Guild Wars 2

So in summary, if your pet is the only one doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting, the GMs will not investigate you for AFK macroing, because that applies to actions your character makes.

Can someone confirm? If this is the case, that’s good.

sirsquishy.2619:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Sirsquishy; your case has nothing to do with the afk pet issue. So; thus far I have seen no accounts suspended for taking advantage of this design feature.

it has to, as that is what I was doing. I did not use any 3rd party programs.

But did you use an auto-cast? Maybe with the GS 4 skill if using a Reaper?

That’s the one I commonly see used with Reapers.

Michael Henninger.7451:

One more point that game security just brought up:

While your pet is auto-attacking your avatar should be in NO WAY attacking or casting any skill.

This seems a little off. You can CTRL+Right Click any skill to have it autocast from within the game with no external software support. If you set this to your heal skill, you can survive for a very long time while your pet kills stuff for you and you autoloot using the mastery.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Michael Henninger.7451:

One more point that game security just brought up:

While your pet is auto-attacking your avatar should be in NO WAY attacking or casting any skill.

This seems a little off. You can CTRL+Right Click any skill to have it autocast from within the game with no external software support. If you set this to your heal skill, you can survive for a very long time while your pet kills stuff for you and you autoloot using the mastery.

I’m guessing this means that the use of auto-cast while AFK is not an “intended” function of the game mechanics.

Siobhan.5273:

sirsquishy.2619:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Sirsquishy; your case has nothing to do with the afk pet issue. So; thus far I have seen no accounts suspended for taking advantage of this design feature.

it has to, as that is what I was doing. I did not use any 3rd party programs.

But did you use an auto-cast? Maybe with the GS 4 skill if using a Reaper?

That’s the one I commonly see used with Reapers.

Yea auto on ranger ground heal. But that is not a 3rd party program per my ticket number header option.

I ran gw2 inside vmware workstation10 on win7x86 guests. Thats the ONLY 3rd party program i used

So i need the gm to tell me what i got flagged on so i can pursade them to fix it and i stop doing it so i dont continue to get suspended again.

Having – you used a 3rd party program and are suspended. Have a nice day. – message is not acceptable at this point. I know what i was doing and what software i used. I dont need to know how i got suspended but i need to know a proper why , now. As i thought it was due to afk farming the whole time.

I’m not understanding why this is such a difficult problem to fix: Why aren’t players bumped offline after an hour if they don’t move? Skill use is irrelevant as you will auto-1 if something attacks you.

Taking a step in any direction however is something that doesn’t happen automatically…have the system check for that. If that is in place only macro-afkers would still be around. You couldn’t leave your character in a location to farm over night since you’d get bumped after an hour…unless you macro-stepped which is a clear violation of the rules.

Auto loot doesn’t let your characters to afk out of the game. That is why

This is not a proper clarification. If this was a court of law you would be losing the case. I am a victim of your in progress system and my case number is 2210650. I was given an “unlawful” 24 hours suspension.

Michael Henninger.7451:

TL;DR: If you’re AFK; your avatar should be idle.

I’ll further clarify.

You are in no way allowed to use a third party program or script to accomplish this part: “your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting”.

If a GM moves you or speaks to you and you don’t respond – then you are partaking in unattended gameplay and may have your account warned/suspended/terminated (depends on how many violations the account had previously). Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted

Game Security GMs are trained to remove afk players that are interacting with the game, environment, or other players from the game. Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted

Game Support GMs are trained to handle such appeals while being acutely aware of why/how Game Security is handling accounts. Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted

1. Opening statement is potentially conflicting with what follows. Failed to describe the term " idle" for your purposes.

2. " You are in no way allowed to use a third party program or script to accomplish this part: ‘your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting’ ".

Failed to address the conflict between this and what is mechanically possible ingame by ctrl + right click function(exception should be up for consideration on this) that does not require script or third party modification of any sort and players have been punished for.

