Dancer Archive
Thread: Revivg Old Cantinas
We told everyone coming in to pass the word around and with a bit of luck we might be able to revive the Lucky Despot back to some of it's former partyingglory. This got me thinking, if live entertainers got together and shook the dust off of some of these old cantinas, then we could offer an enjoyable place to relax and socalize instead ofa spam filled zombie fortress.Name of Event: Scum and Villany Night
In-game Contact: Dwilah
Location: The Lucky Despot Cantina, Mos Eisley
Date: Time: 8:00 PM CST on June the 19th, 2005
Purpose of Event: A cantina gathering for business, socializing, and shady dealings. Live entertainment usually present.
The band I perform with, The Kreetles, plays there along with other folks who come by for jams.
Our band tried to do a "cantina revival tour" on Naritus and it was a complete bomb. I posted every week on the forums, and the same 3 or 4 people (guild mates and old friends) came to see us -- I got the feeling it was more out of pity for all the work we do, and them not wanting us to perform to an empty room, than anything else. Other than those 3 or 4 people, nobody came.
I'm quite sure if people knew we were there performing they would rather see live, good performances than AFK looped macros, but the question is, how do you tell the people in game? Out of 20 or 30 people who might have posted on this forum to say "Cool I will check it out," I don't think a single one ever came to watch.
After about 12 weeks of this we just gave up and stopped roaming the galaxy, and went back to performing in our home cantina. And the same 3 or 4 people come to those gigs too....
C
Chessack wrote:
How exactly do you advertise or put the word out, shy of shout spamming (which I will never do under any circumstances)?
It hasn't been easy, that's for sure. The best way is by word of mouth and constant roleplay. On Gorath, there were many people who loved roleplay and they created their own forum for it, which is SWGTales.com. It's been a long reaching vision, a way to pull roleplayers together. If you visit the forums there, you can ask folks how the managed to get the Lucky Despot thing going.
Another good form of advertising is to plan the weekly event. Let's say, at the Lucky Despot. Pick what you want, try to find other roleplayers to assist, show up or whatever. To advertise, get the band together and play in various starports. Pull out all the high level songs and dances, plus all the cool lightshow droids. People *will* show up and come by for a few minutes at least. You can interact with people and let them know about the gig. The majority of players who show up for these kinds of things, *DO NOT* read the forums here, so would never know about the events. Heck, most players don't know that the events are listed on the main SWG site, too.
Have an email that you can forward to people. When you interact with neat people, put them on your friends list. YOu can send out emails to those folks, with waypoints and information. Eventually, you will start building a crowd.
I think there are more people who would love to do this kind of thing, but don't know how to get started or how to find things going on.
Chessack wrote:
How exactly do you advertise or put the word out, shy of shout spamming (which I will never do under any circumstances)?
Our band tried to do a "cantina revival tour" on Naritus and it was a complete bomb. I posted every week on the forums, and the same 3 or 4 people (guild mates and old friends) came to see us -- I got the feeling it was more out of pity for all the work we do, and them not wanting us to perform to an empty room, than anything else. Other than those 3 or 4 people, nobody came.
I'm quite sure if people knew we were there performing they would rather see live, good performances than AFK looped macros, but the question is, how do you tell the people in game? Out of 20 or 30 people who might have posted on this forum to say "Cool I will check it out," I don't think a single one ever came to watch.
After about 12 weeks of this we just gave up and stopped roaming the galaxy, and went back to performing in our home cantina. And the same 3 or 4 people come to those gigs too....
C
I agree, it can be a real challenge to draw a good crowd.
First, as opposed to having people barking (which just seems to annoy people), try putting droids out at less common starports (so it's not a part of "the mess" but a few folks here and there will see it). When people run through Coronet or Theed, they pretty much just don't look at chat bubbles much, or Spatial, and even make the effort to start ignoring people. Less populated areas will get your message out because people won't expect something to bark there. Mos Eisley is good for new folks, and since the Lucky Despot is right nearby but usually empty (but very, very cool inside in my opinion), you can try to draw folks there. You'll need a Merchant with Advertising IV for them to use a barking droid.
