The lesser of two evils is still evil

I don't mind the farmers so much -- as long as I don't have to compete for mobs with them. However, I *hate* gold tells, spams, etc. Is that an oxymoron?

As someone whose inbox is full of spammers trying to get account details for games he doesn't play, I'll take the cheaters. At least I can get away from them when I log off...

"Would you rather your game have gold farmers or cheaters?"

I'd rather my game have cheaters. Gold farmers are quieter, harder to find, and a greater overall problem. Cheaters are usually obvious in their teleporting or flying around in areas that don't allow such actions, which makes them easy to spot and report. So I'd rather have the cheaters, because they're much more noticeable and as such easier to report and get rid of. I'd rather have the more obvious disease that has more visible symptoms than the quiet one that can be confused with regular body functions.

Considering RMT sometimes use abnormal methods (cheating) to do what they do, it's hard to separate them from legitimate players who cheat. If I had to pick i'd say get rid of RMT, that way every time I hear a tell come in, I can expect it to be a real player instead of cjuveea telling me to buy cheap Gi1

I guess it depends on what you mean. If by gold farmer, you just mean people that play the game to make gold, then spam message you to buy it but DON'T try to hack your account then they are by far the lesser of two evils.

Cheaters ruin a game by getting around the intended game mechanics to win. This is like trying to play Diablo 2 on the open servers while being legit against all the people with uber gear. This robs legit gamers of fun, which is the sole reason we play games.

Now, in the real world... gold farmers are not all innocuous. In fact, I bet most gold farmers get their thousands of gold by scamming peoples accounts. This is the main reason why I would never buy any gold in a game again, and it should be the reason as to why we all have so much disdain for them.

False dichotomy, but it's an easy mistake to make, because people focus on the noisy half of the gold seller/buyer equation, the gold seller. Gold BUYERS are also cheaters, indeed, usually the most egregious cheaters on their servers. Cracking down on gold BUYERS is the one step that only EVE takes, of all the MMOs I know of, even though if you don't crack down on the people pouring cash into a criminal or dishonest enterprise, there will always be a steady supply of people willing to take that cash. Cracking down on gold BUYERS is simultaneously one of the most effective anti-cheating measures an MMO can take AND the most effective anti-gold-seller measures an MMO can take.

The problem is semantics and how you define cheaters and gold farmers. The big issue is that gold farmers often use cheating to maximize their gold farming potential, and thus they become both. Still though, we need a clear definition of "cheating" here. Stealing accounts? Duplicating items? Speed and movement hacks?

What's the difference between another player mining all day to sell the ore on the auction house and a gold farmer doing the same? The gold farmer simply turns around and sells the gold for real money. The issue is in the end people aren't paying farmers just to spend time mining, they're paying the gold farmers to take the risks of hacking and cheating to get gold to them.

Cheating actually destroys the very fabric of your game (well the impact may vary depending on the cheat). I think people understand that widespread item duplication in a game focused on investing crazy amounts of time to obtain rare items destroys the point. Then you have subcultures in the game forming just to play the game the way it was intended, and that's just wrong! The goal shifts from competing against others within the game to competing against others to see who can cheat at the game better. It's like if a race of telekinetics were playing roulette and could control where the ball lands... the element of luck is removed from the game, it's something else entirely, and probably not very fun. (I'm sure I could have come up with a better example there, but I imagine you get the point.)

So to me it's always the cheating aspect that's the issue. Gold farmers just happen to almost always be cheaters, it's necessary for them to compete.

I love the chainmail elf ears in the picture :)

So...without getting to deep into the subject, off the cuff if I had to choose between the 2 it would be gold farmers.
You can ignore them and they generally bot farm in all games so they leave you alone.
Cheaters on the other hand are malicious in nature and depending on the situation, directly impact your gameplay. Especially if it is in a competitive aspect like PvP.

As "cheaters" been promoted to a word already? I only know cheats or cheat, not cheaters. Someone who cheats, is a cheat, and those who cheat are called cheats.

The Longman Dictionary of contemporary English agrees with me on this.