AFK farming and reports (merged)

[miraude.2107]

@Vash.2386 said:If some rando was to message me in game I wouldn’t answer them either.

This. I love fishing in WoW. Don't know why but yeah. Spent hours just hitting spots. Fish, mount up, next spot, fish, repeat. I got whispered quite a few times by people that saw me fishing and I ignored them; even had whispers stuck in a different chat tab so I wouldn't see them since most were just 'reported you' and figured it was scammers. It wasn't until a game GM whispered me with 'Catch anything good?' that I noticed it, replied to them and had a small chat about people reporting me and them just wanting to check up. With how many collections wanting certain drops from mobs in this game, I can see someone reporting me for standing in one spot and killing steam creatures with my engi while doing something else irl because, well, after a while grinding mobs just becomes boring.

[Ben K.6238]

If you're actually there, it's not afk farming/botting. If you're not there, it is. That's why GMs may whisper.

There are certain types of enemies that drop tier 3-4 dust in game which is currently quite valuable. They tend to be easy to kill, and therefore you get people botting on areas with high spawn concentrations. As opposed to commercial RMT bots, these ones are usually just players running macros on their own accounts to make gold while AFK. Seems likely they just don't know better, since it's pretty rare for players to use their real accounts if they understand the risk involved.

[friggarn.2906]

Hi,

Just a few posts down there's a similar post: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/50825/why-is-inattentive-farming-allowed

There's a search function at the top which you can find other similar topics.

Thank you for understanding.

[Shikigami.4013]

@"Excellent Name.9574" said:In Anet TOS there is nothing about AFK farming nor in guideline as long as You are using in-Game tools and skills, which limits You to one auto-cast skill. However if You use a keyboard macro to auto-cast a skill then it is an offence but as someone said, only Anet can detect that.

If you had actually read the posts in this thread, you would have known that what you wrote was not true. I even quoted the official criteria of what is forbidden earlier in this very thread (as in other threads).

Just for you, I will provide a link to the post again (which is located in the old forums), which clearly explains that using one auto-cast skill to farm while afk is an offence. If you are afk, your character needs to be idle and NOT use any skills, even if they are in-game function autocasted.

1) Using skill (1 or more) while AFK2) AFKing in a place where it is beneficial for your character to be at3) Unresponsive to interaction with GMs

If all 3 of these apply to what you are doing, you may get actioned for it.If you still need to see the official post you can click here to see it in the gw2 forum archive.

[Excellent Name.9574]

@Shikigami.4013 said:

@"Excellent Name.9574" said:In Anet TOS there is nothing about AFK farming nor in guideline as long as You are using in-Game tools and skills, which limits You to one auto-cast skill. However if You use a keyboard macro to auto-cast a skill then it is an offence but as someone said, only Anet can detect that.

If you had actually read the posts in this thread, you would have known that what you wrote was not true. I even quoted the official criteria of what is forbidden earlier in this very thread (as in other threads).

Just for you, I will provide a link to the post again (which is located in the old forums), which clearly explains that using one auto-cast skill to farm while afk is an offence. If you are afk, your character needs to be idle and NOT use any skills, even if they are in-game function autocasted.

1) Using skill (1 or more) while AFK2) AFKing in a place where it is beneficial for your character to be at3) Unresponsive to interaction with GMs

If all 3 of these apply to what you are doing, you may get actioned for it.

If you still need to see the official post you can click here to see it in the gw2 forum archive.

I read the post, but a forum post from Anet member does not constitute as a part of official guideline. Anet can't sanction You if You are using auto-heal which is enough to AFK farm with ranger for instance, or any other profession with automatic damage or automatic rune damage . These were designed to be useful as automatic skill. That said, with necro or engie You don't need auto-casting skills.

[Dante.1763]

@Excellent Name.9574 said:

@Shikigami.4013 said:

@Excellent Name.9574 said:In Anet TOS there is nothing about AFK farming nor in guideline as long as You are using in-Game tools and skills, which limits You to one auto-cast skill. However if You use a keyboard macro to auto-cast a skill then it is an offence but as someone said, only Anet can detect that.

If you had actually read the posts in this thread, you would have known that what you wrote was not true. I even quoted the official criteria of what is forbidden earlier in this very thread (as in other threads).

