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Confessions of an Ultima Online Gold Farmer
petbath writes "A long time UO player who is moving on makes some interesting confessions on how he managed to earn over 100k in real world money by setting up a bot farm." Commentary available on Terra Nova. From the post: " Between the pressures of my competition, the required maintenance work and the impending doom of on-line game markets, I decided to retire my bot farm in favor of other possibilities that required less work to maintain. Last May I sold off the last of my game assets and today I have posted my bot army for sale on Ebay. I don't want to part with these beasts of burden, but I do have to close this final chapter in the gold farming adventure."
I sold my account 4 years ago for $700!!! I laughed at the sucker who bought it.
..and all part of the GAME, in my opinion.
you'll never be able to stop people from doing this kind of things.. so embracing "anything goes" attitude could be a good thing. like, a REAL matrix online where if you could you would be allowed to code your own vampires and walk through the system as something like the keymaker(so that you wouldn't lose your accounts or be prosecuted if you were caught but the moderators, 'agents', would try to stop you in the system - unless of course you became so powerful within it that they'd stay away from you if you maintained a bit of stealthiness)..
what's "magic" anyways if not bending the world, *breaking* the rules. he's bots were probably more like real zombies than anything else in the game. invaded by bodysnatchers! what a marvelous spin it could be on the game, conspiracies and blackmarket gold.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
There are no confessions, other than "this takes too much time, I have too much money... buy my old hardware"....
The UO gold rush is dead. You can not possibly make this kind of money any longer. The article even states that the way he did it doesn't work anymore.
So what does this look like to me? It looks like the scammer is trying to get his last "piece of the pie"
to use a tired meme...
1. scam UO players into buying gold for real money
2. quit that and put up computers used on ebay
3. post slashdot article to draw attention to auctions
4. ????
5. profit!
Just looks like another scamming scamming to me.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
This should be compared to the hordes of Chinese sweatshop gold farmers which, in the opinion of many, ruined Lineage 2, and which are setting up shop in WoW.
According to WoW players who managed to find a farmer who spoke English (most don't, but will happily swear at you in Chinese if you hamper their gold farming), they run a pretty tight racket. Several people share one account (presumably to save on monthly fees, though they may be using stolen CC's anyway), leading to one character - generally the most apt race/class for farming whatever the current cash cow is, but usually a human paladin - being played 24/7. In some cases, the character is named the same across multiple servers (such as "Loly").
The farmers hand over all the cash and items they obtain to a boss, who auctions the items in the in-game auction house and stockpiles the cash. Using one of the various gold-for-money websites, they coordinate with their customers and hand out the purchased gold, often via in-game mail. The farmers must meet a gold quota each day in order to get paid their cut, which is why they often resort to unfriendly play practices.
Their weakness, however, is that they XP grinded to get to level 60, which means they haven't done any instance quests, so their gear is substandard. On PvP servers, many legit players have found that the farmers' PvP-fu is weak, in part due to the trans-Pacific lag, in part due to their gear, and in further part due to not having any experience in PvP combat.
In any case, there are numerous complaints about the gold farmers on the official WoW forums, though there has been no word from Blizzard on any account actions taken against the gold farmers for ToU violations. Many are concerned that if Blizzard takes too long to act, the in-game economy will be irreparably damaged.
Gold (or gil in case of ffxi) farming is such a huge problem for MMORPGs. I haven't played deeping in to other MMORPGs other than FFXI, but I know in that game it is a serious problem. If you are not familiar with the issues, the gil farmers infest nearly every part of the game. Certain monsters drop the really really good equipment. So people will camp them 24/7 and try to get the drop and then sell the items for insane prices that people somehow manage to pay for. Some will use bots that fish for them to make a profit that way. Some will just kill whipe out creatures in an are continuously to collect what they drop and sell.
