Entertainer Archive

NEmir Kazer Kal'rakenN
Headman of the Dual Sun Brigands
Master Pirate and Bria's Original Rude Boy
Unofficial Bria Roleplaying Guild Directory Imperial Intelligence Profile: Kazer Kal'raken

"When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro." -Hunter S. Thompson

"Rolling, turning, diving, going in again. Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die. Run, live to fly, fly to live, aces high."-Iron Maiden

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Since June 2004, running one of the game's first completely nonviolent characters. Testing the limits of non-combat MMORPG play and trying to have fun into the bargain (although the developers make it difficult).

Combat is no longer compulsory.

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Since June 2004, running one of the game's first completely nonviolent characters. Testing the limits of non-combat MMORPG play and trying to have fun into the bargain (although the developers make it difficult).

Combat is no longer compulsory.

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Since June 2004, running one of the game's first completely nonviolent characters. Testing the limits of non-combat MMORPG play and trying to have fun into the bargain (although the developers make it difficult).

Combat is no longer compulsory.

Howdy Beery,

Taking up your offer on a visit for discussion.

I am a BH now, but that wasnt always the case. I started the game as an Entertainer / Artisan. I was in love with the idea of playing a MMOG with out having to mindlessly pummle monsters all day. I began on Tatooine, Bestine to be exact. At that time nearly all of the Entertainers were real people and not afk macros.

Then began the grind.

Previously the Cantinas were my favorite place to hang out, there was lively discussions and good jokes. Folks were trying out songs and lots of cool stuff. Back then we even got tips from time to time. Then something happened, over the period of a couple weeks the Cantina became sterile. Sure there were folks there, but no "people". No one laughed at my jokes, and the /bandflourish got stale. So I went back to my crafting hoping that it was just an off time.

I crafted and crafted, eventually attaining Master Tailor. I loved that. I just loved being able to make clothes for folks, it was a very productive and lucrative time. But orders for the more exotic items dropped off, it was rare to even get an order from an entertainer...seeems they all bought one set of cloths, turned on their macro then went to do something else. Heck, there were times when I could sit in Theed, Bestine, or Coronet with my Master Tailor tag on in a full cantina and get no inquireies. Thats when I decided that if I wanted to play with real people I would have to become a combat specialist.

I really enjoyed being a musician, and loved being a master tailor, but after making the umpteenth black special ops duster I decided that the Grind had killed the social aspect of the game. So now I am a MBH, leader of a little guild, we hunt and sell the hides/meat we get. Its fun but its not the same. I truly miss the bustle of the Cantina, and the production of gardrobes. I imagine one day I will do it again but now I have responsibilities to my PA.

One thing is for certain though, I wont pick up my sliltherhorn again until the grind is well and truely dead. Entertainers should entertain...is that so much to ask.

I see that you are on a crusade right now, and I admire you for that. However, until the grind is dead I fear you are wasting your breath.

-Gooney

Thanks for your insights Gooney. A well thought-out post. I can't fault anything you said. Definitely the grind is hurting our profession. But I tend to think that now is as good a time as any to crusade against it. If we wait until it's completely over we'll just be thatmuch fartherbehind. While we run the risk of tilting at a few windmills in the meantime, we also run the chance of getting a head start on issues that will still be there after the hologrind ends. After all, it's not like AFKing was a minor problem before the days of the hologrind. Before buffbots came along it was our biggest annoyance (and the biggest entertainment-relatedannoyance of the people who pay us). The disappearance of the hologrind will onlyturn AFKing from a major party-pooper intothe medium-level annoyance it was before. I think we need to remove it altogether. Meanwhile, our biggest issue now has to be the buffbot craze. If AFKing is the 'common cold' of the entertainment professions, surely buffbots aretheir 'bubonic plague'. Buffbots are killing entertainers on a daily basis, and the developers simply aren't aware of, or don't care about,this serious threat to the game.

