Breakfast Topic: AFK debuff
by Eliah Hecht 
Sep 27th 2007 at 8:00AM
I got the idea for this breakfast topic when I saw the following two posts virtually back-to-back in the WoW forums: Reporting AFK'ers - a Pleasant Surprise, and AFK Reporting System Broken And Abused. The former tells the story of the AFK system going well, all the AFKers being removed from the game, and the Horde going on to win. The latter is from the perspective of a player who was erroneously flagged AFK, and asks for several changes to be made, including a limit to the number of AFK reports a player can make in a given amount of time. (It turns out that limit, while not user-visible, is already in place.)So there are obviously some diverging perspectives on this AFK debuff system thing. What do you all think of it, having had a couple days to check it out?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tumples Sep 27th 2007 8:09AM
I have a feeling that when I look and see no one in the peace cave, they have merely moved closer to the rest of us so are harder to catch out tbh.
Dahkeus Sep 27th 2007 8:44AM
Back to back contradictory posts in the WoW forums is nothing new. I frequent the mage forums and half the stuff there is either 'OMG MAGES OVERPOWERED!!1!!' or 'MAGES ARE SO WEAK BLIZZARD NERFED US!!!111!'. They also usually are backed up by a single piece of evidence to back up there case such as when they got killed by another class or when they got killed by a mage.
Saint Sep 27th 2007 8:48AM
As soon as I entered AV, i saw that some addons were not placed like they used to be before patch, so I, naturally, starded tweaking and adjusting my addons (since compatibility issues with many addons arise after every patch). It took me 3 minutes to finish that and in that 3 minutes some guy asked everybody in raid to report me as afk. Luckily, the rest of the raid weren't stupid as that guy.
infection Sep 27th 2007 8:59AM
I noticed it said PvP combat to unflag yourself. So NPC's won't work? If poeple got report happy and reported people trying to kill warmaster and drek, and no horde was opposing, they wouldn't get any honor? Without having to run all the way up north to find a horde? Or what about a rogue capping towers and people think you are just afk'ing at the base. You get flagged. You can't find the rogue, so you let the towers burn?
Yeng Sep 27th 2007 9:08AM
Well, I'd assume that you'd have to be AFK for it to work...if you're fighting NPCs, you aren't going to be AFK.
Richard Sep 27th 2007 9:08AM
@4 If it is PvP-only combat as indicated in the debuff, then you're right.
AV is a PvP instance that focuses on (ready for it?) PvE.
As a Rogue, I will never stealth ahead to cap the towers again. What's the point? For others to flag me, and to have my advance scouting useless?
Honestly, though, I don't know what an alternative would be, though. Attack NPCs? Well, that doesn't solve anything either.
Perhaps it should be "engage in PvP combat, capture or defend a tower/GY/etc" instead?
GG Blizz.
infection Sep 27th 2007 9:30AM
"Perhaps it should be "engage in PvP combat, capture or defend a tower/GY/etc" instead?"
But how does the game know you are defending?
Tonight I'm going to get some friends and go in AV and start reporting poeple that are at Drek. With no horde showing up, it will get the spark to find a real solution to this problem, and not put it in the hands of the noobs in the game we play with everyday that will report you just because you spelled "the" wrong.
Seriously, what were they thinking in making this a "for the people" issue.
I got in an AV last night and hit "report" on everyone's name within the first 2 minutes of play. What if 5 more people do that?
You won't get any honor for Galv's Lt's, the tower, or IB gy's round up, if you never see a horde to fight.
Do you understand how easy that is? I go 8/10 games where I don't play a horde at all in the game, but I'm with the group the whole time.
Hopefully I'm wrong and NPC's counts as unflagging you.
gd1107 Sep 27th 2007 9:48AM
I was absolutely amazed by the playing of the Horde last night. Horde went 3-1, when I'm used to got 0-10. We had a couple afk'ers, only 1 got marked to my knowledge and he tried killing wolves to get rid of the debuff, lol.
Honestly, to all you worried about soloing towers, etc. Its quite obvious what you are doing. Killing lt's along the way - I'm pretty sure that's pvp combat. If you are putting forth an effort to defend or go on the offensive, you aren't going to be reported.
