Abusing the report afk function in battlegrounds

[Omniscient]

Now, we all know that report afk has been a very wonderful tool for getting rid of the people actually afking or botting. However, these days many players are using it as some sort of 'vote kick' considering it often doesn't even give a debuff but will just instantly kick you regardless of if you're in combat or not. Meaning, if you're undergeared in a battleground, someone doesn't want your class, or any other reason.. Hell, someone can just say "report namehere afk" and sometimes people will mindlessly follow and report that person afk and get them kicked even if they wern't afk or a bot.

Now, I ended up having to make quite a few tickets to get a legitimate response from a GM, but basically.. Here's just the screenshots, I'll black out the names just to be safe, so forth..

http://imgur.com/a/5wh5k

I think something like this just shows how the company is now, they'll allow just about anything as far as griefing or harassment or anything else for that matter to keep their subs up.

[Hitei]

Now, we all know that report afk has been a very wonderful tool for getting rid of the people actually afking or botting. However, these days many players are using it as some sort of 'vote kick' considering it often doesn't even give a debuff but will just instantly kick you regardless of if you're in combat or not. Meaning, if you're undergeared in a battleground, someone doesn't want your class, or any other reason.. Hell, someone can just say "report namehere afk" and sometimes people will mindlessly follow and report that person afk and get them kicked even if they wern't afk or a bot.

Now, I ended up having to make quite a few tickets to get a legitimate response from a GM, but basically.. Here's just the screenshots, I'll black out the names just to be safe, so forth..

http://imgur.com/a/5wh5k

I think something like this just shows how the company is now, they'll allow just about anything as far as griefing or harassment or anything else for that matter to keep their subs up.

You mean like allowing people to ninja gear, or camp quest NPCs in Vanilla?
Or allowing people to multibox?

Please don't act like people being able to afk flag someone is some sort of horrible malady showing the decline of Blizzard.

To begin with, you need a significant amount of votes to immediately kick someone from a battleground. You're much more likely to get flagged with the inactive debuff, in which case, go hit something and you're fine. I have a hard time believing that like ten people flagged you afk before you could type "Lol, no I'm not."

And even ignoring that, you're a fool for trying to demand answers and promises of change from a GM. They're there to deal with blatant serious harassment like racism/homophobia, deal with hackers, and deal with assorted bugs and other game-changing issues.

They aren't there to make you feel better after you pissed someone off in a BG and ended up (somehow) getting marked as a deserter.

[Tziva]

Well if it is kicking you immediately even if you're participating in combat, that's should be a bug report because that's not intended. You're probably diluting your ticket and confusing the GM by merging an afk report bug with "people abusing afk" report as the same issue.

But anyway, I usually have the opposite problems; people AFK at the starting area for the entire game miraculously never getting booted despite reporting them non-participatory and the stat-board reflecting it as such. And believe me, I'm sympathetic to the issue as the person who often ends up being sole D in BGs and often has to deal with people bitching that I'm not participating enough (trust me, dudes, I want HKs and I want to fight - if someone else was willing to sit here, I'd love to be out actually fighting but I'd rather win a boring game than lose a poorly played game). Luckily I don't think I've ever been booted as AFK, but I've had people make comments in /bg and in whispers to me on occasion.

FWIW, you can't /follow in battlegrounds anymore.

[Omniscient]

@Sora Yes. need 10 people to instant kick out of bgs. OH WAIT, I would have to report afk myself too! No. It's 3-4 people max each time I'm getting instantly kicked, and there is no debuff BEFORE that so obviously something changed to the point of instead of using a debuff it'll just instantly kick someone. You know what? They're there to deal with rules of the game being broken, and to answer questions and so forth. Read up on what a GM is actually supposed to for their job before even commenting thinking you do. You see all those jokes tickets and so forth all the time and even the blue posts on the forums being silly and replying to stuff that really, doesn't merit their attention. So refrain from posting again.

@Tziva I often have the same issue, people won't report the people that are afk or botting afk. But they will report someone that actually annoys them or someone telling them what to do in BG chat for some reason instead.

Also, I spoke to the GM asking if it was some sort of bug getting instantly kicked while in combat, and having been in combat and so forth. He said it wasn't, that it's 'working as intended' and so forth. When I asked to speak a senior GM instead of him, I was given quite a blatant 'no' and any more tickets to be opened on the same issue would be considered "Gm harassment"

Also, if it was a bug it would've been fixed by now. I've had this happening to me for years, but as time goes on people are catching on that it actually will instantly kick people and are really starting to use it just to kick people. I've reported it as a bug many times in the past, and recently with no changes to be seen.

[TheSerialSniper]

being reported afk is not intended to kick a player that is not afk. It is not a vote kick. If you are getting kicked while fighting on defending a node in a bg then report it as a bug

[Hitei]

Yes. need 10 people to instant kick out of bgs. OH WAIT, I would have to report afk myself too! No. It's 3-4 people max each time I'm getting instantly kicked, and there is no debuff BEFORE that so obviously something changed to the point of instead of using a debuff it'll just instantly kick someone. You know what? They're there to deal with rules of the game being broken, and to answer questions and so forth. Read up on what a GM is actually supposed to for their job before even commenting thinking you do. You see all those jokes tickets and so forth all the time and even the blue posts on the forums being silly and replying to stuff that really, doesn't merit their attention. So refrain from posting again.

Trust me, I know from personal experience playing with friends in battlegrounds and asking them to report bots/afks, that you need ~4 votes to even get someone flagged as inactive, and then several more votes while they're inactive to kick them. IF you're getting kicked by three people, you're either experiencing a bug as Tziva pointed out, or you're somehow flagged for afking too much in general.