The real problem is how do you deal with the people who do this for money. Companies do a certain amount of policing, but it is difficult to determine what a legitimate transaction is and what a gil seller does. Any solution you come up with had its drawbacks as well. Like, say the uber gear isn't dropped by the tough monster, just some random monster in the area. Then these people would go and sweep the whole area ruining it for people that are trying to level. For this issue anyways, the only thing that anyone has come up with that makes sense is to admit that you can't stop people from going after the uber-items. The company just needs to make equipment that is slightly worse that sells for a reasonable price so that people who don't have x uber item isn't consider under equipped. It's sad really...it would be nice if people who sold gil didn't exist...MMORPG were meant to be a game and they are harming the fun for people who just want to play. But if there is profit to be made, there is always someone who puts that over their fellow man.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Gold is absolutely not a big part of the endgame (as we know it right now, at least). Besides, this is not a server hack or artificially created wealth, somebody is still getting the actual items off of actual creeps.
Personally I do think that those who violate the ToS shouldn't be surprised if or when their account is purged, but hey. I don't plan on breaking the ToS any time soon.
MORTAR COMBAT!
I hate to say this, but the online world needs lawyers. I read where a fellow poster commented that this is supposed to be human-human interraction with the accompanying mores; but that the game does little to discourage anti-social behavior.
So, what you do is set up a jury system. You suspect somebody of botting, then charges are raised, assets are frozen, and a short trial is held--online. Found innocent, then perhaps retribution v. the original claimant. Guilty, then assets are stripped (perhaps redistributed to those in the court).
The present system bans users. That should not be a big deal to a dedicated exploiter. They will just set up a new account. Put a sting on them via a court system, then there'll be a penalty paid.
The problem is, you're reproducing the real world; with all the evil (lawyers) that accompany.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
This doesn't sound so much like he was playing a game, but rather doing monotonous, brain-numbing programming in order to have the computer play the game for him. What's the point?
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
He's offering them virtual gold for real gold and they're taking him up on the offer. There's no possible way to call this scamming as long as he's delivering the product.
You may not like it. You may consider it exploiting or breaking the ToS. Go for it, I'm a bit peeved at people in AC that'd been doing that (a lot of duping going on there too the devs and MS didn't have the balls to ban), but mainly because when I eventually quit, I couldn't ebay my house/account.
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
Perhaps I'm a slashdot rarity, not having any interest in playing MMORPG's (prefer FPS myself), so could someone please explain
1. How do you "farm for gold"?
2. How is it possible to transfer your gold to someone else (and if the game companies don't want you to, why do that make it possible)
3. How does a gold farming bot work (not specifically, but in general, what is being automated)
Inquiring mind(s) want to know.
You just described SecondLife. Never heard of it? Most people haven't.
What do you get when you cross a mountain-climber with a mosquito? Nothing! You can't cross a scaler with a vector.
As for harming a game's economy, the basic design of the economy itself will either allow this or not. You have a constant influx of "workers" through new character generation. You'll have inflation whether or not someone is farming objects/money through artificial means. Capping the population to avoid this issue has unforeseen drawbacks (haven't seen a cap yet in an MMO, but it's not hard to reason through).
Of course, you can track gold generation (best used for finding money duplication issues and loopholes) to reduce large sums being introduced to a game. With gold generation tracking, it's best to track gold exiting the economy. With this information, implement systems that are recurring money sinks that do not heavily impair a casual player's fun.
Having played both WoW and FFXI I am indeed gripping that these zoom-tards will destroy the WoW economy the way they did FFXI. It is because of them that casual players (you know, the ones who saw the word "game" on the box or on the shelf) feel like they HAVE to farm to save up a Donald Trump like sum just to afford equipment that makes you "adequate" in a party of peers. That's not a game ... It's a work out for you mouse finger and as we all know, nerds fear muscles that aren't encased in skulls (myself included). Is there a solution? I just don't know, other than recommend that casual players stick with the underpopulated servers. The bot-masters won't see enough of a business opportunity to frequent servers with a limited number of people on it. Here's hoping the wizened council of elders that runs Blizzard can figure out this quagmire of shite.
"It's difficult to meditate on amphetamines." - Joe Walsh
I've got to admire a person like this, at least for his cleverness and motivation. This isn't some kid using a duping bug, this is a clever programmer who looked at the client and said, "What can I do with this?"
