Finally, is the AFK farm ok or not ?

[Theros.1390]

Hi :)

All is in the title. I just would like to be sure, because some players say it's ok, and I also see many spots, where a lot of players are farming being AFK (with turrets, minions or pets) but some others say it's against the rules. Therefore, I just wanted to make it clear to me.

And no, I'm not an afk farmer player ^^

Thank you in advance for your replies. <3

[Taygus.4571]

Afaik, afk farming is NOT ok.

Lazy / not paying much attention farming is...but you have to be at your keyboard.

[Ameepa.6793]

Friend got a three day ban for it and managed to talk to the GM who gave the ban and got told that AFK farming is not okay. So.. I guess it's not okay.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

You can farm however you like as long as you aren't allowing the game (or some additional software or hardware) to farm for you. Thus:

• AFK farming is not allowed, that is, you must be at your keyboard.
• Inattentive farming is allowed, for example, you can watch a movie while moving your character occasionally.

There are a variety of reasons why you hear different 'rules' from different players, including some players don't like it that ANet allows inattentive farming; they think it's just as inappropriate as AFK farming... and there are others who see no problem with AFK farming on the basis that "it's not that much loot." Regardless, it's ANet's game, so it's up to them to setup the rules, interpret them, and enforce them as they see best for the health of the game.

[STIHL.2489]

The use of macros to keep yourself logged into the game for gain, is against the rules.

IE: If you set a macro to trigger your turrets while you are AFK, that is against the rules.

If you manually trigger your turret, and then alt-tab to the forums, or go wash dishes with a timers set so you can come back to trigger then again manually, that is allowed.

Good luck enforcing that policy.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Here's some gory details, for those interested in specific developer comments. The short version:

• AFK farming isn't okay, because it tends to lead people to stop playing (both the AFKers and those who see them); it has an economic impact, too, but not as severe.
• Inattentive farming is okay.
• Please report, but not harass, any suspected cases.
• The main difference between AFK and inattentive farming is that in the first case, you could be in another room, while in the second, you have to be close at hand.

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Most Recent (Old Forum) Comment Regarding AFK Farming Policies

According to Chris Cleary, Game Security Lead, aka Professor of Bearbow Math @Tyria State (2017-04-07)

1. [We] do investigate player reports for every issue. Sometimes these investigations can take some time, and we may choose to action in bulk rather than individually.
2. Harassment of any type is NOT OK. If you believe someone is not playing fair, please use the report feature. It not only helps us track the issue, but also helps us identify possible hotspot issues. Even [if the accused] has been ...actioned multiple times for using 3rd party tools, there are better ways to handle this [other than harassment].
3. [On 7 April 2017] we took action against a number of accounts that were involved in running 3rd party tools to automate gameplay. These “bots” create an unfair game experience for everyone and can cause a toxic atmosphere both in-game and out (as we see in this thread). We will continue to do our best to keep the game fair for everyone.

Here are the best ways to report another player:

• In-Game Player Reporting
• Email exploits@arena.net
• Customer Support Ticket

quoter's note: I moved the 'best ways' to the bottom (to be more easily seen) & changed a definite statement about a specific person to be a generic conditional about ANet's policies. The text is otherwise unchanged.

---

Rules of Thumb

2016-05-18

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.

1. Using skill (1 or more) while AFK
2. AFKing in a place where it is beneficial for your character to be at
3. Unresponsive to interaction with GMs

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

---

Responding to a Request for a Clear Statement on AFK Farming

2016-05-19

I would rather us fix the underlying issue with this rather than band-aid the issue by enforcing rules and punishments that don’t solve the issue at all.

The core issue here is we don’t want to have players feeling that their main source of income is generated while they are not at the computer. We have already started to see the impact of this in-game and within the community. Not only does this behavior impact players in the world when they run across a pack of unattended farmers, but also the players who are performing the unattended farming. Eventually these players spend less and less time actually playing the game, and more time unattended farming.

