Entertainer Archive
Thread: Should AFK entertaining really be a top five issue?
I think afk macroing is just a thing people complain about because therearen'treally any glaring problemsfor entertainers.
You see that mole hill, over there?
biwan:
Randonb wrote:
I think afk macroing is just a thing people complain about because therearen'treally any glaring problemsfor entertainers.
You see that mole hill, over there?
i think then that youare not an entertainer then sir because we have plenty of problems we just dont whine and cry about them as much #1 and #2 afk has destroyed our profession... thanks for having nothing of use to give some input on tho
I will be making master dancer tomorrow. I have only went afk for 'biobreaks' or to snack. Never have I went to bed and left a character up. I also like to roleplay.
That being said my answer will surprise you. That is no you should not 'fix' the entertaining classes by making a mechanic to 'defeat' afk macro players. Why? Well as another said it is indeed a social game play issue. Making a mechanic to defeat them, to me is the lazy way of doing it.
Yes there will always be afk people. As long as leader is not dropped on them I really don't find them to have a large impact on any group I have been in. You have a few people that can not be changed, but many can be influenced, or they are on the fence about the matter. Many afk because the whole environment is boring to them.
I have taken over groups and with the help of as little asone other group member kept many from going afk. How? Roleplaying with patrons. Encouraging lively chat in the group. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people write off not being 'able to rp' in these games. The problem is many are afraid to lead, or try.
I have found numerous different people, who when reached out to are more than willing to RP. Next thing you know, someone in the group sees you RPing with as little as asingle patron and boom, they may try it. It has a snowball effect.
The entertainment community needs leaders. I tell my groups I will not boot them for afk and I do not. I also never fail to mention that I don't do it save for the breaks I mentioned early then lead by example.We need a few people in game to set solid responsible examples. At least that is what I have seen work first hand, either through my own doing or others.
I have actually been getting tells from patrons 'thanking' me for the RP when they leave the cantina. I would say make a stand in the big party cantina's like theed/coronet. Get leadership of a group and LEAD.
I am not one for forcing people to play my game. I try to show them what I believe is the benefit of my choices through example. If they are not moved, fine, I feel I have done my part.
In addition there are probably things that could be done to enhance the profession that would help.
I am against trying to kill afkers through a game mechanic. With the constant influx of people I am able to reach some and make an impact. If they profession becomes, 'not worth the trouble' to some our reach will greatly reduced.
Wanted to add a few things quickly,
I would not want to see advanced dancers forced out of the cantinas like Theed. I love that city and the mass number of people that move through it. Being forced to go to a nearby PA named Mos Compton and dance in the "Booty Club" cantina would absolutely suck for me. Add to this alot of players set up their cities poorly and as I said have terrible/corny name choices. I will take Theed over that any day.When I am master I want to be able to aid new dancers/players that come through there, and encourage RP in what has been a den of AFK macro.
Also I do not afk macro but have a looping macro. Why>? I type slow and like to emote and RP/converse with patrons. My macro loop is a long dancer routine I carefully thought out and regularly update. Making me choose every single flourish, effect and dance each moment would do much to kill my conversations.
to xoreshear.... most of the leaders in the comunity have left because of how generally rude the afk ppl are... many ARE trying to lead to do something about it... see the cantina revival post on teh music form or the ahazi one... but there is only so much that can be done and it will/ would never stop the holotainers
Xoreshear wrote:
Wanted to add a few things quickly,
I would not want to see advanced dancers forced out of the cantinas like Theed.
aren't you already or do you like being just another in a sea of 80 bots?