One thing about orders for exotic clothing items - this may be amore complicatedsituation than anyone realises. Did orders for exotic clothing die off simply because entertainers got all the clothes they required? Did it die off because entertainers are one of thefew classes that are not likely to get killed regularly, and so don't suffer from frequent decay? Or did it die off because entertainers were finding that the AFKers were alienating the playercommunity and thereby slowing the flow of tips to the entertainer community in general? I would imagine that nowadays, with buffbots removing the need to tip real entertainers altogether, that very few (if any)exotic clothing items are sold. We are seeing our pay dry up really fast, so we have to make do with what we have. We certainlydon't have the spending power that we had a few months ago, and even then we weren't exactly well paid. The result is that we cut back on luxury items, and since clothing doesn't decay unless you're foolish enough to get killed - andentertaining isn't exactly a high-danger profession, there's no need (and nocashflow) to buy new clothes. In short, Ithinkthis issue has a lot of causes that play into your perception of entertainers slowly losing interest in buying exotic items. I was all for the automatic decay over time that would have ensured a steady income for clothes vendors, but I was shouted down on every forum I raised the issue on. Some tailors were evenagainst it because they were afraid that the developers (in their infinite wisdom) might make clothing decay while it was sittingon their shelves.

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Since June 2004, running one of the game's first completely nonviolent characters. Testing the limits of non-combat MMORPG play and trying to have fun into the bargain (although the developers make it difficult).

Combat is no longer compulsory.

Beery,

I agree with you the buff botting is a problem, however it is a problem that we will just have to live with for as long as we play MMOGs. The Macroing is a big boogie man, I dont see how they could really fix it with out absolutly destroying some of its real benificial elements.

Namely crafting, even though it is a macro it does require you to be at the keyboard, so this I think is ok.

There are other good uses. However I think alot of it could be solved by simply making any macro time out after a uncomfortable time interval, say 7 minutes. That way its too short to actually leave your keyboard but long enough to not be too big of a hassle for a crafter.

I dunno thats a tough one.

About the clothes. Entertainers in my personal experiance devote a great deal of their storage space to different outfits, (real entertainers anyhow). Many that I had met would change thier wardrobes quite often. At the height of the grind most of those either left the game or moved on to other occupations. After all, its not too much fun standing in a jam packed cantina with a bunch of macro-monkies bleating out for group invites, tips, heals, when the alternative is going out and grouping with actual people.

What was left for me as a tailor was endless crafting of dark colored, rugged, field wear. Sure it was profitable but it wasnt all that much fun or fulfilling as a tailor. I never had vendors, my clothing was all made on order, excepting the hot sellers that I would constantly put on the bazaar. I was by no means rich but I was happy when I could create clothing for people that they actually wanted instead of them going to a "Mall" and buying factory made mass produced items. Oh well.

Anyhow there ya have it.

-Gooney

I say the best, most visible, and most important thing entertainers can do to affect change is to start performing again, ESPECIALLY in the public cantinas. Do the things you have always done, and strive to do them well with your audience in mind. Taking yourselves away from your audience in an attempt to garner visability or support will only hurt the ones that need us the most: the patrons. Because this war we are fighting has as much to do with them as it does for us. For when the holosea dries up, and we are gone, all they will have are unattended alts run by people who could care less about them. And they will be putting good players on /deny for silly things like what PA they belong to, or that they don't tip enough to get their boring performance from somebody who does not have the decency to give them a live performance.

Madame Sirii Ajaan
August 2003-September 15, 2005
"There is a difference between being /watched and being WATCHED."

"Taking yourselves away from your audience in an attempt to garner visability or support will only hurt the ones that need us the most: the patrons."

Well part of the problem is that a majority of our patrons simply don't care whether we're there or not. Most regard us as little more than NPC that they can get a heal and a buff from - and if they can get what they want from an AFKer or a buffbot, their attitude is: "what difference does it make?" As long as we're playing in the cantinas as if everything was hunky-dory that's not going to change. Our patrons need to realise that we're players too, and that our issues matter as much as theirs. If we don't do something to make that clear, the leets will never think we're worth a tip or even a thank-you.

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Since June 2004, running one of the game's first completely nonviolent characters. Testing the limits of non-combat MMORPG play and trying to have fun into the bargain (although the developers make it difficult).

Combat is no longer compulsory.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since June 2004, running one of the game's first completely nonviolent characters. Testing the limits of non-combat MMORPG play and trying to have fun into the bargain (although the developers make it difficult).

Combat is no longer compulsory.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since June 2004, running one of the game's first completely nonviolent characters. Testing the limits of non-combat MMORPG play and trying to have fun into the bargain (although the developers make it difficult).

Combat is no longer compulsory.