The eBay culture and Botting.

Remember when you first got Guild Wars? The nice people in towns, getting free stuff from party-members if you needed it? The wonder of the Krytan cities, the Maguuma jungle, the snow-covered mountains of the Shiverpeaks, the rugged beauty of the Crystal Desert, and finally the desolation and chaos that was the Fire Island Chain? Guild Wars has changed. Nobody gives something for nothing anymore. Scamming is a part of daily life.

Have you been noticing the increasing ammount of FoW armor? Full sets, on whammos, dyed full black? I would normally think nothing of it, but i've observed SEVERAL of them trading repeatedly with characters that are level2 and below...

FoW armor used to be a statement, it used to be an ACCOMPLISHMENT! Now though, any idiot with $50 and a credit card can go eBay some FoW armor, without threat of being banned by Anet. Anet has tried to kill this business by nerfing farming to death, but there are always ways for people to make mass ammounts of gold. Personally, I invested in HoD swords and Black Dyes (and that 14%^50 Crystaline helped a bunch too >_>) to get my armors. Every one of my freinds who also has Obsidian armor has told me they used a similar method.

How, I ask, does one get 1300 or more plat to pay for Obsidian armor by farming? I can never make more than 1k per run via Vermin or Trolls, and i spend more money than I make with UW farming. How do these magical Whammos do it? How do they make 1300k in a few weeks, nay, a few runs?

Most say they farm ettins. Fair enough, you could possibly get superior vigors with that. But then they go on to say that they have been getting 6+ superior vigor a run. And then when I ask for their exp bar, they say that they farm on another character. Ok... what's the other character's name? They either: A.) Don't know, B.) Make one up, C.)Put me on ignore, or D.) say they deleted him. Why would you delete your money maker? Simply put, they never had a money-maker. They exchanged real-world dollars for fake dollars.

After scouring Ebay, I have found that a person can get 8 sets of Fissure for $400 or so. Four Hundred bucks. That's it. And they can have a totally awesome account.

I farmed for weeks and weeks, and weeks and weeks and weeks. In fact, I may have farmed for 11 months or more, and then I sold the 2 HoD swords I had crafted, and the 14%^50 crystaline sword I picked up. Total, I made enough for 3 sets of FoW, and 1 set of 15k, in additon to many, many skill unlocks. In fact, all I do now is farm, come to think of it. And then I go to Grotto, where I see a bunch of people dancing around like idiots, showing off their entire closet of armor, each dyed full black, to others. How can they afford this stuff? I can barely afford to make a new character, and all I do is farm!

in short, eBay is killing Guild Wars. Infation has gone mad. Paying 100k+20 ectoplasm for a weapon? Yes, it's got a cool skin, but you can get the same stats with a Collectors item. Botting is rampant. I see Mo/W with random names running in and out of droks and Senji's beside me. i whisper, nobody responds.

Is Anet stopping the botting? They're trying, but not nearly hard enough. Stopping botting would stop the eBayers, making prices go down to a respectable level again.

Keep in mind that this is just a collection of observations from a long-time player. Flame me if you must, but you know i'm right.

Not EVERYONE that has FoW armor buys it off of eBay except you... you talk like you are one of the ONLY people that have gotten it legitimately... I'm willing to bet that most people that have fissure have gotten it legitley, but there is enough eBayers to make it seem like they didn't

Some people have more efficient ways of making money than you, deal with it.

Heya Phoenix, fancy seeing you here. For what it's worth, my Mesmer has full FoW armor with extra gloves, dyed black with Superior Vigor and all of it attained legitly. FoW armor is clearly still attainable legitly, though I question people who have several sets. Is there any way for ANet to crack down on EBayers, possibly by working with the site's staff to find sellers? Maybe they could have ANet staff pose as buyers and ban anyone who tries to sell, like how they catch car thieves.

EDIT: BTW, I dual UW farmed for it. If you spend more than you make in the UW, you seriously need practice. Feel free to PM me for tips on farming with a Mesmer.

You are correct. eBay is doing serious damage to the GW economy, not to mention that it goes against the EULA that everyone playing is bound to. The problem is in enforcement. Who's going to enforce the EULA when you have roughly two million players farming, trading, buying and selling on a daily basis?