Also I do not afk macro but have a looping macro.
i dont think anyone has a problem with that whatsover its the non existant players ie afk'r ppl dont like
Ok I did not read all of these posts and I am new to this profession board, and yes I am a Holocron chaser (actually my holocrons are silent now and I chose to do some of the entertainer professions first) but here is my question:
Why is it that everyone is so focused on someone else rather than themselves? Why is it that 90% of the people who hit these message boards are always opposed to other people levelling faster, or levelling easier, than they are? What's the big deal? If I afk-macro overnight and master Entertainer, Dancer, or Musician (elites take longer I hear I really do not know much about it) I am hard pressed to see how that interferes with anyone else's enjoyment of the game.
The fact of the matter is, I have done a lot of professions and been all over the galaxy andmany cantinas are flat out empty. That was depressing and kills the immersion value of the game. It also is pretty bad for groups of people who are in combat and have serious BF or mind wounds and now there is no one there to heal them.
If it were not possible to afk-maco this profession many people would never attempt it at all. Some people really enjoy these professions, and I think that is great. Personally last night I started dancing a bit and played with the flourishes and all that and I was in a big band, and the excitement turned into dull boredom in a handful of minutes. When I saw I was getting 8 xp every 15 seconds or whatever it is I was thinking, if I had to sit here and stare at the screen for 500 hours to master a novice profession, I would never do it. Instead I can afk-macro, helping people in my group and also giving immersion satisfaction to people who will now wander into the cantina to see what is going on, as well as helping people who need mind wounds and BF healed, as well as helping people who took up medic which is another poorly designed profession in that it can take months of healing people's wounds to gain mastery or you can heal entertainers, or now "tumblers" and gain mastery in a matter of hours.
At the same time I do not think that the afk-macroer really cheapens the profession for those who really enjoy what they do. As was said many times above it is a social profession and those that really love it will stay by their keyboards and make conversation with patrons, and probably have some fun and make some really cool friends.
I do think anyone who is afk-macroing should put the 'afk' tag on themselves so that patrons know who is 'awake' and who is not, so that if they want to interact with someone or ask for a different tune, they know who to talk to.
That being said, for anyone still reading which I doubt anyone is, before the game came out a friend of mine said his friend wanted to be a dancer and I was laughing thinking how stupid that was, because to me it would all be about combat and the GCW and the cool sound effects and POI and all that and dancing in the same room all day would be like watching paint dry. However I noticed as I started playing that the developers put a LOT of time and thought into the entertainer profession. I was amazed at the number of different songs and dances but beyond that the flourishes look so life-like and so realistic I even found myself staring at the screen when some hot toon-chick was shakin' it for awhile. They really did an excellent job with the song and dance in the game, and whereas 6 months ago I could not understand someone wanting to pay $15 a month to dance all day, now I can totally understand it. I am a semi-power gamer and I can't see doing it myself but I do have an appreciation for those that do enjoy it.
- Broog
Why is it everyone is so focused on themselves rather than considering how their actions might be effecting others? I think you summed things up nicely - AFK entertaining is all about "me me me". But entertainers aren't a "me me me" class.
Broog wrote:
Why is it that everyone is so focused on someone else rather than themselves?
I'm currently working on Entertainer, and I spent several hours last night, at the keyboard, leading a group, working on my entertainment XP. While I set up a simple macro loop to do flourishes, I was at the keyboard the entire time (and that macro will not persist afk either).
IMHO, AFK entertainment isn't the problem. The problem is what affects most of the game: lack of content/features. As I was leading the group, with my flourish macro running, I began so see a real problem. Namely, what do I do now? I spoke with lots of people in the cantina, in my guild, and even through tells, but I don't need to be an entertainer to strike up a conversation. While the entertainment group was rather large (got to 20 at one point) at least a few were AFK, and I could understand why.
So, I think entertainment professions need 'something to do', while at the keyboard. Something interactive. Consider combat. Even if you fight the same critters over and over again, no 2 battles are the same (similar, yes, but not exactly the same). Consider sampling (very similar and macro-able). While sampling there are messages that pop up about resource finds. It's not much, but it's something. Consider artisan professions. They have an entire process of gather resources, craft components, craft items, and sell items. Sure, artisan can be just 'craft items' (grind) but one still needs to consider acquiring resources and many like to recover some of that money by selling their wares.
