although it's certainly not "desirable".
Fuschia, you're right in that some people are only afk'ing when they're not playing. But, that isn't everybody and it does have some consequences. First of all, some of those afk'ing are people with 2 accounts. Nothing wrong with that. But, it still leads to the main problem that I see with a game that is too highly geared towards afkmacro'ing. That is, you're taking business away from the people that are actually playing at any given time. If I go to an advanced planet, as I mentioned in my original post in this thread, because I want to heal and entertain there because I realize the people there are in need of healing and entertaining, it saddens me to see an afk entertainer there or perhaps even an afk buffbot that is taking away my business. I go with the sole purpose of helping out (and making more credits than I could in a populated cantina--I won't lie about that, hehe), and I can't get as much out of my experience there, monetarily or otherwise, because someone who isn't playing at the time, is taking my business away.
Generally, since afk is fully supported, and technically even encouraged by the devs, I can't complain too much. After all, it's not my right to force someone to play the way I would ideally like to see things played. However, you see the afk entertainers on the adventure planets as doing you a service. I can understand how you might feel that way. But, there are a great many entertainers who see it as doing the atk players a disservice by taking away some of our opportunities. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I don't have a problem with afk per se, because that's you're choice or anyone's choice. But, I do think it's a little inconsiderate at times because I truly believe that *certain* styles of afk play have negative consequences for the atk'ers. As you said I believe there are more nice players than jerky players. And, I completely would give people the benefit of the doubt and think they probably don't even know that they're taking away a potential opportunity of mine. So, I don't think they're evil or anything, lol. I just think some people need to be aware that this kind of thing can cause certain negative consequences.
Message Edited by Drygo on 04-17-2004 01:18 AM