AFK in char selection screen

[yairomii]

NOTE: This topic is NOT about multiboxers/donors/new players/ <insert rdf when question>. It's about AFK in char selection screen, and only that.

Since more than few days people have been asking about it. There's literally a ton of players AFK in char selection screen. How can we be sure about it? Imagine this:

Afternoon. 1500 people in queue. Restart in 15 minutes.
*20 minutes later*
Server is back up, 8000 online, no queue.
*40 minutes later*
9000 online, still no queue

You could ask, what happened to these few thousands? They decided it's enough for today? NO. Majority of them weren't playing, they were only logged. Let's assume only half of them were AFK, this is still more than enough to make a queue.
This is a scenario I observed after every single restart for last 2 weeks. Way more than a thousand people disappear after restart and don't come back for next hour. AFKers are one of two big reasons why players have to sit in queue. What can we do about it? Exactly what was tested last Tuesday. I logged into my account, went for a tea, and discovered that I was kicked. I thought, DC, ok, logged in again, waited a bit, and BANG. Kicked again, after like 2 minutes. Checked again - same thing happens. YEAH I thought, finally. And it was awesome. It was 11 PM and we had no queue. You know how many people were in queue day before that? More than a thousand. Obviously it worked, game was almost as lag free as with 5000 online. Were there any problems cause of that? None that I can think of, unless someone shines some light here. Sadly the next day changes were reverted, and people could AFK again. Why?

Can anyone from Administration tell us why can't we have it? Don't you want players to enjoy the game without these long queues? It would certainly solve problems of some people that get DC / PC crash during raid hours, and then whole group has to wait for them. Also, people could come back home and log in straight for raid. Only downside to this would be lower online. I know we all want to see that shiny 10000 number 24/7 since big population attracts more players, but everyone would love to see the queue gone, or at least reduced, and kicking AFKers is the perfect solution.

Hoping someone who can make that happen will spend a minute to answer this.

[Hopca]

I couldn't agree more.
I don't think there is a need for a 2nd server which would help with huge que's. Auto kicking people who are AFK for more than 10 min's should solve the problem - I think, and I hope.
I don't know how hard is it to write something like that but I'm sure it would help a lot with all these slackers :)

[TriNitY706]

Thousands of characters drop off and seeming don't come back after server restart/crash...

Hopefully this makes more sense to people than "Multi-boxers taking up too many spots".

[myataiko1]

People are crying over it for more than a week, still no warmane response yet.

-> log in with alt to manage AH **** while bg que
-> forget about an alt
-> let it rot in character selection and waste game spot

and there are MANY situations like this when player should have been kicked out of selection screen.

[Obnoxious]

All I can say is that this concern, like most others that don't get a final reply, has been forwarded, but that's about as much as Moderators can do.

[Henhouse]

If you're implying the AFK kick timers should be reduced, I'm definitely against that kind of change (which I doubt will happen anyway). It's too punishing, and will cause people to not want to play as much anymore.

If you wait 2 hours in a queue, play a little bit, then need to take your dog on a walk, or take the trash out, does that warrant you having to wait another 2 hours in a queue? Because by lowering the disconnect timer, that is what will happen. People go AFK all the time, and by forcing them to sit in front of their screen constantly without going AFK or else punish them is not how you "solve" a problem -- that will make people angry and leave. If you wait for hours in queue, I think you deserve to be able to have moments where you go away and still reserve your spot.

Everyone is angry about the queues, but these "solutions" will only make things worse in the long run. It may help you get THROUGH the queue faster, but it will result in you having to re-queue more often, which I doubt anyone would enjoy. The staff has said the maximum players online may raise in time, once the realm has been deemed entirely stable and safe to do so.

[myataiko1]

don't listen he is on drugs ^

that will make people angry and leave.

i hope they will, server already overpopulated

[Proterean]

We're aware of the situation. We implemented a grace timer for players to be able to get back either in the queue or in the game so that should eliminate any players' issues with that.

As for the players who decide to 'AFK' in the character selection screen, as you noted, we'll be taking a look into the situation and if feasible we will reduce the time without having an effect on people who want to go for instance to the bathroom while switching their characters. Keep in mind, that amount of these players who go over 30 minutes in the screen are absolutely little, no more than a hundred even at peak times.

What we really hope for is and what we're working on is putting more optimizations in to raise the cap and eliminate the queue entirely. As you saw per our progress, we've been doing our best in pursuit of this. We will keep you updated about this, of course.

