Entertainer Archive

I was reading the thread about AFK macroers, and about people who interact with people will gain a reputation and get more tips and all that...

Unfortunately, thats kind of one of my pet peeves about musicians.. The fact that they have a Fizzz or a Bandfill or whatever shoved in their mouth, and they talk to people. Sure, it's convenient. I slip up and forget sometimes. But when I play a wind instrument of any sort, I try to avoid spoken languages. I will emote quite a bit, and I will use body language. However the body language only works with others of the same race. Being a twi'lek that means I can usually talk to at least half the entertainers. However I can't interact with the patrons as easily.

Is there a solution? I don't know. I love to talk to people, so often I'll just dance, or play the mandovial. I'll probably never persue the music line, so I'll never be able to play an omnibox or narlagon.

I'm not a hard-core roleplayer, but I do like to play within my role. I consider certain exceptions to that when it just becomes a hinderance. Not being able to talk at all while playing is an example. While not life-like, it is still more difficult to roleplay in-game than it would be in real life. You don't have to type anything or wait for yourself to stop playing, nor do you have to step forward in order to stop playing in real life, for example. You simply just stop breathing into the instrument and move it slightly away from your mouth. Quite different.

As a result, it's my personal feeling that it's just going too far to demand that in the spirit of roleplaying.

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Pendarin wrote:

As a result, it's my personal feeling that it's just going too far to demand that in the spirit of roleplaying.

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Also, the musicians are able to play for a long time. If you have a good medic, a musician can toot away for hours upon end.

So, look at it as an abstraction. Naturally, a musician cannot play for that long. So he gets words out between songs.

So that aspect doesn't bother me too much.

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Tiaga wrote:

Is there a solution? I don't know. I love to talk to people, so often I'll just dance, or play the mandovial. I'll probably never persue the music line, so I'll never be able to play an omnibox or narlagon.

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I adminned for years on a superhero MUSH. It's kind of like a chat room. All text. No graphics. Typing is the only form of communication. One of the players made up a deaf mute. I tried to talk her out of it, saying that she would not be able to roleplay with the other players if her PC could not talk to them.

You know what? I was wrong. She was quite good at using emotes, without words, to convey her meaning. For example,

Grace looks at Johnny and smiles politely, but shakes her head negatively and backs away.

The player never used the "say" command. She was the most in-demand roleplay partner on the MUSH. She was pretty much the best roleplayer I've ever seen, and I never once saw her say anything. It was 100% emotes.

Why do I tell this story? Because you can play a musician easily enough using the same system. Instead of saying, "Hi, welcome to the cantina," when someone walks in... how about /emote waves as he plays, welcoming %NT to the cantina. Says the same exact thing but without you actually, in character, saying it, since your mouth is full of slitherhorn or whatever. And if someone asks you something, you can shake your head negatively. You can even join in the conversation with all emotes, thought balloons, etc... without ever having your character speak a word.

Is this harder to do? Yes. Does it require more thought? Oh yeah. It takes a really good, experienced RPer to do this well. But if you are up to the challenge, it can be done, and done well. Trust me. I have seen it.

C

Well if you are gonna get literal let's get really really literal.

The instruments never ever touch your lips if you look closely.

So i can play all night long and talk all night long. Didn't you know we play it telepathically?

There problem solved........now about the /startband bug...........

That's a good story Chessack. Inspiring to try it a bit.

My own background comes from Pern-based MUDs. I'd like to note that being expository in an emote (and using words like 'negatively') aren't strictly "true-to-form" roleplaying. But that's a total pet peeve of mine. Any time you use more words in an emote to convey meaning you're implying a lot of body language and a basic level of understanding which may not exist between you and another person.

That said, I've long ago stopped being any kind of roleplaying fascist. I think people should roleplay, who want to roleplay, to the best of their ability -- and I personally will work around whatever that is. The whole idea that people will actually roleplay is what I'm enjoying.

As to this particular pet peeve -- I totally understand it and applaud your own reticence in using spoken language while playing the instrument. I vary depending on my mood and how "in character" I'm feeling at the time.

This qualifies as one of those things I'd rather see self-enforced than enforced by the rules engine. I'd rather they learn how to prevent bad, bad, bad names instead of this sort of behavior modification.

Oh I don't think anyone is suggesting they change the engine. I wasn't even myself suggesting everyone try this. I just offered it as one possible solution.

