Something has to be done about gold farmers

[Mrdann]

ok i have noticed in the last few months there have been gold farmers spamming chat at the station, instead of the starter worlds now.

 

i mean i realize this game is free to play but seriously? something needs to be done about removing them because this is getting out of control

[Reno_Tarshil]

Or you could just ignore them and go about your business?

[Wylf]

And what, pray tell, should be done against them? The current system works fine. Report them, ignore them and they will be dealt with in a rather short amount of time. Everything else would be either terribly ineffective or disturb legitimate players.

[Mowermanx]

The only thing getting out of control is the people complaining about them.

Seriously, ignore and move on.

[trancejeremy]

And what, pray tell, should be done against them? The current system works fine. Report them, ignore them and they will be dealt with in a rather short amount of time. Everything else would be either terribly ineffective or disturb legitimate players.

 

Here's a crazy idea - have a Bioware employee check on the fleet every 30 minutes or so and zap all the spammers?

 

I could see it being a problem if there were dozens of servers, but what is what, 8-9?

 

edit:

 

And ignoring them isn't a viable option, as there are often 2-3 at the same time and there is a finite limit to your ignore list. Maybe they get removed if the account does, but maybe they don't

Edited May 15, 2014 by trancejeremy

[Frybert]

Here's a crazy idea - have a Bioware employee check on the fleet every 30 minutes or so and zap all the spammers?

 

I could see it being a problem if there were dozens of servers, but what is what, 8-9?

 

And then what? The spammers open a new f2p account and go right back to spamming.

[MaximilianPower]

And ignoring them isn't a viable option, as there are often 2-3 at the same time and there is a finite limit to your ignore list. Maybe they get removed if the account does, but maybe they don't

 

I think it's perfectly viable. Sure, they're annoying (especially the ones that "yell") but report/ignore has been working fine for me. I do this more or less every day, and my ignore list hasn't filled up.

[Wylf]

Here's a crazy idea - have a Bioware employee check on the fleet every 30 minutes or so and zap all the spammers?

 

I could see it being a problem if there were dozens of servers, but what is what, 8-9?

Yeeeeaaah. Or maybe they could use magic to make them all disappear. That would be about as reasonable as this demand.

 

And ignoring them isn't a viable option, as there are often 2-3 at the same time and there is a finite limit to your ignore list. Maybe they get removed if the account does, but maybe they don't

Ignoring them is a viable option. They get removed from your ignore list once the account is deleted.

[PetFish]

No, it's NOT out of control and it's NOT *getting* out of control either... also, the sky is NOT falling.

 

Credit farmers have been on fleet as far back as I can remember and if you've only started noticing them recently then doesn't that tell you something? It tells you that it's not nearly the "out of control" problem that you came here to rant about, and that people love to needlessly exaggerate about everything.

 

Also, if you're actually doing something (ie. playing SWTOR) you'll hardly ever see them. If you choose to sit on the fleet and do nothing, that's fine, but don't come here spazzing out over something that doesn't even matter.

 

Spam-report them and go on about your business... such as actually playing SWTOR.

Edited May 15, 2014 by PetFish

[Duskrequim]

its simple.... once an IP adress has had 2 or 3 accounts banned for spamming and sells... lock the IP down so that it can no longer make accounts. Simple.....

[Wylf]

such as actually playing SWTOR.

 

I can't. My PC actually just died this evening

its simple.... once an IP adress has had 2 or 3 accounts banned for spamming and sells... lock the IP down so that it can no longer make accounts. Simple.....

Let me tell you of the strange and foreign concept of the 'proxy'.

 

/edit: Also, I've been told that IPs rotate and aren't person specific. I quote:

04:29 - Name censored: IPs rotate, meaning Bob can have the IP 1.5.123.123 and John 1.5.456.456

 

Bob spams a game and gets IP banned. Bob unleases his IP so it becomes available again. John starts his PC the next day and grabs the IP 1.5.123.123 and is suddenly IP banned from his favouite game.

04:30 - Name censored: Great idea mate, IP banning

04:30 - Name censored: IPs are not person specific

04:30 - Name censored: People will use the IP you had yesterday

Edited May 15, 2014 by Wylf

[Andryah]

oooo... this thread is unique and said topic has never been considered in the forum before.

 

Protip 1 OP: there is no gold in this game. We use credits in this MMO. If you are going to smear jello all over the floor over this.. at least get your terminology right.

 

Protip 2 OP: most of them are NOT farmers these days. These days they are brokers, operating into the NA market of players via Canadian based businesses. They buy credits at discount from players (any players) who want to unload in game currency for real life currency, and they then sell at a markup to other players.

