• A tale of hypocrisy from a gold farmer

    by
    KuRIoS
    Published on 09-16-2010 09:59 AM
    18 Comments Comments
    This is about a botter, a AuctionHouse player, another botter and how your morale stands can change.

    This story begins 2½ weeks ago when I decided to startup my farming bots and make some gold before cataclysm launches. At this time I had a measly 15.000 gold.
    I was scanning the Auction House at the same time of two of my bots were running around gathering materials for prospecting, milling and general crafting. This way I would be able to analyze it and figure out what areas to focus on. This is actually how I made most of my gold.

    I quickly gained some gold and I had 3 times more gold – 45.000.

    It was now a question of expanding my areas for earning gold. I always found that if you try and think out of the box you will be more successful when it comes to earning gold, too many people just mine / herb and try to make a fortune out of it, when in reality (at least as I see it) it is not the most efficient way.
    I started thinking out of the box and laid my bots to rest a bit – only running them half the time of what I did before. After another week with this new plan I had 100.000 gold, but then I noticed that some of my materials didn’t sell. They were actually being undercut quite fast. This was my big area of making gold and I had invested a little 5.000 gold in this.
    In the next half week I wasn’t doing much more than checking up on my auctions and I noticed that the same character that was undercutting my auctions within 5 minutes of posting them, no matter what time of the day, was also beginning to undercut my new auctions. I started following him and it soon became clear that he was actually an auction house bot – AND he was ruining my potential gold making.

    We all know that a botter with any morale wouldn’t report a fellow botter. This is the rule that I have always followed in my years of using third party software to gain an advantage over others in WoW. However I changed my mind this week regarding not reporting another botter. It is Hippocratic to say that it is any different when it comes to auction house bots, but that is nevertheless how I feel right now.

    In my years of botting I have always found a way to counter another botter in my area, my problem now persists in there only being one auction house on my server. It is not like it is with farming where there are literally tonnes of other areas where I can farm.

    The guy has been reported, but is still in the game, 4 days after numerous reports. I am now at around 140.000 gold in the bag and materials worth 230.000 gold in my guildbanks. An okay effort in 2 weeks.

    So it comes to this, my “Morale” statement about not reporting other botters suffered a blow, since my own selfish morale said that it wasn’t the same. Morale is good, double morale is twice as good.

    What would you have done?     [/FONT]
    This article was originally published in blog: A tale of hypocrisy from a gold farmer started by KuRIoS
    Comments 18 Comments
    1. Nartan's Avatar
      Nartan - 09-16-2010
      Your sitting at 350k+, relax T_T, you had fun, you gained money, save it... Give it a week or two,
      start money making on another server? That guy will dissapear in a week or two and just gogo again ?

      ontopic nao: no dont report other botters, how wud u feel to have ur char banned that u botted to 80 when you know other potential botters have seen it and did not report it due to the botting morale?
    1. The Toxic Deer's Avatar
      The Toxic Deer - 09-16-2010
      Dont report him. hes just thinking out side of the box
    1. Mellexx's Avatar
      Mellexx - 09-16-2010
      I would've done the same thing as you, I have no problem with farming bots at all it gives us a chance to take a break from the game and focus on more important things. But honestly the auction house bot is a bit too much, I dealt with it all the time when I used to play and it got frustrating trying to make gold and ending up getting undercut to the point where I had to pull all my auctions.
    1. dontblink438's Avatar
      dontblink438 - 09-16-2010
      I would have reported him. For some reason there is just something different between auction house bots and farming bots.

      Its probably because I have never used more then a simple addon to assist me in my auction process. I probably spend more time setting up, canceling, and re-posting auctions then anything else.

