Missing in Action: Bot Farmers
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jul 10th 2006 at 8:30PM
Complaints on the forums suggest that they aren't really gone, but I've noticed an astonishing lack of them on my own server in recent weeks. All of the obvious bots - the ones who followed a specific pattern through the same area day after day - seem to be missing lately, making farming Timbermaw reputation a nearly pleasant affair, having only to compete with the human reflexes of other players.While I'm thrilled to see this lack of farmers on my own server, I have to wonder if any of it will last. At the end of last week, I pointed my web browser in the direction of a major gold-selling site to see to see what I could find out. I checked the stock on gold for US servers, and for nearly all servers saw the text "NOT IN STOCK! PRE-ORDER THIS ITEM NOW AND RECEIVE CURRENCY AS SOON AS WE RESTOCK." Another check today yielded much the same results. The servers that do have gold available for order only had it in smaller quantities (if you can consider 200 gold a small quantity). Does this imply that Blizzard's continued efforts to weed out gold-sellers starting to have a notable impact, or is this just a temporary setback on the part of the gold-farming professionals?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cheats, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James Jul 10th 2006 9:34PM
All i can say is GG BLIZZ! woohoo! I've been quited annoyed. I have noticed the prices of almost everything on my server has dropped by 20% the past 2 weeks, thats pretty cool. Even saw a regular epic that sells for 400g normally was going for 60g, and nobody had bought it. Crazy! :)
boneyard Jul 11th 2006 3:35AM
interesting development, wonder what blizzard exactly did.
Ceej Jul 11th 2006 5:22AM
They just recently suspended...what, 30,000 accounts recently didn't they?
Go Blizz, keep working it. :)
Gusher Jul 11th 2006 7:03AM
Pffff still see farmers on my server and mats for enchanting are getting realllllly expensive(saw 1 small radiant shard going for 99g). 30k accounts can be banned but there will be another 30k remade.
Uthelm Jul 11th 2006 11:33AM
Have seen alot of what I believe are gold-farmers on Dalvengyr and Ursin. Get into an area and players continued to aggro everything in the areas onto me. Continuously aggroing and then bringing them right to me. This is a new server and it is pretty pathetic.
cava Jul 11th 2006 11:48AM
30k ban vs how many accounts across how many US servers ? that is nothing really.
You know why they were short gold? I do.
Cause soon as Naxxaramus came out Rightous orbs and arcanite prices went out the roof on prices and were selling like mad.
It was odd that a guildie pointed that out about Mr Major gold sales site....but it made sense.
The normal supply of 20+ arcanite bars went Poof on patch day...orbs were sold soon as they hit auction.
I think your not looking at this picture like I am. I see MANY players are gold buyers at endgame....and they went on a bender to get into Naxxaramus.
you think its cause 30k farmers are gone out of well over 30 servers....I think its because MANY people went to buy gold right after 1.11 patch.
Kplay Jul 11th 2006 2:38PM
I've noticed them missing from Malfurion also. Two in particular in which had been reported over and over again are now gone. Yay Blizzard!
-Logi+ Jul 11th 2006 3:34PM
well all i kno is that i play on hellscream and the AH prices have gone down a bit actually. but i havent been to the timbers to check or any of the other places i remember :- who nows maybe theyve gotten there act to gether, i have noticed tho that the gold has gone up considerable amount the last 2 patchs. used to be like 25g for 1k g now its up to 80-100, not bad blizz bought time!
Ian Jul 11th 2006 3:53PM
Try hanging out in the 20-30 zones. Duskwood, STV, Arathi, etc. I've reported a couple bots recently & seen several more. Perhaps the ones that got banned are just leveling up new toons.
Lumio Jul 11th 2006 4:13PM
Perhaps its is both the high demand for gold and the absense of 30k accounts that has them short handed.
What we need to do is knock some sense and honor into the gold BUYERS. IF there is no demand there is no supply...
cava Jul 11th 2006 6:23PM
You know our gaming economy could work on a credit system which is tied to your cdkey or as far as hardware Id's ....and gaming companies may need to have an IRS type monitoring system that investigates odd transactions. Starting a watch list of certain players etc.
Hardware ban ftw...totally Fudges the owner of that pc. YOu have to change your pc out to even play again vs buying another account.
I bet if those 30k accounts had Hardware bans (your hardware numbers are uploaded all the time in games like battlefield 2) YOu can totally screw farmers up by banning by hardware ID's. Verycostly fix to get your machine back online with wow if they did that.
Ahrael Jul 12th 2006 12:50PM
Don't they do IP bans with the account bans? I don't see why that wouldn't work.
-Logi+ Jul 12th 2006 3:16PM
no u nubs they dont IP ban, sides theres many ways around ip bans :P so they just tag that credit card and ban ur account, making u spend a total of atleast 65$ US not much but gets old if u keep gettin banned