AFK farming and reports (merged)

[LaHire.5934]

Hello ladies and gents,

I was just questionning myself on the general opinion of AFK farming in GW2 !

I keep coming accross those, generally in the same spots, tickets dont seem to be doing much(yet ! ->second one on the way), there's no related feature in the report options as well, so is it just me making a huge thing out of it or should we stick together to eradicate it ?Should I drop a map message once in a while to target those for a mass report ? I never see anyone talking about it, people walk by and don't seem to be bothered by it...

I totally expect some salty messages from people who uses the necro mechanic or are friends with someone who does, but honestly, shame on you ! This is an exploit, that we should be able to report swiftly, tickets should'nt be needed...

So what's your opinion on the subject ? Should we leave them in peace, letting them run the economy with loot's they didnt even work for ? Or should we just ram them like crows on a rotten carcace ?

La Hire

[derd.6413]

It's not allowed but unless they remove minions (probably ranger pets 2) from the game it won't change.

And it's not that profitable or damaging to the economy. (Unless there's a farm spot i'm unaware of)

[hugo.4705]

Here is my opinion, I have enough of seeing them farming radiant dusts in ruins. We should have a report feature for them. I don't see why they would loot items, xp and karma for doing nothing and using macros, minions targeting a specific enemy each; whereas I got tired of running around, mouse click the skills one per one, finding the enemies... D: When I come here to farm 10 dusts for scribing and making decos, I'm annoyed and can't farm them because of 20 necros minions or turrets on them. It's surely a serious issue about many players but they just keep silent and don't say they are against. I'm okay with farming but in a proper way. :( Ah and for haters: I don't use my necro minions or my turrets to Afk farm, I'm disapointed by this kind of behaviours. Nothing proove they are in front of their screen, they can go away during 20 mins, since minions are attacking if the player is touched.They actually covering the WHOLE area and slowing down the quest of other players.

What is horrible, telling they are afk farming make some other players comming to afk farm too, at the beginning only one, after 5~10 mins they were 15, 3 per room...The best record was 40 minions and 8 turrets.

[sitarskee.5738]

Last time I was in those ruins there were easily 30+ people standing on each other with engi turrets spammed all around. I know it is not a huge damage to the economy but still any income earned that way is unfair towards players who do not do that. I think Anet should really address that problem especially with many new players coming. It is in that certain area also problematic for people who want to do the heart since all ghosts are insta killed by idiots afk farming.

[Mewcifer.5198]

By AFK farming I think you mean idle farming? Which is when someone is not moving just killing whatever spawns with minions or turrets.Actual AFK farming is not allowed, idle farming is okay. As long as the person is at their computer and manually replacing turrets or minions then it is not AFK and is not against ToS.

It's not a good way to earn money, almost any other kind of thing would earn money better, but takes more effort.

And unless people spanned themselves across an entire area (which they don't, normally they are grouped up at one location) they won't interfere with any renown hearts.

[Urud.4925]

The loot has been nerfed a lot in that area (I got "only" 2 radiant dusts before completing my heart with a new character, 2 days ago). And that quest took A LOT, much more than other quests. It was really boring.But there are also other spots (for example in Timberline Falls, behind the Asuran lab there's a cave with Grawls, very often some necro is farming afk, quite hidden). Iirc Anet said that this is fine, unless they are using some forbidden macro. I also don't like them, but I don't think we can report them :/

[Cregath.7628]

I don't really see the reason for all the rage. If AFK farming was actually efficient (which is definitely not the case) or blocked people out of something (which is also not the case, since you can complete a heart event multiple ways) I would understand it. Someone who tries to farm the same area and is in front of his screen and is doing something still farms the same stuff more efficiently, so honestly I don't care.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Honestly couldn't care less. I get on, play the game the way that I want to, run with the friends that I want to, and then I leave the game for the evening. Been on for about two and half years now, have 2 accounts with at least 9 level 80's between them, and I can't say that it has really impacted me at all. Well, the nerf to the turret farm in Lake Dorric hurt, but I was running around that with my tempest and lightning-whipping the centaurs to death.

If I might make a suggestion: You are responsible for your happiness. If you let everyone else decide your happiness for you, you will be perpetually unhappy. Find someone doing something that you don't like...take a deep breath, remember it is a game filled with lots of other imperfect people and move on to something else. It's a big game and there is plenty to do, so, just go have fun. And kill something. Or lots of somethings. Life is really too short to let dorks get you down.

[Obtena.7952]

@sitarskee.5738 said:Last time I was in those ruins there were easily 30+ people standing on each other with engi turrets spammed all around. I know it is not a huge damage to the economy but still any income earned that way is unfair towards players who do not do that. I think Anet should really address that problem especially with many new players coming. It is in that certain area also problematic for people who want to do the heart since all ghosts are insta killed by idiots afk farming.