In the end it would be up to eBay to put a ban on all game world versus real world monetary/item transactions. And do you think eBay will do that? Hell no. THEY have a stake in it, too. It's all about money...real money.

It's sad. Look at this a-hole selling a million GW gold for around $50.

So you're saying I got my money on ebay and baught my armor?

How about you tend to your own facking business and play the game.

actually i farm all the ectos for my monk's fissure armors.. It takes me 2 months of farming. i dual farm uw with friends and 50/50 ectos. i got it when monk fissure monk doesn't require shards, so not that expnsive for me.

I guess, since he thinks more and more people have fissure more than a year after the game is released, he thinks mostly everyone uses ebay.


OHHH THE IRONY.. >_>

well its ebays fault. they should stop selling fake stuff for real stuff. yes, i said it- gw money is fake, but the money people are paying for it is real. Real > fake. shouldent ebay do something about this??

No.

and FYI, I'd say only about 5% of the gold trafficing in the game goes through Ebay, its too obvious. Those are mostly just scammers that know they have nothing to loss anyway if they get caught.

Complains about items selling too high and then brags about how much he made from selling highly wanted items....

FoW armor is ugly anyways, besides my warrior's helm.

Aren't there already tons of threads on this subject? Do we need another one?

Well I personally earned 1.05 million plat, through farming [for the first ~100k] and then through buying and selling and some sweet trades.

What you think it ugly doesn't mean everyone else does. And I perfer to actually have a warrior armor that not everyone and their brother, sister, and cousin have.

omg, I couldn't read past the first paragraph. I wish I had a dollar for every thread that starts off by accusing GW of changing just because they have a series of bad encounters and look back to their first experiences of the game with rosey colored glasses.

Baseless rant threads ftl. =/

I know it's a matter of opinion. I'm just pointing out that not everyone is so infatuated with FoW armor to the point where they think it makes them better than others, as so many in the game seem to think when they just have to point out that they have FoW armor. As if we couldn't already tell by the fact that they are wearing it.

FoW is the armor that everyone and their brother and sister have these days. Cousins prefer 15k Kurzick though.

Not everyone that have FoW bought it off ebay...

Warriors that have FoW doesn't mean they farmed the money with that warrior. They may have another 55 monk or SS necro that farm UW for all the ectos and use Warrior to solo farm FoW for shards. Like me...I used 55 monk to farm UW and got a FoW for my mesmer.

But really...many people that play Guild Wars is that they don't have that much money for those monthly fee...let alone spend it on ebay to get FoW that's not much better than normal armor.

Going to have to disagree. Most people want at least one set of fissure. But you know, whatever.

There is/was also green farming which neats a nice amount if a half-way decent item drops for you. Don't forget in the past there was griffon and other farming spots around.

If the current ones you mentioned are poor then it might be time to find another one.

I've farmed over 2 mill through normal (gold) and green farming.

When are these "FoW buyers = E-bayers" threads gonna stop? Yeah, there are E-Bayers out there and, yeah they suck. But stereotyping FoW wearers as E-bayers is an insult to everyone who's worked their butts off to get it legitimately, which I'd suspect is the case of MOST people who have it.

The game's been out for 17 months, and it's not that hard to earn enough to get FoW armor and some really nice weapons in that time (and a LOT of other stuff). It may take longer than 17 months to raise 1.2 million gold when running around farming Old Ascalon, but it's easily done in a matter of months farming in hi-end areas.

(I'm not bragging here, just making the point) Just by playing the game since release of Prophecies, I've got FoW armor on 1 Character, 15K on 2 others, and 1.5K on my fourth. I have them all dyed the way I want them to look & etra armor pieces for switching out runes when I change builds. I've got full sets of very nice (not "uber leet skinned") weapons for each of them, and I'm nearly finished equipping my guild's hall with NPCs. And I didn't spend more than 6 hours in FoW and UW combined!

Bottom line is - The longer the game is out, the more people will be able to afford FoW armor. GET USED TO IT.

As an old folk sort of speak to GW. Back in the day where you could do repeat targeted farming for highly sought after drops from the same mobs. There were a lot of people that knew how to get very rich without ebay / bot use and there are still ways.