Should go without saying how unfair that punishing is when given that ctrl + right click is a core function and you are arbitrarily determining when it becomes punishable; not something anyone should be able to guess or know without looking it up. IMPORTANT to note that you are not even communicating this ingame in a cease and desist format. You’re straight up suspending or worse without telling players about their infractions as it happened in my case. 2210650 again is my support ticket number in case you’re in the mood to see my data and how poorly I was treated.

3. “If a GM moves you or speaks to you and you don’t respond – then you are partaking in unattended gameplay and may have your account warned/suspended/terminated (depends on how many violations the account had previously). Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted”

Under what criteria are GMs allowed to move or try to have you respond ? I can recall one instance that I just arrived at a location and started a conversation with another person pet farming and in the middle of that conversation I was teleported; important to note that I wasn’t auto casting anything yet while this took place. Still the “drones” acted on me without any persecution or opportunity for me to defend myself against this harassing behavior.

Really, how are you demonstrating/documenting proper judgement of your staff when it comes to this enforcement. I think is of the most importance to have video and data backing up any instance prior to dropping the proverbial “hammer” with a focus on video (10 seconds of video can easily illustrate questionable behavior different from someone simply standing while their pets kill). Police cams are a great idea and have demonstrated time and time again proper enforcement for the same reasons.

Michael Henninger.7451:

One more point that game security just brought up:

While your pet is auto-attacking your avatar should be in NO WAY attacking or casting any skill.

This is a poorly worded statement best case scenario. If this was a law to be enforced every person using a pet class would be in proverbial jail regardless of their activity status; unless their avatar was literally doing nothing. Say you are actively fighting and something attacks you, your pet AUTO ATTACKS as intended = JAIL.

That is what I have to say about these statements. Please continue to work with us and communicate. Don’t take my examination poorly. What I want is more of this type of honest communication.

Strongly consider my 10 seconds of video comment. When things are as unclear as they are now a lot of people are bound to suffer without just cause, specially when you are not even communicating infractions and dealing punishment.

Finally provide clear examples ie:

If player x stands where mobs spawn without auto casting (including ctrl + right click) anything. He will be safe even if his pets retaliate and loot is acquired.

If player x stands where mobs spawn with auto casting (including ctrl + right click). He will be punished.

ps. If you actually want to kill the practice, don’t go about doing something like what WoW did which was make pets no give credit as thats a very common situation for normal players. A simple solution would be to make auto loot stop working after 5 minutes without new input.

sirsquishy.2619:

Auto loot doesn’t let your characters to afk out of the game. That is why

Ah, ok…but this is a patch thing…not a policy thing. Something that clearly is not working as intended and will/should be patched.

sirsquishy.2619:

Yea auto on ranger ground heal. But that is not a 3rd party program per my ticket number header option.

I ran gw2 inside vmware workstation10 on win7x86 guests. Thats the ONLY 3rd party program i used

So i need the gm to tell me what i got flagged on so i can pursade them to fix it and i stop doing it so i dont continue to get suspended again.

Having – you used a 3rd party program and are suspended. Have a nice day. – message is not acceptable at this point. I know what i was doing and what software i used. I dont need to know how i got suspended but i need to know a proper why , now. As i thought it was due to afk farming the whole time.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the response.

Yeah, I think that’s the issue, the auto-cast usage, but once you started speaking VMware etc, that went over my head. I can barely handle a reformat.

I do understand your desire for clarity though.

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

DON’T YOU DARE! it was bad enough when autoloot didn’t work in wvw or HoT areas. but they fixed that. either remove it entirely or have it everywhere. if you have it active only half the time, people will neglect to pick up half their loot.

a better solution would be to have auto attack not count as the player moving. so they can auto-attack and afk loot all they want, until the game logs them out for innactivity

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

The ‘fix’ needs to be a fix that doesn’t punish innocent players (in the case of your suggestion, virtually everyone else except the AFK farmers)

Giving suspensions to offending accounts should be a clear enough statement to players to discourage them from doing it.

Siobhan.5273:

sirsquishy.2619:

Yea auto on ranger ground heal. But that is not a 3rd party program per my ticket number header option.

