Snowballs vs. Farmers
by Damien Barrett 
Dec 21st 2005 at 9:30PM
Few WoW players like the professional gold and item
farmers in the game. The rise of the underground economy for selling gold and rare items outside the Auction House has
lead to farmers--most of whom hail from Asia and don't speak English well--repeatedly spamming the general chat channel
with WTS messages.Some players have resorted to using snowballs, which were added last week as part of WoW's holiday content, as a way to manage an annoying gold farmer/spammer. Witnesses have seen one spammer get pelted with hundreds of snowballs in Ironforge, enough to cause her to flee the city.
This is a great example of the community finding a solution to a problem instead of relying on a technical solution. Technical solutions can usually be overcome easily by the system exploiters (gold farmers), but solutions like this not so much. The truth of the problem is that it's as simple as Economics 101. As long as there are people willing to buy illicit gold instead of earning it, there will be people willing to farm the gold to sell to them...where there are buyers, there will be sellers. Until Blizzard can figure out a way (if they can figure out a way) to effectively block goldfarming and selling, I think I'll enjoy the snowballs while we have them.
Filed under: Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
lpbrochu Dec 21st 2005 9:59PM
Can you throw a snowball to anybody? Don't you need to be in their group first?
IanthePez Dec 21st 2005 11:25PM
Snowballs can be thrown at anybody at anytime. It's quite fun to hide around corners and throw them at people who can't see you. I chase people all over Org having snowball fights.
Stimps Dec 22nd 2005 5:00AM
They're also a perfect way for horde and alliance players to greet each other ;-)
Baron Samedi Dec 22nd 2005 2:39PM
I'm not sure I agree with ppl getting so upset over gold farmers. It's just an artifact of an online world. Granted, there will always be people who get upset because that's not the way the game "should" be played, but I see it as one of the strengths of the online world that it can allow for such a varied set of situations to arise within the rules of the world. I also totally endorse and love the gamers solution to dealing with in-game spammers/farmers bythrowing snowballs: it's another example of the same thing.
Overall, I think people becoming upset wiht Gold Farmers or AH Whores to be like people getting upset IRL with people born to wealthy families: some folks will always have the wherewithal to get things easy while others work hard at it. I'm happy to have earned everything I've gotten, both IRL and in Warcraft, but it's stupid to rail against others who haven't or don't want to.
Besides, the artificial economy is, to me, one of the most fascinating aspects of the game.
Deozaan Dec 26th 2005 6:05PM
I don't see how that could have made her flee from the town. The snowballs don't do anything unless you're in a party. It's only then that they knock you down.
Otherwise there would be some major griefing issues.
Timmay! Dec 27th 2005 12:49PM
#4 - It's not so much the farmers themselves, but the way the spam every major city. When I'm in Orgrimmar while a farmer's there, I can have one line of party or guild chat going, and then get seven or eight lines of "I'm selling this thing...", then another line of party chat, then ten lines of "I'm selling this other thing..."
And it's not all responses, you get about eight or nine lines sometimes just of what they're selling, each item on a different line. It's a major pain trying to get your party back together on the same page, and you have to sort through all of the farmer's crap messages.