Just for you, I will provide a link to the post again (which is located in the old forums), which clearly explains that using one auto-cast skill to farm while afk is an offence. If you are afk, your character needs to be idle and NOT use any skills, even if they are in-game function autocasted.

1) Using skill (1 or more) while AFK2) AFKing in a place where it is beneficial for your character to be at3) Unresponsive to interaction with GMs

If all 3 of these apply to what you are doing, you may get actioned for it.

If you still need to see the official post you can click here to see it in the gw2 forum archive.

I read Your post, but a forum post from Anet member does not constitute as a part of official guideline. Anet can't sanction You if You are using auto-heal which is enough to AFK farm with ranger for instance, or any other profession with automatic damage or automatic rune damage . These were designed to be useful as automatic skill. That said with necro or engie You don't need auto-casting skills.

they uh..can actually, if those are the actual means by which they decide if someone is doing something they dont approve of when they get reports that is.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Excellent Name.9574 said:a forum post from Anet member does not constitute as a part of official guideline.Is it part of the official terms & conditions? No. Is it official in terms of how those terms are enforced? Absolutely?

Anet can't sanction You if You are using auto-heal which is enough to AFK farm with ranger for instance, or any other profession with automatic damage or automatic rune damage .They can sanction us for whatever they feel is appropriate. For example, they recently dinged over 1000 accounts for having certain programs running while GW2 was up — they did not check to see if the programs were used on GW2, only if the programs had an active process in RAM. That was a change from previous practice.

In the specific case of AFK versus inattentive farming, it is up to them to (a) set the definition (which has evolved since game launch) and (b) decide whether and when an account crosses the line. It is not up to us to argue, however logical it might be, that because something is possible that it is permitted or ok.

These were designed to be useful as automatic skill. That said, with necro or engie You don't need auto-casting skills.With engine, you do need to recast turrets; they now self-destruct after 5 minutes. Necro minions mostly last indefinitely with certain traits, but they, too have to be periodically resummoned.Regardless, the fact that we can farm without paying much attention doesn't mean we are allowed to walk away from the keyboard while our character is collecting loot.

[Excellent Name.9574]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Excellent Name.9574 said:a forum post from Anet member does not constitute as a part of official guideline.Is it part of the official terms & conditions? No. Is it official in terms of how those terms are enforced? Absolutely?

Anet can't sanction You if You are using auto-heal which is enough to AFK farm with ranger for instance, or any other profession with automatic damage or automatic rune damage .They can sanction us for whatever they feel is appropriate. For example, they recently dinged over 1000 accounts for having certain programs

running

while GW2 was up — they did not check to see if the programs were used on GW2, only if the programs had an active process in RAM. That was a change from previous practice.

In the specific case of AFK versus inattentive farming, it is up to them to (a) set the definition (which has evolved since game launch) and (b) decide whether and when an account crosses the line. It is not up to us to argue, however logical it might be, that because something is

possible

that it is permitted or ok.

These were designed to be useful as automatic skill. That said, with necro or engie You don't need auto-casting skills.With engine, you do need to recast turrets; they now self-destruct after 5 minutes. Necro minions mostly last indefinitely with certain traits, but they, too have to be periodically resummoned.Regardless, the fact that we can farm without paying much attention doesn't mean we are allowed to walk away from the keyboard while our character is collecting loot.

Actually using 3rd party programs or scripts that can manipulate GW2 was always forbidden, like Autohotkey or various mouse clickers and their prohibition is in guidelines, it was from the very start. That is why the sanctioning was done.

A forum post can't be either official or used to enforce rules. Only a fraction of GW2 players are either members or visiting forums and Anet is aware of this and can't act on it.

If for instance Anet banned someone for using in game skills or tools for AFK farming, citing reasons that are not anywhere in official Terms, Agreements and Guidelines a banned player could make a legal case out of it if he or she deemed it worthwhile. That is something any gaming company would rather not have.

[Healix.5819]

@Excellent Name.9574 said:If for instance Anet banned someone for using in game skills or tools for AFK farming, citing reasons that are not anywhere in official Terms, Agreements and Guidelines a banned player could make a legal case out of it if he or she deemed it worthwhile. That is something any gaming company would rather not have.

