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Friday, August 04, 2006
The rise of the bots
On the new server my level 60 guild mates keep complaining that many of the hunting grounds are camped by gold farmers using bot programs. Rumor has it that there is a new bot program out, which Blizzard hasn't detected yet.
Up to now I didn't have any problems with the gold farmers, bots or not bots. But this night I woke up just before 5 am, couldn't sleep any more, and logged into WoW. Just for fun I ran a Censusplus count to see who is online: 350 people online, of which 70 "players" are level 60 hunters, the most favorite botting class. One in five characters a bot, at least during the small hours, that is pretty significant.
This is the first server where I get random tells from people named "Wsdfg" or so, telling me to visit this or that website for cheap WoW gold. Seems prices are down to about $50 for 1000 gold. I wonder if the market is going to collapse soon, or whether Blizzard finds a faster way to detect and ban the bots.
I don't mind the regular gold farmers who play manually like everybody else. I figure it doesn't really matter whether Joe Buyer farms himself for his epic mount, or whether he pays somebody else to farm for him. The number of farmers playing normally is limited by the demand for gold, at some point farming gold for dollars doesn't pay a living wage any more, not even in a third world country. But I do mind if the gold is farmed by bots, because if you can automate gold farming, the cost to farm gold drops significantly, and there is nearly no limit to how much gold can flood the market.
Up to now I don't see many signs of inflation on the auction house prices. In fact I'm already buying stuff like major mana potions, because a stack of 5 for 3 gold is much, much cheaper than the prices on my old server. And when I sell my green items, even good ones like "of the eagle" stuff isn't selling very well, in spite of me putting them up at quite low prices. Falling gold prices, lots of bots, and little sign of people buying all that gold make me think that market forces might push the gold farmers off the server before Blizzard does.
- posted by Tobold @ 7:44 AM Permanent Link
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Surely there is a flaw in your logic - not every hunter is a bot. Hunters are one of the more popular classes for normal players too. A better test would be to find the regions that the botters go to (there is generally only one or two preferred locations for each new exploit)and look for unusual numbers of players there.
# posted by 
: 4/8/06 11:25
: 4/8/06 11:25
Not every hunter is a bot, but you'd expect the percentage of hunters of all level 60 characters to be around 10 to 20%. Even during peak time half of the level 60 players on the server are hunters, and at 5 am in the morning over 90% are.
ahhh, gank a bot!
That'd piss the farmer off! He'd have to corpse run :P
But I think the only time I've seen them on PVP servers is in instances.
That'd piss the farmer off! He'd have to corpse run :P
But I think the only time I've seen them on PVP servers is in instances.
# posted by : 4/8/06 16:18
: 4/8/06 16:18
Ganking bots ftw!
I corpse camped a bot for an hour or so a couple of weeks back (PVP server).
I'd let it rez, drink, rez pet and then pull a mob (so it'd get the durability penalty) and then I'd kill it. Again and again.
(Late on I had a brainwave and tried to kite it to the nearby ZG entrance so the elites could take care of him for me but it stopped rezzing lol)
It was just a lowbie hunter tho, evidently some guy couldn't be bothered to do the grinding himself. Bah!
I corpse camped a bot for an hour or so a couple of weeks back (PVP server).
I'd let it rez, drink, rez pet and then pull a mob (so it'd get the durability penalty) and then I'd kill it. Again and again.
(Late on I had a brainwave and tried to kite it to the nearby ZG entrance so the elites could take care of him for me but it stopped rezzing lol)
It was just a lowbie hunter tho, evidently some guy couldn't be bothered to do the grinding himself. Bah!
# posted by : 4/8/06 18:02
: 4/8/06 18:02
it is interesting to me though that every goldfarmer (3) I've ever come across on Turalyon has been a hunter.
Although it is one of the best solo-grinding classes, it's actually odd to make Farmers out of Hunters, because you lose bag space to a quiver. Then again Farmers wouldn't care about a 10-15% weapon speed bonus so if they're smart they'll leave the quiver at home. Then as you burn through ammo you create more bag slots. I do that myself when I'm on a serious gold farming run.
This article is a good read:
http://pgmx.com/thetruthaboutpowerleveling.asp
If you don't want visitors to leave your Blog, feel free to use it (or portions of it), provided you give PGMx.com credit.
Thanks
http://pgmx.com/thetruthaboutpowerleveling.asp
If you don't want visitors to leave your Blog, feel free to use it (or portions of it), provided you give PGMx.com credit.
Thanks
# posted by : 5/8/06 04:20
: 5/8/06 04:20
I've been hearing more and more ppl talking about hunters being bots. WOW Radio is on a kill gold farmers crusade and all they say is hunter, hunter, hunter and BM spec. Well I have 2 hunters both BM spec'd and am not a farmer. :-) I hope the ppl they are gathering to start harassing the farmes can tell the difference. I don't talk in chat and often ignore players farming/grinding near me but it doesn't mean I'm a bot.
I think the point about PVP is well taken. I've run across plenty of farmers but almost no bots. I've even grinded with a few to stay alive in EPL against the ever constant ganking rogues. Something about my toon names makes them think I'm chinese. I tell them I'm not, not sure they understand but we make it thru for a time.
I say it's free enterprise like anything else in the western world. If they are on the toon earning the gold, then oh well. If they are of the opposite faction in a spot I want to be in, then I attack them. I can usually run them off unless the really want to be there and call for help. I can't take 3 farmers on at once, no matter how much they might suck at PVP. Still, I dont really care. I had bigger annoyances in WOW than the farmers. Like real players wanting free enchants. And the best tailoring items are BOPs. And making the cooking profession an economically viable one. Fix those things then I might have time to care about farmers.
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I think the point about PVP is well taken. I've run across plenty of farmers but almost no bots. I've even grinded with a few to stay alive in EPL against the ever constant ganking rogues. Something about my toon names makes them think I'm chinese. I tell them I'm not, not sure they understand but we make it thru for a time.
I say it's free enterprise like anything else in the western world. If they are on the toon earning the gold, then oh well. If they are of the opposite faction in a spot I want to be in, then I attack them. I can usually run them off unless the really want to be there and call for help. I can't take 3 farmers on at once, no matter how much they might suck at PVP. Still, I dont really care. I had bigger annoyances in WOW than the farmers. Like real players wanting free enchants. And the best tailoring items are BOPs. And making the cooking profession an economically viable one. Fix those things then I might have time to care about farmers.
# posted by : 8/8/06 04:49
: 8/8/06 04:49<< Home