I ran gw2 inside vmware workstation10 on win7x86 guests. Thats the ONLY 3rd party program i used

So i need the gm to tell me what i got flagged on so i can pursade them to fix it and i stop doing it so i dont continue to get suspended again.

Having – you used a 3rd party program and are suspended. Have a nice day. – message is not acceptable at this point. I know what i was doing and what software i used. I dont need to know how i got suspended but i need to know a proper why , now. As i thought it was due to afk farming the whole time.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the response.

Yeah, I think that’s the issue, the auto-cast usage, but once you started speaking VMware etc, that went over my head. I can barely handle a reformat.

I do understand your desire for clarity though.

yup, I know and i get that a lot.

My issue is that I was using VMware (Virtual platform) to run 2 Win7 virtual machines (think of that as 2 windows machines for all intents and purposes) in side by side mode (much like having 2 monitors, desktops, keyboards/mouse next to each other, this falls under the dual boxing policy), and inside of those virtual machines that are running windows 7 I had GW2 loaded and running.

The GW2 setup is as follows

ranger with whatever pet (i like birds), privateer runes (#6 is an auto pet on hit)
Auto cast the heal (I used the one that is a ground effect, name escapes me)
Auto-Loot enabled in the game options (mastery function)

that’s it, that’s my setup and all I was doing. I was sometimes at the keyboard, and sometimes not, other times I would VNC into my physical desktop to interact with the 2 virtual desktops (VMs).

So if there was any breach of 3rd party application, it would have been VMware’s Workstation, which would be completely absurd as its nothing more then a way to run more operating systems inside of your main operating system, which allows for application isolation and such, and Anet has 0 way to detect VMware other then by the drivers that are installed in the system (VMware SVGA driver for the virtual video card).

Which is why I am so frustrated with all of this. I was AFK farming, I will admit that wholeheartedly and I will take the suspension based on that. But to say I was using a 3rd party program to gain an advantage over other players? No. Sorry but no. I hate those types of users (Cheaters) and I report them every time I see them (Remember Flying mesmers in WvW?!, or players attacking/Mining under ground?!)

@sirsqusihy. All being said and done you admitted to AFK farming. I would suspect that it wasn’t your 1st time engaging in it. Regardless of the message sent by support you were engaged in an activity that many find reprehensible. If it was me in support I would just write back to you and say we sent the the wrong statement, correct it to an AFK’n statement and be done with it. As much as you hate cheaters in the game, others feel the same way about AFK farmers. Both behaviors call into question any statements’ legitimacy from those exhibiting the said ways of play.
Being that as it may, the type of discussion about what was in the suspension notice should go back to being private, between you and support only (imho).

Blude.6812:

@sirsqusihy. All being said and done you admitted to AFK farming. I would think that it wasn’t your 1st time engaging in it. Regardless of the message sent by support you were engaged in an activity that many find reprehensible. If it was me in support I would just write back to you and say we sent the the wrong statement, correct it to an AFK’n statement and be done with it. As much as you hate cheaters in the game, others feel the same way about AFK farmers. Both behaviors call into question any statements’ legitimacy from those exhibiting the said ways of play.
Being that as it may, the type of discussion about what was in the suspension notice should go back to being private, between you and support only (imho).

You gotta realize two things about that.

1. there are mixed messages from Anet on the AFK farming stuff right now. We do know that farming while away from the KB is in violation. But what about while doing other tasks in the game. And just a couple hours ago we had a GM say ‘the Character has to be idle’ (not paraphrasing), and what is that supposed to mean?

2. Auto-Loot breaks the AFK mechanic on the game. If you happen to camp/AFk near a place that NPCs attack you and you auto-loot, your AFK timer is reset back to 60mins (it counts down). This might be intended by the player or not (It will affect everyone at some point, that I will promise you) and the Devs need to address this so it doesn’t.

all other points aside.

The issue with my ticket is that it was triggered on a 3rd party program (appearently? I got all 3-4 reasons on the game launcher, but the ticket title only says 3rd party program…so ?!?) and I was not using anything to control any actions inside of GW2 that was not a part of the game systems already. And that is what I want them to clarify on atm.

