The issue of AFK's in BG's.

[harrpaniz1]

Now, as this is my first post on the forums, i feel as if i should introduce myself.
I have four level 80 characters on Ragnaros, my main being Mootykins a 6k PvP and 6k PvE Belf H-priest and my main alt being Toestomper a 5.5k pure PvP Belf Retri-paladin.

I have come here today and decided to make this post because of a problem not only in the PvP-community but for the server as a whole.
People AFK'ing in BG's.

Now, you might say "This isn't a big issue, this is just you being salty because you lost.", but it really isn't about that. You see, this is just one side of the coin, one part of a much bigger moon so to say.

If someone AFK's in a BG, chances are they get reported for AFK, right? Well, the "Report for AFK" button just gives that person a debuff, if they move before the timespan of that debuff ends, the debuff dissapears until someone else reports them. This basically means that anyone who is at their PC can watch netflix and AFK in BG's without ever getting kicked, if they just tab in once every 3 minutes and move their character half a centimeter.

For all of you PvE players who read this and think "Well this post is stupid, it's just a BG, right?" think about it this way instead. You set up a 25 man raid for let's say VOA, everyone has about 5k GS, so it's not a hard raid if everyone just helps out. Then when you start bossfighting, 7 people in your raid goes AFK, and you can't kick them out. Let's say you take the boss down anyways, your party pulls a miracle out of it's ******* and you manage to kill the boss and you are all really proud of yourself. Then all of the sudden, when it's loot-time, the AFK people come back and all of them get just as much loot as you do.

How is that fair?
How is that a system that works out well for the people who put effort into something?
How is that rewarding?

Short answer, it isn't.

Now, if we look at the ingame rules, we find the following:
"NO PVP EXPLOITING
....
....
....
Besides it, no afking in bgs, follow, botting etc. These are bad attitudes that may get your account suspended. "

That looks really great right? The people who AFK get banned if they do it, problem solved right?
No, problem not solved.

The admins are busy, and i want to make this as clear as possible: I AM NOT ****TING ON THE ADMINS.
The admins on this server do a great job. Every time i open a ticket, i get the help by friendly GM's who take pride in the work they put in.

The problem with this is, the only way to report these people is to send the GM's an in-game ticket with screenshots provided and a recount of what happened. This is quoted in the "Reporting players"-thread:

"DO NOT report on Staff's visitor pages. Do not open threads.
Please send the following information via IN-GAME ticket:

Reported player name
Approximate date and time when it happened
Evidence if you have any (links to unedited screenshots, videos etc). Please note that we may be unable to do much if there is no evidence in some of the cases
Brief explanation"

Now, first and foremost, imagine you have 6 people who are AFK, three BG's in a row, how do you send 6 tickets and is it really worth waiting 3 hours for that?
Secondly, what is considered evidence? Let's say you only get one screenshot of each person per BG, is that enough?
Lastly, I think the fact that you cannot open threads about rulebreaking is very very silly. It not only is much easier than waiting 4 hours for a GM response, but can also inspire and encourage other players to do the same, thereby reducing the AFK in BG's for both factions.

Now, it says in the forum thread quoted above that i cannot report anyone in forum posts, and i won't do that. But i want to give everyone a little tastetest of what a BG can look like if you're unlucky. Now, I have censored the names of everyone including myself, to make sure that there can be no which hunting of these people, and to make sure that this does not look like a report, because it isn't.

So to everyone who just plays PvE, or who plays on a faction or a server where this is uncommon (I wouldn't know, i only play Horde on Ragnaros), this is what an AB can look like. Pictured below are two people, one hunter and one paladin who AFK'd the previous game, this made me take the screenshots. Notice the resources of both teams and their damage done, the pictures were also too high resolution and i therefore had to turn them into URL's:

http://i.imgur.com/WIJbef8.jpg
Here is our first noble hero, doing absolutely nothing.

http://i.imgur.com/PlpAWQo.jpg
Our second hero of the day, waiting for the game to sta... oh wait...

http://i.imgur.com/VbqwlEr.jpg
Like a statue! Note the score difference.

http://i.imgur.com/ebIqvrt.jpg
Second person, enjoying the view.

http://i.imgur.com/WDwPeRB.jpg
Golfclap for the carrying hunter, please.

http://i.imgur.com/xZMwlMi.jpg
Chilling on his/her horsie.

http://i.imgur.com/iVFt6jk.jpg
Some stats from our warriors. Note that the hunter went out, shot four arrows and then returned to it's AFK position, guarding the GY.

http://i.imgur.com/MZLj205.jpg
The hunter got kicked by the AFK debuff, but do not fear kids, the paladin is still guarding the entrance to the horde spawn.

http://i.imgur.com/TepMFmO.jpg
Relaxing, check the score.

http://i.imgur.com/7LfLbU3.jpg
Important work for a Paladin.

http://i.imgur.com/x2Z7FNN.jpg
Great work mr. Paladin!

Lastly, i want to make clear that i did not AFK or wait in base to get these pictures. I merely died because of my gear (this was planned to be a PvE tank earlier) and respawned at our base.

That, dear Warmane, is the issue with AFK's in BG's.

[Denadox]

You have to do 2 or more screenshots with 5 min or more difference so it is shown that a person does nothing. I'd personally do more than 1 (for example you make 1 when battleground starts, then after 5 min, 6 min,7 min) so GMs can have more solid proof when dealing with such cases. And even though it's frustrating, the punishment is usually delivered.

P.S. Now it's mostly fine, you should have seen the amount of BG bots 1 year ago.

GL with your quest for justice

[harrpaniz1]

I played on Molten aswell, and i don't remember it being THIS bad but you might be right!

It's not a quest for justice i would say, it's more of a question about what we can actually do to prevent this or minimize it. Nobody, Horde or Ally likes this and i do think there is a more efficient way of dealing with this than just GM tickets. I think if there is an impact in the community and on the forums, stuff would probably happen a bit faster. If you know that you will with 100% certainty get shunned and banned for doing this repeatedly, and have a forum thread with your name, i doubt alot of hardcore players would risk their gear and their account.

[dike]

those anti-afk systems arent that big problem. pvp bots are

[hellforge]

How about "The issue of AFK in raids" ?

Same sh.t

[asen70702]

It's not worth to use BG bots, gems are really cheap and it take a lot time.

[iskenderun]

How about "The issue of AFK in raids" ?

Same sh.t

No big deal. Just kick that nab and get another person.

[Saroniteaj420]

Is this you *****ing Toestomper?

[harrpaniz1]

Depends, who's asking fam?