Crabbok

From the FAQ on Livegamer: Knowledge Base
SoE states in this FAQ many times that gold farmer are problems and they want to be rid of gold farmers. SoE does not, however, state what a gold farmer is. Is a gold farmer limited to someone who uses third party software to bot and farm? I thought that was a botter.

If I decide that I want to spend a day or 2 killing trash mobs for loot, and selling the items, and then selling the platinum on the exchange... does that make me a farmer? Because every single person who uses the exchange to sell has reciever platinum from killing mobs in the game....

I guess my question is where is the line drawn, that separates a players who sells gold/plat and a farmer?

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Illuminator

They should just call them "fucking HK's" and be done with it.

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Roger Uzun (Patherpanchali) is the raid developer for EQ2 and he neither likes the players nor respects them.
His piss poor work kept telling me that I should cancel my accounts... so I finally listened!
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tracheaspider

The line is... where you sell your plat and what service you use. If you're on the exchange servers and you use the exchange services to sell plat (or items, or toons), you're in the clear. If you're not on an exchange server and/or aren't using SOE's exchange services to sell your plat, you're violating the EULA.

SOE's idea was that giving players a legit place to indulge in RMT style gaming on a set of isolated servers would cater to both crowds -- those who want to buy their way to a goal and those who want to do it themselves -- and would cut down on illicit third-party run RMT sales. But it can't effectively kill the third-party market because a) most people started out on a normal play server and don't want to transfer and/or hate the exchange server community, and b) some people really don't give a fuck as long as they get a good deal.

The issue you're bringing up is that there is no common term to refer specifically to a professional third-party RMT farmer. Most legit players farm to raise money, but only the ones who sell outside the exchange system cross the line. I tend to call them "pro plat farmers" because even normally sensible people get up in arms when you start attacking plat farming.

Also, SOE's commitment to stopping the farmers sounds somewhat hollow when they've yet to do anything about the latest breed (which I really should add to my field guide...), the speed hackers, who zip around at warp speed scooping up shinies on throw-away toons. Simply making a collection skill that auto-raises with level (adventure OR craft) and restricting shiny harvests based on level would fix this immediately.

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Crabbok

So if a Farmer is one who sells plat, OUTSIDE the exchange.... how is LIVEGAMER going to combat farmers? Sony's statement is absolutely full of shit here. It seems to me that normal players are the ones who use the exchange, and farmers use their own sales mechanisms, and livegamer will do absolutely nothing to prevent farming.

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Jomomma

I think describing a farmer would be something along the lines of this.

Think of Laalon, last night I saw him spamming wts this or that. He's technically a farmer, but he's also a legit person and not disrupting for anyone else.

Now think of back in T7.
There was a guy that 6boxed in SoS all the time, would train people, noone could get updates, etc. All he did was farm.
Then there was The Crew. 12-24 boxing all contested that they could get their hands on. Locking down in a sense and doing whatever they could to stop others from getting a pull on any mob.
Of course you also have the level 1 speed hackers getting shinies, the obvious bots in DoF areas, the people who farm no lockout instances like in Everfrost, etc etc.

So you've basically got two types of farmers. There's me, you, and most people who farm legitimately to make money for our toons and maybe a bit to sell, and then you've got the people who do nothing on this game but farm whatever to sell and will go to any lengths to make plat such as botting, hacking, and training anyone who gets in their way.

Something to consider is that farmers also use the exchange, and as I pointed out above, not every 'bad' farmer is an 'asian botter.'
I could log on right now and have an intelligent english conversation with people/guilds that I know are 'bad' farmers who go to any length to make plat and sell only on the exchange.

But here is what probably will happen if they do open up LG. A few botters that no one knows about or ever sees will get banned from their service, a bunch of regular people('good' farmers) will get banned from their service, and most of the more blatant 'bad' farmers will still be there, using LG and whatever other sites to sell.

Anyway, I think a good summary would be, farmers use both SE and other sites, and LG wont do anything but piss off the legit players.

Illuminator

I like the idea of identifying farmers by their gateway IP's. POOF. Any questions?

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Roger Uzun (Patherpanchali) is the raid developer for EQ2 and he neither likes the players nor respects them.
His piss poor work kept telling me that I should cancel my accounts... so I finally listened!
KNOCKBACK PORT STUN STIFLE DISARM RESIST KNOCKBACK PORT STUN STIFLE DISARM RESIST
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Laalon

Hey!

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And Shepherds we shall be. For thee, my Lord, for thee. Power hath descended forth from thy hand. That our feet may swiftly carry out thy commands. So we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomine Patris, Et Filii, Et Spiritus Sancti.