So I think if we want to have fewer AFKers, give all entertainers something interactive and dynamic, not just the same 8 flourishes that come with novice entertainer, and take on slightly different twists through the various trees.
In other words, while it should be a concern for all entertainers, I'd ask that the focus and Dev time be put into making the entertainment profession better and not trying to impose more restrictions on the game.
Cloudgatherer wrote:
IMHO, AFK entertainment isn't the problem. The problem is what affects most of the game: lack of content/features. As I was leading the group, with my flourish macro running, I began so see a real problem. Namely, what do I do now? I spoke with lots of people in the cantina, in my guild, and even through tells, but I don't need to be an entertainer to strike up a conversation. While the entertainment group was rather large (got to 20 at one point) at least a few were AFK, and I could understand why.
Things for entertainers to do:
- Work on routines. Try doing synchronized dancing, playing interesting music.
- Spend some time looking out for help on your "other job".. Looking for a weaponsmith to come in, listening for people looking to buy a set of composite...
- Get to know people. You can meet a lot of people there.
- Try actually dancing to the music. (I'm sorry, exotic to starwars1 just isn't right.) Alternately try playing music to fit the dancers. (Lots of people doing formal or lyrical? Why not give them a nice waltz!)
Use your imagination. That's what being an entertainer is about.
Good try Cloudgatherer. Unfortunately, most of the Entertainers would rather eliminate AFKing than discuss why people AFK. They believe that eliminating AFKing will have the effect of making cantinas "like they were back when the game first came out!" and tend to ignore any evidence to the contrary.
The vast majority of AFKers are gathered in the four main cantinas, but rather than being proactive about it and using the other empty cantinas, the anti-AFKers would rather complain about how it's ruining their class.
Personally, AFKing didn't sour me on dancing. Lack of content did that just fine. I still utilize the skills of the Dancer, and I still enjoy aspects of it. I simply refuse to let how other people play their game affect how I play mine.
NotYourAvgEwok wrote:The vast majority of AFKers are gathered in the four main cantinas, but rather than being proactive about it and using the other empty cantinas, the anti-AFKers would rather complain about how it's ruining their class.
Doesn't work. I tried. Believe me I did. Very hard. I lived in Keren cantina for months and months. It was used a little bit by people and there were a few other dancers till player cities went live. Now it is empty. All the time. Day and night.
What I don't get is how you can keep coming here telling the professional dancers and musicians who by and large are SOCIALIZERS that it is in "their interest" to go somewhere where there is no one to socialize with. How can this possibly fix the problem? It makes no sense.
My solution was to find a guild and perform in their cantina but it comes with a fairly large sacrifice, which is that I will pretty much never become a master dancer now, because I can't get enough healing xp just from the people in our town to finish my last 3 healing boxes in anything like a reasonable time frame (1 year or more from now, at least). That's OK, though. I rather have people to interact with than a few skill boxes I don't really need. But not everyone would wish to make that sacrifice and what is more, I should not have been required to make it.
I'm frankly tired of being told that the AFKers should get all the prime spots with the good healing and the people actually playing the class properly should go find some out of the way leftover spot and try to eke out an existence there.
C
You choose not to group with the AFKers, that is your right as a player, but you weren't "required" to. In any group, there are usually at least two or three people who aren't AFK and who will chat if you have something interesting to say. There are also people who are in and out of chat periodically.
If there are so many professional musicians and dancers who are more interested in socializing then leveling, why wouldn't you invite them to join you in Keren, or Tyrena, or Moenia? Have them invite their friends as well. The only thing Theed and Coronet offer are larger groups. If there are people who are interested in socializing then invite them into your group. No one said you had to do it alone.
And if you can't get a group going, then apparently there aren't enough people who want to play the Entertainers the way you think they should be played.