As to what is "true" roleplay you will find that opinions differ. A "good pose" on a MUSH is expected to be a paragraph. Joe waves. is seen as not very good roleplay if it just stands on its own. That might be all Joe is doing but it is boring to read. So what is considered good and bad roleplay differs from system to system.

Totally aside from long /emote descriptions, there are tons of /commands you can use. /grin, /chuckle, /snicker, /giggle, and /laugh are all slight variations on the same theme, and you can use them wisely to differentiate moood and reaction to other players, for instance. You can use /eyebrow to raise an eyebrow at someone, and /wave to greet them (while still playing on your horn), and /frown at them if they make you angry, etc, etc. All without your PC saying a word. Use ctrl-A and take a good look at all the emotes we've been given. You can use those to have a great RP session without writing anything long and involved, and still interact with and be friendly to your customers.

C

Well, as a musician myself, and considering the fluidity of the songs, talking is right out for woodwind and brass instruments. The omnibox and others that don't require air, mand included, are perfectly fine to chat away. I play the guitar and piano, and it requires very little effort to talk and play a song I've been playing for years. But, of course, the issue resides in those instruments that use a mouthpiece. Talking? Hey, you're an entertainer! Your job is to entertain and heal mind wounds/battle fatigue! Conversing with the others in the cantina can get you far, especially if no one else is talking or greeting people. Then again, the whole /emote idea works just as well, and will probably bring in the tips fro RPers more than a dancer who continually flirts again and again with every person and never tries a different social command. But, for those non RP folks, talking about how they're doing is a nice gesture, albeit impossible in real life. But, then again, this isn't real life, it's a game, and it's designed to be more of a game than a real life simulation. It's for fun more than anything else, and people have the freedom to do what they will within the bounds of the EULA. That said, just find some fellow RPers and form a band.

Is there a solution? Yes, you keep doing what you're doing, and I'll keep doing what I'm doing...

I don't worry about it much. The cantinas are the best place for RP, and I'm not going to nit over having an instrument in my mouth. I'll chat with people, because that's where you get to know other player characters. I think this is one instance where RP can be taken a bit too far.

Thats a very good story, Chessak. Thanks. It's also about what I do when I'm playing an instrument. Actually I think it is a very good excercisein general, it gets you used to using emotes to express yourself as well as just spoken work.

And I partly disagree and partly agree with Falryx. While an emote like "Soandso welcomes Fighter_01 to the cantina and wonders how she is doing." is taking the whole emote thing a bit to far, just using it in place of what should be a say. On the other hand, "Soandso shakes his head neagively." is perfectly valid, as would be "Soandso makes a dismissive gesture with his right hand." Compare that to "Soandso shakes his head side to side." and "Soandso raises his right hand and waves his fingers away at soandso." In the first case you might be able to figure out what is intended from the text, but in the second case, it might not be clear what the intent of the gesture is. By indicating the intent of the gesture, it is then up to theother people to decide if they recognize the gesture or not.

I'm not saying I'm requiring everyone to do this.. Just pointing something out for people to think about. I definately wouldn't want the system to enforce this, because then people would just use emotes to talk anyway.

For a little bit of background, I play on one of the roleplay servers.

While I love roleplaying, this is one of the areas where I tend to give on. Yes, I talk with an instrument in my mouth sometimes. I also don't change songs every 20 seconds because gametime is compressed to one day every 2-3 hours.

I give on other areas too. I don't always go back to my house in the evening. Sometimes I play through 3 or 4 straight game days without sleeping once.

In general, while I love to roleplay, things often happen too fast to come up with creative emotes. If I get 3-4 tips in about 30 seconds followed by an action heal or two, I'll say thank you to everyone. It's quicker, more effective, and I think my roleplaying is just fine.

If I wait to dream up an emote for each of these people, who are located in different parts of the cantina, by the time I get the first one out, the other 4 people have gone, and I would have to resort to a private tell, which is about as far from RP as you can get.

Our entertainer toolset is limited, and conversation is part of it. I am more entertaining if I talk to people than if I don't, even if I have to say it around a reed in my mouth.

But. . . in game. . . you don't have to have the instrument in your mouth anyway. Look at some of the music flourishes. Just consider that when I'm talking to you I preplayed the notes just like I did before I threw my Mando up in the air.

Bener