Guild Wars 2

(sorry in advance to those of you tired of these threads)

I don’t want to get into the rights and wrongs and whatnots of AFK farming, I just want to share this information with the community. I was suspended for 24 hours last week for “unauthorized use of third party software”. I was AFK farming with my reaper in MM and was NOT using anything except the reaper’s built-in abilities (no 3rd party software at all). Through a support ticket I asked Anet about the suspension, explained that I was not using 3rd party software and what I was doing with my reaper. I asked if that was why I was suspended. Today I got their response. Here it is in full:

Hello,

We thank you for your patience. While this isn’t an outright bannable offense, it’s best to be careful while AFKing on your Reaper as sometimes a false flag occurs. While I can’t guarantee or deny if this might happen again in the future it’s always best to be mindful of the Rule of Conduct and also the Breaches & Outcomes. (o ??? o)

Regards,

GM Stinky Ghost

I thought afk farming with minions is working as intended (didnt an anet employe post that on forums?)

lol i think they get nervous and the “third Party” thing is just an excuse.
I was suspended yesterday as well.
I was just looking at people at Mount Maelstrom and didn’t even had minions out.
Neither was i AFK or farming.

The whole group disappeared at the same time so i guess i was “collateral damage”.
But no bad feelings here, the Forum is full of crying people, i understand that they have to execute some examples

People, you need to understand … if you’re playing in a ‘grey area’ of the game, you’re risking your access to the account. I can’t tell you how many times a GM (in many other games) has come by and banned someone I know or me for something that we were told DIRECTLY on the forums was OK to do and not a bannable offense. Their Modus operandi is: Ban first, investigate later. WITHOUT fail.

Malediktus.9250:

I thought afk farming with minions is working as intended (didnt an anet employe post that on forums?)

It’s working as intended if you’re not afk.

I was banned 24 hrs this morning while farming mount maelstrom spot same bogus using 3rd party program excuse.

Xulie.6201:

(sorry in advance to those of you tired of these threads)

I don’t want to get into the rights and wrongs and whatnots of AFK farming, I just want to share this information with the community. I was suspended for 24 hours last week for “unauthorized use of third party software”. I was AFK farming with my reaper in MM and was NOT using anything except the reaper’s built-in abilities (no 3rd party software at all). Through a support ticket I asked Anet about the suspension, explained that I was not using 3rd party software and what I was doing with my reaper. I asked if that was why I was suspended. Today I got their response. Here it is in full:

Hello,

We thank you for your patience. While this isn’t an outright bannable offense, it’s best to be careful while AFKing on your Reaper as sometimes a false flag occurs. While I can’t guarantee or deny if this might happen again in the future it’s always best to be mindful of the Rule of Conduct and also the Breaches & Outcomes. (o ??? o)

Regards,

GM Stinky Ghost

“While this isn’t an outright bannable offense, it’s best to be careful while AFKing on your Reaper as sometimes a false flag occurs. "

Oh my.

Sorry I can’t be more sympathetic, you guys knew the risks.

" it’s best to be careful while AFKing on your Reaper" this guy is not serious, right? right? It sounds even worse than politicians

Howsabout you don’t try to exploit the game?

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

Doggie.3184:

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

Are you actually serious?

Doggie.3184:

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

You’re basing this off one player’s side of the story. You don’t know the facts of the suspension at all, so best not to jump to conclusions. The OP could be 100% innocent, 100% guilty. Not for us to judge.

Just like it’s not up to the person who reported him to judge whether he is guilty or innocent, but if they see suspect behaviour, always best to report.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Doggie.3184:

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

You’re basing this off one player’s side of the story. You don’t know the facts of the suspension at all, so best not to jump to conclusions. The OP could be 100% innocent, 100% guilty. Not for us to judge.

Just like it’s not up to the person who reported him to judge whether he is guilty or innocent, but if they see suspect behaviour, always best to report.

I’m basing it on the GM’s word as well as Anet’s in other posts.

Doggie.3184:

penelopehannibal.8947:

Doggie.3184:

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

You’re basing this off one player’s side of the story. You don’t know the facts of the suspension at all, so best not to jump to conclusions. The OP could be 100% innocent, 100% guilty. Not for us to judge.