The terms basically state that they can terminate your account for any/no reason, or even require additional payments. In the case of AFK farming, the reason given is the use of 3rd party software, which neither side has any way of proving. Note that they don't specifically ban people for AFKing, they first whisper and teleport them away as a test, which if they fail to pass, they assume 3rd party software is involved.

[Excellent Name.9574]

@Healix.5819 said:

@"Excellent Name.9574" said:If for instance Anet banned someone for using in game skills or tools for AFK farming, citing reasons that are not anywhere in official Terms, Agreements and Guidelines a banned player could make a legal case out of it if he or she deemed it worthwhile. That is something any gaming company would rather not have.

The terms basically state that they can terminate your account for any/no reason, or even require additional payments. In the case of AFK farming, the reason given is the use of 3rd party software, which neither side has any way of proving. Note that they don't specifically ban people for AFKing, they first whisper and teleport them away as a test, which if they fail to pass, they assume 3rd party software is involved.

Luckily TOS is not a magic wand and it has been beaten in courts before. Read this, it quite revealing: https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/27/16707562/epic-games-fortnite-cheating-lawsuit-debate-14-year-old-kid

[kharmin.7683]

Turn this thread into yet another ToS debate, and it'll get locked.

[Algreg.3629]

@kharmin.7683 said:Turn this thread into yet another ToS debate, and it'll get locked.

not the worst thing to close though.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

This question arises pretty frequently, so I'm merging yet another few threads.

Short answer: Use the in-game report, please.

[Andy.5981]

AFK or Not? The only people who can work that out are Anet themselves when the person in question is contacted by a CS representative in game.

Thing is what I want to know is why Anet aren't doing something about the game mechanics that could solve this.

At the present moment if you continually kill the same creatures time and time again the game gives less and less bonus experience until such time that you are left with only normal experience.

Why isn't this extended. When players continually kill the same creatures time and time again, not only does the bonus exp drop, but after a certain amount of time the normal experience drops to zero. At this point if they continue to kill these creatures (by now not giving any experience) the loot items they give drop in quality. Keep doing it and they drop in quality again until such point that they only drop trophy items like claws, pieces of fur etc.

It would ensure people had to move around to farm. It would also release some spawn spots for other players to play in without having to fight against a ton of AE spells etc.

Normal players who play though the zones aren't going to be bothered much by this, but the static afk farmers will be.

[Sanity Obscure.6054]

If it is a single person, it's always fun to aggro a mob over them to kill them and see if they are truly afk. ;)

[artemis.6781]

@Sanity Obscure.6054 said:If it is a single person, it's always fun to aggro a mob over them to kill them and see if they are truly afk. ;)

And then you can be reported for griefing. Just do as @Gaile Gray.6029 says, report in game.

[Theros.1390]

I would agree to one thing : GMs are not enough present on AFK farming spots.

Wonderfull things (actually, one) have been done in Lake Doric, against AFK farmers. AoEs hit randomly in the farming zone and deal a lot of damages to any summoned minions or turrets. Why this cant be done on each AFK spot in the game ? Such as Bloodfin Lake for exemple ;)

[Omega.6801]

@"Theros.1390" said:I would agree to one thing : GMs are not enough present on AFK farming spots.

Wonderfull things (actually, one) have been done in Lake Doric, against AFK farmers. AoEs hit randomly in the farming zone and deal a lot of damages to any summoned minions or turrets. Why this cant be done on each AFK spot in the game ? Such as Bloodfin Lake for exemple ;)

Because basically every spot in the open world where 2-3 mobs spawn that your minions/pets/turrets can solo in a reasonable amount of time can be an "AFK-spot". The centaurs may be a threat but having them bombard everything in core tyria, from the Shiverpeaks to Orr, from Ascalon to the Maguma Jungle probably isn't the solution. "But they can just bombard the most used places, duh!" - Ppl who do this now will find new places, they always do.Also: The bombardement in Lake Doric was implemented because AFK'ing in the center of the Centaur Stronghold was more profitable than doing the leather farm that was intended for the region.

[Mj Princess Warrior.9620]

Look this new way of farming stops bot farmers, or losing gamers from game, would u rather have bots or no gamers on map to come help u if die, or events, they just don't all afk the entire time. I have seen plenty assist with events, res down players. it is a shame not everyone can be made happy about a game, always complaints. too many and is dead game!! see positives in it.