That is when I felt FOW was a measure of "wealth" not a sense of accomplishment -> Back in the day of chests without keys. How great a player is based on how they behave and how they play.

I do miss the orginal days when no one knew everything and were all learning the game and having fun but to me that went away 9 months after the game launched. I still find the game very fun .

Until an "exclusive" armor that can only be got from items that can not be bought or sold with having you to get from a series of challenging quests or mission, that is the only time when I will see a set of armor and think non-wealth.

If anyone got the November PC Gamer for the minipet; there's an article on page 16 all about Chineese WoW gold farmers. Even though they farm WoW and not GW it still gives some real insight into the farming sweatshop life style. Has pictures and interviews with the farmers.

.... I still don't like them >_<

Another E-bay thread....Zzzz

If you know how and where to farm, you can get 1 full fissure armor set for any character in 2 weeks flat Not everyone uses ebay, some ppl actually use their brains

Fissure armors need just patience and time. Nothing more.

However, I have encountered couple fissure armor players which get alone 60% death penalty in PvE missions. Rushing in and standing still taking damage until death comes. If you have farmed a lot, you should do better but who knows. Just feels weird.

I don't care about black FoW armor. I hardly look at other peoples armor.
But it's not only E-bay for sure.
1300 plat in a few weeks should be possible. I made about 100 plat in one week farming (wanted 15k armor), and that's evening and weekend play only since I have a full-time job.
So when you have kids/students/unemployed that can play a lot more they make even more money. And they learn the patterns faster, so speed up the farming.
I do understand your point, but don't blame it all on E-bay.

This is so old the last 20 iterations were old.

Mods please close...

Lol @ the OP thinking that because he cant make a easy mil its impossible. A million gold a week is not that impressive either. Many have done it and it is still doable. Farming is not the fastest way to make gold but people cannot think outside the box and stick to cookie cutter methods. Yup everyone with a few million ebays as if you cant do it noone can....

Money isnt that hard to come by in GW if you work for it...if you're spending more then you're getting in a UW run...delete the game from your computer. Theres tons and tons of ways to make money...my favorite=buying low and selling high...

I don't blame people for buying money off ebay.

Some people don't want to farm for hours, nor do they want to stand around town yelling !!!---- ! !! ! WTS GREEN ITEMS !!! _!_ _!--1 1 (I've only ever sold one thing that way. I just find it annoying. Bring on the Auction Houses.)

So some people just want to PVP, like Guild Wars is meant to be about, but it take AAAGESSSS to unlock all the skills and HEEEEEAPS of cash. Its understandable if they take a shortcut and buy some gold from ebay.

I have 2 sets of FoW, and I got in all in 3 weeks. How? I just powertraded, got a few good deals and I was done

Its not hard to make $$ in this game, so anyone who ebays is just an idiot

someone in my guild has 8 characters all with full FoW. some even have a few extra pieces with runes in them.

he has never ever bought money from anywhere. he farmed and farmed and is on about 10 mill xp. he also made a fortune buying wood and making it into paper before anet stopped that.

you should take into consideration that people might have been amsassing a fortune since the game came out. i am still living off the gold i made tengu farming over a year ago. in one day i made 220k selling THREE runes. i did this for 2 weeks solid. i probably could have bought a few sets of FoW myself but i'm not going to waste my money on that.

there are lots of ways to get money. when you farm trolls for one bring keys for the chests that lie around i atm have a 5/20 ratio of getting a perfect weapon. So you shouldn't be getting 1k or less if you do it right...also you have soime money magement problems if you can spend all the money you get in UW...buy a weapon the you really like and stick to it as with armor....

but yes ebay is a bad thing (even i thought of ebaying for some gold lol) and about the botting when i get pmed while i farm i don't respone because half the time when i do they ask me like "whats your build?" or "can you pwer lvl me for free?" and i just cuss them out sometimes (idk why i just do, maybe they will learn that way) or i just ignore them as my ignore list is already at its limit....mmm i forgot what i was going to say...oh yeah ok...im just wondering if you are selling everything you get from the trolls or are you salvaging the items...

