AFK soluton here :)

[Grendeel]

Seems bliz is finally gonna do something.  I sure hope it resloves the issue


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.

[Nixphire]

You beat me to it! About time!
Don't know if I agree with suspention. I'd be happy with a 2 or 3 day "deserter buff"

[Shadowwolf]

YES!!

Finally!

[JohnnieRat]

I wonder what the limit is with how many times you can get deserter. Sometimes somethings just come up where you gotta go afk a few minutes and eat a debuff. Whether you /afk or get a time limit one, you still get it.

[Buzan]

I don't agree with account suspension either.

I'm fine with them taking away all your honor if worse comes to worse, but suspending your account for this is taking it a little too far.

[fiere redfern]

It sounds like they're taking them on a case-by-case basis. The difference between farming honor points by sitting in the caves all fight in every BG you enter, and going /afk 1 out of 100 or so BGs because of RL stuff that gets in the way for example. Prolly gonna generate a whole mess of GM petitions saying "WHY WUZ I DOCkED HP?!?!11!?!" but such is life.

[Shadowwolf]

/afk Deserter and /afk standing in a BG at the spawn point are not the same

leaving a BG via /afk has always been ok, this is for those people with bots that jump, cast self buffs, etc to keep from auto-afking while the account player goes off and does laundry or something.

I dont think they will be suspending accounts for first offenses and whatnot, but I mean people from Illidan have taken it to extremes with having bots queue them up and just standing there for BG after BG. I was in a marathon AB session a few weeks ago and the same druid was in every AB with me for 4 hours, never participated. Thats the kind of stuff imo that deserves a suspension if continued. Its people like that which cause Alliance to have a harder time winning BGs. Did WSG one night where match after match is was 7 AFK on alliance and 1 maybe 2, usually 0 AFK on Horde, I mean you truly cannot win against that.

That level of afk goes from trying to exploit the system to disadvantaging and ruining other peoples play experience and is worthy of an acct suspension imo

[khader]

I see no issue with suspending accounts for repeated and verified violations.  No difference in using a bot to farm mats/gold or honor in a BG - its a violation in both situations and is a voluntary action.  If a person chooses to use a bot they should be prepared to deal with the consequences.

Another possible solution could be to route AFK'ers to a BG comprised totally of other AFKers.  Leave a BG as a reported AFK'er(show zero activity) and the next one queued for would be the AFK holding BG.  The AFKer can continue to their heart's content - just not going to be very productive hanging around with a bunch of other AFKers.  Break the cycle by participating in the AFK BG to its conclusion for zero honor.  Then for the next 10 BGs only earn a percentage of the total possible honor - 10,20,30,40,50..etc until back to earning 100%.  Its possible still to game the system but the delay would effectively eliminate honor gain from those choosing to try to earn honor without participation.

[LastDyingBreath]

you guys are sissies.

If I ran things, AFKbotting would be punished by character deletion.

[Trismus]

you guys are sissies.

If I ran things, AFKbotting would be punished by character deletion.

lol, that's what I was just thinking :p

[Luise]

ouch!

[Nasanna]

But then Blizzard wouldn't get their $15 per month!

I saw some people arguing that reporting AFKers won't solve the problem because AFKers want a certain amount of honor to purchase whatever item they're going for. Once they're reported, they'll get banned and have to AFK longer to get the gear they want, so you'll see them in battlegrounds more often.

Personally, I don't care and will report any AFKers I see. I hope it takes them forever to get the gear that they did not earn. I also think getting the AFK ban should give you a weeklong debuff so everyone on your server can see that you don't participate in battlegrounds. Maybe it could do something embarrassing too, like turn all their armor pink, have  giant arrow like Hunter's Mark over their heads that says "Cheater!", make them take extra durability damage, or have their name title say "Joe AFKs in Battlegrounds."

The best time to report people is in the first 5 minutes or so of a match. That way, they get very little honor. Look for them in the starting area of the battleground (like still under the bubble for EotS), or you might see them hanging out in a graveyard, but alive- they're not waiting on the res timer. Be careful in AV, some people are defending a tower or graveyard or something and waiting for it to cap. Also, check the scoreboard for people who have zero damage/healing done a little later in the game.  I usually check the map and scoreboard for AFK people when I die and am waiting to res or if there are no horde nearby while I'm eating and drinking or waiting to cap a tower. Announce in battleground chat that that person is AFK and others will hopefully report them too.

[Shadowwolf]

Heres the official thread address for those that want:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3881781638&sid=1

[Buzan]

Lol bring on the afkers.

If i ever find myself in a BG again I can't wait to report the first one I see there lol.