Just like it’s not up to the person who reported him to judge whether he is guilty or innocent, but if they see suspect behaviour, always best to report.

I’m basing it on the GM’s word as well as Anet’s in other posts.

Posts like this one:

Anything that automates game play to the point where you are able to not actually play the game as-intended (example: you can walk away from it) is considered a breach of the User Agreement.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Has-there-ever-been-an-official-response-on-what-is-considered-botting/first#post204144

When refering to the OP’s post:

I’m just trying to get this clarified. I dont want to be reporting folks for botting if that isn’t Anets official policy. Can anyone quote an official definition of what they consider botting? The ToS is very vaque to be honest.

I ask this because I got into an argument with a fellow that going AFK with the “1” button held down at a dynamic event location was botting. They of course disagreed and said they were just doing what the game mechanics allowed them to do.

So we have all seen them. They sit at events like bridges where there is a choke point, have an ability on autoattack, go AFK and just spam away while the event restarts, over and over. And I mean some of these folks are AFK for literally the whole day.

Is this botting or not? It would be nice to get an official response on this.

Appreciate it.

Doggie.3184:

penelopehannibal.8947:

Doggie.3184:

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

You’re basing this off one player’s side of the story. You don’t know the facts of the suspension at all, so best not to jump to conclusions. The OP could be 100% innocent, 100% guilty. Not for us to judge.

Just like it’s not up to the person who reported him to judge whether he is guilty or innocent, but if they see suspect behaviour, always best to report.

I’m basing it on the GM’s word as well as Anet’s in other posts.

Where did you see the GM’s word?

Does doing this really make any money?

As long as he’s not using a 3rd party meowgram he’s fine. No one can prove that he’s actually AFK anyways so it’s not possible for it to break any rules. It’ll always be false flag unless 3rd party is detected. Reporting and accidentally suspending people won’t solve the issue, they have to alter the AFK timer and/or loot system.

Doggie.3184:

As long as he’s not using a 3rd party meowgram he’s fine. No one can prove that he’s actually AFK anyways so it’s not possible for it to break any rules. It’ll always be false flag unless 3rd party is detected. Reporting and accidentally suspending people won’t solve the issue, they have to alter the AFK timer and/or loot system.

Refer to the image. See the text “extended unattended play”? There is an idle timer that kicks players the the character screen after an hour or so. If this is circumvented by any means then the player is in the wrong.

Ayrilana.1396:

Doggie.3184:

As long as he’s not using a 3rd party meowgram he’s fine. No one can prove that he’s actually AFK anyways so it’s not possible for it to break any rules. It’ll always be false flag unless 3rd party is detected. Reporting and accidentally suspending people won’t solve the issue, they have to alter the AFK timer and/or loot system.

Refer to the image. See the text “extended unattended play”? There is an idle timer that kicks players the the character screen after an hour or so. If this is circumvented by any means then the player is in the wrong.

And the idle timer doesn’t work correctly at the moment and needs fixed. Proving someone is actually AFK isn’t entirely possible. They could just be semi-idle, distracted, apathetic, extremely lazy, etc but still there in some manner.

Doggie.3184:

Ayrilana.1396:

Doggie.3184:

As long as he’s not using a 3rd party meowgram he’s fine. No one can prove that he’s actually AFK anyways so it’s not possible for it to break any rules. It’ll always be false flag unless 3rd party is detected. Reporting and accidentally suspending people won’t solve the issue, they have to alter the AFK timer and/or loot system.

Refer to the image. See the text “extended unattended play”? There is an idle timer that kicks players the the character screen after an hour or so. If this is circumvented by any means then the player is in the wrong.

And the idle timer doesn’t work correctly at the moment and needs fixed. Proving someone is actually AFK isn’t entirely possible. They could just be semi-idle, distracted, apathetic, extremely lazy, etc but still there in some manner.

They don’t need to prove it. They only need to determine it. ArenaNet’s game, ArenaNet’s decision, whether it’s based off proof or judgement.

Doggie.3184:

Ayrilana.1396:

Doggie.3184:

As long as he’s not using a 3rd party meowgram he’s fine. No one can prove that he’s actually AFK anyways so it’s not possible for it to break any rules. It’ll always be false flag unless 3rd party is detected. Reporting and accidentally suspending people won’t solve the issue, they have to alter the AFK timer and/or loot system.

