by Byron Mudry on Jan 22, 2008
In this weeks editorial I look at a very hot current topic, battleground AFKing and Blizzard's new response.
Players in the World of Warcraft (WoW) join battlegrounds to compete against other players in preset games and earn cool rewards. Since their inception they have become insanely popular. However, as rewards have ramped up, the temptation has become greater for players to abuse the system. This has led to players going AFK (Away From Keyboard) after entering battlegrounds, just to earn honor. This ruins the game for all those actually participating in the battleground as they will now be a contributing player (or several) short and have a much harder time winning.
This has become more and more common as player vie for honor point rewards. So in reaction, last week Blizzard made a change to the battlegrounds and the AFK reporting system that is aimed at addressing this player concern. Previously an AFK report would only prevent that player from earning honor points for that battleground. For many players this was not a strict enough penalty, so Blizzard posted the following:
In our continued efforts to support fair gameplay in World of Warcraft and to provide a positive experience for players, we are currently taking steps to ensure fair and enjoyable competition in the Battlegrounds. Starting immediately, we will be issuing warnings and penalties, including suspensions and the removal of Honor points and recently acquired Honor rewards, for non-participation in Battleground games.
We are taking action against thousands of accounts immediately, and will continue to monitor these situations and regularly take action against violators. If you encounter a player in a Battleground who is intentionally not participating in the battle for an extended period of time, please help us track the situation and report the player as AFK. For information on how to complete an in-game AFK report, please go here: (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/battlegrounds/info.html). All reports will be thoroughly investigated, and corrective action will only be taken if the violation is confirmed.
Thank you for your support and best of luck to you in all of your games in the Battlegrounds!
Player Reaction
The reaction to Blizzard's announcement was surprisingly (to myself at least) mixed. While many players were strongly in favor of the move, a fairly vocal minority started speaking up that stated they did not want it on their conscience for reporting someone and having that player banned. Their concern is that sometimes players may need to go AFK for some legitimate reason like someone at the door, crying child, phone call, or any number of other things. They feel that they may be in that situation sometime and do not want to get a ban for doing it, so don't want someone else banned for the same thing.
Drysc addressed this issue in the forums recently, with the comments below.
I can assure you that if someone is going to be suspended, and have other actions taken against their account/character, that they are definitive abusers.
If someone is going to the bathroom 30 times a game, 100 games in a row, they may want to cut down on the cranberry juice.
(Of course, those are numbers I made up. We obviously won't be announcing thresholds, etc.)
How bad of a problem is it?
While on the surface having a person go AFK in a battleground may not seem like a huge deal, it can be. Think of an Arathi Basin (AB) or Eye of the Storm (EotS) fight where it is 15 vs 15. If even just 2 players are out on one side that's a whole 13% of your force gone. How would you like to start a basketball game 13 points down, or a football game down a field goal. That's the equivalent of what is happening. For all the players that join battlegrounds to play a game it is maddening when they can not legitimately compete due to someone else choosing not to. What makes it even more madding to the players actually trying, is that the AFK'ers get almost the same reward as the contributing player does.
The problem started in earnest when the honor system was changed. When honor became a system where points were earned and then kept and would not deteriorate, unscrupulous players saw this as an opportunity to exploit the system for reward. It started off with a single player, possibly two, being AFK in Alterac Valley (AV) and grew to more. Once the arena season one items became available for purchase through honor points the situation worsened. It is now not uncommon to find 5-8 players going AFK in an AV fight. That can be a full 20% of your forces and will quickly lead to defeat.
As the problem has escalated, so has the player complaints to Blizzard over it. As the level of frustration has risen, Blizzard has taken notice and implemented several stop gap measures. This latest one is the first real one with teeth.
Messiah's take on it
A year ago, I could have cared less. I have always stated that I was firmly against PvP in an MMOG. However, when my Paladin tank reached a point that the best upgrade was the arena season 2 spell damage mace I was forced to enter the arenas. At first it was frustrating, but over time, grinding through the weeks to earn points, an appreciation for the skill in PvP emerged. Eventually a love of arena combat was born as well, and I now fully look forward to my weekly forays into the PvP world. Which brings me back to my whole point here, now I do care.
To compete in arenas, you need PvP gear. To get PvP gear you need to compete in arenas or in battlegrounds. Since the more you compete (and lose initially) in arenas, the longer it will take you to earn gear, you need to seriously look at battlegrounds. By entering battlegrounds you can quickly gear up with enough PvP gear to at least compete in the arenas. Sure you can not compete at the higher levels, but you can at least hit 250+ resilience and have a hope of winning more than losing and getting to a 1600+ rating. However since battlegrounds take a significant amount of time, you really need to try to win then to maximize your honor gain. This makes it extremely frustrating when you have 10-20% of your team not even participating.
OK, enough history, back to my take on the whole banning issue now. Let's start out simple.
Should players be punished for going AFK? Yes. Should that punishment go as far as bans and equipment removal? Damn right! Should we the players feel bad about putting someone's name in? Hell no!Now back to the slightly more complicated reality. All of the above simple answers rely on a check and balance system to be in place. Do I want someone that had to run to answer the door in one battleground for 10 minutes to get banned? No, it was a single occurrence, and they may have thought they would be 30 seconds. The same applies to someone that may need to occasionally go to the bathroom, change the laundry or attend to a child, real life comes first. When real life interrupts though, players should be respectful enough to type /afk and kick themselves from the game. I know I do if I believe I will be more than a minute or so when something comes up. To me this means most people should be there in the battleground 95% or more of the time, and a rare occurrence of being AFK shouldn't effect them.
I have to believe that Blizzard really will look at the occurrences as they are submitted and build a history before taking any drastic action. Therefore, I firmly believe in reporting every single player that appears to be AFK as AFK. In fact, I take a chance to look at the battleground damage/healing reports roughly 10 minutes into each battleground (while waiting for a rez at a graveyard) to report anyone who either has no damage or no healing done. In this way, eventually players will start to be banned from the game that are ruining everyone else's gaming experience.
To the players that are worried that people may get banned that don't deserve it, I again point to Blizzard's statement above that they will investigate the cases. Blizzard is not stupid, and knows that players will attempt to report players they don't like, rival guilds, etc. You can be sure that they in no way want to alienate customers, and will ensure that when a ban occurs it is for a valid reason. Blizzard has not become the huge company that it is, or gained the fan following that it has, by making decisions that upset their customers. So, until they prove me wrong by banning someone I know isn't an AFK'er, I fully support the new policy.
With all that being said, LET THE BANNINGS BEGIN!
The Messiah has had his say, what’s yours? Do you side for or against the new policy from Blizzard? Will you put in AFK complaints or let them slide? I want to hear your comments and explanations.
Email me at: Byron Mudry - (Messiah@TenTonHammer.com) or post in our forums thread!