Guild Wars 2

There doesnt need to be any justification for the AFK farmers.
All thats required is to determine whether the AFK farmers are or are not playing the game as intended, and until someone can provide some document that defines what playing the game as intended means, this entire thread is simply pure speculation.

mauried.5608:

There doesnt need to be any justification for the AFK farmers.
All thats required is to determine whether the AFK farmers are or are not playing the game as intended, and until someone can provide some document that defines what playing the game as intended means, this entire thread is simply pure speculation.

You all will deny, as you have, any documentation linked. No point in bothering.

Regina’s statement is valid, 3yrs old or not. Nothing has changed re AFK farming. It has always been not tolerated.

mauried.5608:

There doesnt need to be any justification for the AFK farmers.
All thats required is to determine whether the AFK farmers are or are not playing the game as intended, and until someone can provide some document that defines what playing the game as intended means, this entire thread is simply pure speculation.

I think we can define playing as intended as just playing in this case. If you’re AFK farming, you’re not playing. Fingers need to be on keys if you want to be classed as playing.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Etienne.3049:

Is somewhat unfortunately written as there seems to be an internal inconsistency but “If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned.” seems very clearly to mean: “yes you can” as the only way to interpret it as not being allowed is to add “but being AFK while doing so isn’t” which would be unlikely given the topic.

No. You (and others) are inserting the “while afk” qualifier into that statement. “If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned” does not say anything about being afk… it’s talking about mechanics specifically and only.

The entire thread was about AFK, I don’t have to insert anything.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Etienne.3049:

“intentional mechanics that allow pet kills to give experience and loot =/= permission to afk farm.” can be interpreted in different ways:
1: The situation does not allow it, but the post(s) from the support lead do(es).
2: It’s not permitted but you won’t get in trouble for doing it.
3: He means you may at some point in the future no longer be able to do this.

Again, No. None of those interpretations are accurate. What it means is mechanics are not the same as policy. Just because you are able to do something, doesn’t mean it’s okay to do it. That is the functional definition of an exploit.

Etienne.3049:

The only reasonable conclusion seems that yes, it is allowed (or at least tolerated).

At no point is it said, “it is okay to afk farm.” So, the only reasonable conclusion is that you can use the mechanics of pet kills and auto loot while you’re actively playing the game.

In a thread about AFK farming the support lead posted the following:

This is allowed behavior; as it was designed to function that way.

Yes, they did.

You also seems to be ignoring

This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

Which does support the preceeding bit being about AFK farming; unless you’re also goning to claim this is about the combination of auto-loot and pet kills.

tribulation waypoint – the new mekka for afk-farming necros

Etienne.3049:

The entire thread was about AFK, I don’t have to insert anything.

And the dev was addressing a sub-issue within that thread about whether or not it was okay to combine pet kills with auto loot in general… not afk specifically. Afk was not mentioned in his post. Are you honestly trying to claim that an official statement on the policy of afk farming would not include the words “afk farming” or similar? Seriously? Only mechanics are being addressed, and the validity of those mechanics.

Etienne.3049:

In a thread about AFK farming the support lead posted the following:

This is allowed behavior; as it was designed to function that way.

Yes, they did.

That’s the statement addressing mechanics only. Not players going afk exploiting those mechanics… as talked about ad nausium.

Etienne.3049:

You also seems to be ignoring

This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

Which does support the preceeding bit being about AFK farming; unless you’re also goning to claim this is about the combination of auto-loot and pet kills.

No, it’s about changing things so the mechanics cannot be exploited. It does not support afk farming, or support the toleration of it. It’s an acknowledgement that the exploit exists and that things can be changed to remove it in the future.

~EW

Tbh I don’t really see what the big deal is about.
Personally, I prefer to play the game I paid for by actually playing the game.
If other people prefer to play their game by being afk, so what?
It impacts me not at all.
It provides them no meaningful advantage; progression in the PvE environment of GW2 is almost entirely non-competitive.
shrugs
Bit of a non-issue really; more important things out there.
~TG

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Etienne.3049:

The entire thread was about AFK, I don’t have to insert anything.

