Breakfast topic: How can you tell a gold farmer?
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Nov 30th 2007 at 8:00AM
A couple of days ago, I did something that I never, ever do in WoW. I ran past someone fighting a mob and took a ore deposit. Why did I commit this evil deed? Because the other player was a female troll hunter with a letter-salad name and a pet named "Cat" -- in other words, someone I strongly suspected of being a gold farmer.
After she said "lol" and ran away, I got to thinking about gold farmers. (Edited to add: After the lol, I asked if she was going for the ore and she said no. Armory also provided that her only prof was skinning. I'm not quite as evil as you may believe.) This led to today's two-part breakfast topic: How do you tell a gold farmer, and what do you do about them when you find them?
I have a sort of mental checklist for suspected gold farmers:
- Hunter
- Female
- Blood elf/night elf/troll
- Cat named "Cat"/Boar named "Boar"
- Beast Mastery in the Armory
- Only profession is skinning
- Inappropriate gear/Appropriate gear that is all BOEs
- Random name
- Will never go away when you attack and will never beat you in a fight
I usually don't do anything about them unless they're farming the stuff I need, in which case I'll report them. I'll also grab mines and other nodes from beneath their feet. How do you tell a gold farmer apart, and what do you do when you find one?
Filed under: Economy, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Damien Benoit Nov 30th 2007 8:14AM
I wouldn't know if these type of people are farmers of gold or just making accounts that are used to be a farmer. I seen a few times a high lvl somewhere in the 60's possibly running around with like 5 to 8 lvl 12's following him, just running everywhere he goes.
Im sure thats something illegal going on there no?
Thijz Nov 30th 2007 8:16AM
Yea, I saw a lvl 70 mage in The Barrens today. There was a lvl 18 mage auto-following him while he was Arcane Blasting every single mob-crowd he could see. He did buff me with intellect every time i saw him, but he didn't speak (nor did the mage following him). :S
Absinthe21 Dec 1st 2007 1:29PM
If you have ever listen to anything on WOW radio, then you'll probably know about TotalBiscuit's campaign against goldfarmers. It ended unsuccessfully due to Blizzard banning him for suggesting that they weren't doing enough about goldfarmers. However, he made some good videos before he left... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxWwM247jDM
Wyntrfylth Nov 30th 2007 8:17AM
So you're using a nebulous sort of logic to qualify a social act normally considered to be morally repugnant in order to justify your own inability to procure freely-available in-game resources?
Being an alt-aholic, I have a lot of alts. Hey! One is a level-70 BE Fem Huntard with a pet named Cat. OMG!
I've responded to similar logic deficits, like yours, by creating a Demon-Soul Horde guild by the name of . Seriously. Look for me while I'm skinning on the Outland plains.
Does anyone at WowInsider proofread these things or is it the new company policy to embrace the "John Dvorak" style of trolling-journalism?
hpavc Nov 30th 2007 8:18AM
So a guy powerleveling toons is illegal? Guys really need to get to 70 and loose the envy.
Damien Benoit Nov 30th 2007 8:24AM
Well illegal might not be the true word but yes its wrong. Powerleveling the whole game.. going from 1-70 without experiencing the full game as its supposed to I would say is wrong. So if your lvl 70 before id guess 5 to 10 days of actual playing then your just a cheater and thats wrong. OR!!! Your addicted bad and need to get some extra hobbies or extra part time job. I lvoe WOW like the next guy and been playing since June and finally made it to 70 after i think 23 days of actual play.
Shadowisp Nov 30th 2007 8:23AM
DND while Fishing = Bot (instant report)
Avonturier Nov 30th 2007 9:59AM
How does being on DND prove someone is using a fishing bot? Many fisherman enjoy some peace and quiet...
Kujo Nov 30th 2007 10:47AM
Funny...I while fishing. Low and behold because; I don't want to be disturbed!
I'm on Greymane if you feel like coming over and reporting me. It'd probably serve as a bit of entertainment, in an otherwise boring grind.
Steelmane Nov 30th 2007 8:27AM
Yeah, that checklist is pretty accurate, except Dwarf is missing on the race list, lots of bots are Dwarfs. Though if you're still not sure that they're a bot, just watch them for a few moments, their movements are usually jerky and 'abnormal', not something you'd see a real player doing.
Finally, and this is something I've done a number of times, if they are killing the same mobs, kill steal from the bot. If they don't complain or even react to you killstealing their mobs, it's clearly a bot!
