Entertainer Archive

Then what does explain it Chessack? I started dancing in Tyrena. The groups were usually fair to mid-size. Over time the population dropped, and I moved to Mos Eisley. The groups there were usually larger than Tyrena. Not a whiff of AFKing. The group in Mos Eisley began to drop off as well. And by dropping off, I mean, people were no longer playing, not that they had moved on to other venues. All of this occurred before I ever saw an AFK or a silent macroer.

And it's not just the cantinas. People running around in the cities themselves were fewer and further between, in general. So if there were still such a large number of people actively playing, where did they go?

The cantina decline started before AFKing became as prevalent as it is now. So if AFKing wasn't the problem, what was?

I would like to add my experience echoes Chessak's...

First come the entertainers. They start gathering in an area and having fun.

Then come the people, knowing they will find entertainers there.

Then come the AFKers, knowing they will find experience there.

Then the entertainers leave, to find somewhere else that isn't overrun.

Then the AFKers leave, as they have reached master, or decided it's not worth the skill point crunch.

Then the people leave, since there is no longer healing there.

I watched this cycle repeat itself in Theed, Coronet, Moenia, Bestine, Keren, Tyrena, Mos Eisley... I saw several waves of this cycle. I have seen every single one of those cantinas packed wall to wall, and I have seen every single one completely deserted, at the same time of day in different weeks.

The holocrons have ground the cycle to a halt, though. Whereas before there was just a steady trickle of AFKers, now there is a constant flood of them. Two come in to replace every one that masters. So Coronet is locked in the AFK wasteland. And people go there for healing.

The entertainers have moved on to other places, but as the cycle was broken, people did not follow. Even the socializers like to get experience, but there was none. They waited for the cycle to resume itself, but it never did. Some of them have given up. Some have faced the music (... er.. noise) and waded back into the cantinas where the experience is. Some struggle on, wandering, hoping to bump into another like soul.

The cycle has ended, forever stuck in the sea of AFK stage. And that is why it has become even more of a problem since the holocrons. Before, it was just a matter of finding out which cantina the entertainers currently held, and going there. Now, there is none.

Tiaga...

As usual you have hit the nail on the head again about "the cycle." I was sort of wondering (without doing it consciously) why the cycle never re-set itself, but I think you have the right of it.

Which is why you find me in my guild's cantina when I perform. I am 3 boxes away from Master and at this stage will probably never get it. Why? Is it because I suck as a dancer? Hardly. I've been complimented on my dancing often. Is it because I don't know where the xp is? No, I know exactly where it is -- Theed, Coronet, Anchorhead. No.. it's because I refuse to participate in the wasteland of AFKness, and to perform I do not need the last 3 healing boxes. Screw the healing boxes and the master title. I am here to have fun.

Thankfully, my guild cantina enables me to have that social interaction and the fun. If not I would probably have quit dancing altogether, and maybe the game.

C

I hope that the entertainer problem is addressed at some point.. it's just sad.

My experience is not the same as yours. I'm not saying you didn't see what you saw, but I saw something different. I saw AFKing come in FIRST, in three different cantinas. I saw that drive out the actives, leaving only AFK healers. Then the AFKers master up, leave, and the cantina is an empty husk.

Even IF people had left the game in droves as you would have us believe (and I don't think they have), the server load change occurred late in the summer. AFK Macroers were prevalent on my server from before that.

C