Refer to the image. See the text “extended unattended play”? There is an idle timer that kicks players the the character screen after an hour or so. If this is circumvented by any means then the player is in the wrong.

And the idle timer doesn’t work correctly at the moment and needs fixed.

And yet people are taking advantage of that.

Doggie.3184:

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

Looks more like “it may be a false flag but since it is a 24 hour ban by the time the investigation is done the ban would be lifted already anyway”. I guess they could have extended the ban to have more time for the investigation …

I’m curious about this. I legit want to know why does it matter to you so much?

Xulie.6201:

I was AFK farming with my reaper.

Xulie.6201:

I was AFK farming

Xulie.6201:

AFK farming

You weren’t actually putting any effort into playing the game. The way I see it, being suspended is no different than being AFK, because you aren’t playing the game either way.

The fix to this problem is so obvious, but seems no one wants to talk about it.
No loot if a pet kills a monster.
Only loot if the player kills the monster, as measured by the DPS done to the monster by the player, compared to the dps done by the pets.
I wonder why no one will think this is a good idea?

I got a 168 hour ban and I wasn’t still for more than 30 seconds anywhere. I have a routine for cutting trees and I rarely stop. Still, by the time I got to my fourth character to hit Malchor’s and then Field of Ruin, my game was disconnected and I received a error message that flashed on and off (I was probably typing and clicked past it). Back at the login screen, I saw the full message and I also got it in email.

THIS IS A NOTICE OF ACCOUNT SUSPENSION

Display Name:**********.****
Violation: Unapproved Third Party Software

Only two things changed on my system in the last 24 hours. Windows Update and ArenaNet’s patch today. >:( I’ve been running around cutting trees like this for months, and I am very much At The Keyboard for ALL of it. Why am I being punished? Is it this patch that is causing the problem?

mauried.5608:

The fix to this problem is so obvious, but seems no one wants to talk about it.
No loot if a pet kills a monster.
Only loot if the player kills the monster, as measured by the DPS done to the monster by the player, compared to the dps done by the pets.
I wonder why no one will think this is a good idea?

So if I am playing a Ranger and attack two mobs in a group. I have my pet on one mob and I’m attacking the other, when my pet gets the kill I shouldn’t get loot even though I’m actively playing and using my professions mechanics to attack both mobs? Yeah, I can’t see that being a very popular solution.

mauried.5608:

The fix to this problem is so obvious, but seems no one wants to talk about it.
No loot if a pet kills a monster.
Only loot if the player kills the monster, as measured by the DPS done to the monster by the player, compared to the dps done by the pets.
I wonder why no one will think this is a good idea?

Because it punishes innocent players too, since getting your pet to kill an enemy whilst not AFK is allowed.

Choppenstein.6720:

I got a 168 hour ban and I wasn’t still for more than 30 seconds anywhere. I have a routine for cutting trees and I rarely stop. Still, by the time I got to my fourth character to hit Malchor’s and then Field of Ruin, my game was disconnected and I received a error message that flashed on and off (I was probably typing and clicked past it). Back at the login screen, I saw the full message and I also got it in email.

THIS IS A NOTICE OF ACCOUNT SUSPENSION

Display Name:**********.****
Violation: Unapproved Third Party Software

Only two things changed on my system in the last 24 hours. Windows Update and ArenaNet’s patch today. >:( I’ve been running around cutting trees like this for months, and I am very much At The Keyboard for ALL of it. Why am I being punished? Is it this patch that is causing the problem?

I cut down plenty of trees myself (it’s actually how I’m spotting and reporting most of the AFK farmers that I see) but I’m still in the game. I suspect your suspension is probably for an isolated reason – only by submitting a ticket directly to support can you get an answer and/or a chance for a review.

I’ve seen you so called afk reapers. (most?) of you are totally using some kind of script to recast minions. That is botting.

I have one of each profession and was trying to use each one to get those trees in Malchor’s. I don’t know what the last poster is talking about but I’m going to have my pets out while I’m anywhere if I’m on my necromancer. I don’t understand how I got a ban for being active with my characters without any assistance from any “Unapproved Third Party Software”.