One fun thing I like to do to bots that are the same faction as me, is make a crapload of Heavy Leather Balls, and then follow the bot around while throwing all of the balls to them. This fills up their bag slots pretty rapidly! I even got a bot supervisor to come online once because I'd filled his hunter's bags up with balls! He started throwing them back and asking me to stop. I promptly told him he'd been reported for botting. Didn't see the bot after a couple of days!
Blorg Nov 30th 2007 8:25AM
Why grab nodes out from under them if their only profession is skinning? What are they going to do, skin the ore?
Damien Benoit Nov 30th 2007 8:33AM
1 thing for sure. I never thought of taking something in an area that another player is in as stealing. If you get to something first, its yours. Plan things out if you dont want someone to take the ore your eyeballing.
dsimon Nov 30th 2007 12:09PM
that's really messed up Damien. Explain to me how you can "plan" to mine a gold vein that has a pack of four mobs around it? Assuming you are a class that can't handle multi-mobs and you have to whittle down 2, heal, then take the other 2, you're looking at, at least, 4 or 5 minutes if the mobs are at level and don't run. Why would you admit to being so mean as to steal my effort? Ninja douche.
KDLarsen Nov 30th 2007 8:28AM
I've been spotting a suspected farmer around the Halaari plateau for the last couple of days, while I was farming Kurenai rep.
The basic stuff I usually go looking for is:
The gear: All BoE, usually have some VERY strange stuff - my personal favourite was the one with a staff with +attack power in various druid forms..
The actions: Following the EXACT same path every time & after killing a mob, it runs back to the pre-programmed path instead of running straight for the next mob. Even hardcore human grinders would have a hard time explaining the point of that..
The toon: Always a Belf/Nelf/Troll hunter with a pet that has the default name..
The playstyle: Extremely jerky due to latency (I've played with people whose latency were in the 3-4-500 ms range & they didn't have any of these issues) & if pet dies the hunter WILL die too instead of just feighning death. Most human grinders usually follow the same playstyle as the bots (Mark > pet goes in > serpent sting & autoshot until death) because it's the most mana-efficient one, so it's not entirely "safe" just to be looking out for those.
I usually report them to the GM's whenever I spot them. I don't care if they're banned fairly quickly or not, as I suspect Blizzard of pooling them all, and then banning them in one big move, to show off huge numbers of banned bots every now and then.
Sarah Dec 22nd 2007 7:26AM
Hey, i had a druid staff on my hunter! At level 57, that green outlands staff had at least twice the agility and 3 times the stamina of any other weapon I could get! IR not a bot
KitKatDruid Nov 30th 2007 8:29AM
A lot of you are missing part of the justification for believing the person to be a farmer, the letter-salad name. It's not just a BE female hunter with a pet named "Cat," it's a BE Hunter girl with a pet named "Cat" sporting her own name, ou know, a name like "Aiuigjfd."
I don't know about anyone else, but this looks like something I would automatically file as "spammer" or "farmer" too. The few of you getting all riled about this need to read the whole thing. Stereotypes can be wrong but without a modicum of truth to them they generally do not become stereotypes. And the reality is that the traits listed there, when combined together with a lack of reaction (or reactions that don't make sense), it is almost assured that you have a farmer on your hands. And if someone is going to follow that to the letter for the specific purpose of emulating a farmer, why should they expect anything different than the norm to which farmers have grown accustomed?
Alan Nov 30th 2007 8:32AM
I have run across a lvl 60 rouge making very calculated moves from lockbox to lockbox in the Wetlands. I wouldn't have cared, but I was on my rouge trying to level my lockpicking. >:(
Haikou Nov 30th 2007 11:41AM
I'm pretty sure it's spelled "ROGUE"... unless you're a level 60 facial makeup product.
Baluki Nov 30th 2007 8:32AM
Well, it is pretty easy to tell which characters are goldfarmers, especially if you notice them in the same spot every day. And if they're on 24 hours a day.
The best thing to do is to just report them to Blizz saying "I suspect that this person is a gold farmer", and they'll check up on them. Or not. I'm sure they're not going to ban someone who is a legitimate player; they have lots of ways of identifying this sort of behavior.
Nijle Nov 30th 2007 8:36AM
Gold Farmers/Bots are EVERYWHERE, i see them ALL THE TIME! Like at the bank, grocery store, even at my job ... I think my cube-neighbor is a gold farmer too!
When i was driving to work today for example, a Chinese man was driving in the right lane on the highway, doing the SPEED LIMIT. I immediately called 911 and /reported them.