Entertainer Archive
Thread: Opinions of an AFKer
Basicly I am just saying, as a whole the community needs to be yelling at the devs to bring fun content to the Entertainer proffessions, rather then blaming the people that simply bore quickly from the repetiveness... even if they do find Entertaining fun.
Okay, I find this confusing. You spent the whole post saying how boring being an entertainer is. Then you say it's fun. Well, which is it?
Please dont blame all AFKers for the devs decision to make the proffessions that are probably the most needed (along with Medics) the most boring. It is not boring BECAUSE of AFKers... AFKers are just players that are bored with the amount of content the Devs have given.
Don't take this wrong, but were you around before AFK became the norm? And yes, I know you already answered that by saying how new you were. That whas a rhetorical question. Entertaining can be quite a ball. But only when there are other entertainers there, or at least an interesting crowd. With all the AFKers, it never happens in the public cantinas. Part of what I see as the problem is the hordes of AFK masses ruin the image of the profession for new players. I'm going to be blunt and say you don't know a lot of the fun of being an entertainer because you have never seen it.
Have you done any sync dancing? Played music and given various instruments solos? Played arranged music? Do you know what a band flourish is? Lined up the musicians like a real pand and put the dancers in a line in front? That is just scratching the surface of some of the interesting things that went on in the cantina.
But much of that has been lost. See, entertainers are a very social profession. They learn how to play the class from each other. Those things used to be standard fare in the cantinas. Entertainers were shown the worlds of things they can do. Now all most people in the cantina care about is the most efficient macro, so that is the sort of knowledge passed. The real entertainers started to find the cantinas weren't fun anymore, too. So they all left and now only rarely pop up in out of the way places (Never Coronet and rarely Theed) or in their own/their friend's cantinas.
I do appreciate your input. It always bothers me that I only ever see a part of the community. I may not agree with everyone, but I need to hear how everyone feels.
I have a theory why the AFK people don't speak up here often. Besides the obvious joke of "they haven't figured out how to write a macro for it yet."
I probably won't reply to this thread again. I tend not to reply to threads on the subject anymore, because eventually they devolve into a flame war, no matter how well intentioned.
*Note - I don't disagree more content would make the class better. I think that is something nearly everyone (except the devs) agree on.
Ostracized wrote:
I AFK more then not. When I am ATK as you all call it I visit and chat but simply... it gets boring. I enjoy the social aspect, but it can get old fast so I generally spend about an hour ATK sometimes two with a talkitive group and good customers, then go AFK and do more productive things. So i would say probably 25% of my time at the most is actually spent ATK.
I see so much hate towards people like me around here... and I can understand the difficulties for some. You may enjoy the hours and hours spent doing the same thing, seeing the same things... but not all of us can handle the repetiveness of it all. At least not for long durations. However, we still want to have more options. Since my character is not a Holo grinder and is hoping to master at least Entertainer and Dancer this is not about being "uber". I genuinly care about the character but the devs have decided it should be IMO the most boring time for long periods.
. If all AFK performers were as mindful as you (no spam macros, standing off to the side instead of right in front, etc...), perhaps there would be less resentment from our community. . In turn, good performances will draw an equally good audience.
. .Tiaga, Yes as I said... being an Entertainer is fun... for brief stints at a time. Is this because the other 7+ Entertainers in my group of 13 are AFK? no. its because no matter how social people are... I can only handle it for a short period of time.
During that short period I am having alot of fun... then it dies quickly. Not because people clam up, but because its the same ol same ol.
Have I been in true bands and stuff? No. Why? Not because groups didnt want to start them but because you need to be decently high for the most part up the trees. I have been working on getting my Musicianship skills up, but all the groups (actually most have been ATK groups) are so much higher that i simply cannot play anything other then Star Wars 2. Kinda removes the variety to spice things up and so it devolves into everyone boring and not talking as much. I still say it is not the AFK peoples fault for causing these problems but the devs for not giving enough tools for Entertainers to create actual content. I know you say something very similer and wouldnt disagree that the Devs need to provide something more... however I still see someone that blames the AFK people for making life hard on the ATK people.
For the others, thank you for your posts and responces. Even as an AFK Entertainer I will almost instantly ignore any Spammers in the room. One in particular named DesertSnake spams "LOOK AT MY SEXY BODY" every 30 seconds. Truly annoying and I am glad to see and say for most of you that he rarely ever gets into the groups I have been in.
Once the holo grinders are gone, you will see the people that enjoy being Entertainers, either for short periods or for long stretches, still be AFK simply because you need so much time to get the variety in your dances or songs... in order to actually Entertain people.
take care all.
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Shhh, don't tell anyone...
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A master dancer can't really do anything more to entertain people than a novice entertainer can.
6
Do you want to know what one of my favorite songs to play is? Starwars1. I dance popular, formal and basic all the time.