And you've done nothing but highlight my point. They're there to deal with the rules of the game being broken, or to answer questions. No rules were broken, you asked a GM about policing the afk function, and he explained it and pointed out that it's a tool they gave the community to help deal with people who afk in battlegrounds, you asked him what he thought of abuse, and implied it should be changed, and he pointed out that he isn't a dev, and has no say in the matter.

Frankly I wouldn't even agree that you can call it abusing a system. The afk system is in place so that people who aren't helping in a BG can be removed. Clearly someone (Or from the sounds of it, several people) thought you were a negative influence in the battleground. And the fact that you're having it happen multiple times kind of screams that you're doing something in BGs that makes people want to kick you. Or that there's some other issue specific to you (connection problems, suspicious background programs, etc)

[Omniscient]

Yeah, and you know what? Just because I don't like you right now, I could tell the BG to report you afk.. and they would, and you'd be sitting there with a deserter debuff even if you were participating and playing the BG. How do you feel about that? It's a function to get rid of people afking, not people that you dislike or don't want in the group, you idiot. I know for a FACT that you don't need 7 people to report you afk to get instantly kicked. Hell, I've been in bgs where there are a ton of bots and people that don't speak english but I can still get instantly kicked without a debuff. Come to think of it, I HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE DEBUFF IN FOREVER.

Another issue with this, is if you put someone you don't like on ignore, or reported them for language and they tell the group to report you afk.. and since you say nothing, they do report you afk even though you don't even see the message. There goes another instant kick.

[Feral Camel]

Omniscient, how many times have you been booted from a BG for being supposedly AFK or received an inactive status?

[Phookah]

Sounds like the only common variable between all these BG's is that you're in them.
Been playing for 5 years, have never been booted for being "AFK" in a BG.

[Omniscient]

Sounds like the only common variable between all these BG's is that you're in them.
Been playing for 5 years, have never been booted for being "AFK" in a BG.

Congrats. That's kind of like saying someone who was a victim of some crime, talking about it and because it hasn't happened to you you're going to be a smartass and say oh well you're the cause you're doing something wrong. I've been playing since 2006 myself, and this didn't really use to be much of an issue until more recent years, off and on. Usually only experience it when I'm on a BG binge where I'm BGing all day or very often.

[Rukioish]

Unless another person can confirm this, your case holds no water OP.

[Gimlix]

Congrats. That's kind of like saying someone who was a victim of some crime, talking about it and because it hasn't happened to you you're going to be a smartass and say oh well you're the cause you're doing something wrong. I've been playing since 2006 myself, and this didn't really use to be much of an issue until more recent years, off and on. Usually only experience it when I'm on a BG binge where I'm BGing all day or very often.

Playing 4/5 years straigth, 0x booted out.

[zeropeorth]

Yeah, and you know what? Just because I don't like you right now, I could tell the BG to report you afk.. and they would, and you'd be sitting there with a deserter debuff even if you were participating and playing the BG. How do you feel about that? It's a function to get rid of people afking, not people that you dislike or don't want in the group, you idiot. I know for a FACT that you don't need 7 people to report you afk to get instantly kicked. Hell, I've been in bgs where there are a ton of bots and people that don't speak english but I can still get instantly kicked without a debuff. Come to think of it, I HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE DEBUFF IN FOREVER.

Another issue with this, is if you put someone you don't like on ignore, or reported them for language and they tell the group to report you afk.. and since you say nothing, they do report you afk even though you don't even see the message. There goes another instant kick.

It could just be your attitude. If you are as bitter and toxic in your BGs as you are towards the GM and the people who don't parrot your feelings; then that may be the real answer you seek, but don't want to hear. And, if you've read blue posts, it does suggest people griefing or not participating, even if not afk, to be reported afk.

I'd rather vote kick a toxic player and take the lottery that your replacement might be a bot/afker than have this attitude in a cooperative game:

not people that you dislike or don't want in the group, you idiot.

personal insults

Read up on what a GM is actually supposed to for their job before even commenting thinking you do. You see all those jokes tickets and so forth all the time and even the blue posts on the forums being silly and replying to stuff that really, doesn't merit their attention. So refrain from posting again.

mad because the blues try to retain the most minute amount of non business interaction (it was much more personal and often in the past), and didn't give you the exact answer you want ... also, being very aggressive to the poster, passive agressively attacking them, then telling a person that disagrees with you to not discuss on a discussion board

someone telling them what to do in BG chat for some reason instead.

honey and vinegar ... I'm assuming you just use napalm, demanding what people should be doing, and berating people regardless; from what you've displayed in this thread so far.


Additionally; re:

When I asked to speak a senior GM instead of him, I was given quite a blatant 'no' and any more tickets to be opened on the same issue would be considered "Gm harassment"

if you feel that this GM has misperformed their job, or didn't treat you properly as a customer ... take it up by calling one of their CSR's to have them look into it ...

but before you do that, you better read, and re-read thoroughly all of the tickets. You need to possibly have the most calm and grounded of your friends read them ... because you may be too involved to see it from the other perspective, or perceive your own aggressiveness ... and the call may not end up how you want, infuriating you even further.


Then again; what you say may also be true ... and you are just the perfectly friendly, full participation player that is getting picked on and a bug that not many out of the millions experience.

Personally, atm, I'm more leaning towards the conclusion Occam's Razor dictates.

[Omniscient]

There is nothing in the fucking rulebook for BGs that you have to be nice to people to stay in the battleground you fucking dimwitted prick. This isn't world of nicecraft, it's world of warcraft. I can be mean to people, and I can still NOT BE AFK and participating fully and doing what I'm supposed to do. NOTE IT'S REPORT AFK. NOT VOTE KICK FROM BG. K, thx.

[Tziva]

Since this has just resorted to a bunch of flaming, I am closing this thread.