Entertainer Archive
Thread: How do Entertainers make money?
KraytDragonMan
Sun Jul 11, 2004 7:18 am
#27
Beery wrote:
Let me assure you that your experience is by no means typical.
I know I had just gotten lucky.
Beery
Sun Jul 11, 2004 9:21 am
#28
Hehe, oh I see. The way your post reads it seems like you were saying that you ALWAYS made that much moneyEVERYten minutes, lol. Anyone can have a lucky day (or a lucky ten minutes). But the day-to-dayreality is that cantinaentertainers can make muchmore money if they pick up ANY secondary job. That's just not right. A job should pay the bills. We shouldn't have to take up secondary careers to make cash, because these better-payingsecondary careers have a way of becoming primary careers, and that leads to exactly what we're seeing - cantinas full of AFKers and no entertainers sticking with the profession once they've mastered it.
Message Edited by Beery on 07-11-2004 12:22 PM
Aakhperkare
Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:23 am
#29
I don't know if it's just my bad luck or what. But on Intrepid, entertainers are few and far between, and that's a shame. I miss the days I could go to Anchorhead knowing who was going to be there 9 times out of 10. Often times jamming with them myself.
Anymore, it's hard to tell who is AFK (because they don't always have the tag) or who just doesn't choose to play out their character, and just basically stands there. I wish the devs would give a ton more incentive to be an entertainer if they could stop with the Jedi craze for two seconds.
I usually tip 5k regular, it goes up the more passionate the entertainer is...
Kreistor
Mon Jul 12, 2004 11:43 am
#30
nvoigt wrote:
I ran 8 Fusion generators on Novice Artisan and Surveying 3. It's more than enough to pay the rent. I still think it's a shame that 20 minutes of gametime daily and a Novice profession yields millions of credits while 3-5 hours gametime daily with 3 Master professions yields... enough to buy a new dress every week.
Wow!! Some Entertainersmake enough credits to buy a dress EVERY WEEK?!?
Sorry, had to throw in this extremely sarcastic remark 
Rebeeka
Mon Jul 12, 2004 4:07 pm
#31
nvoigt wrote:
I ran 8 Fusion generators on Novice Artisan and Surveying 3. It's more than enough to pay the rent. I still think it's a shame that 20 minutes of gametime daily and a Novice profession yields millions of credits while 3-5 hours gametime daily with 3 Master professions yields... enough to buy a new dress every week.
Sadly this is very true.I've found Lokian Wild Wheat farming to bethebest source ofreliable income, although any resource that is used to make Doctor buffs will make you a very consistent income (Tatooine fiberplast is good too if Lok scares you.) If you think about it though, if you do not have a combat profession, what are you going to spend those millions on realistically?
Beery
Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:31 pm
#32
"If you think about it though, if you do not have a combat profession, what are you going to spend those millions on realistically?"
Clothes: 5 to 10K per item.
Personal transport: 15 to 50K per vehicle.
Droids: 50 to 100K for a good quality entertainment droid. I use 3 of these.
House: I don't know how much these are as I don't own one, but I'm sure they're not cheap.
House rent: again, not cheap.
Furniture: I'd love to have some, but I can't evenafford a house to put it in.
Spaceship: after JTL we non-combat classes would love to hold parties in space. Big party ships won't be cheap.
I think there's enough there to be going on with (we must alreadybe over a million there), and that's just what I can think ofoff the top of my head.
DarkY0da
Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:34 pm
#33
Collecting all of the Anniversary Painting...
AV-21
Decorating my house.
Buying better Harvester so that I can make money.
Buying BF healing Tapes
Buying Buff Enhancement Tapes
That should take me 3-4 years at the current rate maybe longer.
tIme2DiE
Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:02 am
#34
"There are a lot of female players that enjoy watching a male dance (and males too, for that matter.) "
LMAO
LMAO
Rebeeka
Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:00 pm
#35
Beery wrote:
"If you think about it though, if you do not have a combat profession, what are you going to spend those millions on realistically?"
