http://www.gameguidesonline.com/guides/articles/ggoarticleoctober05_01.asp

Your Dream Job? You’ve always loved computer games. You may or may not have been lucky enough to get to play the very best ones (and on computers powerful enough to do them justice); but now you’re being offered your dream job. You can play one of the very best MMORPG’s for all of your waking hours, on a decent computer system, and with a good Internet connection; and not only is it all provided to you at no expense, but someone will actually pay you to do it!



AHAHAHAHAHAH

Oh my, what a heart-breaking news! Farmers love computer games and they will be paid to play, but they got tricked!!
Oh look! A tear on my cheek!!


I’ve heard one person argue that farmers nonetheless contribute to inflation by taking gold out of the game and turning it over to businesses like IGE. I don’t understand that reasoning. First of all, inflation is usually identified with an increase in the money supply, not a decrease. Secondly, the money thus removed from the game soon reenters it as companies like IGE, rather than hoarding it, sell back to players as quickly as possible. Thus the net effect on the money supply would be close to zero.
Yeah dumbass, because every player is supposed to inject 400 to 800 gold every 24 hours in the economy. Way to calculate "net effect"!

I thought by 'farm the farmers', this was going to be a guide on where and how to 'farm' them for HKs ;). I'm not big on PvP, but when one of those jackasses trains mobs on me and then vanishes, or flags and runs right in front of me in hopes that I'll get flagged so they can jump me, or prevents me or my guildmates from doing our quests by vacuuming quest areas (or needed crafting resources, they *love* to mine out from under you) for no reason whatsoever other than profit, it feels like public service killing them, and we have a Horde guild on our server (The Velvet Hammer) that earns most of its honor points off 'farming' the farmers wherever they are dumb enough to try flagging as a means of scaring off legitimate players.

Seriously, this guy is delusional. Farmers do not contribute *anything* to the game and only make it more difficult for folks who just want to do the quests and *play* the game in peace, and my ignore list is full from blocking all the idiots who spam me with garbled demands for food/water in Orgrimmar and open a trade window out of nowhere.

Our server is so thick with farmers now that I can't help wondering when it's going to reach the point of diminishing returns; that is to say, there are so few people *playing* the game, as opposed to just mining it that the server community, not to mention the prices, collapses into one big cannibalistic cycle...

It infuriates me that Blizzard won't do anything to stop the exploitation of its product, and its servers by foreign interests, so to speak, in this way. They made a big deal about not letting the European *players* play with us, and yet folks from China, Indonesia and elsewhere who don't even want to do anything but siphon off of the game are allowed onto US servers en masse?

It's gotten so that I won't buy *anything* from the AH unless I know the seller personally, and I have my trade channel turned off. I've come to the conclusion that the only way to combat widescale farming is not to buy from them, but try enforcing a server-wide boycott...

Regards,
Nydia

All I know is I got a sweet deal on three Traveler's Backpacks the other morning at 5:45 or so, from some guy that couldn't speak English and was desperate to sell them.

Gads I play WoW once in a very blue blue moon. I had not idea that it was that bad in that game. :eek:

I think it depends on your server a lot.

From a sociological perspective that was somewhat interesting, I don't agree with his conclusions though. Adding a "slave class" to a society is great for short term economics but tends to exacerbate unequitable conditions instead of solving them.

If people need farmed gold to play for fun, and it's not worth their time to farm it, having professional farming slaves doesn't solve the problem of the underpinnings of the gold economy and causes mass inflation - the author doesn't seem to really understand what inflation is.

I live on the Mexican border, and one of the few things Laredo does *right* is rigidly enforce a 'no street vendors/panhandlers' ordinance. If we didn't have one, we'd be literally drowning in street urchins selling chicle', aggressive window-washers and gas pumpers, and door-to-door nicknack salesmen. All one has to do is go across to get assaulted by packs of all of the above (plus the pharmacy and dentist hawkers who literally try to herd you into their shops).