I am not advocating any automated play styles, nor AFK farming. What I want is clarity on the subject from the GM team that went into the meeting on this subject so we all are on the same page.

But right now the 1 thing we do know, having the game play itself (even with ingame mechanics) while you are physically AFK from the machine is a violation.

we do not know much else in the way of things.

Putting auto-cast on your heal skill causes it to activate on cooldown. It sounds like doing this along with being afk, pet killing things, and autolooting is a violation. Even though there is no macroing involved and it’s all abusing game systems.

I’m fine with this, but this is the nuance that is confusing people. Ideally it seems like game systems should be changed so this wouldn’t happen.

Chris Cleary.8017:

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.

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.

You are in conflict with game support lead. Hopefully over the next couple of days we get a unified stance.

Chris Cleary.8017:

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.

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.

Thanks for this concise clarification. Much appreciated.

sirsquishy.2619:

yup, I know and i get that a lot…

snip for quick response

Thanks for the detailed response. Chris pretty much responded as I was getting ready to reply to you, but I also found this post about dual/multi-boxing somewhat relevant to the issue too:

Dual- or Multi-Boxing

• You may use more than one account at the same time.
• You may use more than one computer at the same time.
• You must be actively playing on each account.
  * And as stated above, you may not program your keyboard to perform functions on more than one account at a time.
  a. For example, if you press W on your keyboard to move forward, a single character on a single account should move forward. The keystroke or mouse click should not perform functions on more than one account.

It seems the issue is being discussed internally now..I guess we’ll all see what the result of those discussions brings us.

• Edit: If you employed this technique across multiple accounts (I think you stated here that you did) that would likely be the culprit as well.

Next patch: captchas?

Chris Cleary.8017:

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.

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.

So… basically… stop to ever go to the loo, answer a phone call, open your door, do anything other than focusing on the game if you are in a place that nets you profit, as you might get talked to by a GM and are screwed if you can’t reply immediately.
Or is there any time indicator or anything?

I appreciate a dev response, but this topic is really getting confusing as there are a lot of different and vaguely articulated stances on what is allowed or not allowed.

This issue is difficult to track in-game, we all are aware of this, but it’s really getting more confusing instead of clarifying with all the different Anet replies.

Matisse.9356:

Chris Cleary.8017:

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.

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.

So… basically… stop to ever go to the loo, answer a phone call, open your door, do anything other than focusing on the game if you are in a place that nets you profit, as you might get talked to by a GM and are screwed if you can’t reply immediately.
Or is there any time indicator or anything?

I appreciate a dev response, but this topic is really getting confusing as there are a lot of different and vaguely articulated stances on what is allowed or not allowed.

This issue is difficult to track in-game, we all are aware of this, but it’s really getting more confusing instead of clarifying with all the different Anet replies.

He said “all 3 of these” and not “any of these 3”.

Charrbeque.8729:

sephiroth.4217:

So if I understand this right… You are allowed to afk farm with pets, as long as you return to your pc every so often and tap “W” to move forward a little to prevent you being kicked out and that’s ok?

You’re just trying to find every excuse to say you shouldn’t get in trouble for it.

You must have missed the part of his/her post where the GM said

……Attempts by our GMs were made to contact you in-game to see if you were actively playing but there was no response. With that, we must assume that the actions were being automated while away from the computer……

If they send you a whisper and get no response, then come back later and you’re in that same location and still won’t respond to them, then they’re going to assume you’re not actually playing the game. So they didn’t suspend him/her just because the account seemed to have no activity. A GM in game actually went to the location of that player and tried to get him/her to respond in some way.

Exactly, if you’re around the PC and move forward every so often by pressing W then you can also clearly see the screen to reply to said messages…

Not trying to find excuses, it’s a loophole.

Chris Cleary.8017:

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.

I’m not sure the red posts are adding much clarification:

Chris Cleary.8017:

<snip> usage of the auto-cast feature while AFK is fine as long as it is not used to facilitate unattended gameplay.

Surely using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay ????