And the dev was addressing a sub-issue within that thread about whether or not it was okay to combine pet kills with auto loot in general… not afk specifically. Afk was not mentioned in his post. Are you honestly trying to claim that an official statement on the policy of afk farming would not include the words “afk farming” or similar? Seriously? Only mechanics are being addressed, and the validity of those mechanics.

It is the 4th post in the thread (and the 2nd and 3rd add nothing), there is no sub-issue at that point. And why would pet kills and autoloot need a clarification?

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Etienne.3049:

In a thread about AFK farming the support lead posted the following:

This is allowed behavior; as it was designed to function that way.

Yes, they did.

That’s the statement addressing mechanics only. Not players going afk exploiting those mechanics… as talked about ad nausium.

Again, what mechanics? Does this mean players switching to a build using pets don’t have to disable autoloot from options? Why would such clarification be necessary? And why would it be in a thread about AFK farming?

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Etienne.3049:

You also seems to be ignoring

This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

Which does support the preceeding bit being about AFK farming; unless you’re also goning to claim this is about the combination of auto-loot and pet kills.

No, it’s about changing things so the mechanics cannot be exploited. It does not support afk farming, or support the toleration of it. It’s an acknowledgement that the exploit exists and that things can be changed to remove it in the future.

~EW

So that does refer to AFK farming but the earlier part of the paragraph:

If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned.

doesn’t?

But it’s obvious you’re only gonna read what you want to read rather than what is actually written.

TwoGhosts.6790:

Tbh I don’t really see what the big deal is about.
Personally, I prefer to play the game I paid for by actually playing the game.
If other people prefer to play their game by being afk, so what?
It impacts me not at all.
It provides them no meaningful advantage; progression in the PvE environment of GW2 is almost entirely non-competitive.
shrugs
Bit of a non-issue really; more important things out there.
~TG

I can make 20G/hr most likely with 7 accounts AFK farming. Are you telling me that I wouldn’t have an advantage over other players?

Etienne.3049:

But it’s obvious you’re only gonna read what you want to read rather than what is actually written.

it’s actually the opposite here. Those on the side that it is fine are the ones reading only what they want to rather than what was written.

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Tbh I don’t really see what the big deal is about.
Personally, I prefer to play the game I paid for by actually playing the game.
If other people prefer to play their game by being afk, so what?
It impacts me not at all.
It provides them no meaningful advantage; progression in the PvE environment of GW2 is almost entirely non-competitive.
shrugs
Bit of a non-issue really; more important things out there.
~TG

I can make 20G/hr most likely with 7 accounts AFK farming. Are you telling me that I wouldn’t have an advantage over other players?

Not meaningfully. No, not really.
Certainly not one that would bother me.
So, you have, what? More gold than me? Lots of people have more gold than me. And that gets you ahead, how?
You can afford the skin you want, that I can’t yet? So what?
You can afford to fully craft your ascended armour for all your characters before me? So what? That’s only gonna be an issue (and not a very big one) if we run up against one another in WvW and you win as a direct result of the marginal stat gain you have (and not because I suck at PvP, which I do).
But no, by and large you having more gold than me makes no difference – certainly it makes absolutely no difference to my own enjoyment of playing the game.
Dude, if you wanna invest in 7 separate accounts for the purposes of 24/7 afk farming on your necros… fill your pants man. Got no issues with that.
~TG

TwoGhosts.6790:

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Tbh I don’t really see what the big deal is about.
Personally, I prefer to play the game I paid for by actually playing the game.
If other people prefer to play their game by being afk, so what?
It impacts me not at all.
It provides them no meaningful advantage; progression in the PvE environment of GW2 is almost entirely non-competitive.
shrugs
Bit of a non-issue really; more important things out there.
~TG

I can make 20G/hr most likely with 7 accounts AFK farming. Are you telling me that I wouldn’t have an advantage over other players?

