farmer

n. in role-playing video games, a player who accumulates in-game wealth rather than participate in game play. Also Chinese farmer, item farmer, gold farmer, currency farmer. Subjects: English, Entertainment, Technology

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Citations: 1999 Jeffrey Lin Usenet: alt.games.everquest (June 10) “Sense of Time, Economy, and Camping”: Although the design staff has good intentions with story line behind the items and why this or that NPC are the only ones who should have them, the unfortunate reality is that most “campers” & “farmers” don’t give a damn about that. They are there only because it makes good money. Not only so, it precludes 90% of the people from getting these items, which means they have to buy it from the farmers. For people that actually give a damn about the plot as to why that particular NPC has it, the illusion is shattered over and over by the farmers who sits to wait for poor Mob to spawn over and over again, only for its items. 1999 [Mark S] Usenet: alt.games.everquest (Sept. 27) “Discussion:Fixed Spawn Points vs Random”: Ebay farmer will see their profit margins shrink as their inventory of sellable items dwindles. 2002 [Vireth] Usenet: alt.games.dark-age-of-camelot (Feb. 12) “Re: Is this cheating?”: I don’t want a game full of item/gold/XP farmers. 2005 [Doppleganger] Usenet: alt.games.warcraft (Mar. 16) “Re: Blizzard pwns gold farmers—Film at 11”: Many people have said that upon entering a farmer’s territory (or farm), they will whisper “You China?” to see if you’re either A. a Chinese player, or B. A Chinese farmer. 2005 James Lee 1UP.com (July 5) “Wage Slaves”: The macros for World of WarCraft, for example, control a high-level hunter and cleric. The hunter kills while the cleric automatically heals. Once they are fully loaded with gold and items, the “farmer” who’s monitoring their progress manually controls them out of the dungeon to go sell their goods. 2005 Kaye Vivian Dove Lane (Nov. 29) “The “Chinese Farmer” Phenomenon”: In game parlance, the term “farmer” is used to mean anyone who goes out and repeatedly kills the same creatures in the same spot in the game so they can potentially loot a valuable, random item that drops and sell it for a lot of in-game money.

Posted 29 Dec 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend