Harsher penalties for AV AFKers
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 11th 2008 at 7:05PM
Leeching in Alterac Valley -- or, as Blizzard puts it, "non-participation in Battleground games" -- has been a problem for about as long as the new Honor system has been in place (not so new now). In patch 2.2, a feature was put in place where players who were obviously not participating could be reported, and would end up getting a debuff if they got enough reports. This helped, but the problem is far from solved. Many people think the debuff is simply not a strong enough penalty to defer the unscrupulous from reaping free honor.Well, if you are one of those people, you should be pleased. Bornakk just announced that, as of right now, warnings and penalties will be issued to those who receive too many reports. The penalties include account suspensions and the removal of honor points and honor rewards. He says they'll be "taking action against thousands of accounts immediately," and of course we are all reminded to keep on reporting people that seem to be out of the action for too long. This looks like a big step in the right direction. Will the AFKer problems be solved, or are additional measures required? I guess we'll see.
Filed under: Cheats, News items, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
cpman Mar 25th 2008 2:07PM
The flagging afk system is flawed, as many have pointed out, in that there are afk spammers. That is they just flag others afk for kicks or whatever reason. I remember joining one AV and the chat was how funny it was that during previous match they afk flagged all of the mages for not making tables. What did that accomplish other then those mages possibly didnt get honor or credit for the bg. Having players flag this way accomplish little more then harrassing others that are actually doing something in bg along with those that are not.
Angelus Jan 11th 2008 7:18PM
Exactly what we've been asking for. Very good news.
Thepitt Jan 11th 2008 9:22PM
It will be easy to see the real AFKers vs the false reports... If you have a decent amount of damage or healing in the BG's they know that you may not be an AFK abuser... But if your stats so no DMG/Healing and you have a butt load of Honor, Bam... Bliz gets to cut your nutz off!
Aviel Jan 11th 2008 7:18PM
These are all focusing on the wrong issue, in my opinion. Here's my summary of the problems which Blizzard is facing -- and they are systemic to their design for battleground pvp -- but I do not think they are addressing:
"Paging Dr. Pavlov...."
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3773312977&postId=37728552536&sid=1
klink-o Jan 11th 2008 11:06PM
Agreed. If this fix is anything like all the others, they'll do it in the most ass way possible (ie: cheap and fast so we don't have to pay the programmers overtime) and the problem will re-surface in a week or two, assuming it goes away at all. The PVP system needs a complete overhaul if they ever hope to make it "fun" again.
sourmash Jan 12th 2008 10:05PM
Dead on. Blaming human behavior instead of poor game design is only treating symptoms, and not a cure.
Amalgham Jan 11th 2008 7:19PM
Yeah mon! Bout time! I hope to see some botters get their accounts suspended or flogged.
First
Amalgham Jan 11th 2008 7:20PM
Damnit! took too long to respond
Zakk Jan 11th 2008 7:19PM
Exciting. I never do BGs, so it doesn't really affect me, but for some reason, I'm still pretty excited to hear this.
Ryan Jan 11th 2008 7:29PM
A few thousand account suspensions along with a published 'afk offenders list' would do wonders.
SimpleSurvival Jan 12th 2008 12:08AM
BRILLIANT!!!
the AFK Offender list would be perfect. Maybe even give a title "Deserter" to anyone who gets on it
The only way to escape this horrible fate. Paid Name Change
Blizz will make millions!!!
hpavc Jan 11th 2008 7:45PM
Suspending people that mark the entire team faction raid afk with addons would be nice. You can be tanking and people still give you the debuff, though it diappears instantly, still scrolls on sct.
How stupid is that.
ibcfreak Jan 11th 2008 7:52PM
Oddly enough, I have had this happen to me...While I am not a tank, I do play all the bg's a lot...My particular case goes as this...I was in AV and had just capped IW bunk, and as always, everyone left, leaving myself alone to defend the bunk...Nothing surprising there...But two minutes later in BG chat I see, "REPORT KETURAKK (my rogue) AFK!" to which I responded, that I am not AFK...but defending a bunker...I still got the debuff, which I guess means the reporting feature was working properly...Unfortunately I did not get the honor for capping that bunk since I chose not to leave until the bunk was burning...
