Entertainer Archive

Hiya, all you Entertainers! You have a very cool profession, and the potential to bring some of the richest bits of life into the game, in whichever cities, planets, or servers you decide to do your shtick. I'm not an Entertainer myself (although I did try it & get a few boxes of it in beta), but I thought I'd offer some tips from the perspective of the spectator. These are very subjective in some cases, just being the kind of Entertainer behavior that I personally like, so take them as only that and not any sort of "must-do" list. Here are some of the things that make me say, "Hey, that was cool, I had fun in that cantina, my 200 credit tip was well spent.":

In no particular order:

-Be active, not afk

-Greet people as they come in. Macros are fine for this. %TT in a macro will substitute the name of whoever you have targeted, so make one like "Greetings, %TT. Come in and enjoy yourself. Use /watch or /listen on any entertainer. Tips are welcomed. " Just click on us as we walk in, & tap the macro.

-One group of musicians = one song being played. Only one.

-Any basic clothing beyond the start profession clothing is still better than the white old lady undies.

-Yes, StarWars1 can get almost as old to the listeners as it does to the musicians. Flourishes & friendly chatter, however, make it very easy to forget that I've heard it many times before.

-Having musicians lined up in a formation of some kind, with dancers in front of them, looks cool.

-Brightly colored clothing (when it's available) looks cool on dancers, & will make it more likely for me to notice you & /watch.

-Putting on an occasional concert in the outdoor entertainment areas gets you noticed & remembered.

-Have the least chatty person in your band run the band flourishes, while the most chatty person remains free to be chatty.

Again, I don't mean any of this as "you'd better serve me in these ways" but just as an insight to what makes visiting cantinas most enjoyable for one spectator, me. You have a tough job at times, so hopefully some of these will prove useful. See you in the cantina!

Thanks for the tips, using em on my entertainer as I type this=)

If you are playing with another person, switch instruments. I don't think this affects XP, but it does affect the sound quality.

If you want to stop playing quickly, move.

Travel. Seriously. Don't stay in the same cantina. Everytime I log on, I find two delivery missions to a different city. I make a quick 1.5k or so and settle in to belt out a few tunes at the cantina. Try out different planets too.

You can play or dance anywhere, so don't be afraid to fill that time waiting for a shuttle with a little XP.

If you want to be a little more action-oriented. Team up with someone who can make camps.

Don't perform in your underwear; be friendly but not slutty; don't dance right at the entrance or in the cantina halls. Doing so will get you booted from my band faster than you can type /wink. Or, the advanced musicians such as myself will find a more pleasant venue to perform.

Shirt off is okay for newbies, as long as pants are worn, and the attitude is not one of prostitution. Keep the cantinas a plesant, social place for relaxation. Whore ing /tells are fine and feel free to arrange private entertainment in private conversation... Please keep that stuffout of the spacial channel.

Good Ideas!

It's called /bandflourish # where the # is a number from 1-8 just like your normal /flourish. When you play at a Cantina, don't overuse the /bandflourish, even if it is looking good, most of the people who are starting out now, want a little performance boost as well, so they want to do their own flourish between ticks.

Please remember to invite people in to your band, even though they may not play the advanced songs, you can always play a song that is less advanced. Change of tune is also a good thing, you might not get that much XP for the lesser advanced songs, you will get better tips for not playing the same old, and with a big band in a crowded cantina you will be able to get some decent XP as well.

Great Tips!!! Thanks

The [%TT] is very useful tip

Last night was my first timeI playedas a musician and played in a group of musicians and I confirm how bad a group can sound when all the member play flourishes, also how great the XP is when in a group.

Good advice Zip. Thanks for the post, I think as the entertainer class is taking shape, it's understandable for a well placed, well-spaced out "Tips ain't a must but they sure keep the music flowing" is fine. Once tipping becomes a generally accepted pracitce then I imagine such messages will taper off.

Even beyond the game system, I think these social classes are really what's going to make people see SWG shine as something different from anything else on the online game market.

Just curious what do you tip and how do you determine it, give me a specific example. What do you look for as an audience memeber before giving your hard-earned creds away?

I should hit novice musician tonight, so I'm excited about finally learning a new song, woo-hoo. Climbing the music tree is not the "easily attained secondary skill" many folks thought it would be and I love that.

Jolo

I never, ever mention the word "tip" unless asked about it by a customer first. I also refuse to use a macro to greet people, because that doesn't seem personal enough. Sure, I could click on someone and hit F9, but I would much rather take the time to type "Hiyas" and then type the name of the person. Sure, it's slower that way, but _I_ am actually talking to the person, not some droid macro that's in my hotkey. :>

I have never begged for tips, and I have instructed people in my group to not insinuate begging of any kind. And you wanna know what's crazy - we get tipped more when we're not mentioning tips than we were when people did. When I played other characters, I never EVER tipped an Entertainer that asked for it. A waitress in the resturaunt does not ask me for a tip either - if one did, I wouldn't tip her a penny.

So, an advice for an Entertainer, just do your job (both socially and gameplay wise) and you WILL be tipped what your customer thinks you are worth - there is no need to remind the customer, because then he will feel guilty if he DOESN'T, and then he will dread coming back because he knows he will feel guilty if he doesn't tip.

(And, don't worry about those reepat customers who don't tip. 100% of the time, I have had repeat customers who tipped me a large sum after their 20th viewing to make up for all the back time when they didn't have money to tip me. Trust me, it WILL come to you. Just not immediately.)

Please tell me how to do group flourishes. I was in a big band tonight that did them along with lining up and dancers in front and it rocked. But no one would tell me how you do that.

After doing surveying, crafting and some blasting, I decided to do entertainer as well. Only one person (on Ahazi server, Naboo, Moesi city) was in the cantina, dancing. I quickly crafted a slitherhorn, and began performing. I performed for 7 hours straight, and we had a peak crowd of atleast 20 people, and our group (musicians and dancers) peaked at about 8.

I talked to the crowd mostly, told them we were all live, at our keyboards, no macro's in sight. I had a person doing the group flourishes. I told people (once I became band leader) to line up in the corner, so we'd be out of the way, and looking decent. I talked to everyone I could. Always told them little stupid things like spaying and neutering gungans, keeping naboo clean, not to kill the baby creatures and what not. And I never asked for a tip. And none of my bandmates did either. All in all, I got healed completely by a medic, I got XP for teaching others skills. I got Music 1 and Entertainment Healing 3, and I made a whole lotta friends. I also made 2500+ in creds, and gave about 500 to the other bandmates, since I didnt know if they got tipped or not.

I didn't think I'd enjoy being an entertainer, but I love it. It's a slow going from the start.. and I'm looking into buying a fizz instrument, but I enjoy it It's great to not have to run around and kill things or survey for hours on end.

Arelius Vashen - Ahazi Server - currently based in Moesi, Naboo