Is there anything that can be done about gold farmers

Gold farmers have become very brazen lately. I see them all the time in either the Talos or RWZ AE. They're easy to spot:

* Terrible costumes. Seems like they just pick a set costume set and randomize the color.
* SOs only
* Fire controllers. The group I see are two Fire/Kins and a Fire/FF. One of them have group fly. I'm assuming it's one gold farmer triple boxing.
* They won't respond to you if you send them a tell or try to talk to them in local.

I realize as a player it's not my duty to do anything about these guys, nor do I have absolute proof that they are gold farming (farming influence and selling it back as RMT), but it grates on me nonetheless.

Still, as a player, I don't want to see these guys, especially in something as obvious as an AE center.

Unless they actually try and sell you inf., or harass you in any way, they're still paying customers of the game. If and when they do, though, /spam and /petition.

What Dumple says is true, and yes the e-mail from friends option works very nicely.

The other thing is to actually check their global names. if its something like asdfk or random letters, odds are it is an RMT person, but again there is no proof until they directly contact you.

Now if there was some way to shut down their websites.... Legally of course.

This brings back memories of the Aion forums. *shudders*

Why would you farm Gold over other salvage? I haven't check the latest prices at WWs, but I can't imagine its THAT valuable.

*flips blond hair idly*

OH! OOOOH! I got a solution!

...Play your own damn game.

RMT will always be. There's nothing YOU can do to stop it unless they solicit you. AE made it easier for them to make their money now that they can run in AE and not worry about being ganked in RV.

Bottom line: It sucks, we know, there's little that can be done. Best you can do is spam report those e-mails and continue to play YOUR game.

Agreed with Spartan here. Compared to certain *ahem* other NCsoft games, gold farming/selling in this game is nothing. Compared to most other online games, it's absolutely tiny. Inf just isn't worth that much in the game, and it's way to easy to get on your own in any amounts you might need it in. Plus, if they're using AE to farm, you barely even have to see them. In any case, it's usually not the farmers that are the problem, it's the annoying sellers, which you can report, and should.

Heaven forbid someone dare criticize the game in any way shape or form.

Nerds are an intolerant lot, and so the chorus of "boo", "stop whining" and "play your own damn game" pile on like pull tabs on the floor of a country bar. Sad really, because if we let it, a thread like this can open up discussion about MMO culture in general, and can yield interesting ideas and thoughts.

To the original post I say this: You are right, gold farmers suck. And to answer your question, no, nothing can be done about them. More people buy from farming than they care to admit. It's like prostitution, everyone condemns it - and yet the business seems to be thriving.

My advice is, just make it legal. In other words, let those who create the games, simply offer their own "legal" means to acquire stuff in-game. Micro-payments for DLC is already here anyway, we all claimed "we'd never pay for any of that" 4 years ago (I remember the thread), and then suddenly all of us leaped on the Magic pack, like the ravenous nerds we are.

If some putz wants to pay 50 dollars for a whole a lot of digital crap, let him. You want to earn it the hard way...fine, do so, your life, your squandered weekend. But what I'd like to see is the 50 dollars go back to the developing companies, because it can help fund and sustain the very game we all enjoy. Nerds won't tolerate that though (or at least vocally claim they won't) and then they sneak off and buy it through illicit means - or when actual content is made available for sale that lap it up like dogs.

These games are expensive to develop, expensive to maintain and a marvel of technology. If buying your avatar some new hats and some +5 endurance bracers, helps fund additional expansions, better servers and the like, then I'm all for it.

What's interesting is P-A covered this very topic, regarding the DLC in Dragon Age...and really buying influence is just a form of buying DLC. So it's a hot topic, one I think deserves a deeper discussion than "just play your own damn game".

What he said

I disagree that a DLC is like RMT. DLCs add new content to the game, while RMT allows you to spend money instead of time for in game resources. It's like saying paying rent and buying food are the same thing just because you use money for both. Similar in some respects, not the same though.

I also disagree that having the game producers get into selling RMT themselves would fix things. This will work, if it exists from the beginning of the game. A lot of free to play games offer cash store options, and they still get people trying to run around the creators and make their own money.

Trying to add official RMT to a game that has been existing is the proverbial closing the door after the cow's got out. The secondary market for RMT is already there, and profitable for the sellers, so they aren't going to give up their money just because there is an official venue. Instead they'll just try to undercut the official people, which will probably lead to more people's accounts being stolen and stripped. It's a lot easier to lie and cheat and steal for that inf or gold or what have you than it is to pay people or set up bots to farm it up.

Which is the real problem with RMT. It's not that Bob Gamer is tricking out his character by spending excess cash instead of farming for 40 hours, but that the people behind unofficial RMT are for the most part sleazes who disrupt people's play time with their advertisements, cause hostility towards some groups and in general do whatever it takes to make sure they make a profit at someone else's expense. After all, if they're already breaking the rules by running their own RMT racket, why stop there? Cheat and steal all you like, it's not like your rule breaking clients are likely to report you.