Some people just abuse the reporting feature and for that THEY to should suffer the consequences in my opinion...Of course it is probably difficult to discern who is abusing it and who is using it properly...unless it is blatantly obvious via bg chat...
Rahlnir Jan 13th 2008 12:00PM
GMs can invisibly stalk players, as they have done to observe reputed farming bots in the past. I think they will have a pretty rational view of what is truly exploitive AFK'n too, they will look for patterns.
Rich Jan 11th 2008 8:02PM
AFK'ers have been around since BEFORE the honor revamp. They are nothing new, if you are going make a statement, get it right.
say no to bot Jan 12th 2008 4:21PM
afk bots or using "scritps" has been around since i was trying to make rank 14 and had to play 18 hours a day .. and i still couldn't beat the bots... I even had a friend svelte(rogue)(staghelm) who was brazzen enought to almost surpass me in rank. while i played 18hours a day and didn't understand how the hell he could work all day have 2 kids and a wife. and stay right beside me in rank. imagine the jerk never told me that he was using scripts to sign up and stay from going afk.
IN retro-spec i realized that 80% of rank 14s near the end were doing the honor bots. and i was a fool for thinking blizzard cared about me... when in rome do as the romans.
2008 and I say the romans are pretty pissed about farming honor. so don't do it no more...
I got my warning a few days ago :*(
I wrote blizzard back to say it wasn't me. it was my bot.
humm... payed name changes. maybe blizzard wants people to be able to get away with bot'n for a short while longer. for $25 buks extra .
schwonga Jan 11th 2008 8:03PM
It will be interesting to see the effect this will have. The abuses will cause a little louder complaining, but I think things will balance out after a while.
Having lived at EotS and AV for the past week, I haven't seen too many afkers that I think merit this change, but hey, seeing afk go the way dodo will be nice
The REAL world Jan 11th 2008 8:07PM
Dear crazy WOW gamers,
Reinforcing an addiction (like smoking for example) is not healthy... but what's worse, is punishing someone for not "smoking" enough. In fact, it's borderline ridiculous.
This stupid game has ruined lives. People are becoming addicted, losing their families and their jobs... one kid was so into his character that he even committed suicide when his character was killed.
Its disgusting. There is enough players that are b*tching at people who don't play enough.. and now you psychos are actually going to penalize people's accounts if they don't spend every waking hour glued to the screen like you are? That's pathetic.
If you are going to obsess over a computer game while your life turns to shit, thats your business.. but for the love of god, don't drag others down with you into the land of life-destroying addiction.
You guys are really sick. I feel bad for you. Some of us do have lives out here in the real world... it would be healthy for you if you'd join us.
sincerely,
R E A L I T Y
ps. you doubt people have allowed their lives to go down the drain because of this game? Google WOW addiction. You'll find testemonies of countless people who were ruined not just by the game but by this crazy wow community. You can obsess all you want, but stop dragging other people with you.
You live in a fantasy long enough, you'll start to forget what's going on out here in the real world.
WAKE UP!!!!
PeeWee Jan 11th 2008 9:05PM
If you ruin your life because you lack the self-control to press Alt+F4, you deserve to go down the drain. Period.
Just like smoking, you have no one to blame but yourself. Ever. No one forced you to start, no one forced you to continue. No one but you. And you alone.
And if you had actually read the article and understood it, perhaps you would know that this was not about forcing people to stay in-game 24/7, this is about keeping people at the friggin keyboard when their character is online. No one is forcing them to be logged on, but we sure as hell want to force them to participate when they are.
Jon B Jan 11th 2008 9:08PM
LOL!
I guess there's no "fun" in "The REALWorld", just as there probably isn't any "moving out of mom's house" or "casual sex" there, either. Way to go, champ.