Entertainer Archive

We say we want more control over whom we entertain, but I am confused. Because ultimately, we have always had control over whom we entertain.

/Stopdance, and /Stopmusic

It sounds silly, I know, but there was actually a time in this game when /Stop was the only command we had available to us to regulate who we danced and played for. And by far, it remains the best control. Because not only does /Stop deny the cantina the mechanics we provide, but it also denies the most important thing we entertainers give: our dance, and our music.

I have seen board posts that make the claim that we are far from useless, because we provide amusement, and social interaction to the galaxies we serve. But I am confused.

Because if we truly believe that the most important thing we provide is amusement, and social interaction, then we would see no need for anything other than /Stop, because /Stop is the only thing that would really matter.

There was a time in this game when the very act of dancing or playing music was sufficient to fulfill all the obligations of this class toward the audience we served. While the things we provide players were said to be "passively applied," it only ever meant that the patron was the one with the responsibility to /watch, or /listen.

Ultimately, however, the final arbiter in determining who got a show, and who didn't, was we who performed. The beautiful thing about it was, by denying a show through /Stop, we also denied those things that flowed as a result of the show. When the mechanics became unavailable, so did the dance and music. When the dance and music became unavailable, so did the mechanics.

But within a matter of months, we received a different sort of control.

/Deny

It was a radical statement. I believe it to be a poor statement, and a poor control. Because it basically tells everyone in the game that the mechanics they gain by /watch are the only things that are important.

After all, /Deny does nothing to prevent a patron from watching our performance. They still get the real important things we give. But the only things they do not get are the unessential things, and the things any boring layabout can give. /Deny proved to everyone—including many of us—that the only raison d’erte to this class were the things /watched, and not the things watched.

Recently, we have received an even more unusual, and radical, control.

/CoverCharge

I used to think that this profession was compensated on the basis of our performance. But /CoverCharge was most unusual, because it gives an entertainer the option to get paid, before anyone is even in a position to think if it is boring, or not. It makes our "by-products" gained through a /watch the things that pull credits out of our patrons. The real things that separate us from the spammy dullards, however, are free, apparently. That is the ultimate message a command like /CoverCharge tells the subscribers these days. That only the mechanics are valuable, and the dancing or playing itself is unessential, and unimportant in the greater scheme of things.

Many complain that the culture behind entertainment, and the culture of players toward entertainment, has changed. The reason why, I think, is because actual entertainment is dirt cheap, and can be gained for free.

What has become rare, valuable, and controlled are those things that have nothing to do with entertainment: namely, the "by products" of our amusement. More controls over who can /watch our character, in my opinion; undermine our aims in far greater ways than help us.

Because the more we as entertainers start to rely on "targeted controls" that restrict the ability of a patron to /watch us, or /listen to us, the less our attempt to entertain the audience matters to the ones we entertain.

Therefore, it is no surprise that patrons have been flocking toward spammy musicians, dull dancers, "gimmick named" dancers, and "get on my high tipper list" entertainers. As long as the patrons are able to get all the rare, gated, and controlled things from them, everything else is essentially unimportant to encourage.

I predict, that if we ever get to the point where we have ultimate, authorized, and targeted controls over who can /watch us, or /listen to us, then whatever respect we gain from the patrons will not have much to do with how well we dance, or how effectively we amuse.

The only thing that will matter to patrons, and the players as a whole will be if we "push the button," or, "turn on the switch," or, "jump through the hoop." And it really won’t matter much to anyone if we are the most thrilling entertainers in the galaxy. If we don’t do as they say, they will see us as a waste of server space.

Entertainers. We have three active controls over who can /watch us, two more than we need, and I would add, two too many.

Why on Corellia do we need even more?

Because we have to understand that we pay a price each time we ask for more controls, and each time we use those controls. The price we pay is that dancing and playing music—in and of themselves—are no longer valuable, or good.

Instead, entertaining seems more like a tease, done by sadistic and manipulative prudes, who take pleasure in determining who actually is worthy of getting something out of the show, and who wastes their time.

As much as we try and forget those players who have awful things to say about us, I do think that, like all things, what they say about us is worthy of consideration, if only to understand why they harbour such animosity. Because for the longest time, I was absolutely baffled by the sort of crimes some in the player base accused us of committing against them. But at the height of the mind-buffing craze before the combat upgrade, it all started to make sense to me.

I believe that its not that they hated us in the time of mind buffs. Its that dancing and hearing music no longer makes intuitive sense to them. They see the dancer right in front of them dancing in the cantina, yet they are unable to simply /watch the dancer. They must ask for "permission" to /watch the dancer. Yet even if we don’t give them the permission, they can still watch the dancer as long as they wish. It just doesn’t make sense to their sensibilities. As a result, they are frustrated by it, and they lash out in anger at the ones that they deem to be responsible for the discrepancy. Namely, us.

Ultimately, if the developers want to redefine our system of giving out mechanics into something that is no longer intuitive, passive, and transparent, I cannot do much.

I would hope that they create a system whereby we can enhance our experience, and make /stop the only control we would even need, or would want.

I am smart enough to understand that no matter how much I try and stress this point, there are far too many of us that are content with throwing immersion out the window for the sake of more, "directable control methods," out of a belief that this is the only solution to habitual unattended activity.

While I think that providing a solution to habitual unattended activity is important, I think it is more important to ensure that what goes on in the cantinas makes sense to players, and that we don’t throw out all sensibility to achieve our own, particular ends.

What I beg us to do, entertainers, is no matter what, to prefer /stopdance, and /stopmusic, as our controls of choice in determining who we do and do not entertain.

I urge this, because sights and sounds do not need permission to see and hear when they are right in front of us in the real world, and these professions by their very nature depend on maintaining a "suspension of disbelief" in order for them to function correctly.

If we are ultimately to be in charge of our patron’s perception, then only we are to blame if players start to question the validity of these professions in the game. It is not in the guitar player’s power to turn on a listener’s ears. It is not in the ballerina’s power to close a patron’s eyes. But understand that control methods other than /Stop give us the power to do just these things, and we must always be careful with them.