I did the same, I was furious with the gil-sellers one day and decided to act friendly to get a admit from one that they sell gil, I pick one out randomly.. He replies to all my /tells right away, and very nicely. A few days of me talking to him, slowly working into getting him to admit, I realize how nice he is ... A man, 25 years old, he told me he was married and has a 7 year old daughter. He makes it by selling gil on FFXI, making just about no money in doing so, to feed his daughter and wife ... Think about that for a little bit before I say, I offered to help him camp the NM he camped everyday. I did get an admission out of him and brought up my menu to call a GM, but did I? No. I felt total sympathy for him and his co-workers and spared him. (Until later I found out someone ratted him out, causing him and his friends' accounts to get banned). For a small time, I used to get on FF solely just to talk to this man and see how he was doing, sometimes helping him from time to time. This may sound corny, being this is coming from a game, but this man made me look a life in a totally different aspect. I don't know his status on what he is doing now, but for the sake of his wife and his daughter (hoping he'll someday read this), I wish you the best of luck, man. Take care.

Most of my friends in World of Warcraft are actually gold farmers. I don't help them in any way other than conjuring them free food, but I do choose to chat with them because I understand their situation and why they have their jobs. Some gold farmers actually don't mind their jobs because they hang around playing games for extensive periods of time. Some of them believe it's torturing having to 'camp' the same spots for long periods of time.

I don't mind much of the presence of gold farmers on my server, but there is a limit to the sympathy I give them. And that is, the kill-stealing and Mob-player-killing that some gold farmers take part in to keep player away. But, many players do the same thing against the gold farmers. One of my farmer friends I talk to is only hostile against American players because of the treatment and ridicule they receive from them. Another I spoke to said that they must kill-steal to meet their quota for their job. The next time a gold farmer steals a kill from someone, I believe that person should think about the farmer's situation before getting angry. [WoW, F, 18]