DoctorDing.5890:

I’m not sure the red posts are adding much clarification:

Chris Cleary.8017:

<snip> usage of the auto-cast feature while AFK is fine as long as it is not used to facilitate unattended gameplay.

Surely using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay ????

Perhaps the key word here is facilitate. The difference between someone afk in the PvP lobby with autocast on and someone afk at a spawn site with autocast on to kill mobs.

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

No?

I’ll take AFK farming over autoloot being removed from most of the game.

Michael Henninger.7451:

DoctorDing.5890:

Surely using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay ????

Yes. I’ve shot a mean glance his way.

But again: “Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted”

Chris-post incoming…

I do not afk-farm, but I am interested in the end result of this discussion and how it might indirectly affect me. This statement is one that seems might affect me and alter my play.

If using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay and not permitted, does this mean that, if I have to hit the bathroom and I am not sure if I’m in a safe spot, that I can no longer switch my heal skill to auto (to attempt to negate any damage I’d receive from random enemies attacking me while afk) and head off to the bathroom?

Technically, even though I’d only be gone a couple of minutes at most, I would have a heal skill on auto-cast and I’d be afk…which would fit your statement as being unattended gameplay.

I guess I’ll just choose to log to character select from now on and lose my accumulated bloodlust stacks instead of risking being sanctioned simply because I stayed logged in and flipped heal to auto while I used the facilities. Better safe than sorry.

Thank you, Michael and Chris, for your responses and clarification on this topic.

StinVec.3621:

I do not afk-farm, but I am interested in the end result of this discussion and how it might indirectly affect me. This statement is one that seems might affect me and alter my play.

If using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay and not permitted, does this mean that, if I have to hit the bathroom and I am not sure if I’m in a safe spot, that I can no longer switch my heal skill to auto (to attempt to negate any damage I’d receive from random enemies attacking me while afk) and head off to the bathroom?

Technically, even though I’d only be gone a couple of minutes at most, I would have a heal skill on auto-cast and I’d be afk…which would fit your statement as being unattended gameplay.

I guess I’ll just choose to log to character select from now on and lose my accumulated bloodlust stacks instead of risking being sanctioned simply because I stayed logged in and flipped heal to auto while I used the facilities. Better safe than sorry.

Thank you, Michael and Chris, for your responses and clarification on this topic.

If there’s a nearby waypoint that doesn’t spawn mobs/events around it, port there and you should be fine… that way you can keep your stacks.

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

StinVec.3621:

I do not afk-farm, but I am interested in the end result of this discussion and how it might indirectly affect me. This statement is one that seems might affect me and alter my play.

If using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay and not permitted, does this mean that, if I have to hit the bathroom and I am not sure if I’m in a safe spot, that I can no longer switch my heal skill to auto (to attempt to negate any damage I’d receive from random enemies attacking me while afk) and head off to the bathroom?

Technically, even though I’d only be gone a couple of minutes at most, I would have a heal skill on auto-cast and I’d be afk…which would fit your statement as being unattended gameplay.

I guess I’ll just choose to log to character select from now on and lose my accumulated bloodlust stacks instead of risking being sanctioned simply because I stayed logged in and flipped heal to auto while I used the facilities. Better safe than sorry.

Thank you, Michael and Chris, for your responses and clarification on this topic.

If there’s a nearby waypoint that doesn’t spawn mobs/events around it, port there and you should be fine… that way you can keep your stacks.

~EW

Thanks for that tip. I rarely use waypoints for personal enjoyment reasons, so I had not previously considered that as an option. Their generally being safe areas would be a good alternative to logging and losing the stacks. I may do this instead. Thanks again.

I think anyone who has played the game for anytime (even those that fairly new)can find a safe place on any map so they can hit the washroom and grab a drink.

StinVec.3621:

Michael Henninger.7451:

DoctorDing.5890:

Surely using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay ????

Yes. I’ve shot a mean glance his way.

But again: “Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted”

Chris-post incoming…

I do not afk-farm, but I am interested in the end result of this discussion and how it might indirectly affect me. This statement is one that seems might affect me and alter my play.

