Entertainer Archive
Thread: I am TIRED of hearing that AFK Macro doesn't hurt other entertainers
Velvet-dancer wrote:You are welcome to shout all you want about coming to watch the strippers as long as YOU are at the keys so YOU can listen to the complaints of people wanting to watch the strippers that YOU promised them.
Yup, there it is. Set up an offensive macro and go AFK. Now you get to escape the consequences of your own actions. Meanwhile those of us who for one reason or another need to be in that cantina at the time, have to live with the consequences of the obnoxious actions that you get to ignore.
What was the problem I had last night? It wasn't macro. It wasn't /shout. It wasn't AFK. It was the combination
1. AFK -- Nobody is saying you shouldn't be allowed to go AFK and dance in a corner. Problem is, LAMErs don't do that. They go front and center and block the dance floor making those of us who want our dance to look good and not "walk through" other people, those of us who are active, have to go off to the side or in a corner ourselves. It's rude, and it hurts the active people by pushing them to the periphery and marginalizing them in favor of the inactive, rude boors.
2. Macro -- Nobody ever said macroing is bad. I use it all the time. I have a macroed set of dance steps that I can fire exactly twice and use up almost all my dancer's action bar. While that is running, I can RP with customers. The whole time I am at keyboard. Macros are not the problem. However, the ability to set up unattended macros that can keep calling themselves for 8 hours or more encourages people to do that and then go AFK. Now we have a combination of 1 and 2, and this is why 1 happens at all (people AFKing in the middle of the dance floor). Without Macro + AFK this would not happen because AFK dancing without macroing does not generate enough experience to be worth it to most people... it's the flourishes that get you the XP. Also, watch the LAMErs closely. The "skilled" ones use macros to make it look like they are there at the keyboard... It takes a studied eye to tell they are not really there (or a few direct questions that they don't answer but anyone at keyboard would). They are being deliberately deceptive because they know they will get more tips that way, and the macro helps them do it.
3. /spam -- /shout, or whatever, that spams the room for tips, advertising strip teases or lap dances, etc. Again, by itself, this is a /ignore issue or an issue over which you might need to confront the dancer. You don't have to be rude -- you can ask them politely to cut it out. Most people AT KEYBOARD probably will stop, if they know it is bothering you. The problem is that if you combine AFK + MACRO + /SPAM, now you have an offensive boor who is unstoppable, because there is no way to ask him or her to cut it out. They're not there so they can't hear you.
It is not the individual items. Rather, it's the combination. AFK + MACRO + SPAMMING = obnoxious to the Nth degree, and people who do it deserve to have their hard drive formatted and their SWG disks destroyed so they can never play the game again....
It's one thing to engage in obnoxious behavior and sit there to take the consequences. But to program your character to "bot" your obnoxious behavior for you, and then go off to the movies so you can ignore the consequences of your behavior -- while other, non-obnnoxious people have to put up with those consequences -- that is just unacceptable.
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baracu wrote:
Let them play anyway they want as long as it is not harmful to any other player. I see many of you saying it is but I do not see it.
Many of us have got on here and said that the LAMErs are ruining the entertainment experience for us. How does this not fall under the category of being harmful to another player? Because it doesn't cost us experience points or tips? That's irrelevent. It's costing us the whole point of the game by making it un-fun.
And yet you STILL doubt this, so here is what happened tonight.
I walked into the Moenia cantina. There were 2 entertainers and no patrons at all. One of the entertainers was actvie and invited me to group with her. The other, a female twi'lek, was dancing in a corner. No flourishes, just the default. And then, every 2 minutes, she had a macroed /shout, "Hey, come to the cantina and watch all the strippers!" Note -- /shout, people can here for huge area around the cantina.
She of course was fully clothed. She also was fully AFK. But I and the other dancer had to put up with the morons who, like flies attracted to flypaper, flooded into the cantina to "see the strippers." I got a little annoyed at them but can you blame them? They heard someone shouting that there were strippers inside the cantina, so they came to look. When they found none, they were annoyed. They took that out on ALL of us not just Strip Macro Girl. Though, when the saw she was AFK and Macroing they got much more annoyed at her than at us actives.
After a while a master dancer and friend of mine came in. She was there for a minute and then Strip Girl's macro went off. She said, "Ugh! Is she still doing that? I was here hours ago and left because I couldn't stand it." So this friend, who I was hoping to RP with, left, because she just didn't want to put up with Strip Girl any more, nor with the morons who were being attracted to the cantina by her stupid shout macro.
Now explain to me, Baracu... how does someone doing this kind of stupid thing NOT harm other players, exactly? Are you really going to sit there and insist that I was not harmed?
Before you say "Go elsewhere" I had no choice in the matter tonight; I was meeting someone in the cantina for a business transaction. She was in transit so I couldn't really leave. And yes I /ignore'ed strip macro girl but, that didn't stop her from attracting fools to the cantina to see a strip tease.
And you still keep insisting this kind of behavior does not harm me? Well... if that's still how you feel then we have nothing really further to discuss on this matter, since we are clearly not operating in the same conceptual universe. I presume next you will tell me that you don't see why 2+2 must always = 4...
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Chessack... You don't have to be AFK to /shout Come see the strippers.
The problem you had is concerning what was said, not that the person was AFK. If they were trying to cause you grief then they'd have done the same /shout even if they weren't AFK.
Excellent post Chessack, I think you hit the issues right on with what's bothering everyone.
ok ive said it before and ill say it again ...