Last night, I had such a fun time, I even forgot to look for afk people in the cave. there were just so many going forth on offense pushing our way through sp, there really was no time to check. This change is definetly worthwhile, and anyone making any complaints are the lazy sacks that want to continue to sit in the cave and do absolutely nothing.
xtyn Sep 27th 2007 9:34AM
If you're so far out of battle the closest opposition is half a map away and you've done no damage/healing/objective capping so as to be thought AFK, maybe you should try defending objectives actually under real contention. Starting AV off and heading to the Aid Stations to "defend" isn't really likely to be helpful to your side for a 8-10 minutes.
gxavier Sep 27th 2007 9:41AM
@7... yes, you're quite wrong. Engaging in any npc that is flagged pvp (which all npc's in av are) will then go on to flag you for pvp, and count towards an anti-activity debuff that you might have.
@everyone else... hardly anyone is just randomly reporting people. They are simply looking on their map to see if there are people in cave, and if they are, they report them. Simple enough. If defense is all respawning in the cave, just about everyone is smart enough to realize that...
Apparently you can't spam report either, as blizz stops recognizing your notifications.
This isn't a bad system, and the frequency a legitimately non-afk user will be targeted, should be quite rare. There's no way around it.
Richard Sep 27th 2007 9:41AM
@7 The game does know you're defending, but just not in the context you're using.
"Towers Defended" is a stat that is tracked.
It's a recap.
Kaylek Sep 27th 2007 9:58AM
I think it says a lot about the Horde's "AV boycott" in digust with Horde performance accompanied with the confirmed map issues.
Now is not going to be the best time to gauge the problems with the debuff, as people are naturally going to abuse it in order establish a hihg standard in AV. It'll settle down.
As a positive result, the Horde steamrolls the Alliance now, as we all expected, and it outweighs the complaints of those few getting flagged under isolated circumstances. Play with your mods in the city, none of us joined a BG to wait around for you and give you easy honor.
CP Sep 28th 2007 12:19PM
Going as Ally to Dun Baldar an no one reported me the entire games. But it's k so^^
Angus Sep 27th 2007 10:12AM
I look forward to doing this tonight.
When people were actually playing in AV from 50s-60 Horde was winning all the time on my battelgroup. But then we hit the 60s-70 group and suddenly I saw over 1/3rd of them in the cave, farming honor and ruining it for the rest of us. Anything that will cause this to stop is worth it. If you want nice gear, go earn it. Either fight for your side in PVP, or go raiding. I don't think it is much to ask for and I need the damn tokens for my gear. Having to grind 3X as hard to get the same tokens angers me.
That and I like killing dwarves.
Smurk Sep 27th 2007 10:20AM
So Alliance can't be happy about this.
Result?
Crusading for AB changes? Longer wait times for AV as a smaller # of Allies are willing to fight there? Suggesting reasons for the new system to be removed as a result of the Horde winning more?
Doffencrag Sep 27th 2007 10:40AM
Very happy with it.
Except now our cave looks so... undefended... :)
I love that you can just report everyone in the vicinity with one click, rather than reporting each one individually. It's not time-consuming at all - I've taken to checking the map for AFKers while waiting for the rez, or while running in a straight line towards SP.
Some people have even taken the next step to fight honor leeches - they occasionally check the battle stats and ask people to report those with 0 healing and 0 damage done.
Overall, very satisfied. GJ Blizz!
Diaz Sep 27th 2007 10:48AM
I can't imagine anything more childish as someone wanting to throw a tantrum and report people who are fighting Drek or Vann. You may be upset because your free honor train ended, but please don't take it like a child.
Those who come to AV to fight aren't going to report anyone for defending a tower because 1) you are helping them win and 2) they typically are not complete idiots.
But let the AFKer's keep trying to convince us the sky is falling.
zoddie Sep 27th 2007 11:30AM
Horde are winning the 70 bracket now, just like they win every other bracket before the patch at least in my server, 4 av games yielded me 1600 honor 2 days ago, then I got over 800 from 2 games last night...out of 7 games, We've lost one.....horde always and forever dominated av, at least on my server...lazy afkers is the only reason we didnt pre patch...Not anything to do with the map.
hoeding Sep 27th 2007 11:39AM
Let the QQ'ers QQ all they want...In my battlegroup AV went from being a never-win situation for the horde back to being a very fun BG like it used to be (and the 11 minute horde victories are very good honor)
A tip of the hat to you blizzard!
(and a wag of the finger to you alliance!)
Freehugz Sep 27th 2007 11:51AM
Didn't notice any difference. I still afk'd to an alliance win with full honor.