And 26 of those people didn't get squat because the mobs died in a few hits from a handful of players' turrets.

One of the problems is that people overestimate the impact that these farmers have. I have seen the SAME handful of necros standing in Malchor's farming sparks for two years now ... Are my charged lodestones 50s yet? Not a chance. They just aren't that big a deal to waste time on.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@derd.6413 said:It's not allowed but unless they remove minions (probably ranger pets 2) from the game it won't change.

And it's not that profitable or damaging to the economy. (Unless there's a farm spot i'm unaware of)

Lol … if it's not that profitable they wouldn't be doing it in the numbers they do.. of course it is and yes it does have an effect on the economy.MMO minion hacks is back in full force, you only have to read a few of the hacker forum sites to know that.The ban wave appears to of been little more than ANET's annual PR exercise to show face..

Unless they begin to take this more seriously it will just get out of control again fast, it spoils the game for many of us. and by serious I mean proper perma bans along with any alt accounts they also have I say.

[Endless Soul.5178]

I've given up reporting since Anet does nothing about this leeching.

There was someone on reddit a few months ago who bragged about how he got 50 gold a day doing this (for several hours at a time), so it is somewhat profitable.

[Turin.6921]

Guys Anet's stance on the matter is very clear. If you are still on your keyboard while you are idling and you manually renew everything it is not considered AFK farming and it is allowed. Anet checks this by talking a look on the typical farming places and whispering players to validate that they are actually on their keyboard. Stop reporting people for no reason and do not harass them with comments for sth that is officially allowed.

[Neural.1824]

@derd.6413 said:It's not allowed but unless they remove minions (probably ranger pets 2) from the game it won't change.

And it's not that profitable or damaging to the economy. (Unless there's a farm spot i'm unaware of)

Charged lodestones were over 6g a piece a year ago at the time AFK farming took an upward trend. It does effect the economy.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@Turin.6921 said:Guys Anet's stance on the matter is very clear. If you are still on your keyboard while you are idling and you manually renew everything it is not considered AFK farming and it is allowed. Anet checks this by talking a look on the typical farming places and whispering players to validate that they are actually on their keyboard. Stop reporting people for no reason and do not harass them with comments for sth that is officially allowed.

Lol .. yeah of course they do.. the ones i've been reporting for 6-12 months suddenly disappeared with the ban wave.. now a new set have arrived in the exact same spots... and they have been there a few weeks already... guess the dvd must be stuck or its just a really, really, really long film they are watching. Like the ones in Queensdale farming the bandit camp of all places for months now.. maybe they have been watching High Noon to many times.But like Endless said, its just a pointless exercise imo ANET prefer to ignore the issue long enough for maps to become infested yet again and maybe next year they will make a gesture once more. Failing to act just emboldens the cheats that much more.

[Klowdy.3126]

I sometimes feel like people think I'm afk farming. I was at a small hut area the other day, doing a heart to get my griffon mount (got it =P), and I had to step away after finishing an event. I came back almost an hour later, and I had several reward chests for being in the area of the event I had finished before I walked away. I was next the the heart vendor, so I thought I was in a safe zone, but I guess it becomes a little gray during that event. I'm just a guardian, though, so no pet to tag mobs, and no auto loot.

[Deaths.9165]

well the original forum post of chris cleary is unforzunatly gone with the old forum. Ill give u guys the reddit post of some user who copy pasted his post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4jwa6s/afk_farming_not_allowed_unless_you_are/

Chirs Cleary said:

Qote>>> I’ll pitch in on this thread, as there seems to be some confusion about this situation.

The auto-cast feature was never intended to be used as an AFK farming mechanism, and usage of the auto-cast feature while AFK is fine as long as it is not used to facilitate unattended gameplay.Mastery auto-loot also stopping players from being flagged afk seems like a bug instead of a feature, and I’ll be sure to bring it up today while we have a chat about this internally.    Using skill (1 or more) while AFK    AFKing in a place where it is beneficial for your character to be at    Unresponsive to interaction with GMsIf all 3 of these apply to what you are doing, you may get actioned for it."

<<<Qute

Unfotunitly alot of ppl using this methode dont understand that u are using electircity to fire up ur pc. Electricity costs money. ANd meanwhile u farm gold u could by same amount of Gold with the usage of the electricity money (sry its late here my english is broken)

[Deepcuts.9740]

I do not see a way to report people who buy gems with real money, then buying all the radiant dust from the market, creating a real advantage for them and a real disadvantage for me when need to buy radiant dust!They don't even have to be afk at all! Just input CC details and bam!Wait, I never buy radiant dust...

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

What I will never understand about afk farming is: Where is the fun? I mean, we come in a game to play it right? How can standing in front of a keyboard doing nothing for hours, apart from pressing a key once in a while be playing? And how can one get any feeling of pride/satisfaction, at earning stuff that way? It is beyond my understanding.

