Entertainer Archive

I lost the fight about a week ago. It was a rather nasty event between myself and my server, and I pressed /delete. Ultimately, it was my own failings; taking things too seriously.

But the good thing about entertainer classes is that wherever you go, thethings that made you a good one will go with you. Levels and loot do not matter. So while I may be awhile before I start up again, I will keep open the opportunity to start up a new dancer character perhaps in the future on a new server.

And we look forward to that time, Sirii! How about Bria?

Sirii

And I echo my beloved wife's sentiment. Bria is waiting.

Roho Traideb
Beloved of Kirah
Master Musician
Veritas, Naboo

Couple more tales from the trenches of fighting the good fight:


Early this morning in Theed, someone came in asking if anyone was actually there. I joked that "Nope, not me... I'm AFK all the way, baby" followed by an "of course, I'm lying... lol". Ding! 25k tip. I naturally sent a very thankful tell to the generous patron. His comment? Thanks for not being AFK.

He then ran around asking if there was anyone else really there. I knew there were at least a couple others in the group that were live, so I sent our generous patron another tell letting him know that, but that they may not know to really talk to people and give a show. At the same time I was sending my /gs suggesting that now would be a really good time to be on the ball with the customers, he replied that he still had another 50k in his tipping budget, and asked if I could wake 'em up. So after sending my /gs, I went back to chatting with a customer. Another dancer had sent him a tell during this... ding! 45k tip for her. Not a moment later... Ding! another 50k for me.

Late last night, I made a run out to Anchorhead - simply because I never had before. Tavern full of AFK, except one musician playing live. So I decided to do a show... a part of my "See which towns need a pick-me-up" tour. Ran in, said hello to the one who was actually there, grouped up with him, and started the show. A good number of people came in to watch, had a great time, tipped well, watched me rather than the AFK's, and thanked me for coming out to perform. This in a room full of AFKers. When I tried to leave, someone asked me not to... "Anchor loves you!" All in all, a completely successful show. Playing live and entertaining seemed to make all the difference.

These are just two cases... I've been tipped a lot lately for dancing live, although never before in the amounts this morning in Theed. Other people besides us entertainers care about the AFK thing. Just wanted everyone to know not to give up hope... there are still others out there who appreciate our work.

The biggest problem with AFKers is not the tools that they use or the blind eye the devs turn, it is the rewards that can be gleaned from it. In this Jason is most definatly not right; it is the player base that rewards entertainers. With the promised removal of hologrinders, the entertainer profession should dwindle to more even ATK/AFK levels as the AFKers lose the potential rewards. All that would be left are buffbots and dedicated bots for player cities, probably on second accounts by people with more money than socilizing skills.


As for myself, I have a nice little niche on Bestine. I play my mandy while this cute human dancer AFKs herself into a corner, or up the stairs, or something else while dancing rhythmic2 for the second straight week...though I think today she dropped to rhythmic1. Weird.

I average about 20k in tips a week and a fairly high percentage of the decent traffic. During slow points I work on my scout skills. Between me and a master musician (who is sadly dropping the line), Bestine has become one of the few permanent cities that has a decent cantina.

On the AFK front, I've had to go to Coronet more often than I care to consider for training, and I have learned on a trip to Dathomir to never tell an AFKer that their macro doesn't work.

I'm in the player base thatrewards entertainers. AFKers on starter planets I tip 1k. AFKers on advanced planets I tip 5-10k. I think I'll bump that up to 5k starter and 20k advanced to encourage people to do it.

Message Edited by JasonK on 03-17-2004 03:28 PM

Jason is right when he says all that really matters is the Dev's perspectives on it.

It's proven in the fact that while some other forms of AFK macroing, such as surveying, had some half-hearted attempt to stop it(that little pop-up box), entertainers have had absolutely nothing. AFK continues to still be a problem and as long as they allow use and looping of the macro system, it always will be a problem. And until they disallow looping, or macroing altogether, or macroing with the AFK flag up, it won't change.

Our communities as a bit of the general player base has been adamant against the AFK entertaining that goes on, yet nothing has been done. The AFK entertainers are still there, as are the 24/7 AFK buffbots people set up, and even AFK medics and doctors. I hate AFKers as much as the next person who does, I hate them with a passion. But the Devs put this system in. The devs decide whether or not to take it out, or to fix it, or to change it. Therefore, the only view that matters is that of the devs, and the proof is in the pudding. AFKers are still around. There's been no attempt to curb it. And until there is, or until there's a post from a Dev, or from Ravenmist/Tiaga/NewJedi detailing or giving us a plan or things they want to do to try and curb it, I won't believe otherwise.

Unfortunatly, the entertainment community is that which is both hurt and helpless to stop the AFKing. That change can be done by the devs, as you say, or by the audiance.

Unfortunatly, with certifiable idiots running around, a boycott on AFKers isn't going to happen.

We can't allow the situation to run us off, though.Hologrinders and buffbots aside, live entertainers still have something to offer patrons that the zombies don't - interaction. And we can accompany other players out in the field to do missions (many of us ents actually have combat skills, ya know! ).

My darling husband just placed a new cantina in our city - no AFKing permitted. It isn't open yet, but when it does, we will have a big grand opening party - all live ents are invited!We alsoplanon having regular events to not only promote the cantina itself, but to revive the interest in (and of) live entertaining.

If you haven't done so already, I encourage everyone to create an ent chat channel on your server. You have to create it daily, but its a great place for ents to talk. We have hadmany impromtu gathering form from these chats! And when live entertainers get together, we know how to have fun!

Our circle of entertainer friends try to hold entertainer events on a fairly regular basis - and we love meeting and making new ent friends at these performances. We just had one on Vreni Island last weekend that drew a nice little (appreciative) crowd which ended up becoming a Cantina Crawl. And that's always great fun!

On intrepid - we have a chat channel where people in the community can find live entertainers - we also have a city founded by entertainers - myself included.

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ChaoKuang wrote:

There's been no attempt to curb it. And until there is, or until there's a post from a Dev, or from Ravenmist/Tiaga/NewJedi detailing or giving us a plan or things they want to do to try and curb it, I won't believe otherwise.

I wish I had such a post for you. However, I don't. Right now any time I bring it up they point out that hologrinding is being changed, and that will make things better.

Will it? I'm pretty sure it will. I don't think anyone disagrees with that. Will it be enough? I really can't say. And there is the problem. Unless I can say for sure that there will still be a problem after the change, any time I bring the subject up the response will be the jedi revamp. However that is still something over the horizon.

There are things coming for entertainers. I don't know what to say besides have patience. I know it is difficult at times. I know we haven't seen much new since the beginning, and what we have seen is half hearted or broken. However, it is only a matter of time before the eye swings this way and we get noticed. It is my feeling that time is coming. In some ways it is already starting. We just have to make the best of that time when it comes. And we have to stick together, as a community. For it is the community that won me as a dancer, and the community that keeps me here.

I'm stubborn enough to stick around for awhile longer, in the chance something good comes.