What troubles me the most is that it could happen again just because I’m playing the game correctly like I was today. I just got a call from a guild mate who says that they’re all terrified of gathering after this. I hope this is all fixed tomorrow.

Choppenstein.6720:

I have one of each profession and was trying to use each one to get those trees in Malchor’s. I don’t know what the last poster is talking about but I’m going to have my pets out while I’m anywhere if I’m on my necromancer. I don’t understand how I got a ban for being active with my characters without any assistance from any “Unapproved Third Party Software”.

What troubles me the most is that it could happen again just because I’m playing the game correctly like I was today. I just got a call from a guild mate who says that they’re all terrified of gathering after this. I hope this is all fixed tomorrow.

He’s saying he believes if the minions die or otherwise go away, they have to be brought back with a spell so he’s not sure how that works with regards to afk farming.

I can’t say one way or another as I’ve never played a necro.

It’s typical Anet “Oh no, people are complaining about something on Reddit, let’s not actually fix it but appear to be doing something about it.”.

In the long run they are going to have to fix the whole mastery autoloot refreshes the AFK timer mechanic, because well they can’t ban people for AFK farming because it will get idiotic.

AFK suddenly during an event or dungeon? Report and ban, you’re getting stuff while not at the computer.

Minion, pet or party member kills a mob while your answering a call of nature? Report and ban.

They need to fix the underlying problem, because they can’t have a zero tolerance attitude to a problem caused by their own programing.

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Minion, pet or party member kills a mob while your answering a call of nature? Report and ban.

Heya!

Some of these are AFK for literally 8 hours during the night. That’s a long time to go answer nature’s call!

Even if someone does report someone who has literally just gone AFK for a poo, ArenaNet will know the difference between them and the abusers we’re currently against.

*auto loot only activates when moving.

Or

*auto loot is disabled after 5min of not moving, please take a step to reactivate.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Minion, pet or party member kills a mob while your answering a call of nature? Report and ban.

Heya!

Some of these are AFK for literally 8 hours during the night. That’s a long time to go answer nature’s call!

Even if someone does report someone who has literally just gone AFK for a poo, ArenaNet will know the difference between them and the abusers we’re currently against.

And yet you can’t have a policy of X amount of time because it will become a farce.

“You were banned because you were away X amount of time.”

“Well I have Y disease it takes me more than X amount of time to go to the toilet.”
“My dog got run over and while I was trying to find a vet, Anet banned me.”
“Got up to answer the phone, got knocked out falling down the stairs, and got banned from Guild wars 2 FML”

This entire thing is all Anet’s fault, it is up to them to fix it.

Likewise if we go “Oh despite you not actually doing anything outside of game mechanics, we’ve decided you’re wrong and we are banning you.”.

When do we go after the people who use the best meta-build in PVP or clever mechanics in it?

When do we go after the people who speed run dungeons?

I’d personally say that people who TM mogul are playing against the spirit of the game, when will they get bans?

I’m fairly sure more than few people would say Roleplayers are playing wrong, when is our ban?

Doggie.3184:

It’s a false flag so he wasn’t exploiting or doing anything wrong. The person who reported him was abusing the system.

You’re assuming that someone reported it … sounds to me like Anet has metrics in place that are being measured to flag people as possible bots to me.

AFK farming, even without using 3rd-party software, is still a violation of the ToS, and exploit of the game’s systems.

Cactus Brawler.7415:

penelopehannibal.8947:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Minion, pet or party member kills a mob while your answering a call of nature? Report and ban.

Heya!

Some of these are AFK for literally 8 hours during the night. That’s a long time to go answer nature’s call!

Even if someone does report someone who has literally just gone AFK for a poo, ArenaNet will know the difference between them and the abusers we’re currently against.

And yet you can’t have a policy of X amount of time because it will become a farce.

“You were banned because you were away X amount of time.”

“Well I have Y disease it takes me more than X amount of time to go to the toilet.”
“My dog got run over and while I was trying to find a vet, Anet banned me.”
“Got up to answer the phone, got knocked out falling down the stairs, and got banned from Guild wars 2 FML”

This entire thing is all Anet’s fault, it is up to them to fix it.