 

So if you want to get on target here...... you should be carping about the players that sell their credits to currency resellers. They are the source of the problem.... and for that.. it is actually smart of Bioware to not have auto-ban (or auto-squelch) features in the game. Why? so they can comb their database and follow the credits back to their sources. Like law enforcement practices against organized crime.. MMO security teams for the most part use the same net casting methods and ban entire groups of players at a time.

 

Learn what you are actually upset about, IMO, before you prosecute it in the forum.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Andryah

[HelinCarnate]

its simple.... once an IP adress has had 2 or 3 accounts banned for spamming and sells... lock the IP down so that it can no longer make accounts. Simple.....

 

Set up a proxy and have a new IP address. Continue spamming. Simple.

[Duskrequim]

Block the entire ISP that those IP addresses are coming from after several IP Ban's... At that point you stop everything.

 

Now there are some issues that may occur... including if there are legitimate players that play in that area. However considering that most of these bots and spammers etc are most likely same people or in same general part of the globe. I really do not think it will negatively impact many people.

[HelinCarnate]

Block the entire ISP that those IP addresses are coming from after several IP Ban's... At that point you stop everything.

 

Now there are some issues that may occur... including if there are legitimate players that play in that area. However considering that most of these bots and spammers etc are most likely same people or in same general part of the globe. I really do not think it will negatively impact many people.

 

And watch them hire some schmuck in the US to spam for them and then we ban all Comcast customers. Great idea. Or you can just click 2 times and you don't have to ever see anything from that person again. 2 more clicks and you help get that person removed from the game. I can understand how clicking a mouse 4 times can be taxing in a game that requires you to click on the keyboard or mouse several hundred times while playing but it is worth the effort.

Edited May 15, 2014 by HelinCarnate

[ValeGreiger]

TC, you think gold farmers are out of control here?

 

 

Please, please go play one of those asian-based f2p mmos.

[CyberneticDucks]

oooo... this thread is unique and said topic has never been considered in the forum before.

 

Protip 1 OP: there is no gold in this game. We use credits in this MMO. If you are going to smear jello all over the floor over this.. at least get your terminology right.

 

Protip 2 OP: most of them are NOT farmers these days. These days they are brokers, operating into the NA market of players via Canadian based businesses. They buy credits at discount from players (any players) who want to unload in game currency for real life currency, and they then sell at a markup to other players.

 

So if you want to get on target here...... you should be carping about the players that sell their credits to currency resellers. They are the source of the problem.... and for that.. it is actually smart of Bioware to not have auto-ban (or auto-squelch) features in the game. Why? so they can comb their database and follow the credits back to their sources. Like law enforcement practices against organized crime.. MMO security teams for the most part use the same net casting methods and ban entire groups of players at a time.

 

Learn what you are actually upset about, IMO, before you prosecute it in the forum.

 

although the "farming" part was odd, i think by "gold" she is referring to the fact that they all have the word "gold" in them: (goldah, okaygold; gamereasy is the only exception). i think this is because whoever these companies are, they probably spam more than just swtor, and "gold" is usually the currency for a lot of things.

 

ingame they are always referred to as "gold spambots", it's just part of the SWTOR jargon like "Inc" and "LFG", and has been since i started playing.

 

i don't think they should do anything too drastic like 24/7 mods, that would only result in less money for BW, and volunteers would only abuse their power like they always do. i don't mind people complaining, they are only saying what we're thinking, but other than disruptions in chat (that can be ignored and spam-filtered), the only problem is doing who knows what to the bank accounts, personal info, and swtor accounts to the people stupid enough to go to a 3rd party site, especially one that uses spamming. if bioware intended credits to be bought with the dollar, they would set that up themselves.

 

the one thing i do hate is that, after sending a spam-report, a useless notification pops up in the CENTER of the screen (far from the chat box) telling you it has been sent. i think it should only notify you if something goes wrong, and closer to the chat box. the spam-notification also incapacitates you from all actions until you click "cancel", which is absolutely horrible if you're in a WZ and decided to do block / SR so it won't bug you when you get back to the fleet.

 

i also wish ignores should be account-wide, so you aren't bugged by the same spambot on a different toon you've just switched to. it would also be nice for those "adult guilds" who love to spam gen-chat. i hate "18+" guilds because they are excluding people based on age, not maturity. of course, that is their right, this isn't an elementary school where you are forced to play with other kids (what happened to schools?!). anyway they get on my nerves and i wish i didn't have to deal with the same person on every toon.