We see the same trends in players that use bots, macros and cheats. It eventually leads to players falling out of the game (from both encountering the impact in the world, or by participating themselves).

While there is an economic impact of having a large number of players farming like this, I’m more more concerned about behavior trends shifting than anything else.

The 3 rules above aren’t just for your protection, they are for everyone’s protection. GMs have been trained to identify and handle these situations, it’s one of the first things they learn. GMs are overly generous on the amount of time that players are given to respond.

As for how we intend on fixing that, some of us had a meeting today to talk about that. While there are some systems working against each other here, we all agreed that we didn’t want to make any changes that anyone would actually run into unless they were no longer at their keyboard for an extended period.

Rest assured, we aren’t going to take away auto-loot in the world, or remove your ability to auto-cast. Everything we implement will only impact players who aren’t actually performing actions. I’m sure when we do implement something, it’ll be in the patch notes to read about. Until then, follow the 3 rules above. After that, they won’t be relevant anymore.

(Automation is still against the rules, unless you are using it to play music in-game)

[GrubySzymek.1362]

Passive gameplay using minions, turrets, illusions, pets or autocast on spells is okay.

Leaving the game on autopilot without attention is not.

The "detection" system for (semi)afk farming is simple. A GM whispers you, if you are there to respond, you are safe.

[Theros.1390]

Thanks a lot for all your answers.

That's clear to me now. But still, it's almost crazy to see so many players on the afk spots, knowing that's forbidden.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

You don't know if they are afk. They can be just playing passively.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Theros.1390" said:That's clear to me now. But still, it's almost crazy to see so many players on the afk spots, knowing that's forbidden.

Some of them will be AFK farming, but some will be merely "inattentive". It's hard to tell the difference sometimes.

And typically, ANet doesn't suspend people immediately after catching them. They tend to watch people to see if this is a one-time thing, something they do occasionally, or if it's long term. They sometimes want to see if other people follow the same actions (there are in other hotspots) or how they might launder their loot.

And unfortunately, regardless of what ANet does, the opportunity to gather loot while sleeping is just always going to be too attractive to some players, especially those who come from games that actually include mechanics that intend to be farmed AFK (e.g. fishing in BDO). So no matter how many people are suspended, there will always be more. Plus, the addition of Free-to-Play makes it easier than ever to restart.

[Theros.1390]

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

There are a variety of reasons why you hear different 'rules' from different players, including some players don't like it that ANet allows inattentive farming; they think it's just as inappropriate as AFK farming... and there are others who see no problem with AFK farming on the basis that "it's not that much loot."

I guess that's the hardest part, make the difference between the inattentive farming, and the AFK farming.

Actually, to me the afk farming is making the game experience kinda unfair to a player who is behind his keyboard.

To give a simple exemple : The heart you have to complete near the Afk spot in Iron marches (one of the most known). Well, If I decide to kill the mobs to fill the heart, but the adds are instant killed by engineers turrets. Well, I'm ... what's the word you use here on EN forums ? Kitten, right ? x)

I dont know if you see what I mean, but I dont find this very fair to have difficulties to make my exploration because of this. That's not a so big deal, at all. But still.

[Lord Kreegan.8123]

It's not just AFK farming that is a problem.I am ALWAYS seeing players teleport in to the vicinity of crafting resources (especially rich mineral nodes) to collect the resource and then instantly disappear. That problem has been around for a long time; has been reported many, many times; the offenders have been reported many, many times; and nothing gets done about it.Because it's a waste of time to report it, I don't bother anymore.

[Blood.5607]

@Lord Kreegan.8123 said:It's not just AFK farming that is a problem.I am ALWAYS seeing players teleport in to the vicinity of crafting resources (especially rich mineral nodes) to collect the resource and then instantly disappear. That problem has been around for a long time; has been reported many, many times; the offenders have been reported many, many times; and nothing gets done about it.Because it's a waste of time to report it, I don't bother anymore.