They are fixing it, by suspending violators of the ToS. NONE of the situations you mentioned actually happen, because the game has an automatic inactivity kick (Which they really should fix to kick any lack of keyboard input, instead of counting pet/autoattack inputs)

Likewise if we go “Oh despite you not actually doing anything outside of game mechanics, we’ve decided you’re wrong and we are banning you.”.

When do we go after the people who use the best meta-build in PVP or clever mechanics in it?

When do we go after the people who speed run dungeons?

I’d personally say that people who TM mogul are playing against the spirit of the game, when will they get bans?

I’m fairly sure more than few people would say Roleplayers are playing wrong, when is our ban?

None of those are in violation of the “You must be actively playing” clause of the ToS.

Sartharina.3542:

AFK farming, even without using 3rd-party software, is still a violation of the ToS, and exploit of the game’s systems.

Cactus Brawler.7415:

penelopehannibal.8947:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Minion, pet or party member kills a mob while your answering a call of nature? Report and ban.

Heya!

Some of these are AFK for literally 8 hours during the night. That’s a long time to go answer nature’s call!

Even if someone does report someone who has literally just gone AFK for a poo, ArenaNet will know the difference between them and the abusers we’re currently against.

And yet you can’t have a policy of X amount of time because it will become a farce.

“You were banned because you were away X amount of time.”

“Well I have Y disease it takes me more than X amount of time to go to the toilet.”
“My dog got run over and while I was trying to find a vet, Anet banned me.”
“Got up to answer the phone, got knocked out falling down the stairs, and got banned from Guild wars 2 FML”

This entire thing is all Anet’s fault, it is up to them to fix it.

They are fixing it, by suspending violators of the ToS. NONE of the situations you mentioned actually happen, because the game has an automatic inactivity kick (Which they really should fix to kick any lack of keyboard input, instead of counting pet/autoattack inputs)

Likewise if we go “Oh despite you not actually doing anything outside of game mechanics, we’ve decided you’re wrong and we are banning you.”.

When do we go after the people who use the best meta-build in PVP or clever mechanics in it?

When do we go after the people who speed run dungeons?

I’d personally say that people who TM mogul are playing against the spirit of the game, when will they get bans?

I’m fairly sure more than few people would say Roleplayers are playing wrong, when is our ban?

None of those are in violation of the “You must be actively playing” clause of the ToS.

By all accounts it isn’t the pets that are keeping people in game, it’s the auto-loot mastery.

You shouldn’t be banned because your pets are killing stuff while you aren’t at the keyboard or we’d have to delete the entire ranger class.

They introduced a mechanic, the mechanic broke the way they intend the game to be played, THEY Anet need to fix the mechanic.

If people are breaking the ToS by afk-farming then ANY form of AFK progression should be considered breaking the ToS for example being AFK while your party finishes a dungeon, or an event.

stale.9785:

Howsabout you don’t try to exploit the game?

Ahah. No, this isn’t any exploit. ArenaNet designed this game and all its skills and mechanics. Exploit is a bug or game glitch you’re using to further your advantage despite being a violation of the rules.

None of what’s happening here is breaking the rules and we’ve been confirmed many times that it’s not a ban-able offense.

I’m going to be blunt here. What’s going on is that ArenaNet’s system is ineffective at catching real 3rd party apps, and so they have a primitive “catch-all” type of program in place that detects when you’re not really giving a bunch of inputs and yet you’re still in combat and evading the afk timer + earning loot.

We just need to move some of the 70 people from eXpac 2 to designing more effective anti-3rd party identifiers for base game.

Now I’m not saying “Oh we should let people AFK farm.” Because I highly dislike the half the server is AFK crap from Black Desert.

What I’m saying is “Anet instead of acting like a pug in a ball pit, how about fixing the game so the only way people can remain on AFK for days on end is to bot, so you can ban them?”

But so many people seem to think the run around reporting method is the way to deal with it, it isn’t the fix needs to come from Anet, preferably without their usual knee jerk reactions.

Seera.5916:

Choppenstein.6720:

I have one of each profession and was trying to use each one to get those trees in Malchor’s. I don’t know what the last poster is talking about but I’m going to have my pets out while I’m anywhere if I’m on my necromancer. I don’t understand how I got a ban for being active with my characters without any assistance from any “Unapproved Third Party Software”.

