What's with the AFK playtime-farming account?

[Phantomkick]

So, i have this friend I met online over 10 years ago, and his only Steam friend is me. Suddenly, after being offline for a long time, he came back online and started running 30+ f2p games simultaneously, accumulating over 3,000 hours of playtime within just a few days.

I tried reaching out to him but he hasn’t responded, so I suspect his account might have been hacked.

Assuming his account has been compromised why would someone hack it just to farm in-game hours?

Here’s a reference pic:
https://imgur.com/a/CTRsxne - (Not a single achievement unlocked, this implies that he’s not actually playing the games but is likely ingame hours farming)

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Idling hours doesn't necessarily mean the account is hijacked.

[Abigail From Sneaky Squid Dept.]

Sounds like they are now running a bot farm or gold farm.

[gwwak]

Look at my AFK Nekos.

[D. Flame]

Hacked account doing low level gold farming or chat spamming.

[ReBoot]

Phantomkick lähetti viestin:

Assuming

That's your problem right there. Stop assuming! There's a bazillion (or so) different reasons for why this person might be doing what they're doing and you've no idea whether the ONE reason you want it to be actually is. Don't assume!

[Chika Ogiue]

Phantomkick lähetti viestin:

I tried reaching out to him but he hasn’t responded, so I suspect his account might have been hacked.

Maybe he just doesn't want to answer you, or doesn't actually bother checking Steam chat like many people.

Are they harming you by accumulating hours in F2P games?
Unless they start offering you 50 USD gift cards or prompting any of the other scams going around, leave them be.

[Phantomkick]

Jeez, majority's troll in the replies. This it was a simple question why do people idle farming?

Abigail From Sexy Squid Dept. lähetti viestin:

Sounds like they are now running a bot farm or gold farm.

hmm what kind bot farm is that?

ReBoot lähetti viestin:

Phantomkick lähetti viestin:

Assuming

That's your problem right there. Stop assuming! There's a bazillion (or so) different reasons for why this person might be doing what they're doing and you've no idea whether the ONE reason you want it to be actually is. Don't assume!

When i said "assuming" because of it's uncertainty, im questioning the possiblities.

[Heraclius Caesar]

Impossible to know why they're doing what they're doing. Definitely seems strange. I would probably just remove them from my friends list since their behavior is off and they're not responding to messages.

You could always report the account for suspicious activity and Steam will check it out to determine if there's really something fishy going on.

[Wolfpig]

Phantomkick lähetti viestin:

Abigail From Sexy Squid Dept. lähetti viestin:

Sounds like they are now running a bot farm or gold farm.

hmm what kind bot farm is that?


.

Have you ever looked on some sites which sell ingame currency (and others) for games and asked yourself how they obtain that stuff?

[crunchyfrog]

There's a few reasons people do this.

With scammers and bad actors it's some weird thing where they think this creates some sort of legitimacy.

It's foolish of course, as anyone checking that far will know to check other things which will give it away.

In short, it's bollocks. Buit some people believe in it.

[ペンギン]

Phantomkick lähetti viestin:

So, i have this friend I met online over 10 years ago, and his only Steam friend is me. Suddenly, after being offline for a long time, he came back online and started running 30+ f2p games simultaneously, accumulating over 3,000 hours of playtime within just a few days.

I tried reaching out to him but he hasn’t responded, so I suspect his account might have been hacked.

Assuming his account has been compromised why would someone hack it just to farm in-game hours?

Here’s a reference pic:
https://imgur.com/a/CTRsxne - (Not a single achievement unlocked, this implies that he’s not actually playing the games but is likely ingame hours farming)

As example, idle time to get cards also increases the playing time by a lot, besides, it's the same with "playtime" as with other things on Steam that someone could brag about. e.g. on Steamladder. But as others have already mentioned, it can be anything.