They are NOT bots!

Less then a horse.

Just go to Elona's ID and watch the BOTS first, then tell us they are not bots.

A lot of them are bots, but not all of them.

The bots do the farming and the chinese slaves watch the bots, mkay ?

250$ in a month is much money in China but it still doesn't justify this kind of action :/

Haha, you are so worth the money your parents shove down your throat.

Not gold farming, that's revenue from online gaming itself (sales and subscriptions).

If selling gold was a $3.6 billion industry, I'd open up my own damn sweatshop!

Maybe the term that they themselves are bots is improper, because they are still run by people, but regardless of that fact, they ARE botting.

Using macro programs to automate long repetitive tasks are illegal in just about EVERY mmorpg.

I think the main issue that i worry about is what kind of havoc botters inflict on the economy of guild wars.

I wouldn't mind having that for a partime job, cash is cash, if your unfortunate to have a job and life is that way, you do what you have to do.

They should ban the people that buy the cash, if people see you get banned for it then they wouldnt be so ready to buy the gold.

I love these threads, all the people jumping on there high-horse to say how wrong this is.

What is the point of this thread, are we supposed to boycott all products that are made in china because of the way workers are treated?

Yea lets all do that, lets make China an even poorer country. Lets stop buying its products, lets make them close the factories that use cheap labour, lets make them sack the workers as they are no longer needed, lets make those cheap labourers earn nothing instead of a pittance.

If you didnt notice, your tv, shoes, cloths, stereo may be made in china, And probable earnt less than what these botters get. So unless you dont buy any product "made in china", your being pretty hypocritacal complaining about this.

Im not justifying EBAY items/gold, but condeming it on the grounds the workers are paid cr*p is a load of baloni.

It's a combination of scripts/bots and human players who oversee things to make sure the bots carry on working. The bots can be spotted, for example they bump along walls etc.

Eh when I use my character I tend to run into walls and trees cause I can go through em.

Here's an interesting forum discussion over on the guild hall site where Gaile comments about bots.

http://www.guild-hall.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17877

aye, if they made an A-net regulated and Monitored site that proper LEGAL people could sell and buy/trade stuff, or even just sell the in game gold Direct from A-net it would reduce a large amount if you ask me.

especialy from the folks that are just buying a tiny amount cause they need one more ecto or 5 k more for their last set of 15k booties.

i mean, c'mon......what is wrong with the company that OWNs the game selling its Own in-game gold for real world cash....

I don't think you can eliminate the need to buy gold (or other items of a more inherent value) off the net, without removing every little spark of excitement from the economic side of the game. I don't think many players would want that, and I'd imagine the developers wouldn't want to remove part of the game either, even if it's mostly metagame.

Here's my solution, and let me be the first to tell you that it's a very obvious one. They should just crack hard down on both sides, providers and consumers. And I mean HARD. Ban all involved accounts, by the thousand if that's what it takes. Monitor every IP address ever used to play a banned account and sets up a new account, and be quick out of the gate to smack them down again if they pick up their bad habits. Again and again and again until they give up. Who cares if they're Chinese, American, French or martians? Who cares about their living conditions? None of that should even come into the discussion. It's just a matter of ANet upholding their EULA.

Edit: Quoted the part I responded to to provide context.

.. 'cause it requires a shitload of time and money to track every IP address and ban every account and investigate every account before banning it and so on and so forth.

And even if you do ban those accounts, there will always be another way to bypass the system, another person to take up the reins.

See "War on Drugs" for more details.

- edit -

That's not to say I don't agree with your solution. I'd love for it to work.

I do not deny the fact that there are buisnesses out there who do indeed hire people to do such jobs. However, if you have gone to elona to take a look and watched, they come in and immediately run to the northern wall and begin walking rather slowly and continue their bad programming. I tried to follow such an example and found it difficult to make myself walk that slowly at such an angle. If they were indeed actual people, they would not be hugging walls in such a universal manner. I'd imagine if they are so desperate for the $.25 they get a hour, they wouldn't waste any time.

It's undeniable the majority of 55 monks farming minotaurs in elona are bots.

i'm 100000% against bots and ebay gold etc. i'm just trying to understand something. what's anet's motiviation to cut down on the chinese farming other than the fact it's against EULA and unethical? the farmers are using purchased accounts right? is anet actually losing money or gaining money by their presence? these are just some questions that were popping into my head when i read these types of discussions.

.. anyone else notice something funny about this thread?