Can someone explain farming?

Farming strangers for free seems like doing the playerbase as a whole a disservice to me. You're potentially letting a new player skip through the game, and enough people doing free farms make it a standard, leading more players to forgo the normal game for farming as well as feeling entitled to other players providing them a service. It also leads to the question, why would you do any work yourself if you can just doorsit and get the same rewards as the guy who's doing it all?

It doesn't make sense either from the farmer point of view. Less inf/prestige, less tickets (in AE) or less drops (in normal farms). To those who would argue you can still cap tickets with multiple people, I would say yes of course, but it'll take more kills and be slower, and the whole point of farming is speed, otherwise you may as well play the game normally and enjoy more varied environments and foes.

Asking for inf puts a barrier on who gets in and who doesn't, gives added incentive for the farmer to PL other people, sets a price so that everyone knows what they're getting.

If you ask me, too many folks look at money as taboo / evil / dirty and have a kneejerk reaction to anything involving a currency, even in a virtual world where absolutely anyone can obtain that currency with some effort or time, and that currency doesn't have a shared use on important stuff like food, housing or health.

Paying for a farm by giving influence or by being chatty isn't much different at its core, in either case you're bringing some value to the farmer. The difference is that the second one is immaterial and can lead to resentment if one of the parties feel they didn't get what they deserved.

Some people will charge for PL-ing as long as people will pay for PL-ing. Some people will pay for PL-ing as long as they can't get it done for free. On freedom these people have found each other.

In previous games I would really get into trying to level fast... trying to find the optimal ways to level fast was part of the fun for me. So I understand what these people are doing and why. Even bringing along others gives you some satisfaction in that you have an audience that appreciates what you've invested your time into. Earning influence is just another added way to feel like you've accomplished something worthy of a reword.

I don't do AE farms... and when I do find myself in a farm-like situation elsewere in the game, I'll politely move on after 1 pass through a mission. I don't find that playstyle fun. But it really bothers me when some people attack farmers for playing the game the wrong way. Its a game. If they're having fun, and not ruining the gaming expirience of others, they're doing it right.

Not helping news players by pl'ing them? New players? Not many of those around. A quick mouse click and you can see if they are a 2+ year vet. So easy to check if they have been around before AE.

As far as the game doesn't start til 50, Well even though I like the 20-40 level stuff, you have to admit the NEW game doesn't start til 50 with the incarnate stuff. This is the direction the game is going so getting a toon there to start the trials for the future game play is more inviting than doing the same old arcs at the old pace.

If you don't like paying for farms or charging then simply don't do it. There is a large amount of people who fall into this group. Paying is a choice.

Just for the record all the incarnate stuff is farming. With 3 trials that you go over and over to get A-merits and E-merits it just reenforces the farming mentality. If regular TFs had the option for 50's to choose A/E-merits instead of Reward Merits maybe you would see more diverse game play.

Think only real way to stop farming is to start every one at 50 and make everything nontradeable. No need to pl for xp, no way to pay but the game isn't set up this way. So there will always be farming. Good or Bad.

Think that Atlas Park is giving Freedom bad name. Outside of Atlas everything is fine and you can run normal missions and do TF's as if it was any other server.

I have made 3 alts on Freedom since server merge and was just avoiding Atlas all the time (or closed chat when passing through). Had lot of normal mission teams there (although people tend to quit team without saying goodbye more often then on EU servers) and did couple of TF's. Haven't yet reached Cap - so can't tell what is situation like on red side.

Everyone have their own way of playing and if someone wants to PL, let him do that. If someone wants to farm - that is his choice as long as he doesn't force me to join him. I prefer leveling slowly and when my alts reach 50 they are mostly retired - only have few 50's that I am still playing and only two incarnates. For me there is no rush.

(and I haven't entered AE for a long time - it is very hard to find interesting arc because of too many farms )

Atlas Park DOES give Freedom a bad name. Between the 'LFF' broadcasts, the RMT'ers standing in WW advertising their wares, and the general n00b feeling you get from people who refuse to actually spell properly, it does make my home server look like the red-headed stepchild of the game.

Those of us who do actually play the game have gone into a type of hiding. You won't find us in searches, our channels are private, we start in Galaxy City, and move to Kings Row ASAP. The only time any of us touch Atlas Park is to do our Cape and Aura mission, or the occasional trip to WW to grab something quickly.

If you know where to look, you'll find us running CoP's every Wednesday and Saturday night. Mothership raids on the fly (could be noon, could be 4 a.m.) Take your pick of TF/SF's because we're probably running that too.

I promise, anyone who has had a bad experience on Freedom, it's only because of Atlas Park and the morons it produces. Want my advice, unless they've got a 24+month vet badge by their name, knows how to actually spell their toon's name (i.e. 'John Doe', as opposed to J0hn D0e, or 001JohnDoe100, or any combination of idiocy that makes anyone who's over the age of 5 wonder if you know the English Language at all), and are level 11-50 in Atlas Park 'LFF', ignore them entirely. Don't even give a courtesy ignore button. Just pretend like they don't exist. Your global ignore would fill up too fast.

I promise, there are content players on Freedom. I'm one of them, and I will gladly introduce you to 30 more.

Heh I keep reading about Atlas park and it makes me contemplate why even even be on blue side. I am ONLY there cause I have to get a 20 to unlock the other arch types.

Red side may be lower pop, but I found it not such a turn off by player behavior. Sure it has it's bad seeds that visit or are there, but nothing to the level of my first experience in Atlas park.

The broadcast is pretty bad. I was wondering why with so many players and chatting that my LFT didn't catch any eyes for a long period. I guess regular players who don't jump on free farms all evening don't even look at broadcast.

From a old account but long time rusty player the atmosphere I see is disappointing. I'm seeing things from a different prospective than most of you who have been here a long time. I see it from the Newbie view, minus being a newbie with no experiences.

The reality is most of you who do read this probably can't do anything about the behavior of the community or have much influence. The community of Heroes side is going to turn off many new players.

Community is segmented and on the surface pretty arrogant, rude, and childish in Atlas. That is the perception it gives off. Then the dark side of AE....creating the Farm mentality. In general it gives me the impression that most just bypass the original content to just power level their way in these AE farms.

It's really sad the way it looks ... Most of my time was pre AE...when people socialized were in general pleasant..and did actual missions and story arcs. It seems its degraded as a community to me.

Disclaimer: Generalization in relation to what I have read about Atlas in this post to concur, emphasize some points, and give a prospective from an outsider.

This does not mean there is not pleasant and fun people. You have to get past the crap to see the jewels hidden. How many new players you think will make the effort to see past this? I don't think very many... I think many will learn to pick up these bad habits by examples they see from YOU the veterans. LFF will be worse than ever.