Not meaningfully. No, not really.
Certainly not one that would bother me.
So, you have, what? More gold than me? Lots of people have more gold than me. And that gets you ahead, how?
You can afford the skin you want, that I can’t yet? So what?
You can afford to fully craft your ascended armour for all your characters before me? So what? That’s only gonna be an issue (and not a very big one) if we run up against one another in WvW and you win as a direct result of the marginal stat gain you have (and not because I suck at PvP, which I do).
But no, by and large you having more gold than me makes no difference – certainly it makes absolutely no difference to my own enjoyment of playing the game.
Dude, if you wanna invest in 7 separate accounts for the purposes of 24/7 afk farming on your necros… fill your pants man. Got no issues with that.
~TG

So if someone were to bot to teleport across the map to various nodes and such, you’d have no issue since they’re just making more gold than you but you don’t really care as it doesn’t affect you? Imagine what would happen if it became common for people to AFK farm and what impact it would have.

I think the problem isn’t a single case but more the impact it’ll have onthe ingame economy in general if a lot of people start doing this. Some items prices will make weird loops both up and down if it would be allowed to continue on the long run.

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Tbh I don’t really see what the big deal is about.
Personally, I prefer to play the game I paid for by actually playing the game.
If other people prefer to play their game by being afk, so what?
It impacts me not at all.
It provides them no meaningful advantage; progression in the PvE environment of GW2 is almost entirely non-competitive.
shrugs
Bit of a non-issue really; more important things out there.
~TG

I can make 20G/hr most likely with 7 accounts AFK farming. Are you telling me that I wouldn’t have an advantage over other players?

Not meaningfully. No, not really.
Certainly not one that would bother me.
So, you have, what? More gold than me? Lots of people have more gold than me. And that gets you ahead, how?
You can afford the skin you want, that I can’t yet? So what?
You can afford to fully craft your ascended armour for all your characters before me? So what? That’s only gonna be an issue (and not a very big one) if we run up against one another in WvW and you win as a direct result of the marginal stat gain you have (and not because I suck at PvP, which I do).
But no, by and large you having more gold than me makes no difference – certainly it makes absolutely no difference to my own enjoyment of playing the game.
Dude, if you wanna invest in 7 separate accounts for the purposes of 24/7 afk farming on your necros… fill your pants man. Got no issues with that.
~TG

So if someone were to bot to teleport across the map to various nodes and such, you’d have no issue since they’re just making more gold than you but you don’t really care as it doesn’t affect you? Imagine what would happen if it became common for people to AFK farm and what impact it would have.

Depends on the nature of the teleport. Is it illicit hacking of the game to adjust character position, or waypoint spamming and running to those locations? Is there botting involved, in violation of one-key, one-action policy?

AFK farming doesn’t exploit anything, beyond basic minion AI and reward design. It might be why WoW, a long time ago, decided that pet-only kills don’t count toward drops, but ANet hasn’t made that decision. What AFK farming does is use the game’s own systems (pet/minion AI, pet-tagging rewards, Pact Commander Mastery) to get loot.

I seem to recall (can’t find link and too lazy to care) a dev on Reddit basically saying “working as intended”.

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Tbh I don’t really see what the big deal is about.
Personally, I prefer to play the game I paid for by actually playing the game.
If other people prefer to play their game by being afk, so what?
It impacts me not at all.
It provides them no meaningful advantage; progression in the PvE environment of GW2 is almost entirely non-competitive.
shrugs
Bit of a non-issue really; more important things out there.
~TG

I can make 20G/hr most likely with 7 accounts AFK farming. Are you telling me that I wouldn’t have an advantage over other players?

