Musician Archive
Thread: Do you guys want to totally kill afk Entertaining?
Message Edited by PoetDancer on 07-16-2004 09:12 PM
Message Edited by PoetDancer on 07-16-2004 09:15 PM
I seriously doubt you'll ever find a time when there isn't at least one entertainer out there, and one is enough if you know where to find them
PoetDancer wrote:
You and I can agree on one point, Straker, that the situation after Publish 10 will be a problem. But it won't be any problem unattendance and buffbots can solve, no matter how many are out there. The playerbase will still have the same problems as they have now, and moreover, will have many new and insurmounable ones. This is what the future looks like after publish 10:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dancer&message.id=25754&page=1
And its a scary place to be, Staker. But I know of one way for certain you can prevent it. Encourage live entertainers. Tip them well for being attentive and interactive. Demand more than BF healing, Mind Wound healing, and buffs, and reward those things you see displayed in the cantina that are amusing to you. Tell your guilds and servers the same. Make it so we have a reason to get back in the cantinas again besides witnessing twenty individuals in composite armour huddled around an unattendedcharacter (who's owner makes no bones about the fact that it never was created to ever be played), only to leave and not even acknowledge our efforts to be welcoming and amusing to you.
Because unless you do these things, Straker, we will either be gone, or there will be too few of us to make any difference. And after Publish 10, you will have noholosea in Coronet of players who will service whomever walks in the door.And all you will have are the bots. And bots by their very nature only need to service two groups to justify their existance: the owner, and the owner's friends. Because it costs the owner nothing to distribute the mechanics of what we do, and therefore, it costs the owner nothing to preprogram a /deny list as well.
So the ball is in our patrons' hands now. They, not SOE, has to give us reasons to keep on playing these professions. And if you do not see the importance of this, then you'd better start thinking of living in a world where the lion's share of BF healing is issued by alt accounts who will have more reasons to /deny a player than to service them.
Message Edited by PoetDancer on 07-16-2004 09:12 PM
Message Edited by PoetDancer on 07-16-2004 09:15 PM
Sorry Poet, wishI had seen your post before I responded. Actually, I love live Entertainers, when I find them Entertaining, I tip them well, sometimes even giving them a free Entertainer Droid (if it isn't a hologrind.)
The problem as I see it is this Poet, let's look at Doc for a second. There are LOTS of Docs out there, lets say (just making this up,) 1000 docs on each server. Of those 1000 docs, lets say 50 publically sell buffs in places like Coronet and Theed. Ohh the others may buff, but they do it privately. Don't get me wrong, this is ok. It's just that those other 450 Docs find it boring to just sit there and buff people. Doc also has combat applications, Entertainers do not.
Let's translate that over to Entertainers now. Entertainers don't have any combat capabilities, so most of them will either be on Role players or secondary accounts. Let's say that there are 250 Dancers or Musicians on each server. Let's say 200 are secondary accounts, and the other are 50 hard core Entertainers such as yourself, people who Entertain for a living.
Some of those 50 play only 1 or 2 days a week, some play all during prime time. Regardless, there will be gaps when no Entertainers are around, just like there are with Docs, and there are more Docs.
Yes if AFK entertaining was killed, you guys could make a killing Entertaining, I'm all for that. However, here is what would happen with our guild, I would simply log on my Musician every couple of hours for people while I am playing. Inconvieniant for them, and for me. Yet more conveniant then them having to run all over the galaxy looking for a "public" Entertainer. Don't get me wrong, this isn't like a threat or blackmail, it's just the truth.
I really respect people who can play Entertainers full time, I love Role Playing. I just think that while totally killing afk playing, while it may be great for Entertainers, would be very inconveniant for the average player.
I fully support any idea that rewards those who Entertain at their keyboard.
Tiaga wrote:
Do you think finding entertainers would be a problem if there were tools in the game to help you find them?