Now, aside from barking (which is only so effective), you need word of mouth advertising. My advice is to get a friendly person to go get something rare in the game that they've never been inclined to get, but could be handed out as a prize in a drawing. People LOVE free stuff in this game. You can even get a friendly crafter to donate some stuff to give away (advertising for them isn't a bad deal). The more free stuff to give away, the more word will spread - "Hey, head to the Lucky Despot, it's Entertainment night and they're giving away all sorts of stuff!"
Especially for new players in Eisley, this could be a nice intro to the game, and they can get something as "cheap" to veterans as a crate of Swoops or a small house deed (plus one year's maintenance or something), and be ecstatic. Credits are always a nice present, too. Never can have enough of those. Maybe set up a lottery droid just outside the city and advertise where it's at, put a low buy-in, and see how many people eventually start getting in on it. Find a "permanent" spot and ensure a lottery droid is there. You get part of the proceeds of the lottery. You can also enter the lottery yourself, and if you win, put it in the pot for prizes and giveaways.
Get a crafter to join in, providing "one free droid to the winner's specifications" or whatever. Get creative.
Just a few thoughts I have.
I'm actually pretty excited about getting the Lucky Despot going on Starsider. It's too cool of a place to have empty - nice corner areas (for shady deals), gambling right where you sit, cool graphics.
I'm going to start a weekly event at the Lucky Despot on Starsider, I think. I don't care if it's just me playing to the NPC's. I want to start a place and time where someone KNOWS they can come there and get live entertainment. And I think the giveaways are the way to do it.
First I need to finish getting Master Architect on my crafter 
Warryyr wrote:
I'm going to start a weekly event at the Lucky Despot on Starsider, I think.
Let me know what day/time you plan and if I can, I'll come by and join in. Even if I don't have any skills, I'll come for some fun.
Cool, I will do so
Gothywench wrote:
Warryyr wrote:
I'm going to start a weekly event at the Lucky Despot on Starsider, I think.
Let me know what day/time you plan and if I can, I'll come by and join in. Even if I don't have any skills, I'll come for some fun.
Really, the best way to advertise is to involve the patrons. At first there was only one person there who had come to find Han Solo. I started roleplaying with,( talking about how kind Solo was to me when I began dancing at the Lucky Despot,ect.) I then asked him to spread the word about the Lucky Despot.It was not long before wordof mouth brought more people.I also stopped by M.E. cantina grouped with all the Live ents I could find and brought them down to Lucky Despot.
Fun must attract more fun, because as we all set up and started dancing and roleplaying we noticed a few more people coming in. After a while we had a steady flow of people coming in and out. Now, we did advertise with /shout, but not to frequently, and in planet chat. Another good way would be to broadcast it, with the location, in the ent chat channel
Message Edited by Dmux on 06-15-2005 11:34 AM
The AFK zombies go where the crowd is. If they realize that the crowd is not at the cantina anymore and theres no XP to get, they'll follow you to the Despot.
Coreena wrote:
Just be aware of one thing:
The AFK zombies go where the crowd is. If they realize that the crowd is not at the cantina anymore and theres no XP to get, they'll follow you to the Despot.
Not necessarily. It's very much of a roleplay event, the way we have it. And it's only for a couple of hours. You can revivie it and book events, without attracting the AFK crowd.
Same with taking over a theatre in one of the NPC cities. Since it's a scheduled party, only the people interested will come over. The main priority isn't to get buffed or BF healing, but to engage in an entertaining evening.
True, but it will be easy to make it very uncomfortable for AFKers at the Despot, by politly asking our patrons not to tip or give them attention, and of course we won't group with them. Once they realize that they are not going to get money or xp, they'll most likely move to another AFK hotspot, like Theed.
Ari'Ess, The Lucky Despot, Eclipse
Dmux wrote:True, but it will be easy to make it very uncomfortable for AFKers at the Despot, by politly asking our patrons not to tip or give them attention, and of course we won't group with them. Once they realize that they are not going to get money or xp, they'll most likely move to another AFK hotspot, like Theed.
Ari'Ess, The Lucky Despot, Eclipse
Exactly. Since the whole reason we're doing this is to discourage AFKers, the people who we bring over also don't appreciate it. They will refuse to /tip or /watch/listen to these bots.