Entertainer Archive
Thread: A question to you AFK supporters
More specifically, I think people need to reconsider what it is you support.
Support them so theres healers everywhere/a healer for your PA? Sounds to me like you'd be more in support of healing NPCs, or just eliminating battle fatigue altogether and giving mind wound healing to someone else.
Support them because they are just a victim to a holocron? Sounds to me like you'd rather a more sensible way to get FSCS.
Support them because people should be allowed to play however they like? I hate to tell you this, but it is SOE's game, you play how they let you. Try using this argument after duping some credits and see if it saves you from being banned.
Support them so they can get more skills? Why not support giving a few extra songs/dances on the low end.
Support them to be able to place a cantina? Sounds like you would rather have the restriction on cantina placement lifted.
Support them to have a buff bot? Sounds like you'd like buffs to be more available.
Support them because some people like to master every profession? Not really sure what to say to this one, except that is quite a task in itself, and allowing them the ability to macro part of it doesn't make a whole lot of difference.
Support them because the profession is boring? Seriously, not all professions are for everyone. However, that aside, it sounds like you want more content.
I can't imagine anyone seriously thinks there should be a profession that is purely just a bunch of people running macros. So what are the REAL issues here? As the profession stands now, I don't see a reason for it to exist. People just do very good impersonations of NPCs giving everyone healing.. The socializers can socialize without dancing/playing music.. Why does the profession even exist? I'm not saying I can't justify it because I really don't think the class should exist.. I like what they are trying. I am a master dancer, and I will be a master dancer until the end. But I just can't see a reason the entertainer professions exist as the game stands right now.
So lets get rid of AFK and fix the REAL issues here. So what are the real issues?
... to bad that soe is alway's speachless
Great post!
Along those lines - if entertaining is so dull that it must be done afk in order to level quicker... then what is the "endgame" for master? Dancing afk? Playing afk? That seems pointless to pay money for a game where you're never there.
So... leveling afk is, as Tiaga correctly points out, is a symptom of a larger problem - not that leveling is slow and boring, but that many players feel it's not worth being at the keyboard period, even when they're done leveling.
How can we fix this?
Blazzer888 wrote:
stop flaming, its not going to help
There is no flame here. Only constructive posts. Well, yours isn't, but the rest of the thread...
Roger roger n'Jessi and Tiaga!
I see the biggest hurdle for me making my own content is scheduling. "My own content" would be things like bands, general jam sessions, finding an audience willing to listen to an organized band, touring the theaters and good player cantinas with a few people, etc. And of course the scheduling problem comes with finding 3 or 4 other people that can be on for the same 2 hours as you can on the same day as the audience.
Are there ways to overcome the scheduling problem? or is it just hard work and lots of phone calls?
If anyone has had highly successful events, comments or suggestions would be helpful for me in this area.
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The problem of content provided by SOE is a seperate issue and has been discussed to my satisfaction already. We've all made some good suggestions for changes and additions to the musician prof on these boards.
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The ratio of self-made content to game-provided content is a personal choice that can be debated til the cows come home.
What I'm doing at this point is basically trying to invite everyone I know (who wants to be in a real band)to one set event once a week. I realize this is slow, but it's a fun event - a certain guild has decided to put on a male revue every week, which I learned about when they bought out all my hotpants, and then invited me. It's a lot of fun and nobody takes themselves too seriously. I think the key to a successful get-together is to have some sort of theme or reason why you're there, other than to just get rid of battle fatigue (costumes, raffles, wedding, etc). I'm slowly trying to draw interested parties to this event, and then maybe expand the band to another night a week... I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Also, I've had at least one person contact me because I posted on my server boards that a band would be a good idea to form. So that might be the way to go (be prepared for dorks derailing you, however).
Appointments are frustrating, but sometimes necessary, for many aspects of the game. Example: raids. Sure, pickup groups are "fun" (in theory) but I bet everyone would show up when the guild says "we are going to be killing x on Endor on Saturday." Why? Because the planning is worth it to get everyone together in one place at the same time, because ultimately you want to socialize with these people and not complete strangers. My other idea is to "tag along" with big raids, or show up near the end, because people will need healing. The problem is that the raid leader must know about this, so he can drag everyone back to the cantina a little earlyinstead of everyone getting tired and logging right when the raid is over.
Until we get some changes and/or the holocraze is over, I can either drop my skills or adapt. And yes, it would be a lot more "convenient" for me to dump those points into merchanting, considering I'm a tailor. But I have an alt run my vendors specifically so I have the leisure points to entertain. So I'll try to adapt to the situation and see if I can squeeze some fun out of entertaining even in this hostile environment.
I don't believe that AFK is a real issue. I believe people use it as an excuse, or that people who are already dissatisfied with the game lay all their problems at the doors of the AFKs, as if they are the ones who "ruined" the Entertainer profession, when in fact there are alternatives that no one seems to want to recognize.
I believe lack of content is one of the issues. Entertainment missions are generally counter-productive, cantinas all look the same, Entertainers are generally useless outside the cantinas (except in camps, and even then they cannot heal battle fatigue), the XP system forces you into the largest group possible, income is based almost solely on commision, etc.
Most of those issues either disappear or are at least mitigated by obtaining the Master title, but not until then.
I support them because I don't feel that they're the problem. I recognize that many other Entertainers are frustrated by AFKs. I used to be myself, until I started thinking about WHY I was frustrated.
Removing AFKs will not make the game "like it was in the beginning." Server load and the player base have both changed dramatically since then. This is obvious, or should be to anyone who checks the server load when they create a new character. Where once they were all "Full" or "Heavy" or at least "Moderate", now they are only "Moderate" at peak times, and "Light" at all other times. So for those who are wishing for Entertainer groups in every city that are always full of chatting people, that is not going to happen.
Many of those who are now Entertainers have no desire to be. Even if they were forced to be at the keyboard, they still would not participate in chatting and socializing. They are there because they wish to Master the profession and move on. Forcing them to not-AFK will not turn them into the socializing Entertainers that people remember from launch.
Removing AFKs will not suddenly result in an increase in respect and income for the Entertainment profession. I get more tips now, in the midst of AFKing, than I did before it became so widespread. The Entertainment professions were never widely respected by many players, mostly those of the immature variety. There have always been people who will disrespect a profession who's play style is different than their own. Conversely, there will always be people who respect everyone. It's just the first group tends to be more vocal about it, so they are the loudest and appear to be the most prevalent. People who say "Your class is stupid, you can just AFK your way through it" are the same people who said "Your class is stupid, all you do is sit around and chat."
Remove AFKing? Sounds to me like you're looking for the easy way out of a bigger problem.
NotYourAvgEwok wrote:Server load and the player base have both changed dramatically since then. This is obvious, or should be to anyone who checks the server load when they create a new character. Where once they were all "Full" or "Heavy" or at least "Moderate", now they are only "Moderate" at peak times, and "Light" at all other times.
Slightly off-topic but since you said it...
This is a red herring. Because of the very problem you stated (servers being full all the time) and repeated complaints about this no matter how many servers they added, at some point over the summer during one of the publishes, the server capacity was increased (I don't remember which publish but I do remember reading a post by Holo or Q or someone with a red name addressing this very issue). So whereas before that publish, 5,000 people might have made the server "heavy", now the same 5,000 makes it "medium."
I'm not saying that the total # of players hasn't dropped off a bit. But it's not a 50% decline the way it appears. I might believe a 15% or so drop, but no more than that. Which is not enough to explain empty/silent cantinas.
C