My very personal opinion: Those players misuse the weakness of a game feature to increase own benefit. This is cheating. Such arguments like "it has no impact on the game economy", "they are not really afk" and "it is not against the rules" are true on the paper, yes, but in the facts, they are nothing else than poor justifications of a not very fair behavior.

Now as long as some players find it normal, and get fun at that, since it does - indeed - not break the rules, there is not much that can be done about it.

Now to avoid misunderstanding: Aside of my opinion, in the facts, I don't care about afk farmers. At the beginning, when I saw the first ones, years ago, it was upsetting me a bit. But by now, I have accepted that it is part of the game and just ignore it. I mean, if they like it, since it is OK, why not? Me I don't go for it. Each shall choose for him/herself. I have two friends who have no other fun in games than to find out how they can misuse/trick those to earn more and faster of the available currencies/goodies. We talk regularly about it and that's how I know and accept that there are many different way to look at it. :)

[mauried.5608]

This problem cant really be fixed, unless ANET removes pets from the game , or removes the autoattack function from the keys, or prevents looting if the pets do the damage.They are unlikely to remove any of these..Any other methods can be easily defeated, if the AFK player wants too.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@Neural.1824 said:

@derd.6413 said:It's not allowed but unless they remove minions (probably ranger pets 2) from the game it won't change.

And it's not that profitable or damaging to the economy. (Unless there's a farm spot i'm unaware of)

Charged lodestones were over 6g a piece a year ago at the time AFK farming took an upward trend. It

does

effect the economy.

No they weren’t. The highest that they have ever gotten was a little over 4G briefly near the end of 2014. They were less than 2G a year ago.

[Omyrah.7389]

I'd have much less of a problem with them (AFK or idle) if they would at least stop farming in heart areas. Makes it really frustrating to try and get something done when there are so many people putting turrets and minions everywhere and killing everything.

[anonymous.7812]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Neural.1824 said:

@derd.6413 said:It's not allowed but unless they remove minions (probably ranger pets 2) from the game it won't change.

And it's not that profitable or damaging to the economy. (Unless there's a farm spot i'm unaware of)

Charged lodestones were over 6g a piece a year ago at the time AFK farming took an upward trend. It

does

effect the economy.

No they weren’t. The highest that they have ever gotten was a little over 4G briefly near the end of 2014. They were less than 2G a year ago.

Not only that, but the ONLY thing that significantly dropped the price on these are Pact Scout's Mapping Materials. Probably 10,000x more impactful than a few idle-farmers.

[Klypto.1703]

This is loosely related but the domain of istan meta events the afk turret thing is being used there as well by so many people that it breaks line of sight because players never let the npcs ever get in melee range before they are melted down. So I am hoping anet does something possibly like a siege cap in wvw where there is a limit to their turret spam so you can still get on another class and tag the targets. Roughly though the turrets need a redesign or removed and replaced with something useful because all players do with it is cause trouble for other players especially since they started it with lake doric we don't need a treb in the great hall.

[Mewcifer.5198]

@"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:What I will never understand about afk farming is: Where is the fun? I mean, we come in a game to play it right? How can standing in front of a keyboard doing nothing for hours, apart from pressing a key once in a while be playing? And how can one get any feeling of pride/satisfaction, at earning stuff that way? It is beyond my understanding.

My very personal opinion: Those players misuse the weakness of a game feature to increase own benefit. This is cheating. Such arguments like "it has no impact on the game economy", "they are not really afk" and "it is not against the rules" are true on the paper, yes, but in the facts, they are nothing else than poor justifications of a not very fair behavior.

Now as long as some players find it normal, and get fun at that, since it does - indeed - not break the rules, there is not much that can be done about it.

Now to avoid misunderstanding: Aside of my opinion, in the facts, I don't care about afk farmers. At the beginning, when I saw the first ones, years ago, it was upsetting me a bit. But by now, I have accepted that it is part of the game and just ignore it. I mean, if they like it, since it is OK, why not? Me I don't go for it. Each shall choose for him/herself. I have two friends who have no other fun in games than to find out how they can misuse/trick those to earn more and faster of the available currencies/goodies. We talk regularly about it and that's how I know and accept that there are many different way to look at it. :)

It isn't fun. It is sort of a trade off. Less income than actively farming, and less engaging than playing more entertaining content. I don't think anyone who farms this way considers it fun or that there is any sense of pride. I've done it a bit on days where my wrist is hurting too much to actively play. I can sit and chat with map or my guild while gaining a minor amount of income. Sometimes I have some snacks as well.

I don't see how it can be viewed as unfair or how it can even remotely be considered cheating.

[Patchwreck.2357]

See a bunch of necro's on the corner and automatically assume they're do'in wrong "CALL THE COPS ON THOSE NECROS!!!.