If using auto-cast while AFK is unattended gameplay and not permitted, does this mean that, if I have to hit the bathroom and I am not sure if I’m in a safe spot, that I can no longer switch my heal skill to auto (to attempt to negate any damage I’d receive from random enemies attacking me while afk) and head off to the bathroom?

Technically, even though I’d only be gone a couple of minutes at most, I would have a heal skill on auto-cast and I’d be afk…which would fit your statement as being unattended gameplay.

I guess I’ll just choose to log to character select from now on and lose my accumulated bloodlust stacks instead of risking being sanctioned simply because I stayed logged in and flipped heal to auto while I used the facilities. Better safe than sorry.

Thank you, Michael and Chris, for your responses and clarification on this topic.

Surely, you could reply to the GM messages shortly after returning. As players of the game themselves, and human, I doubt they sanction within 2 minutes or so. They did say you have to meet all 3 of the criteria to be sanctioned.

Blude.6812:

I think anyone who has played the game for anytime (even those that fairly new)can find a safe place on any map so they can hit the washroom and grab a drink.

Sure, but that shouldn’t always have to be the case.

As I said in another thread.

1. Stow All pets (Rangers put them on passive), disable Auto-Loot (incase you are running a build that can kill mobs at the level you are scaled to), and disable any auto cast

That is really the only option the player has right now to be sure they can safely go AFK in the game with out getting the boot from a GM. Just changing location (in PVE combat zones) or moving to a non-pathed area in your farming spot, is not enough as you may enter combat during your AFK session.

and that’s a bit over the top to place on the player.

sirsquishy.2619:

That is really the only option the player has right now to be sure they can safely go AFK in the game with out getting the boot from a GM. Just changing location (in PVE combat zones) or moving to a non-pathed area in your farming spot, is not enough as you may enter combat during your AFK session.

and that’s a bit over the top to place on the player.

This isn’t true. If you need to go AFK just go AFK. I’m sure the GMs (and most players who report) can distinguish the difference between the two.

I won’t report a player for being genuinely AFK. I will report a player for AFK farming though. The difference is definitely clear when you see it.

penelopehannibal.8947:

sirsquishy.2619:

That is really the only option the player has right now to be sure they can safely go AFK in the game with out getting the boot from a GM. Just changing location (in PVE combat zones) or moving to a non-pathed area in your farming spot, is not enough as you may enter combat during your AFK session.

and that’s a bit over the top to place on the player.

This isn’t true. If you need to go AFK just go AFK. I’m sure the GMs (and most players who report) can distinguish the difference between the two.

I won’t report a player for being genuinely AFK. I will report a player for AFK farming though. The difference is definitely clear when you see it.

Completely agree. From what I have read here everyone understand the difference between going AFK and AFK farming. This has turned into a law debate basically on the definition of words and how it sounds.

It is simple if you are AFK farming, which as per this thread, what people claim in game (that do and don’t do it) and reddit (the holy grail). If your purposely leaving your guy in a place to get rewards while you are out for long periods of time (going to the bathroom isn’t this stop using this as a reason) then your AFK farming and your subject to w.e. Anet has deemed is penalty.

If you don’t like the risk….don’t do it.

This isn’t that difficult to figure out and I think many people are just arguing for the sake of arguing. People are throwing in all these “what ifs” just to argue more. It is really very simple.

If you do not want to risk getting suspended/banned then:

• Don’t take your Ranger/Necro to an area where mobs spawn and then go do something AFK for an extended period of time. For example don’t go make dinner, go watch a movie, go to bed, go shopping, go to work etc. In this example it is pretty clear that the intention is for extended AFK farming. When you set it up this way you know what you are doing and planned it based on what some perceive as a grey area of the rules. If you do this and get suspended then you have no one else to blame but yourself.

If you need to take a quick phone call, use the restroom, answer the door, go smoke a cigarette, make a cup of coffee or other brief AFK reason you will be fine. Trust me I have been doing those things for years in GW2 with no problem. I’ve been doing those things recently during this whole debate with no problem. It all seems pretty clear and simple to me.

