Doctor Archive

I've come across a rather odd occurence. I'd been a Master Doc on the Gorath server for a while before deciding to setup a character in the Corbantis Galaxy. Initially I spent nearly every waking moment in the Coronet Med Center and if you hadn't told me I was out of Gorath I wouldn't have known, everything was nearly exactly the same down to the shouting tumblers with their pleas for credits.

Then I'd become Master Doc and it was time to venture out into the Starport and start making some credits. I quickly noticed that things on Corbantis are NOT as they are on Gorath. On the Gorath server it's customary for those would like to be buffed to form a line behind the Doc in the order in which they came. This apparently is not the case on Corbantis. What I'd noticed is that the "lines" as I'd know them on Gorath were not actually lines at all on Corbantis, what I'd see was a bunch of toons huddled around a Doc. This definitely is not the way I'm used to doing business.

So I immediately began my barking macro, the same as I'd used on Gorath for months; stats, duration, price bla bla bla, form a line and tip when I say. What immediately ensued was the toons huddling around me and bank tipping at their leisure, this was not what I was expecting. So I politely asked everyone to line up in the order which they'd arrived and was immediately treated to flames like, why do we have to line up? That's stupid... why don't you do it the easy way and just have everyone bank tip? I decided to come at these arguments head on and explain why I preferred my own methods but even then I was flamed for breaking the current Corbantis method of "huddling". I was told that my way was too difficult and it would be easier for me if I just accepted the bank tip method of service.

Now I can see how the huddle method might be more acceptable to the "buffee" since they don't have to perform the ridiculously difficult task of "moving forward in line every minute or so". Dont get me wrong I can clearly see that for the buffee it's easier for them to bank tip and go alt+tab it and check out their favorite Hentai site and come back in 20 minutes or so once the pipes are clean to a freshly buffed toon. That's not my problem with this method of buffing, my problem is the added stress it puts on me the Doc taking his time out to buff.

Let's consider the pros and cons of each method.

Line Method

Pros

• Fair to the Buffee because they can clearly see how many people are ahead of them in line.
  
• Convenient for the Doc because he can clearly see how many people are in line and he cleary knows who is next to be buffed without doing anything other than Looking to see who's next in line.
  
• I've found that lines can move very quickly in an organized line because the Doc himself does not really have to pay attention other than selecting your target and hitting your buff macro.
  

Cons

• The Buffee needs to pay a little bit more attention because he has to move forward in line every minute to 3 minutes or so, a little more quickly if the Doc is under the influence of Havla but that wouldn't last long anyway.
  

Huddle Method

Pros

• To be honest I don't like this method and I don't think there are any pros for the Doc, the only advantage would be to the buffee who can call in his bank tip and go AFK for 20 minutes or so.
  

Cons

• If you've got some people bank tipping and some people tipping directly it's definitely a pain in the arse because now you have to figure out where this direct tipper was in line compared to all the bank tippers. If you've got 20 toons in line waiting for buffs and 3 of them directly tipped you're in for a nice little memory game.
  
• Another problem with this method is all the /tells you get of people asking, how many people are ahead of me? I get a ton of these /tells and with a line this will not happen nearly as much.
  
• After each and every buff I have to go through my eMails to see who bank tipped next, whereas if there were a line I don't have to do anything because it's obvious who's next.
  
• I get a lot of bank tips from people in the Cantina saying they'll be in the starport soon and expect me to buff them in the order which they tipped, this isn't fair to the people who are actually waiting.
  

Well that's all I've got at the moment, don't consider this a flame on those of you who use this method I'm just trying to convey my thoughts on being newly inducted into this system in the past month or so. And by all means if you prefer the huddle method let me know why it works for you. All I'm trying to do is convey why it doesn't work as well for me.

Thanks,

-Dann
Gorath

-Haatori Haanzo "AKA the Buff Nazi"
Corbantis

OK well you kind of confused me because you said you prefer a huddle method but then at the end you said that lining up is easier for the Doc. I can definitely agree that buffees might prefer the huddle method, but in reality not all of them do. As much flaming as I got for requesting that they line up to receive buffs there were actually some that really liked the new method. You do make a very good point however and I appreciate your input. I was really curious how other Docs felt after discovering this.

When I told all of the other Docs on Gorath about the methods employed on Corbantis they couldn't even believe it. So maybe it's the fact that we're not used to it that we don't like it. I don't know.

LOL @ JIROB