Not meaningfully. No, not really.
Certainly not one that would bother me.
So, you have, what? More gold than me? Lots of people have more gold than me. And that gets you ahead, how?
You can afford the skin you want, that I can’t yet? So what?
You can afford to fully craft your ascended armour for all your characters before me? So what? That’s only gonna be an issue (and not a very big one) if we run up against one another in WvW and you win as a direct result of the marginal stat gain you have (and not because I suck at PvP, which I do).
But no, by and large you having more gold than me makes no difference – certainly it makes absolutely no difference to my own enjoyment of playing the game.
Dude, if you wanna invest in 7 separate accounts for the purposes of 24/7 afk farming on your necros… fill your pants man. Got no issues with that.
~TG

So if someone were to bot to teleport across the map to various nodes and such, you’d have no issue since they’re just making more gold than you but you don’t really care as it doesn’t affect you? Imagine what would happen if it became common for people to AFK farm and what impact it would have.

Depends on the nature of the teleport. Is it illicit hacking of the game to adjust character position, or waypoint spamming and running to those locations? Is there botting involved, in violation of one-key, one-action policy?

AFK farming doesn’t exploit anything, beyond basic minion AI and reward design. It might be why WoW, a long time ago, decided that pet-only kills don’t count toward drops, but ANet hasn’t made that decision. What AFK farming does is use the game’s own systems (pet/minion AI, pet-tagging rewards, Pact Commander Mastery) to get loot.

I seem to recall (can’t find link and too lazy to care) a dev on Reddit basically saying “working as intended”.

But according to that player, the person botting is just making more gold than them and they had no issue. The legitimacy of botting wasn’t part of the argument.

AFK farming does exploit something as they are circumventing the idle timer that would normally boot them from the game after an hour.

The “working as intended” was directed at allowing minions/pets to kill for you. It had nothing to do with whether a player could circumvent that timer.

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Ayrilana.1396:

TwoGhosts.6790:

Tbh I don’t really see what the big deal is about.
Personally, I prefer to play the game I paid for by actually playing the game.
If other people prefer to play their game by being afk, so what?
It impacts me not at all.
It provides them no meaningful advantage; progression in the PvE environment of GW2 is almost entirely non-competitive.
shrugs
Bit of a non-issue really; more important things out there.
~TG

I can make 20G/hr most likely with 7 accounts AFK farming. Are you telling me that I wouldn’t have an advantage over other players?

Not meaningfully. No, not really.
Certainly not one that would bother me.
So, you have, what? More gold than me? Lots of people have more gold than me. And that gets you ahead, how?
You can afford the skin you want, that I can’t yet? So what?
You can afford to fully craft your ascended armour for all your characters before me? So what? That’s only gonna be an issue (and not a very big one) if we run up against one another in WvW and you win as a direct result of the marginal stat gain you have (and not because I suck at PvP, which I do).
But no, by and large you having more gold than me makes no difference – certainly it makes absolutely no difference to my own enjoyment of playing the game.
Dude, if you wanna invest in 7 separate accounts for the purposes of 24/7 afk farming on your necros… fill your pants man. Got no issues with that.
~TG

So if someone were to bot to teleport across the map to various nodes and such, you’d have no issue since they’re just making more gold than you but you don’t really care as it doesn’t affect you? Imagine what would happen if it became common for people to AFK farm and what impact it would have.

That’s a good question, because I have two, conflicting gut reactions to that.

The first is that, no, it doesn’t really bother me because, as hard as I try, I just can’t see their activity as having any meaningful impact on the way I play the game or my enjoyment of it.

The second is specifically in response to your mention of bots.

While it seems there might be some disagreement as to the whether AFK-farming is ‘illegal’ or not (for those who are bothered), I’m pretty sure that botting is definitely ‘illegal’.

I’ve seen them myself a couple of times, dropping under nodes and such. The conflicting gut reaction I have here is that, no, despite what I said about afk-farming I don’t like the idea or the practice of botting. I’m not certain why I feel differently about the two. Perhaps it’s the notion that, though seemingly afk (and maybe – but not defintely – farming) that player is still apparently existing in the same gaming environment as me (and therefore it’s not jarring; it feels acceptable). Whereas the node-bot, or even an actively playing individual who is manifestly exploiting some crack in the game in the same way, therefore seems to be playing in a completely different environment to me – and I find that ugly and jarring.