I’ve read this entire thread, I’ve seen AFK farmers (I personally disagree with it and do not partake in the activity), and I guess I don’t understand why there is a big misunderstanding.

AFK farming (common knowledge and interpretation of employee posts) is an EXPLOIT. It is exploiting or using a game mechanic – whether the mechanic is working as intended or is bugged – in a manner in which it was not intended to be used (by the developers) to gain an advantage (either personally or over other players) in the game.

Regardless if auto-looting is bugged (preventing you from being AFK) or working as intended, a player utilizing it to AFK farm is a player that IS exploiting a game mechanic to their advantage.

Regardless of ctrl+right-click auto-usage of abilities being designed and intended for the ease of players playing the game, a player utilizing it in a manner other than its intended design – which is for players to have 1 ability that we do not have to constantly press a button to activate while we are at the keyboard – such as using auto-cast to automatically heal or attack while you are AFK IS exploiting a game mechanic to your advantage.

Honestly, the whole matter is an issue of exploits. AFK farmers are exploiting the game mechanics of auto-looting. They are exploiting the game mechanics of auto-casting. They are exploiting the mechanics of pets auto-attacking and auto-defending. They are exploiting the mechanics of gaining rewards based solely upon their pet’s unattended interaction with the game environment. Honestly, we could get nit-picking and get into every exploit and sub-exploit that is happening; it is a simple case of players exploiting game mechanics, mechanics that are either bugged or being used in a manner not intended to be used, to their advantage.

Last time I read the ToS (admittedly a while ago) exploits were bannable offenses. I guess that’s why I don’t get why there’s all the confusion; outside of employees not being blunt and straight-talking in their responses.

Bandlero.6312:

I’ve read this entire thread, I’ve seen AFK farmers (I personally disagree with it and do not partake in the activity), and I guess I don’t understand why there is a big misunderstanding.

AFK farming (common knowledge and interpretation of employee posts) is an EXPLOIT. It is exploiting or using a game mechanic – whether the mechanic is working as intended or is bugged – in a manner in which it was not intended to be used (by the developers) to gain an advantage (either personally or over other players) in the game.

Regardless if auto-looting is bugged (preventing you from being AFK) or working as intended, a player utilizing it to AFK farm is a player that IS exploiting a game mechanic to their advantage.

Regardless of ctrl+right-click auto-usage of abilities being designed and intended for the ease of players playing the game, a player utilizing it in a manner other than its intended design – which is for players to have 1 ability that we do not have to constantly press a button to activate while we are at the keyboard – such as using auto-cast to automatically heal or attack while you are AFK IS exploiting a game mechanic to your advantage.

Honestly, the whole matter is an issue of exploits. AFK farmers are exploiting the game mechanics of auto-looting. They are exploiting the game mechanics of auto-casting. They are exploiting the mechanics of pets auto-attacking and auto-defending. They are exploiting the mechanics of gaining rewards based solely upon their pet’s unattended interaction with the game environment. Honestly, we could get nit-picking and get into every exploit and sub-exploit that is happening; it is a simple case of players exploiting game mechanics, mechanics that are either bugged or being used in a manner not intended to be used, to their advantage.

Last time I read the ToS (admittedly a while ago) exploits were bannable offenses. I guess that’s why I don’t get why there’s all the confusion; outside of employees not being blunt and straight-talking in their responses.

The problem is the wording by ANet has a been a bit ambiguous. Some posts give an indication that it’s fine, others that it’s not.

And if ANet’s being ambiguous, there will be players who honestly think that it is ok because someone at ANet said it was to their understanding of what they said.

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

Disabling autoloot in open world would just anger the majority of people who dont engage in this behavior. Changing game mechanics to where actual player involvement is necessary to gain loot and exp would be a better alternative to discouraging and preventing this kind of behavior. Allowing people to tag an enemy and sit out the rest of an event and still get full credit is ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is allowing people to gain loot and exp from their pets/minions while they do nothing at all.

I agree. It wouldn’t be fair to completely remove a game mechanic from a single game mode just because some people are abusing it. That would be like telling players they can no longer use necros in PvP because some abuse the mechanics to be too powerful.