[nanowatt]

Not such a good idea, i go out and i leave wow open because of the queue.The que might be over in one hour and i might be back in two.I think you see my point

[krijsyo]

Not such a good idea, i go out and i leave wow open because of the queue.The que might be over in one hour and i might be back in two.I think you see my point

The queue is partially caused by people such as you, doing the exact same thing. If they couldn't do this, there'd be smaller queues.

If you're not playing, you should be gracious enough to relinquish your server spot to someone who actually wants to play.

[nanowatt]

So i should wait in the front of my pc in the time i might have or not something better to do just to get in time?Is not fair.If the queue was smaller, then yes, i could wait, but i can't just spend hours doing nothing.You are a little selfish.This thing you say should only apply to people that are doing in more that a specific number of times per week.For example, if i do this 4 out of 7 days a week, the next time it happens a gap of 10-20 mins should be applied in which if i don't enter the wold the account should be kicked.I think is more fair this way.

[ctebo]

I went to get some food and logged out to char select and it disconnected me, now am 1100 in que... gg
Edit: Can someone confirm if the que goes faster when WoW isnt running in the background?

[yairomii]

I couldn't agree more.
I don't know how hard is it to write something like that but I'm sure it would help a lot with all these slackers :)

If I got it right during Tuesday, it was alrady there and it was working. I don't think there's anything to "write" here.

If you're implying the AFK kick timers should be reduced, I'm definitely against that kind of change (which I doubt will happen anyway). It's too punishing, and will cause people to not want to play as much anymore.

If you wait 2 hours in a queue, play a little bit, then need to take your dog on a walk, or take the trash out, does that warrant you having to wait another 2 hours in a queue? Because by lowering the disconnect timer, that is what will happen. People go AFK all the time, and by forcing them to sit in front of their screen constantly without going AFK or else punish them is not how you "solve" a problem -- that will make people angry and leave. If you wait for hours in queue, I think you deserve to be able to have moments where you go away and still reserve your spot.

Everyone is angry about the queues, but these "solutions" will only make things worse in the long run. It may help you get THROUGH the queue faster, but it will result in you having to re-queue more often, which I doubt anyone would enjoy. The staff has said the maximum players online may raise in time, once the realm has been deemed entirely stable and safe to do so.

What I'm talking about are people AFK on character selection screen. 2 minutes and they should be kicked, like it was 2 days ago. As for ingame AFK, I don't mind even if you AFK for 45 minutes before getting kicked. If you wanna afk for few hours tho, you should stop being selfish and just log out, and let others play. You won't have to requeue, or waiting time will be really low if they implement it. I'm not guessing here, I'm describing situation from Tuesday. This solution won't make anything worse, queues will be way lower, so there won't be 2 hours waiting time for anyone.
People log in the morning, go to work/school and come back to play. They sit there afk for few hours, you could even see people admitting to that in forum if you watched closely...

We're aware of the situation. We implemented a grace timer for players to be able to get back either in the queue or in the game so that should eliminate any players' issues with that.

As for the players who decide to 'AFK' in the character selection screen, as you noted, we'll be taking a look into the situation and if feasible we will reduce the time without having an effect on people who want to go for instance to the bathroom while switching their characters. Keep in mind, that amount of these players who go over 30 minutes in the screen are absolutely little, no more than a hundred even at peak times.

What we really hope for is and what we're working on is putting more optimizations in to raise the cap and eliminate the queue entirely. As you saw per our progress, we've been doing our best in pursuit of this. We will keep you updated about this, of course.

Optimization is always welcome, and I hope one day kicking AFKers won't be needed, but right now it sadly is.
What I can't understand is why would you let people stay indefinitely in char selection screen, as this only causes problems for everyone else. It worked perfectly last Tuesday, queue was almost gone, delay was really low. I even remember someone posting a screenshot in forum with 10k online and just ONE person in queue. Day before that at same hour there were more than 1000 people waiting.

[azura33]

I have to agree with Yairomii, I just don't understand why there is allowance of people just sitting in AFK character screen for hours. Just to test it out, I have stayed AFK in the CHAR login screen over night because there is no cap on how long you can stay there. Don't you think that's a bit ridiculous.. You can't deny that people are exploiting this at the plight of people sitting in the queue for hours at a time.

[katathebest]

Yea you should be kickedd out of char selection screen after 30 minutes.