It’s far more about how it makes me feel, and far less about any x-gold/hr ‘advantage’ it may confer to someone (I still can’t be bothered about it in those terms).

I dunno. One feels ugly and demeans the game (and, to some degree, my pleasure in it). The other just feels a bit like ‘meh, whatever does it for you, I’m off to play’.

~TG

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

But it’s obvious you’re only gonna read what you want to read rather than what is actually written.

it’s actually the opposite here. Those on the side that it is fine are the ones reading only what they want to rather than what was written.

Not really, I don’t particularly care either way (on the one hand I don’t want people AFK farming but on the other I think banning for it is very excessive) and I read it as clearly allowing it. And the way I read it is a lot more sensible then I’d have given Anet credit for, given some banning decissions early on.

I’m with TwoGhosts on this one. There are not enough AFK’ers to affect the economy. Anet act pretty quickly when there is a serious outbreak of botting or exploiting but small scale AFK’ing for small scale rewards is just not that important to me. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

DoctorDing.5890:

I’m with TwoGhosts on this one. There are not enough AFK’ers to affect the economy. Anet act pretty quickly when there is a serious outbreak of botting or exploiting but small scale AFK’ing for small scale rewards is just not that important to me. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

It’s because of these threads why there isn’t any on a large scale. Imagine if Anet were to actually claim that everything, including circumventing the idle timer, was legit. It would be like SAB selling where initially only a few people were doing it before it exploded and you always saw a dozen LFG posts.

DoctorDing.5890:

I’m with TwoGhosts on this one. There are not enough AFK’ers to affect the economy for now. Anet act pretty quickly when there is a serious outbreak of botting or exploiting but small scale AFK’ing for small scale rewards is just not that important to me. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Because if a green light was lit for this kind of thing, it would have an impact, and would affect more than just the economy when swarms of AFK farmers come out of the woodwork.

I’m not saying they should give it a green light. I’m saying that I just don’t care what other players are doing. If people want to buy a game and then spend their time not playing it whilst earning quite small amounts of imaginary in-game currency to spend on imaginary in-game items then that is their prerogative. Those players probably spend more time on inventory management than they do on, you know, playing. I’m just not bothered.

Etienne.3049:

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

But it’s obvious you’re only gonna read what you want to read rather than what is actually written.

it’s actually the opposite here. Those on the side that it is fine are the ones reading only what they want to rather than what was written.

Not really, I don’t particularly care either way (on the one hand I don’t want people AFK farming but on the other I think banning for it is very excessive) and I read it as clearly allowing it. And the way I read it is a lot more sensible then I’d have given Anet credit for, given some banning decissions early on.

You were reading to much into what they said.

I guess we’ll see if they ever decide to address this. I’m pretty sure they are aware of it.

I care simply because Anet has a pretty good history of addressing cheaters by doing an overall nerf of a mechanic that negatively impacts innocent players in the process.

Case in point, Guild Bank Callable Yaks. Early in the game these were removed from a lot of innocent lower level guilds and made much harder to earn.. because of a suspicion Gold Sellers were using them.

Things like this happened often in GW, where mobs were actually removed from some areas and mechanics changed to combat bot farmers, changes that hurt ATK players.

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

But it’s obvious you’re only gonna read what you want to read rather than what is actually written.

it’s actually the opposite here. Those on the side that it is fine are the ones reading only what they want to rather than what was written.

Not really, I don’t particularly care either way (on the one hand I don’t want people AFK farming but on the other I think banning for it is very excessive) and I read it as clearly allowing it. And the way I read it is a lot more sensible then I’d have given Anet credit for, given some banning decissions early on.

You were reading to much into what they said.

I guess we’ll see if they ever decide to address this. I’m pretty sure they are aware of it.

Of course they’re aware of it. There were several forum and Reddit posts kewing about it, several making the front page on each.

Sure, it’s cheap and smarmy, but it’s also passively countered by Diminishing Returns. If ANet decides to do something about the AFK farm, they’ll probably sneak it in that way, rather than going out of their way to ban players for an ‘exploit’ that is working as intended. A change like that won’t even make the patch notes.