Instead ArenaNet should focus on making adjustments to mechanics to discourage abusive behavior while maintaining the mechanic’s core functionality for players who play the game as intended.

Another suggestion I have is to make it so pets, minions, and any other entities summoned by players, do not give any EXP or loot unless the player actually attacks what the pet/minion/entity attacked, meaning you only get stuff if you actually attack something yourself. This way if you’re AFK you’ll get absolutely nothing by having only your pet do all the work.

Some players may prefer to stick with only what the game offers in terms of mechanics and functionality. So I’m assuming at least some of them won’t want to risk using macros and/or third party software to fully automate gameplay while they AFK farm. There’s too much risk involved and if detected the punishment might be even harsher.

Charrbeque.8729:

Another suggestion I have is to make it so pets, minions, and any other entities summoned by players, do not give any EXP or loot unless the player actually attacks what the pet/minion/entity attacked, meaning you only get stuff if you actually attack something yourself. This way if you’re AFK you’ll get absolutely nothing by having only your pet do all the work.

This would anger just about every PvE Ranger and Necro in the game. Say a Ranger approaches a group of 3 mobs, puts their pet on one of the mobs while they attack the other two. They are actively playing, using their profession mechanics as intended. However, because of your suggestion the Ranger only gets XP and loot for the two mobs they kill while the pet kills the third. Like some of the other examples where people suggest turn off auto loot in PvE this would be punishing players for playing as the game was intended just to solve the problem caused by the few that abuse the mechanic. Nope, not going to work.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Charrbeque.8729:

Another suggestion I have is to make it so pets, minions, and any other entities summoned by players, do not give any EXP or loot unless the player actually attacks what the pet/minion/entity attacked, meaning you only get stuff if you actually attack something yourself. This way if you’re AFK you’ll get absolutely nothing by having only your pet do all the work.

This would anger just about every PvE Ranger and Necro in the game. Say a Ranger approaches a group of 3 mobs, puts their pet on one of the mobs while they attack the other two. They are actively playing, using their profession mechanics as intended. However, because of your suggestion the Ranger only gets XP for the two mobs they kill while the pet kills the third. Like some of the other examples where people suggest turn off auto loot in PvE this would be punishing players for playing as the game was intended just to solve the problem caused by the few that abuse the mechanic. Nope, not going to work.

It would also punish Beastmaster focused builds where the Ranger is essentially support for the pet.

Add DR that affects pets/minions only after about 45 min and won’t reset until you kill things in some other area.

Chris Cleary.8017:

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.

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.

How about adding this to the sticky on 3rd Party, Macros and Mulitboxing?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Policy-3rd-Party-Programs-Multi-Boxing-Macros

Reading this thread, I am a bit worried regarding “fixes” that might be implemented to circumvent this. Fixing auto-loot bug would be great, but a more “extreme fix” would not be beneficial to the community as a whole.

@Anet, it is clear that some people just intend to twist the words and rules to reap benefit. Please also take into consideration people who are not part of these groups and understand that the GM team are not suspending people without valid reasons.

Am seeing a lot of players from WoW coming over and doing similar to what they were doing there. AFK botting, even if they are not moving their pets are. See a lot of Necromancers and Guardian duos lately, in dredge areas is more common.

It’s sad when you see a player with a Legendary weapon resorting to this to PL their free account characters. Anet would be better off selling Insta-80 tokens or something if they not going to ban the botters.

You could start by working on the baseline economic problems that cause people to auto farm. That’d be nice. So it likely wont happen.

TexZero.7910:

You could start by working on the baseline economic problems that cause people to auto farm. That’d be nice. So it likely wont happen.

That’s just absurd. The “baseline economic problem” is that people want money. Period. You can’t fix that.

TexZero.7910:

You could start by working on the baseline economic problems that cause people to auto farm. That’d be nice. So it likely wont happen.

Are there any mmos where people don’t afk farm if they can get away with it? After all, it’s income without effort and while you’re not playing anyway.