I seriously doubt you'll ever find a time when there isn't at least one entertainer out there, and one is enough if you know where to find them
Ok Tiaga, that is fair, there are always some out there, but will they buff you? Are they a true "Entertainer" or somebody who just did it for conveinance for themselves. Late at night if I am looking for Doc buffs, I can find Docs, but they arn't buffing. Well some may buff for a crazy amount, like 50k.
For example, my DE is a Master Musician, if I am out Harvesting or making droids, I am not going to stop what I am doing simply because people need BF killed or a buff. For a friend if they come to my shop maybe, but stop for 5-10 minutes for a stranger? Probably not.
Ok let's look at a "normal" persons schedule. They don't play during prime time, so things arn't that easy.
They have 3 hours to play. They log on.
They need buffs. 5 minutes to space port, 10 minute shuttle wait.
They luckily find a doc in Coronet quickly and only had to wait 5 minutes.
Cool Entertainer in the Cantina, lets kill this BF and get another mind buff.
Crap missed the shuttle, another 10 minutes gone.
Were down to 2 hours and 30 minutes now.
5 minutes back to our city soI can run missions.
Life is good for let's say about an hour. I'm a noob, I get hit a lot, my BF is up to 250 (reasonable,) man I am missing a lot now, and getting hit more often. I make it another 30 minutes. Now my mind buff is gone, my BF is 350 now, pretty bad.
I check my friends lists for Entertainers, crap nobodyI know on. I go out over "planetary chat" looking for Entertainers, somebody says they "think" one may be in Coronet.
Hmmm, I have an hour left to play, doI want to spend 30 minutes of that going to an Entertainer that may or may not be there? Screw it, I'll just log.
I don't think this example is unreasonable. People play this game for fun, buffs, shuttles, having to spend time while getting mind buffs and bf are already time sinks, that are inconveniant for the average player. We don't need to make it worse.
NewJedi wrote:
If /register and other such tools worked, finding an entertainer would be trivial. Even as is, it's not particularly tough. My alt is a Commando; he never has trouble finding a live entertainer to heal his BF. He doesn't bother with AFK entertainers.
And yes, if I had my way, there would be no AFK anything in this game -- as is the case in most MMORPGs. A social profession like entertainer is more fun if people are actually, well, social.
How much trouble will he have when the grind is done?
Many people play this game to kill stuff.
Some people play this game to craft stuff.
A few play to Entertain.
Even those such as yourself who do Entertain may have alts, so may not always be Entertaining.
both of those numbers used to be higher but as they were more and more ignored tons and tons left so while the numbers are way way skewed towards combatants now it wasn't quite as extreme as it is now.
Straker_Atrella wrote:
NewJedi wrote:
If /register and other such tools worked, finding an entertainer would be trivial. Even as is, it's not particularly tough. My alt is a Commando; he never has trouble finding a live entertainer to heal his BF. He doesn't bother with AFK entertainers.
And yes, if I had my way, there would be no AFK anything in this game -- as is the case in most MMORPGs. A social profession like entertainer is more fun if people are actually, well, social.
How much trouble will he have when the grind is done?
Many people play this game to kill stuff.
Some people play this game to craft stuff.
A few play to Entertain.
Even those such as yourself who do Entertain may have alts, so may not always be Entertaining.
But, usually, no, if I can't find a live person, I won't get one. I sure as hell wish I had one. I'm annoyed that as a Master dancer I can't give one to myself. But, I won't use the buffbot. So, I die. So, what? I'm not going to be a party to further ruining the play of my brothers and sisters. But, believe me, I *want* that buff and I want it bad. It's a great advantage. But, in a world without buffbots, we're all in the same situation, and nobody can claim that they need it. Rather, people will respect entertainers more, become friends with more of them, pay them well, and get their buffs that way, furthering the enjoyment of everyone involved except the annoying "gimme gimme gimme" people. Frankly, don't care too much about them. 