When farmers move in, an MMO has basically ceased to be a game: it has become a job you may enjoy. And as long as things require effort to get, there will be a place for farmers (or their nearest equivalent).
As long as MMO makers continue to make games where players do work and are rewarded with more complicated work, we will continue to bemoan people who can make money shortening other's work. Farmers are a DIRECT result of the developers choosing to implement a macroable grind, rather then entertaining game play.
At best, all we can do is honor those with real creativity, whether they actually make the games or not.
One of the things you have to realize is that MMORPGs are designed specifically to generate monthly subscriptions.
They do this by limiting how fast players progress, by forcing you to do the same actions over and over again, and by introducing item scarcity. The game is only made fun enough so the greatest number of people maintain their monthly subscriptions.
A great game would be a vast world, where you really only have to do something once or twice, and you are never waiting in line to camp a monster spawn. But that game would be over with in a month or two at the most, and that wouldn't be too profitable.
So if the farmers, or their "boss" is selling in-game gold for $$, then it's understadable that it's hard to determine what is a legit trade, and what is one of these "black-market" gold for $$ deals.
/. crowd to show me the error of my ways.
However, what if the company went at it from the other end. Have an employee make a quick account somewhere, then use a little company money to buy some of this in-game gold on one of the trading sites. Then wait for the contact in-game by the gold courier, grab the name of that account, and ban it.
That way, you'ld know it was one of these farming accounts, and you would have "stung" them, so to speak, so you have the evidence you need. Since it's not subject (yet, at least) to actual laws, they can ban it based on their ToU agreement, and that's that.
Would they get them all? Of course not, however, these several people are all trying to spend all that time building up a pack-mule farmer character, and all are trying to meet a quota. So if that account is banned, they lose all that effort. They can make a new account, of course, but they will have to pay a new registration fee, (providing that you can deal with the stolen activation code issues) possibly have to use a different IP addy, and the company makes a bit of additional cash off them each time.
This would lead to at least a reduction in the overall number of these things, as the sellers can never be sure they aren't selling to a "mole". If enough headway is made this way, it would also make this kind of thing much less profitable for them.
Now, I'm sure there are problems with that scheme that I'm not seeing, so I'll just trust to the usual
-Mendo
I wonder if he did a low level format on those hard drives.....
Totally.
Not only that, but this guy had a whole computer for each UO instance? What a moron.
He could have had one decent computer with a lot of memory running linux and 10 instances of VMware.
Also, the top has some sort of disclaimer like, 'don't try any of these exploits at home', and then not a single exploit is mentioned.
I was kicked in late 1999 from UO for duping diamonds. I had so much money and so much wealth, I was completely bored, so I really didn't mind the kicking.
The way I did it was to take advantage of their poor system of landscape boundries (one server is responsible for a section of landscape).
The world would do a full backup every 10 minutes. When you walk from one section of landscape to another, one server removes your character and then hands to to the next server. If you crash your client during this exchange, neither server "has" your character any longer, and you are pulled from your status from the last full server backup.
So, stand holding 50k diamonds, wait for 10 minute full backup.
Give the diamonds to your buddy and cross the server boundry crashing your client during the exchange process. When you log back in, your character appears to be missing! So the server loads your char up from the last place you were saved at, which was you standing there holding 50k diamonds. Ah, but your friend also has 50k diamonds.
Ah, good times.
...that the bad lag and downtime is keeping the bot farmers off my server!
Since gold is one of the most generic items in game, It would be hard to track. However, If you could follow gold transfers from account to account, and set up a sting operation for gold, you could deduce which accounts were gold farmers. I would imagine that most of the gold farmers use a clean account to send gold in game, and not their stock. So you could see the gold trail tracing back to the storage accounts.
The problem I see is to set up a sting op, you are more or less giving them money. However, if the Account ID/ serial is banned, they would have to buy it again, giving the game more money.
It will be nice when the gold changes end. It doesn't fuel anything good for the game, and eventually forces prices up.