While it is interesting that WoW is starting to have a very similar problem, a system with arguably finite resources being stripmined by a professional farming class and *sold* back to the rest of the population 1) *does* cause inflation for goods whose spawns are finite, as regular players are forced to fight the farmers or go through the AH; and 2) stinks for folks who wish to quest in areas that happen to be favored by stripminers. And, as Malse said, *purchased* gold further unbalances equity in the economy (although, thank goodness, most of the really good gear in the game is bind on pickup) as the influx of gold drives up the price that market will bear on items, and leaves folks who refuse to or are unable to purchase gold further behind their gold-purchasing counterparts - regardless of whether they purchase at the AH or not. Just ask native Mexicans who live in resort towns how tourism has affected *their* purchasing power - prices in Cancun are roughly equal to what you find in US cities, while the minimum wage is still 4.55/day.

I can't help but wonder, though, as I indicated above, whether the farmer to player ratio will reach the point of diminishing returns on Alleria and some of them will go elsewhere, or whether it will keep increasing and we actual players will start to feel like border tourists in our own game, as it were... ;)

Regards,
Nydia

I don't think it's all that bad.

While you pay a higher price for items on the AH, you also sell for a higher price. Unless you only get your gold from fixed sources like selling grays or quest rewards, the inflation doesn't affect you that much.

With so many fixed cost money sinks in the game (repair, mount, respec), the inflation actually helps decrease how much those costs hit your bank.

the inflation actually helps decrease how much those costs hit your bank.

Absolutely untrue, unless you have the time and a group to 1) farm instances for items to sell or 2) fight the farmers to farm in public areas (and again, you have the time to waste doing so instead of, say, questing or raiding). If you're spending most of your time large scale raiding, for example, you aren't racking up anything but repair costs; most of the large guild guys I hang out with actually have to run smaller instances a couple of times a week to keep from going broke, and now that I'm teaching an overload, mainly only raiding on the weekend, and don't have time to farm, I steadily lose money to repair and reagents unless I go do some mindless outdoor slaughter or convince some folks to hit a small instance, and even that barely keeps me afloat...

Since I make minimal use of the AH (buying *or* selling), and most gear upgrades for me at this point are BoP, it doesn't affect me that much directly; I suppose I'm more personally irritated at the *behavior* of most farmers (in terms of what I described in my first post) than the activity itself, although I think the activity, especially from farming 'factories' in foreign countries being allowed to farm US servers and laundered through IGE, should be banned...

Regards,
Nydia

I guess it depends on your playtime. I always found myself with plenty of random greens and blues to sell, during the course of normal play.

The guy wasn't lying about exploiting their shift changes though. As I typed this reply, a farmer in Azshara started spamming the Org trade channel selling a pristine black diamond for 20g. I offered 10 a few times and he ended up coming and delivering it to me for 10. I'll put it on the AH and get 2-3x that on a 24h auction.

That's good times.

I think that part of my own financial issue stems/stemmed from being an enchanter; you can't really sell those for a profit unless you're willing to stand around and spam in town, and most of your greens and blues go on the disenchant heap to convert into your friends' enchants (and sadly, you don't get any dis bait or sellable goods on MC runs).

So Sanchek, are you back on Alleria, or did you get suckered into joining that mob on Elune? I'll keep an eye out for you if you're back with us...

Regards,
Nydia

I would sooner make Buyza an admin than go to Elune. I'm on yet another different server.

why the hate? omg

He's worried about receiving penis pasta. :(

Elune people are mean! Zehn still running the show there

I don't care what anyone says, mailing Fadorn that package full of items shaped like penises (a lamp, pasta etc) was the funniest thing I've ever done. Everyone has to let their inner Talbayne out at some point.

And Zehn's on Hyjal now, playing with FoH.

My druid on Elune is so badass though I can't quite beat my girlfriend's overpowered shaman.
What are all your names on Elune? One of my childhood friends is in Rip Co and he seems to be enjoying himself, he's an undead priest.

Roliel or Sam, lot of ex-IvM there?

So Sanchek, are you back on Alleria, or did you get suckered into joining that mob on Elune?

He hasn't fallen that far, he's only pretending to be a girl on a RP server.

I'd try that, if it would mean you'd actually stay less than ten levels behind me.