Clothes: 5 to 10K per item.
Personal transport: 15 to 50K per vehicle.
Droids: 50 to 100K for a good quality entertainment droid. I use 3 of these.
House: I don't know how much these are as I don't own one, but I'm sure they're not cheap.
House rent: again, not cheap.
Furniture: I'd love to have some, but I can't evenafford a house to put it in.
Spaceship: after JTL we non-combat classes would love to hold parties in space. Big party ships won't be cheap.
I think there's enough there to be going on with (we must alreadybe over a million there), and that's just what I can think ofoff the top of my head.
True, but other than house rent, none of that stuff really degrades. Once you buy it, you have it for life. As hard as it is to believe, eventually you run out of clothes to buy (trust me, I tried, really). Furniture is nice, but no one visits my house but me so no one ever sees it,andit's not likeyouneed to sleep.I would imagine that spaceships will not be cheap, but all us vets will be getting a free one. I thought about buying an AV21, but seriously, why? It doesn't do anything the vehicles I already have don't do. Besides, entertaining isn't really about the money, right? 
En-Sabah-Nur
Tue Jul 13, 2004 5:19 pm
#36
I still think a female makes more inherently. I was bored and made a female on a server. Didn't take but 20 minutes for guys to be offering me everything in existence and generally be helpful in fact they wouldn't take no for a answer. These same guys would just walk by my male player on that same server. As for me though I can still make a bit as an entertainer but most of that is charm. Making the jokes that make people at least consider tipping. I can make on average 25k to 50k a night as a Male Twi'lek Master Dancer, leveling musician. From buffs to just general tips because of my witty banter.
Beery
Tue Jul 13, 2004 5:44 pm
#37
"True, but other than house rent, none of that stuff really degrades. Once you buy it, you have it for life."
But you're still not grasping the problem (and you fail tomention that entertainers need to travel - that is an ongoing expense). It's fine having stuff that doesn't degrade - sure, that's a reason why the pay of entertainers doesn't need to be as much as some other professions, but it's not a reason for the pay to be as low as it is. The problem is, you're assuming that entertainers can get these things in the first place. Many cannot. Some of us just don't make enough money. A Master Entertainer, for example, would be hard pressed to buy any of the aforementioned items. He has no saleable skills. He works purely for tips based on the heals he provides, and that means it's gonna be months before he can afford a house or even a bike. Now obviously that's a worst-case scenario - people who become MEs usually go on to more lucrative entertainer professions. But for the person who spends only a few hours a week playing the game, it can mean endless frustration. Not all players are powergamers who blast through professions in a couple of days. There are many players who cannot devote the time, and for these players, the inability to make money from the cantina professions is a major headache.
If you think that we should be happy withthe eventual ability to buy nice things, you fail to appreciate the seriousness of the problem. Some of us are looking at months or years of scrimping and saving. This is a game. It's not real life. Players should be able to get the fun stuff relatively quickly, no matter what profession they choose. Otherwise the game is merely a grind to make money. Some of us have enough of that in the real world.
"Furniture is nice, but no one visits my house but me so no one ever sees it,andit's not likeyouneed to sleep.I would imagine that spaceships will not be cheap, but all us vets will be getting a free one. I thought about buying an AV21, but seriously, why? It doesn't do anything the vehicles I already have don't do. Besides, entertaining isn't really about the money, right?"
So you're saying that we should be happy enough with our lot, even though we seem to be significantly worse-off than many other professions? The "up yours, I'm alright Jack" attitude is not a convincing argument. This is a game. It's supposed to be enjoyed to the utmost by all players - not just byvets and powergamers. The idea thatsome of usshould be happy with a pronouncedinability to participate in the game's luxuries simply because we choose to be entertainers is, quite frankly, offensive.