I don't doubt you're having fun. You can still go there to socialize. But you don't need to be an entertainer to do that. You can just sit in the cantina and talk to people and have the same amount of fun.
It didn't used to be that way. July, august, september... The cantinas were much more than just social places back then. I'm at a loss as to how to explain it to someone that didn't play then. Entertainers have a lot of tools at their disposal from the point they start at novice. Nobody really uses them, or even knows about them these days. What has changed between then and now? Hologrinders. The christmas rush, specifically.
When the hologrinders are gone, it will be better. There is no question about that.
Anyway, welcome to the entertainer community. Are you a dancer or a musician? If you're a dancer, might want to check out Sultrina's dance school (Linked in the links directory at the top of the forum) a very good guide to dancing. Not sure if there is something similar for musicians.
Once the holo grinders are gone, you will see the people that enjoy being Entertainers, either for short periods or for long stretches, still be AFK simply because you need so much time to get the variety in your dances or songs... in order to actually Entertain people.
All you need to entertain people is 5 people having fun and 100cr for novice entertainer. Yes, being master you can dance exotic4 or play virtuoso. But It's not more fun then dancing popular for example or even basic. A dance is a dance and while being able to chose from a variety makes it seem like more fun, in the end, it's still dancing. Either you like it, or you don't. And entertaining with AFKers, no matter what dance or song, is boring as hell. Entertainingis not so boring people go afk. To the entertainers, it's boring because people are afk.
Tiaga wrote:
Want me to let you in on a little secret?
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Shhh, don't tell anyone...
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A master dancer can't really do anything more to entertain people than a novice entertainer can.
6
Tiaga, I am not sure what you mean by this... you mean there are only 6 dances? I doubt thats what you mean since your a master and know there are more... so im confused.
Granted... I can be friendly and everything else to players. however... it is exactly the devs that have turned this into a COMBAT and "Lewt" game rather then a living world. The players see Entertainers for a singlular purpose. To heal mind wounds and remove Battle fatigue so they can continue on their quest for new lewt.
Did the AFK people cause this? Or rather are the AFK people a result of the focus on item and "level" acquasiction?
For instance... would many of you "true" entertainers still be this class if they removed the abilities to Mind heal and removed battle fatigue completely from the game?? I am sure some would...
then the Players wont be FORCED to come to you, and would rather come to you when they feel like a change.. and a friendly ear.
When a player is forced to do something for long periods of time they do not consider very fun (planet hoping waitint upwards of 9 mins each planet/city zone) to sit down for 15 mins+ while their friends are out hunting something fun... it makes them not appreciate the people offering that service. the AFK people are a result of this in a organicly grown way of need vrs demand.
Players want more convience and quickness in the heals. = Players goto the more popular cantinas with the biggest groups = all entertainers move to the same spot = Entertainers seeing nothing but a single cantina/city day in and day out = more players coming and expecting more and more entertainers = more "demand" on the entertainer to be there = more entertainers bored of the system and going afk
Again. The AFKers are not the enemy here... it is the devs for designing a system that instead of offering a world to experience... you have a treadmill of level and loot making everything else secondary.
I know some of you, hell most of you want more from the devs then your getting. however i do not feel calling for the heads of all AFKers would be the anwer.
Had a good time except for the spammers. Ground all the way to novice dancer. Then jumped on my main (which you see here) and spent another 3 hours or so gaining about 100k in credits for mind buffs. There are people who just play these profession as myself. Just out of a group of 20, maybe 5 are doing just that. I only wish they would fine tune the flourishes to where other players can see them as well as the person doing them. I wish they would have 8 different flourishes from every dance or song.Yesterday I felt like checking out the Corolag Cantina for a change. Oh the masses of writhing zombies dancing their endless puppet dances
The main difficulty is to spot the people who are listening to you. More than once I had to ask people to step forward and tell me who's listening to me to be able to chat with them. Two other non-AFK entertainers and I formed a group and it was fun. We even picked up some AFK spammers to leech XP from them (the worst one was spamming 'Heal!!!!' every few minutes - how rude are people?).
It is impossible to start a real show in the public cantinas though - if you sing a song the text is burried in 'Heal plz', 'Watch me! I need xp badly!' and '/yell invite me (autojoin)' spam. You cannot line up as mofo dancers keep bumping into you. All you can do is jam and toss sarcastic comments like 'Kicks in the groin not appreciated!' into the ring when someone spams 'Tips and heals appreciated!' for the 256th time. People realize quickly who is actually there and a good number of them rewards it with nice conversations and a ton of fun 
Our own Cantina in our player city on the other hand is mostly empty - devoid of entertainers AND customers alike. Last night a journeyman and novice entertainer joined me in a jamming session and we did some /bandFlourish macroed songs for the audience of two people.
I would prefer the cantina in our city anytime if there were some people in there constantly :/
Ophistes wrote:
We even picked up some AFK spammers to leech XP from them (the worst one was spamming 'Heal!!!!' every few minutes - how rude are people?).