I’d rather they take a more amusing method of dealing with AFK farmers by summoning a champ mob with an AoE death-smear ability. And it could come at any time, in any place, someone sits there and lets minions kill for them. Because “he can attack anywhere,” you know.

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

But it’s obvious you’re only gonna read what you want to read rather than what is actually written.

it’s actually the opposite here. Those on the side that it is fine are the ones reading only what they want to rather than what was written.

Not really, I don’t particularly care either way (on the one hand I don’t want people AFK farming but on the other I think banning for it is very excessive) and I read it as clearly allowing it. And the way I read it is a lot more sensible then I’d have given Anet credit for, given some banning decissions early on.

You were reading to much into what they said.

I guess we’ll see if they ever decide to address this. I’m pretty sure they are aware of it.

Of course they’re aware of it. There were several forum and Reddit posts kewing about it, several making the front page on each.

Sure, it’s cheap and smarmy, but it’s also passively countered by Diminishing Returns. If ANet decides to do something about the AFK farm, they’ll probably sneak it in that way, rather than going out of their way to ban players for an ‘exploit’ that is working as intended. A change like that won’t even make the patch notes.

I’d rather they take a more amusing method of dealing with AFK farmers by summoning a champ mob with an AoE death-smear ability. And it could come at any time, in any place, someone sits there and lets minions kill for them. Because “he can attack anywhere,” you know.

They’re just doing 14 day suspensions as shown on the previous page.

To be honest, I’m sure we’d get a response if we were to contact a local bakery and have them send over some cookies, a cake, or something.

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

Ayrilana.1396:

Etienne.3049:

But it’s obvious you’re only gonna read what you want to read rather than what is actually written.

it’s actually the opposite here. Those on the side that it is fine are the ones reading only what they want to rather than what was written.

Not really, I don’t particularly care either way (on the one hand I don’t want people AFK farming but on the other I think banning for it is very excessive) and I read it as clearly allowing it. And the way I read it is a lot more sensible then I’d have given Anet credit for, given some banning decissions early on.

You were reading to much into what they said.

I guess we’ll see if they ever decide to address this. I’m pretty sure they are aware of it.

Of course they’re aware of it. There were several forum and Reddit posts kewing about it, several making the front page on each.

Sure, it’s cheap and smarmy, but it’s also passively countered by Diminishing Returns. If ANet decides to do something about the AFK farm, they’ll probably sneak it in that way, rather than going out of their way to ban players for an ‘exploit’ that is working as intended. A change like that won’t even make the patch notes.

I’d rather they take a more amusing method of dealing with AFK farmers by summoning a champ mob with an AoE death-smear ability. And it could come at any time, in any place, someone sits there and lets minions kill for them. Because “he can attack anywhere,” you know.

They’re just doing 14 day suspensions as shown on the previous page.

To be honest, I’m sure we’d get a response if we were to contact a local bakery and have them send over some cookies, a cake, or something.

This is a game company we’re talking about. Monster energy drinks and bags of Doritos should be sent over.

Two things are puzzling me about this now.

1. People are risking their accounts with a type of farming they know to be controversial, but go ahead and do it anyway (and some are then confused as to why they receive a ban afterwards).

2. Why it’s still being argued by some as an ok way to farm despite people actually being banned for it.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Two things are puzzling me about this now.

1. People are risking their accounts with a type of farming they know to be controversial, but go ahead and do it anyway (and some are then confused as to why they receive a ban afterwards).

2. Why it’s still being argued by some as an ok way to farm despite people actually being banned for it.

It’s a variation of the time honored lame argument of “if they didn’t want me to exploit this glitch they would fix the glitch. So, it’s allowed.”

The mentality doesn’t change.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Two things are puzzling me about this now.

1. People are risking their accounts with a type of farming they know to be controversial, but go ahead and do it anyway (and some are then confused as to why they receive a ban afterwards).

2. Why it’s still being argued by some as an ok way to farm despite people actually being banned for it.

I was unaware of temp-bans going out. That’s as much of a policy statement as anything.

