Entertainer Archive
Thread: A newbie question on AFK entertaining
Akelan wrote:
The fact is that the entertainers have set the expectation that you will not find them in anything but the major 'nightspots', so the patrons don't go anywhere else. You might get significantly better tips from people doing 25K missions on Lok or Endor than you do from people that are on Theed or Coronet for the other vendors, especially if a hunter on Lok did not have to spend 1700 cr just to get to somewhere that he could find the entertainer in the first place.
You are turning you back on a goldmine because you might get your slippers dirty walking through all that shiny dust.
You want to see the end of AFK entertainers? Make them unnecessary. You want to make more in tips? Go where the people need you... and where it means more to them than it does when they have to stop what they are doing and travel halfway across the galaxy to find anyone to provide those services.
The AFK issue is nearly a dead horse, but I want to address this issue because it represents a fallacy that I see nearly every time someone says "Why are there no entertainers on adventure planets?"
To wit - Adventure planets pay way more than newbie planets because the hunters make beaucoup money and appreciate not having to fly across the galaxy for entertainment. An entertainer with any brains and/or guts would go where they're needed instead of waiting forthe adventurers to come to them.
In my experience, this is simply not true.
I've entertained on Dantooine. I've entertained on Lok. I've entertained on Dathomir at both the trade outpost and the science outpost. Not just a single day mind you, but multiple days at different times of day.
On every adventure planet except Dathomir, I never even made enough to cover the shuttle ticket. On Dantooine, though, I got tipped 1k for playing medic and healing a guy's health and action, go figure.
On Dathomir, with all of the hunters going in and out, my track record is that maybe half of them tip and that most of those tip 100-200cr as if they were back home on Naboo, Corellia, or Tatooine.The only time I made "significantly better tips" on Dathomir was when one generous guy tipped me 20k. Unfortunately, a single occurence is not something you build a living off of.
Maybe YOU tip your entertainers well when they come to your adventure planets. That's great, but it's not enough for one person to pony up. We aren't rolling in credits. If you're an average entertainer who isn't a local "star" and who isn't pursuing non-entertainer missions or mining then you're generally fortunate to have 10K credits in the bank. 4k for a round-trip to Dathomir (let alone nearly 10k for round trip to Dantooine) is a serious amount of money to spend in order to sit by yourself in a cantina until an adventurer comes in, listens to you, and then leaves with no tip or even a thankyou. (Assuming that they DO listen to you and don't just pull out their slitherhorn and play away their battle fatigue.)
The problem is not that entertainers are too dumb to go where the money is. The problem is that there isn't any money where you're saying there ought to be some. Hunters on adventure planets don't appreciate us any more than they appreciate us when we're back home where we have our comforts, friends and large XP groups around us. When the hunters wise up and realize "Hey, it would have cost me 5k and a half-hour or more to travel to Corellia and back. I should pass some of that savings on to my dancer here." then you'll start seeing entertainers showing up on the adventure planets.
It's not really that there is no money to be made on the high-end worlds, it's that the VARIANCE is enormous. On Naboo, on my server, in Keren where my PC usually dances, I can count on a certain level of tippage (1-3K for an evening, most of the time). People don't tip a lot but lots of them tip a little.
On a place like Endor or Lok you might see NOBODY for an evening or if you do they might not tip, or they might tip hugely. If you have a month to kill on Endor I bet you'd make out better than a solid month on Naboo, BUT... who the heck is going to sit on Endor for a month with no one to talk to for almost all of that time just waiting for the 20-30K tip drops? You'd have to be an absolute dullard to find that worthwhile.
I don't argue entertainers should never go to adventure worlds. They should. But they need to be aware that the VARIANCE of tippage on those worlds is immense, and while they might makea bundle in an evening, they might walk away 5-10K in the hole (depending on the round trip cost based on where you start, and where you go). It's kind of like investment. If you only have a little, you put it into a savings account. You do NOT risk the only $2,000 you have to your name on a high-risk stock venture. If you have tons of disposable cash, THEN it makes sense to take some stock market chances, because the have a larger return potential than simple savings. But you don't do the high-risk thing when you're broke -- you do it when you have some wealth to your name.
This is the same. New entertainers just starting out with only the money for the one-way trip to Lok would be NUTS to to there to try and make a living. The potential to be stuck somewhere and not able to get back is just too high. Just like putting money into stock only when you can afford to lose it all (just in case, since it's possible) you should only go to a place like Endor if you can afford the entire trip with no return cash for being there.
Now, if players on the adventure worlds were more reliable about their tipping behavior, then there wouldn't be as much risk, and maybe more of us would be inclined to go -- since the chance of "losing your shirt" on the Dantooine trip would be minimized. Now, tips will never be a guarantee, and sure you can always have the bad luck of a slow night. But if the players on those worlds would reduce the variance in tips there, then entertainers would start going, because the "investment risk" would be minimized.
C
Are you a roleplayer? Do you like to interact with and socialize with other players?
If so, then what do you do for all those long hours when nobody is there or when the people there do not wish to roleplay "back" with you? Or do you bring a whole troupe of people with you so you are guaranteed roleplay?
And if you do that last bit there (go with a group) well, gee, that's nice for you, but it's not going to work for everyone.
As someone who is a roleplayer and often can't get other roleplayers to join me on the adventure worlds, I have to say going there = boredom. If it also = high chance of losing money, I have no incentive.
You wanna go and hang out there all by your lonesome staring at your toon animate, by all means. But realize that just that, cash or no cash, may not be enough for everyone. And also realize that according to the one survey (unscientific of course) we did on the dancer board, most dancers are socializers and many are also RPers and they would have the same issues I have. Going alone to an adventure world for the day = giving up any RP opportunity you might have had back home. Which to me is basically not worth it, especially if my character is also going to lose money doing it. Not that I need her to be rich but a trip to Endor and back is what, like a week's house maintenance? And to lose that for the purpose of basically having no RP and no social interaction at all, is really not my idea of a win-win situation. More like lose/lose.
C