Farming

It's Not About Cows But It Smells Just As Bad

by: Tony "RadarX" Jones

Farming. A single word that can bring a sneer to the face of any dedicated MMO player. The pure loathing and disgust of this practice is widely renowned and well understood. What is a farmer? I consulted Wikipedia since this is a "MMO slang" term, and it had this to say:

"A farmer is a general term for a person who acquires in-game currency in a MMORPG through collecting items and money that can be obtained by continually defeating enemies within the game. Farming is a popular method in which to obtain in-game currency within many MMORPGs. A gold farmer is a person who collecting in-game currency for the express purpose of selling it to other players for real world currency, such as the US dollar. "

What does all this mean? It means, some players find a location, or a series of locations where creatures will drop unusual and highly valuable items. They kill these creatures repeatedly for extended periods of time and sell the treasure. A player comes along to one of the websites for which these people work, and pay real money to receive a set amount of in game money. The people then transfer it to the player.

It is assumed that the majority of farmers utilize exploits or third party programs to manipulate the game mechanics. The problem in examining the specifics of farming, is that most people involved in this activity are hesitant, at best, to share their experiences and the "tricks of the trade." In an attempt to stay one step ahead of the people working for the game who are trying to catch them, they operate as stealthily as possible. Marketing and selling in game cash is much more complex than I've made it out to be, and for the purposes of this article, that's as in depth as we need to get. If you are interested in a more in depth look at this subject, check out the blog over at TerraNova.

Walking the Grey Line

The type of farming discussed above, is clearly not in the spirit of MMOs and is usually sought out and dealt with by the companies who make the games. Where does one draw the line between the for profit farmer and the average player who just wants to get rich? Well, the average player usually works within the terms of service and doesn't break the rules. This begs the question, "Is what they're doing really wrong?" There are three reasons I believe even "casual" farming is detremental to a MMO.

First and foremost, farming tears up the economy in a very real way. You can see a recent example of this in Everquest 2 with the changes made to loot in the Ruins of Varsoon and Runnyeye zones. The addition of numbers pieces of Legendary and Fabled equipment made these zones popular and ripe for farming. For example, Master spells, which would normally cost ninety plus gold, dropped in price to less than twenty gold. Uber equipment galore made its way to the brokers at vastly reduced prices. The value of crafted equipment in those tiers plummeted and even Adept 1 spells became far too plentiful.

Second, the farming of these items and their increased availability gives players an unfair advantage over the game.. Having so much more high end gear floating around means the content which would normally challenge the player, now has become a tedious and trivial levelling exercise requiring little effort and turning the game into a grind. It also trivializes accomplishments as well as the spells and equipment normal for those levels, raising the bar and changing what is considered "normal" for the level.

Finally, and most important to me personally, it ties up content that everyone should be able to enjoy. "But, Radar! There's no rules about camping!" Yes, thank you for pointing that out for the millionth time. Just because there's no express rule doesn't make it right to sit there for eight hours because you need the "Uber Hat of Dodging" that drops like 0.0001% of the time, making it so no one else can kill that particular mob. Is another three points of agility really going to make that much difference? The named creatures differ from the plain vanilla "an orc warrior" everyone has killed some 6,000 times now and provide a little change of pace that is pivitol to an enjoyable playing enviornment.

The problem has gotten so widespread in EQ2 in particular that it has become the source of numerous complaints. If I had a nickel for every "The Solution to Farming" thread I've seen over the past two weeks I'd be writing an article about how I had bought SOE.

Finding the Solution

So what is to be done to discourage this type of behaviour? Especially with no clear cut rules against it?

When I began this article, this was actually still an enormous problem in Everquest 2, and no relief in site. Surprisingly, SOE threw in some quick and effective measures to discourage the rampant farming going on in game. These fixes will only be temporary, however. New ways to get around the game mechanics will be found and the cycle will continue as casual farmers compete with the professionals.

The question that really sticks in my mind with regards to casual farmers is: Why? Is it greed? Desire to be the best? Laziness? Why take the easy way out? One of the biggest motivating factors of a MMO is to better yourself, and become more familiar with and skilled at playing your avatar. When you shortcut your gaming experience, doesn't that cheapen things? I guess that while ultimately the answers to my questions lie in the heart of each individual player, it seems rather cut and dried in my humble opinion.


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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