What troubles me the most is that it could happen again just because I’m playing the game correctly like I was today. I just got a call from a guild mate who says that they’re all terrified of gathering after this. I hope this is all fixed tomorrow.

He’s saying he believes if the minions die or otherwise go away, they have to be brought back with a spell so he’s not sure how that works with regards to afk farming.

I can’t say one way or another as I’ve never played a necro.

Having never seen (that I’m aware of) or done this sort of stuff, I can only guess here, but…

The Reaper skill “Rise” is a shout that hits targets around you, then summons 1 minion plus 1 for every target hit (up to 5). The minions don’t last long, but the shout recharges shortly after they expire. Put that on auto, and I guess that could be what they’re doing to resummon and not use any outside software.

And I REALLY don’t want that skill to be nerfed. I hope they fix the AFK timer instead.

(And is the AFK timer really set to one hour? Is there any chance of getting the option to set it lower if we want? Most of the time, if I’m gone for more than 15 minutes I’d prefer it to kick me to character select.)

SorionHex.1327:

stale.9785:

Howsabout you don’t try to exploit the game?

Ahah. No, this isn’t any exploit. ArenaNet designed this game and all its skills and mechanics. Exploit is a bug or game glitch you’re using to further your advantage despite being a violation of the rules.

None of what’s happening here is breaking the rules and we’ve been confirmed many times that it’s not a ban-able offense.

I’m going to be blunt here. What’s going on is that ArenaNet’s system is ineffective at catching real 3rd party apps, and so they have a primitive “catch-all” type of program in place that detects when you’re not really giving a bunch of inputs and yet you’re still in combat and evading the afk timer + earning loot.

We just need to move some of the 70 people from eXpac 2 to designing more effective anti-3rd party identifiers for base game.

And one could say that the bug is whatever is causing the idle kick timer to get reset even though the player is AFK. Which would mean that those AFK farming for hours on end are bypassing the timer. Which would mean it is an exploit.

They’ve said numerous times that anything done to make it so that you can play for extended periods of time AFK is not ok. Just because the individual parts of how you do it in this instance are legal by themselves doesn’t mean there’s permission to AFK play for an extended period of time. Especially since the combination means the idle kick timer isn’t kicked in. One would think that if you can be AFK for longer than the bypass timer without being booted that something is wrong and that continuing to do so when you’ve realized that something is wrong with that would be knowingly exploiting.

SorionHex.1327:

stale.9785:

Howsabout you don’t try to exploit the game?

Ahah. No, this isn’t any exploit. ArenaNet designed this game and all its skills and mechanics. Exploit is a bug or game glitch you’re using to further your advantage despite being a violation of the rules.

None of what’s happening here is breaking the rules and we’ve been confirmed many times that it’s not a ban-able offense.

I’m going to be blunt here. What’s going on is that ArenaNet’s system is ineffective at catching real 3rd party apps, and so they have a primitive “catch-all” type of program in place that detects when you’re not really giving a bunch of inputs and yet you’re still in combat and evading the afk timer + earning loot.

We just need to move some of the 70 people from eXpac 2 to designing more effective anti-3rd party identifiers for base game.

Pretty sure it’s a paltry thing for them to see someone moving or using a skill on a regular, inhuman, interval so as to evade the AFK timer.

The reason they don’t have some automated system is specifically because such a system would make it difficult to program such that it catches bots with regularity but doesn’t katamari up heavy grinders along the way.

After nearly 15 years of online gaming it’s been my experience that when someone claims they got banned for behavior that got them false flagged as a bot, what they really mean is they were botting or w/e and got caught.

Substance E.4852:

SorionHex.1327:

stale.9785:

Howsabout you don’t try to exploit the game?

Ahah. No, this isn’t any exploit. ArenaNet designed this game and all its skills and mechanics. Exploit is a bug or game glitch you’re using to further your advantage despite being a violation of the rules.

None of what’s happening here is breaking the rules and we’ve been confirmed many times that it’s not a ban-able offense.

I’m going to be blunt here. What’s going on is that ArenaNet’s system is ineffective at catching real 3rd party apps, and so they have a primitive “catch-all” type of program in place that detects when you’re not really giving a bunch of inputs and yet you’re still in combat and evading the afk timer + earning loot.