These are players (gatherers) who have toons parked at the rich node locations (prob more than 5) to get them daily. I don't see a problem swapping toons at these nodes? :thinking:

[Zeivu.3615]

@Blood.5607 said:

@Lord Kreegan.8123 said:It's not just AFK farming that is a problem.I am ALWAYS seeing players teleport in to the vicinity of crafting resources (especially rich mineral nodes) to collect the resource and then instantly disappear. That problem has been around for a long time; has been reported many, many times; the offenders have been reported many, many times; and nothing gets done about it.Because it's a waste of time to report it, I don't bother anymore.

These are players (gatherers) who have toons parked at the rich node locations (prob more than 5) to get them daily. I don't see a problem swapping toons at these nodes? :thinking:

Sometimes, it's the case, but often times, it's not. There were times when I would go and collect nodes around the map and their same toon would 'blink' around to multiple locations that I happened to be at and passing through.

[Blude.6812]

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:You don't know if they are afk. They can be just playing passively.

LOL--you say I say--- Tomatoes--doesn't make it right --semantics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmoFfgCqTKo

[Laila Lightness.8742]

Dont matter its same deal

[TheWolf.1602]

can GM's whisper you if you've turned off whispers in your chat?

[mauried.5608]

What language would a GM choose to whisper you?Is it reasonable to assume that all players speak english?

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@TheWolf.1602 said:can GM's whisper you if you've turned off whispers in your chat?I believe so.Regardless, they also do things like move your toon to a different location to see if you notice.

@mauried.5608 said:What language would a GM choose to whisper you?Is it reasonable to assume that all players speak english?

They have access to your language choice preferences and there's a variety of languages spoken by people in Support, so I presume that, at worst, GMs can offer whispers in English, French, German, & Spanish. (And since the game is only officially offered in those four languages, I hope everyone agrees that it's reasonable to assume that the player speaks one of them.)

[DarkForcE.9210]

I would say... it doesn't make sense to accuse Necromancer AFK with minion as AFK farmers, it's because skill abilities and YOUR mechanic allow such activities to happen

[Enoah.1956]

do you recognize GMs ingame by something? special names or colours?

[Cranky wo Coffee.5914]

@Enoah.1956 said:do you recognize GMs ingame by something? special names or colours?

Most of them when they want to be seen carry a Guild tag of the ArenaNet Emblem(seen at the bottom left of this page) in red(the tag is nothing that a player can duplicate).

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@UnDeadFun.5824 said:

@"Enoah.1956" said:do you recognize GMs ingame by something? special names or colours?

Most of them when they want to be seen carry a Guild tag of the ArenaNet Emblem(seen at the bottom left of this page) in red(the tag is nothing that a player can duplicate).

Their chat is a different color, too.Source

[Zet.9130]

@Lord Kreegan.8123 said:It's not just AFK farming that is a problem.I am ALWAYS seeing players teleport in to the vicinity of crafting resources (especially rich mineral nodes) to collect the resource and then instantly disappear. That problem has been around for a long time; has been reported many, many times; the offenders have been reported many, many times; and nothing gets done about it.Because it's a waste of time to report it, I don't bother anymore.

Most likely what you are seeing is an alt char logging in harvesting the node then logging out.

[Lord Kreegan.8123]

@Zet.9130 said:

@"Lord Kreegan.8123" said:It's not just AFK farming that is a problem.I am ALWAYS seeing players teleport in to the vicinity of crafting resources (especially rich mineral nodes) to collect the resource and then instantly disappear. That problem has been around for a long time; has been reported many, many times; the offenders have been reported many, many times; and nothing gets done about it.Because it's a waste of time to report it, I don't bother anymore.

Most likely what you are seeing is an alt char logging in harvesting the node then logging out.

Not even close... that takes time. It's the same characters all the time; they pop in, then pop out after harvesting the node. If you want to pretend that's just coincidence, then I have to suggest you're part of that group because NOBODY would believe it "just happens".