Get rid of tips all together make it so that not only entertainers but also drs must get hired for their services...with a hire button on radial menue that MUST be accepted by the DR/Entertainer... this will solve all tip problem and the problem of people picking a proffession that is ment to be for those who want to actually interact with other players.... and lets face it i dont know any professional dancers that dance for free in rl and i deffinatly dont know any Drs that heal for free (although it would be nice)
Yup, there it is. Set up an offensive macro and go AFK. Now you get to escape the consequences of your own actions.
No. She escapes the consequences because you decided to be angry but ignore her. There are other ways than just talking 'live'. Send her an email and tell her how much you loathe her behaviour. Tell her that this is unacceptible if she'd like to ever dance in a band with you. If that macro shouting really is so offensive, report her. Who knows if she is even aware that she is bothering you. As I said to the "put her on ignore" crowd already: ignoring a problem will never solve it.
I was doing a live show with a dancer friend, we were both in sexy clothes for hours and one of the nice medics healing us just started to shout for us "Come see the sexy dancers, don't forget to tip the beautifull ladies" and "We got some really hot dancers tonight, don't forget to bring your wallet..."
We were just dancing, I guess this person thought we were doing a very good show
AFK'ers go away, we don't want you and our audience doesn't want you either and I won't teach you because I think I allready have enough Apprenticepoints from teaching live entertainers
Ok... lemme calm down for a second before I get to my points...
First off, I'm a novice entertainer (read: Entertainer Healing IV, and Musicianship III). I have been an entertainer for quite a while, but my experience goes up slowly, but you'll see the reason why when I get a bit further into my semi-rant. All I see here are a bunch of people complaining because other people in the same profession don't play the game the same way that they do. Granted I could only stomach the first page or so of responses in this thread (or just about every other thread here and in the Musician forums, because about 1/4 of all the posts in either place are about getting rid of AFK Macroing), but that is the general feeling I'm getting. My PC is a primarily a combattant, and the reason I took Entertainer in the first place is to be able to heal the mind wounds of myself and my friends in camp (because no one else had the skill or the extra skill points to spend). You might see me AFK in the Moenia Cantina from time to time on the Gorath server, but that is rare. I usually just go in there to alleviate myself of BF, as I've usually healed ALL my wounds (physical AND mental in a camp outside of town, for see I am a Medic as well). If this is the case, I just pop into the Cantina and solo until my BF is gone. On VERY RARE instances, I will group with others, but usually only if I see alot of people trying to heal their mind, and there are only a few entertainers (so as to speed up the process for those patrons that are in a hurry). The only time I go AFK in the Cantina (other than for just a minute or 2) is when I am planning on checking my skills/inventory/other aspects of my character. I'm not really AFK per se, but am too busy doing other things that a non-AFK entertainer might like to do (chatting, etc.). The reason I go to the Cantina to do this kind of thing is it gives my character something useful to do while I'm working on something game-related. I have the PRIVILAGE of healing people (and yes... gaining exp too) while I'm busy doing something else important. I don't stand in front of other entertainers (even if I'm NOT going AFK), but I do take up a spot near the entry stairs (off to the least-populated side) because that is where the people that need the healing sit/stand. I don't do it for the exp (as I will drop my musicianship slowly to make room for more skills that I feel I want), but I will surely take it if it comes in while I'm crunching some numbers. I thank/tip those that heal me. I talk to people when I'm not AFK. I don't have any AFK macros, I will flourish when I feel like pressing a button (which sometimes might not be for a minute or 2). I said all that to say this: Don't hate on the AFKers. Just because they didn't sit at the keyboard the entire time they got their experience doesn't mean they didn't "earn" their experience. There are only so many times you can hear the same song over and over, or see the same dance moves. It... just... gets... boring...
I have known for a while that the combat system in the game will not keep my interest for too much longer, so I've been looking into alternate ways of playing (crafting, doctoring, becoming a master musician). I've been looking for a profession that, as a general rule, are tolerant of others and their game-playing style. Needless to say, I won't be going Entertainer or Musician because I find most of you sorely lacking in this area. You say that the AFKers are giving you guys a bad name. To tell you the truth, you're giving YOURSELVES a bad name. I had originally thought that I would become a Master Musician, group with a master Doctor that's on about the same times I am, building a house on one of the combat monster areas of a dangerous planet, and offer buffing (close the house to all but those that have made an appointment, listen to me for an hour, and have the Doc buff you on the way out). Now granted, I've spent 99% of my Entertainer time at the keyboard (even when I have my AFK flag up), but you mean to tell me you want me to sit at my keyboard for an hour while buffing these people (who will probably be AFK themselves) just because you're tired of people bad-mouthing Entertainers? Gimme a break.
Also, these people that are bad-mouthing the Entertainer profession and saying they will stop giving tips are idiots. I'll bet 90% (if not more) of them go AFK while in the Cantina or Med Center, already don't tip, or were just looking for an excuse NOT to tip in the first place. You're gonna let idiots dictate how this game is played?
I have alot more to say on the subject, but I've spent far too much of my valuable time on a forum made-up primarily of whiners and scapegoat makers.
Just because they didn't sit at the keyboard the entire time they got their experience doesn't mean they didn't "earn" their experience.
How did they earn it ? I mean if nothing is needed to earn xp, why don't I get to start out as a master bounty hunter ? Not having done anything doesn't mean I didn't earn it, right ?
You AFK examples were all fine. Just in case you haven't noticed, we are not talking about people who grab lunch or are on the phone or open the door for the pizza boy... we are talking about people who park their toon in the middle of the dancefloor and go to work for 10 hours straight, taking in account to harass all others if they have a bad macro.