I have to wonder if the bans were from actual botting behavior or automated measures that were overturned in appeal.

I recall my walk through Dredgehaunt on my yet-another-walk-to-Orr, and I saw two farmers. One AFK-necro and one ranger that was running very directly at mobs to engage them. Reported the latter and figured the former would get made dead eventually (if rangerbot hadn’t come and killed the attacking mobs).

Rauderi.8706:

penelopehannibal.8947:

Two things are puzzling me about this now.

1. People are risking their accounts with a type of farming they know to be controversial, but go ahead and do it anyway (and some are then confused as to why they receive a ban afterwards).

2. Why it’s still being argued by some as an ok way to farm despite people actually being banned for it.

I was unaware of temp-bans going out. That’s as much of a policy statement as anything.

I have to wonder if the bans were from actual botting behavior or automated measures that were overturned in appeal.

I recall my walk through Dredgehaunt on my yet-another-walk-to-Orr, and I saw two farmers. One AFK-necro and one ranger that was running very directly at mobs to engage them. Reported the latter and figured the former would get made dead eventually (if rangerbot hadn’t come and killed the attacking mobs).

Someone commented about their suspension on the second page. No updates yet on whether it got reversed.

Afk-farming is getting very popular now. Didn’t recognize it before. But now i see bowmen and necromaniacs everywhere. A nice spot for farming small bags is the area near the rich iron vein west of the diessa plateau.

arctodus farm spot <3

I don’t particularly approve of AFK farming, but the ones that really raise my ire are the ones that camp out at event spawns and thus scale it up (sometimes majorly so) and making it far more difficult for the genuine players.

One good example is in Dry Top. There’s usually a bunch of AFK farmers sitting in the middle of the plain where the Inquest and Zephyrites compete for crystals. By doing this, they are usually able to get some credit for the following 3 events:

1. Collect crystals for the Zephyrites
2. Escort Haze
3. Kill the Champion Dust Twister, if it happens to wander over in their direction

They not only get loot for this (including the chance for Onyx and Charged Lodestones from Dust Mites), but also Geodes (which I imagine is what they’re really after). But again, depending on how many of them there are, they can end up scaling the mobs in this area by 3 or 4 levels and into Veterans or Elites, making it much harder for the real players to deal with them.

Ayrilana.1396:

To be honest, I’m sure we’d get a response if we were to contact a local bakery and have them send over some cookies, a cake, or something.

This took the cupcake.

Zaxares.5419:

I don’t particularly approve of AFK farming, but the ones that really raise my ire are the ones that camp out at event spawns and thus scale it up (sometimes majorly so) and making it far more difficult for the genuine players.

One good example is in Dry Top. There’s usually a bunch of AFK farmers sitting in the middle of the plain where the Inquest and Zephyrites compete for crystals. By doing this, they are usually able to get some credit for the following 3 events:

1. Collect crystals for the Zephyrites
2. Escort Haze
3. Kill the Champion Dust Twister, if it happens to wander over in their direction

They not only get loot for this (including the chance for Onyx and Charged Lodestones from Dust Mites), but also Geodes (which I imagine is what they’re really after). But again, depending on how many of them there are, they can end up scaling the mobs in this area by 3 or 4 levels and into Veterans or Elites, making it much harder for the real players to deal with them.

Ditto about the afk farmers ramping up events. Mount Maelstrom has the necros and minions at the Evisomancer’s Resort just outside of New Skrittstead. There is a defense event that starts right at the entrance and these folk are down in the Nightmare Court area just below and not moving for hours and hours. Also I used to go down there and clean out the area but now I can’t because they have reduced the number of bags I can legitimately get by actually fighting and killing any Nightmare Court there.

After reading more posts I see people are talking about tons of necros around but to be honest ive never seen this, I see a few but not as many as some are claiming. However if its as bad as they say then yea I do actually kind of have an issue with it, I can understand if one doesnt have the time like maybe doing some kind of work at the same time but if they are at their pc that isnt exactly afk.