1) salvaing them gets you mats which you can sell to local people (especially when nightfall comes around)
2) the troll tusks they drop can be used outside of camp rankor (5 for an item worth 125g at merchant)
3) test all items you get (the gold ones at least) to see if its worth iding them than having to sell to merch so you can sell it to someone unided for 1k (probably helping you gain an extra 800-600g)

4) vermin farming should get you around 1-7k a run MAYBE from what ive heard at least :/ so i feel that troll farming is better

Zee_Man pvpers dont need money they RA for their faction and move up slowly thats what i did when i first started now i rack in about 5k a day throuh r3+ groups in HA

money is life in Gw though lol everyone charges for everything and i know that becuase when ever i say free money or something like that i get 1 millions pms saying thats "right"...and when i give like 2k to one erson that believes me all of them come rushing to get money..well too bad for you

i can't find any 'cheap golds' on ebay right now, i checked to see how anet anti-farm was affecting the prices but all i could see were limitless spams of sales that took you off the ebay website.



hmmm O_o

I think everyone's missing the point being made. I don't think this is a rant because he's struggling to get what he's aiming for but because he takes the time and effort to earn his armour sets whereas other people are buying it in a split second (excluding the FoW trip).

FoW armour is the 'creme de la creme' of prestige armour in Guild Wars and should not be so readily available to anybody with pocket money and a debit card. One of the main purposes for its existence is to sink gold out of the economy but instead it has become and incentive to draw more money in.

I believe the Ebay-culture is spreading to weaponry too which has a knock-on effect to prices for everyone. Those who play the game genuinely and farm/trade for what they want are pressured more because of inflation brought on by increased gold in the economy which is why we have the '100k+xx ecto' spammers in Kaineng. Its not much anymore.

I can't be bothered going on about botters and sweatshop farmers because its been talked about enough. All I can say is, either the developers are in partnership with the ebay gold-sellers or are doing very little about it.

This is one of the many reasons I am very happy with salvaging Inscriptions. Hopefully one will be able to salvage the inscription of a collector’s weapon. That will really give the finger to over priced items in the game.

"Meh,i have always gotton money due to my stock,i always keep a good amount of mats in the bank to sell when needed,i make new chars alot and their quests get me the money..but..i think A-NET should remove the FOW armor then..that would be the best solution.

Hey,things fail in a game,just grant the player the money and mats he payed for the set and its all good,yeah peeps will flame but then it might make them realize what bots can do to a game,and it might make them take more action against them.

The money to buy Fow armour arent that difficult to fund, all you have to do is save up and not spend it on unnecessary items. When buying the materials for Fow, dont go for the first deal offered to you, shop around until you get a bargain. Also remember to clear out your storage on a regular basis. And thats how easy it actually is to get Fow, not that hard !

Honestly, and anyone who is involved in it will tell you, youll make more money trading in this game than you ever will farming.

I know traders that have 2nd accounts where they could fully outfit any char on their main account with fow armor in less than a day. I could do it as well. Its about personal preference. I lost 3 fow armored chars when my account got hijacked and all chars deleted and items stolen. i was able to repurchase everything i needed through what i had made from my storage account, and had new weapons there that were going to be sold or traded, but instead found homes on my new chars.

Find the right deal, be in the right place, and have patience, youll be amazed at just how much money youll make. example of one that happened to a guildie - req 10 14% stance crystaline... he bought one for 100k +10 ecto from a guy who needed money fast for his mes or something. had patience, told him to turn down several offers... within 20 minutes, sold it for 100k + 50 ectos.

can you think of any other way to make 200k in 20 minutes without scamming?

Those would be the chest runners... ;P



In any case, I *have* enough to get 2 sets, and have never even purchased 15k... just didn't like the look. With the possible exception of my necro(female), I may never buy fow armor... I like buying skills.

I've seen this guy make some REALLY stupid posts... this tops the cake.

Honestly, you think you are the only one capable of getting fow through the game?

Wake up and step down off that pedestal, you're nothing special.

I have 85 shards and 61 ectos right now, I farmed every single shard, some of the ectos I bought cause I ran out of space for money, but some I farmed. I could buy fow at any time, but I really dont want it because I'd rather save that money to buy every skill in the game for my warrior.

It's funny that you think everyone who CAN afford fow has it... You'd be surprised how many people simply don't want that crap...

I really don't have anything more to say... people have said enough already. You're an idiot.