Rebeeka
Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:40 pm
#38
Fundamentally, we agree Beery.It's no secret that Entertainer missions have an embarrassingly low payout with regards to the time it takes to completethem.Entertainers should be able to make a "decentliving" by entertaining. Back in July/Aug when I started, everyone was poor and I saved every credit I could just to buy one decent outfit (which I still own). The problem comes when youtry to determine what a "decent living" means and what it is that you need versus what you want. I wanted a house, speeders, droids, lots of nice clothes, and, more recently, a couple of holocrons. Realizing that I wasn't going to get those things dancing in NPC cantinas for tips, I found other ways of making credits. You get a lot of skillpoints and Novice Artisan and a few levels in Surveyor do not cost that much. Not everyone will want to do that, and frankly, you're right, they shouldn't have to in order to afford the things the game has to offer.But trying to judge how long it shouldtake a Master Entertainer performing his profession to afford an AV-21 that costs 1,000,000 credits is tricky business. Especially when seriously thinking about worth when it really doesn't do anything that a 15K speeder bike doesn't do just as well.
"Not all players are powergamers who blast through professions in a couple of days. There are many players who cannot devote the time, and for these players, the inability to make money from the cantina professions is a major headache."
Sadly, all MMORPGs, at their core reward time-played above anything else. Unless you log on to use SWG as a fancy version of AIM, simply logging in a playing the game will put you ahead of the person that doesn't. SWG is especiallyunique in this regardsince even unattended time-played is rewarded. This isn't just AFK bot-ing either, this includes the entire resource gathering, crafting, merchant SWG experience. Lots of merchants (and merchant alts) spend very little time actually logged in but still make hundreds of thousands of credits as items are produced in harvestors / factories which can then be sold on merchants that will still be standing there even after they have logged out for the night. In a perfect model, we as entertainer would have some product that would be worth something to these individuals, but unfortunately we do not. So instead we spend hours in the cantina trying to make a few credits that we can then turn around and give to them for items which will generally not improve our ability to perform our profession.
"So you're saying that we should be happy enough with our lot, even though we seem to be significantly worse-off than many other professions? The "up yours, I'm alright Jack" attitude is not a convincing argument. This is a game. It's supposed to be enjoyed to the utmost by all players - not just byvets and powergamers. The idea thatsome of usshould be happy with a pronouncedinability to participate in the game's luxuries simply because we choose to be entertainers is, quite frankly, offensive."
Actually, my point was pure pessimism. Sure, everyone should be able to see everything the game has to offer, within reason (I have a noncombat template and do not belong to a guild and have never seen, nor probably ever will see, the inside of the warrens, geo-caves, corvette, or bunker - it is at its heart content that cannot be enjoyed by all players). However, my point was, having these things will probably not increase your fundamental enjoyment of the game. Having a couch in a house two planets away is not going to makeyou a better entertainer (in thesame way that a newweapon makes any combat class better able to perform its job) nor is it, in all likelihood, going to significantly enhance your game playing experience (other than perhaps from a RP perspective).
Beery
Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:40 pm
#39
"Having a couch in a house two planets away is not going to makeyou a better entertainer (in thesame way that a newweapon makes any combat class better able to perform its job) nor is it, in all likelihood, going to significantly enhance your game playing experience (other than perhaps from a RP perspective)."
Well this is, after all, a role playing game. All I can say is that for me,owning a house and furnishing itenhanced my game experience a lot. In fact, that's a big push for me now - to get enough money to finally replace the house that I lost due to defaulting on my payments8 months ago. I'm working tobuy a nice house on Tatooine. Now that I'm a Master Musician my buffing abilities combined with my newly-found ID skillsallow me to get that house and have some chance of keeping it. Perhaps you don't particularly get a thrill out of owning a home in the game, but for me it was a pretty goodexperience. I guess we already know that one person's fun entertaining experience is another person's boring grind. Now, thanks to you,we alsoknowthat one person's exciting home-owning opportunity is another person's money pit. Each gamer gets something different out of this game. It is folly to make blanket statements about what is (or is not)enjoyablein a game such as this.