And no I dont do afk farming nor ever have in an mmo, I dont even have a necro and my ranger isnt even level 20.
After reading more posts I see people are talking about tons of necros around but to be honest ive never seen this, I see a few but not as many as some are claiming.

Good evening all, I writte this for a question that just came up to me:

I’ve been using my necromancer to afk farm certain areas of the map. I haven’t used third-party programs or similar, I just placed the autocast in a skill that activates everytime it is available (as a simple auto attack).
My surprise was to find a temporary suspension of the account by using third-party programs.

I would add that I was looking for weeks visiting Spanish and English forums to find out if what I was about to do was against the rules or not. Never found a Game Support Lead said that using your pets while afk was forbidden . Even more, in a thread it says clearly that “it was designed to function That Way.” Link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/first#post6085601

I would like to request 2 things:
 - If it is allowed, the gw2 team should recheck suspended reasons for future times.
 - If it is forbidden, it should be cleared in the community forums so people like me makes no more mistakes and behave as the gw2 team wants.

Thank you very much for your time.

I recall somewhere it was mentioned the devs might consider [very arbitrarily] that while ranger pets are ok to protect and even kill stuff while the ranger afks, minions and otherwise “uncontrollable” pets are not ok. Since I can’t even begin to think of how to justify this segregation, I gotta agree with you that their posture is not clear at all.

Again, that was not saying AFK farming was allowed. It was saying that if a pet kills for you and you gain loot, it is allowed, not purposely positioning yourself somewhere and going away whilst you sleep to gain loot or XP for your central Tyrian Masteries.

To quote:

Michael Henninger.7451:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Tl;dr intentional mechanics that allow pet kills to give experience and loot =/= permission to afk farm.

This is absolutely correct.

If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned. This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

It’s not ok for Rangers to AFK farm either.

Why people would think AFK farming is suddenly ok is beyond me. It never has been.

It was likely because the idle timer was circumvented. They have never given permission for players to do this.

And now there’s another suspension to another player.

I suggest that everyone stops AFK farming now.

Please can we not start the big debate again in another thread. This one will probably get locked.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Please-a-clear-statement-re-AFK-farming/first

There is a large discussion going on here about it. Some for, some against. Nobody is right or wrong. What we can agree on is that it needs clearing up. Plus don’t be intimidated in the thread I linked. The witch hunters might jump on you for saying you’ve done it, but this is just a case of something being interpreted differently.

If you do it and cite Dev quotes as a precedent for doing so…. Just beware that Anet’s communication is all over the place. What one Dev says may not be what another one believes to also be true. We do need a clear statement on this. Not just for players but for consistency sake on the management side of things.

Here is how I understand it. Pets whether Rangers or Minions can kill stuff while you may be chatting….bio break…some coffee or what have you, this is as designed. Logging in…walking away and letting pet(s) kill until server log out I think is where the fine line is drawn but NOW you see them just spamming 1 on their toon with nothing around … well that is obvious an outside program or macro and against TOS. There are so many threads and now even in map chats that I wonder how they fix.

On another note I did an experiment over some time and I actually gather more look killing in 30 minutes than I did just standing there. The point is yes that was a short time and boring as all get out but if someone is logged in for many hours standing in same place then this is an issue where the system thinks you are logged on so no auto kick due to inactivity.

I have found easier ways to make gold and get mats than fool with this AFK farming.

good job
afk farming is BS and i think if all you got was a minor suspension you should count yourself lucky.

how long is the suspension?

Ayrilana.1396:

And now there’s another suspension to another player.

I suggest that everyone stops AFK farming now.

Yep. If everyone is looking for a clear statement on it, the suspensions are it.

i was auto attacking so i was not idle. that’s how thew game is designed per the GM. had they not said that i would not have done it! i had not been on that long either.

hu dahala mei.6034:

i was auto attacking so i was not idle. that’s how thew game is designed per the GM. had they not said that i would not have done it! i had not been on that long either.

Were you physically pressing the auto attack?