      I guess the point is I would ban him because I spend a lot of time working with my auctions but this guy ruins it all day. Hmm, I think I might be starting to understand why other players hate leveling bots so much.
    1. lollert's Avatar
      lollert - 09-16-2010
      Depending on the bots imo.
      If the bot is harmless, farming mindlessly, it doesn't really affect other players very much.
      Going through the same thing as you do at my own server, where my auctions gets undercut almost instantly after I've posted my items. I enjoy banking, and playing the auctionhouse, but when those undercutting bots are active, it ruins another aspect of the game. I've done the same thing as you did, and reported the fella. Used my share of bots through the years, but never BG bots, and never AH bots. I'm not interested in ruining the game for others.
    1. DarkLinux's Avatar
      DarkLinux - 09-16-2010
      I think your crazy to even use the AH. I never used the AH, only for selling some items. But whats do I know. I have only made over 5 million gold in the past years. In the end I lost all 6 of my account. I dont bot anymore, no money in it anymore.
    1. CryptoCombat's Avatar
      CryptoCombat - 09-16-2010
      I report people that use 2000% speedhacks and farm underground with their bots. that's much more frustrating, imho.
    1. KuRIoS's Avatar
      KuRIoS - 09-17-2010
      I would like to point you towards http://www.mmowned.com/forums/blogs/...ld-farmer.html where there are much more comments
    1. Confucius's Avatar
      Confucius - 09-17-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by CrysisMK2 View Post
      I report people that use 2000% speedhacks and farm underground with their bots. that's much more frustrating, imho.
      you report people like me?
    1. Killalots's Avatar
      Killalots - 09-19-2010
      Had a response from a GM with regards to exactly the same player as KuRIoS.

      "We will monitor this players behaviour closely"

      There's the result. Hopefully he won't be around for long KuR.
    1. idusy's Avatar
      idusy - 09-20-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by ; View Post
      but when those undercutting bots are active, it ruins another aspect of the game. I've done the same thing as you did, and reported the fella. Used my share of bots through the years, but never BG bots, and never AH bots. I'm not interested in ruining the game for others.
      How is it any different? His bot simply targets a different area of the profit game than yours does. Many would agree that using bots to mass farm materials and selling them is just as bad as using one to directly out-price auctions. He "ruins" it for you, but by the same standard, you're ruining it for players that spend hours actually farming them by hand. You're no better than he is.

      My stance on bots: They're fun for a while, then they lose their novelty. When doing virtually no work to make bank, it takes away the value of that gold in my opinion. Anything you buy with that gold just feels cheaper, and then the game just feels cheaper all together. It's good for a little "Haha, I've found a way to make more gold than you," and loses it's charm after that, imo. Same as using them to level characters. You put nothing into it, what satisfaction do you actually feel when you hit 80?

      That being said, I don't report botters. You chose to play the game that way, I chose to play it my way. A botter reporting a botter is doing it simply out of selfishness, the way I see it.
    1. Ianman25's Avatar
      Ianman25 - 09-20-2010
      A botter reporting a botter is doing it simply out of selfishness, the way I see it.
      I agree very much with above statement...

      However go ahead and ban all the AH Bots cause its not a harmless bot it screws tons of people over and not only other botters, I dont bot however ah bots screw me over every day when I try and sell what I go out of my way to farm by hand. So I agree with quoted statement above, however down with AH Bots...
    1. Mangatang's Avatar
      Mangatang - 09-20-2010
      Step 1. Exploit game mechanics to further your own success and hinder the progress of other legitimate gamers.
      Step 2. Get beat at your own game, and learn how it feels to get ****ed over by someone who's playing the game illegitimately.
      Step 3. Report him for doing the exact same thing that you yourself have done shamelessly, complain on the internet forum you're an administrator for, and then try to act as if what he did was somehow worse than what you did.
      Brilliant. I know that these guys are just dying to kiss your ass some more, so I'll be on my way. but you make me sick.
    1. idusy's Avatar
      idusy - 09-20-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by The Toxic Deer View Post
      Dont report him. hes just thinking out side of the box
      This is pure gold.
    1. Dragonfly42's Avatar
      Dragonfly42 - 09-21-2010
      Best thing to do is not to report anyone. So even if you get reported by another botter don't reported them.
    1. elx92c's Avatar
      elx92c - 09-22-2010
      I would have sent him a message asking him to compromise, or be reported - obviously not releasing the information that *I* myself was a botter, but making it known that I knew he was one.
    1. GotLlednar's Avatar
      GotLlednar - 09-25-2010
      personally, thinking outside the box here, if this botter was auto undercuttin you could have tried breaking the market, meaning under cut him and down the price till its sooo cheap you can buy him out, then the market is yours, like for ever

      beyond that, AH botting is a terrible idea and id report him in a heartbeat, if i ever set up an AH bot it would set a price and not take no for an answer
      keep the price where i want it and keeep the market afloat, and after a while if i dont get a sale we'll see about some price changin
    1. idusy's Avatar
      idusy - 09-26-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by GotLlednar View Post
      personally, thinking outside the box here, if this botter was auto undercuttin you could have tried breaking the market, meaning under cut him and down the price till its sooo cheap you can buy him out, then the market is yours, like for ever
      Was waiting for someone to say this.