[CyberneticDucks]

i have accepted spambots as an unofficial part of swtor. usually i will grammatically correct them or make some kind of wise-crack, or simply say "hello spambot!". sometimes if i don't see one in a while i ask "you know what i really want to see? a spambot!" lol, annoying other whiny players is fun!

 

i think the ignore-spam report feature works well, but maybe they could make it accessible.

they should have a "block/spam-report bot" button that is accessible on the first click, which automatically does both features, and is account-wide. it also does not notify you with a useless, obnoxious popup that interrupts your activity to tell your report has been sent.

 

with the goldah spambots, which YELL it twice, you have to find the "report spam" by going through the "report" section, which is found on the main player-menu found after right-clicking on a player's name. then you also have to ignore them, which i do first to avoid having to re-click on the chat after closing the popup.

 

this is a lot of work, but this idea of mine should remove this problem because it is findable on the initial "right click".

[RandomXChance]

Block the entire ISP that those IP addresses are coming from after several IP Ban's... At that point you stop everything.

 

Now there are some issues that may occur... including if there are legitimate players that play in that area. However considering that most of these bots and spammers etc are most likely same people or in same general part of the globe. I really do not think it will negatively impact many people.

 

You really should do some research before going on about a networking solution. You realize how easy it is to set up a proxy server? You start willy nilly banning blocks of IP addresses and multiple proxy servers that thousands of other innocent people are using and you have chaos and lots of lost customers.

[AdrianDmitruk]

Eh, I'd just be happy if:

 

1) They combined the ignore/report spam actions into a single action (like EVE's "Report ISK spammer" option,) and

 

2) They implement legacy ignore for those whom we report for spam, as few things are more annoying than reporting a spammer from your crafting toons, only to see the same spam from the same spammers over again when you log into your main.

Edited May 15, 2014 by AdrianDmitruk

[Malastare]

its simple.... once an IP adress has had 2 or 3 accounts banned for spamming and sells... lock the IP down so that it can no longer make accounts. Simple.....

 

Never had to deal with IP blocking have you?

 

Here's some reading for you: Proxies, NAT, DHCP.

 

Short story: An IP is not unique to a person, so its very, very unwise to punish an IP because of the actions of a person. You should only apply IP restrictions when you can uniquely identify the owner of the IP or IP block.

[Malastare]

In an attempt to be helpful:

 

The best solution I've come up with for credit spammers is to have actual humans in the game spot the spammers and then silence them such that their messages don't display, but that they don't realize that their messages aren't displaying. It would rob the sellers of their advertising method, as they couldn't tell whether their actions were actually doing anything.

 

Of course... there's still the problem of picking those people. If they're employees, you have to pay them. If they're players, then you have to find some way to pick them that will limit the likelihood that they'll abuse their power.

 

Anything short of humans enforcing the rules is bound to fail. Spammer behavior detection, chat term blocking, chat restrictions, etc just won't stop it. They'll adapt because they are controlled by humans, and humans are adaptable creatures who are excellent at finding solutions to restrictions.

[Wylf]

Again, I'm pretty sure that the current way works fine. Yes, there are spammers visible on the fleet and the starting planets, but that is something you will never be able to fix. If you report and ignore them they will be dealt with.

Gold(yes, gold)sellers will always be a problem in MMOs, even moreso in f2p MMOs. It is something that you can't get rid off. They will always be there and you will always stumble over one or two.

 

The only thing I'd personally like to see is an accountwide ignore, like WoW does it. If you report someone for spamming there the whole account is placed on an ignore list for a certain amount of time (half an hour, maybe longer, I'm not sure). That ignore list is seperate from your normal ignore list, so that won't fill up too quickly. It would also condense the "report spam, click 'ok', ignore" steps into one step and therefore make it less of a hassle to deal with the spammers. Hell, the disappearance of the "ok" button you need to press alone would make things a hell of a lot quicker.

[ZETA_SCORPII]

Buying credits in this game should be legal imo. What's the alternative? Spend $60 on a hypercrate and try to sell it while you watch the price drop to 4 mil on the gtn? Open it and end up with useless junk and the occational "decent" item? Spend your time buying cheap items and reselling them instead of playing? I've done all that and have made tens of millions of credits many times but it takes up too much time. As long as the credits weren't obtained illegally then players should be able to buy credits from other players. This will never happen of course cause the game's profits would tumble when ppl stop buying junk crates....then again it would force Bioware to start selling items actually worth $60.

[DarthMaulUK]

Games like SWG and I think it was Aion had unique ways of dealing with gold farmers. SWG had members of the playing community take action while Aion unleashed a giant erm,

 

Do Bioware actually employ GMs any more?