We just need to move some of the 70 people from eXpac 2 to designing more effective anti-3rd party identifiers for base game.

Pretty sure it’s a paltry thing for them to see someone moving or using a skill on a regular, inhuman, interval so as to evade the AFK timer.

The reason they don’t have some automated system is specifically because such a system would make it difficult to program such that it catches bots with regularity but doesn’t katamari up heavy grinders along the way.

After nearly 15 years of online gaming it’s been my experience that when someone claims they got banned for behavior that got them false flagged as a bot, what they really mean is they were botting or w/e and got caught.

Not to be funny but you can control right click a skill and have it auto-cast. No botting needed, no macro’s just what Anet give you.

And with inhuman timing it will re-cast each and every time it comes off cool down, and some of these skills? They don’t need a target to trigger.

The problem is the AFK timer hasn’t/isn’t working right.

It’s not “These people are botting to bypass the AFK timer.” it’s “The timer DOES NOT WORK”.

Essentially Anet has a leak in their fuel tank, and rather than fix the leak they are running around putting out fires, trying to look like they are doing something.

Fix the AFK timer and suddenly, no none botting AFK farmers.

Cactus Brawler.7415:

I’m fairly sure more than few people would say Roleplayers are playing wrong, when is our ban?

Unless you’re using a macro to do one of your famous pick-pockets near the Ossan, you’re fine with that one hehehe

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Not to be funny but you can control right click a skill and have it auto-cast. No botting needed, no macro’s just what Anet give you.

Pretty sure that doesn’t get counted as an input just as “R running” into a wall won’t let you afk for 30 minutes in WvW though I could be wrong.

Sigh…you AFK guys just don’t get it. Like mentioned you are playing within a grey area. I have stated in previous posts that I won’t report someone AFK farming because of nothing outright said if right or wrong but again it is the risk you take.

I want you to note something is that someone I DID report (not in this post) did come to forums to complain about suspension. I mention no name (I tag all I report as friends more to see if ANET suspends them if there is no log on for a period of time) however this person was using two skills on every CD. He/SHe came to forums to complain yet for 30 minutes myself and others watched as this went on with NO movement and such.

So I say if you got suspended or banned you have no one but to blame but yourself and you were more than likely reported for your actiity not just random ANET saw you.

They go back to logs and say “OH Look he/she hit <insert skill here> at every CD for 5 hours, never moved, never chatted……” OR you got reported and an employee sees you are online and makes a visit to your area and says “YUP…ban hammer time”. What you don’t realize is say you did it for a week before they catch you…ANY gain..gold, items etc…could be forfeited.

SO….adhere to the warning of many in this thread or face the same. Just so tired that the player never does anything wrong and it’s never the players fault. STOP AFK farming……

Substance E.4852:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Not to be funny but you can control right click a skill and have it auto-cast. No botting needed, no macro’s just what Anet give you.

Pretty sure that doesn’t get counted as an input just as “R running” into a wall won’t let you afk for 30 minutes in WvW though I could be wrong.

You aren’t wrong it’s the max pact commander auto-loot ability that appears to be restarting/turning off the AFK timer.

Essentially the server believes that an AFK player who auto-loots due to that mastery is actually pressing the loot key, and thus restarts the timer.

The problem with punishing people because you believe they are doing it deliberately, is that you must punish everyone no matter how long they actually AFK for.

Say someone is online for eight hours, how can you prove that they set out to AFK farm, and not that they dashed off say to work and left the game thinking it would idle them back to char select then to login?

So at what point of you got loot while you weren’t at your keyboard should you be banned? An hour? Two? Three? The first time it happens? The second? The third?

Instead they should fix the game so that the auto-loot mastery isn’t keeping people online, that way the only people online past the kick off point are people botting.

Edit: The poster before me with that attitude had better hope he never auto-loots while he’s on the toilet, answering the door, the phone etc, because well he would deserve the same ban no?

Edit2:As a roleplayer I can assure you chatting does not in anyway stop the AFK timer, I can’t count the amount of times I’ve had to stop a chat box to spaz around so the yellow warning goes away.

Anet might be wrong about the 3rd party software but no one should AFK farm in the first place. I have a Necro but I would never do it. What’s the point of playing a game if you go AFK?