Follow In Battlegrounds Broken After 5.2

[Khatovar]

Anyway I think you all have WAY over reacted by closing accounts. There is not a single evidence that the explanation Blizzard gave for the change and for not annoucing the change is not true. There is nothing unreasonable about their not annoucing it to catch more bots. All this community hystaria that Blizzard is out to eliminate multiboxing from the game seems a bit of a reach, at this point.

As far as I'm concerned, it's not one action, it's several recent actions. This, the OQueue thing, the automatic bans, getting booted when mass-reporting in the outside world, the "tolerated, for now" blue comment, the massive increase in bots in BGs as well as farming bots going unchecked for far too long. These are exactly the things I noted when I closed my first few accounts prior to the /follow debacle. Basically "you let bots get out of hand and your fixes aren't effective against bots, they just cripple and punnish multiboxers".

While almost none of these directly impact me as a strictly solo PvE multiboxer, it still feels like Blizzard is somehow of the mind that killing multiboxing is the obvious first step. They can easily get rid of us and score an immediate "win" in the eyes of the hissy-fit throwing general population that thinks we're just bot programs that "get away with it" because we're attended. Meanwhile the masses of the real bots that use sophisticated movement are only minimally inconvenienced, if effected at all. The masses are sated if not totally overjoyed by our tears and the belief that getting rid of us fixes everything, and they can feel good about that until the actual bots continue to rise or reappear, at which point Blizzard can go announce a mass ban of reported bots and score another win.

If Blizzard really wanted to throw a monkey wrench in the works of BG Bots, they should have looked more at a means of varying the maps randomly with objects bots can get stuck on and that real players can lead bots into getting trapped on. Rocks, fences, walls, ledges, tree groupings randomly spawned like ore nodes within the map that real players, even multiboxers using follow, can easily react to, but bots that rely on pre-determined pathing or randomly following someone can't seamlessly correct for. While it wouldn't be totally effective and lose effectiveness over time as bots adapt with more varied pathing and "stuck" responses unless Blizz has a ton of obstacle spawn variation, if we were just "collateral damage" as they claim, it would be a better band-aide than the steps they've taken recently, IMHO.

[Lyonheart]

It would be nice to know the facts, that is for sure. Like what kind of numbers we represent..how many solo players have canceled subs and said "dealing with multoxoers" as their reason for quitting? I mean all the whining in the world has not effected them until now? The only difference is the last few years the WoW subscriptions have dwindled. I mean, the game is still doing better than any other american MMO. BUt what? 3 million less than its peak? more? I have to believe that people leaving because of us is next to negligible, but maybe Im wrong.

I can see the masses of QQers not having anything to QQ about now and starting to harass the shit out of the PvE boxers now " They lag out the zone! it makes my play experience suck" They steal all the mobs when questing! The ruin the economy by dominating the inscription, alch, tailoring markets! bla bla bla!

[valkry]

I miss BC, that was a fun xpac...

[Ualaa]

Wow... I did not get the impression that Fat Tire was in any way complaining about Shodokan.
From his post, it sounded to me like he was saying: You can tell he is confident, not falsely bragging.

I guess you cannot 'hear' the tone of the wording, when it is straight text.
So two people can take a post completely differently.

I'd rather if the thread stays on topic.
If there is a workaround for boxing, that is viable, it's good to have it here.
If people are leaving or staying, better to note it here than in 39 threads across the forum.
If Blizzard changes their stance, or furthers their position with the removal of other features, again it belongs here.

Insulting each other, not so much.

[Palee]

Guys, the fact that they disabled /follow in arenas too, is a clear sign that removing /follow was actually a direct ban of multiboxing in PvP.
Blizz knows there are no bots in arena. How can there be bots there? How would a bot follow a legit player in arena? How would a bot even queue in the same arena with a legit player?
They targeted us without a doubt. And they threw us a sale too before this change hoping that they can string us a long a little more.
They knew very well some of us will cancel and some of us might even call to get a refund, but not all of us are doing that.
So the thinking process went like this:

Blizz emp1: We are killing multiboxing in PvP. It causes too much whining and people leaving the game.
Blizz emp2: OK, since they are gonna leave, let's throw them a sale so we can offset the losses as much as we can.

If they had kept /follow in arena then their pathetic excuse would have sounded more realistic, but they didn't.

[luxlunae]

Guys, the fact that they disabled /follow in arenas too, is a clear sign that removing /follow was actually a direct ban of multiboxing in PvP.
Blizz knows there are no bots in arena. How can there be bots there? How would a bot follow a legit player in arena? How would a bot even queue in the same arena with a legit player?
They targeted us without a doubt. And they threw us a sale too before this change hoping that they can string us a long a little more.
They knew very well some of us will cancel and some of us might even call to get a refund, but not all of us are doing that.
So the thinking process went like this:

Blizz emp1: We are killing multiboxing in PvP. It causes too much whining and people leaving the game.
Blizz emp2: OK, since they are gonna leave, let's throw them a sale so we can offset the losses as much as we can.

If they had kept /follow in arena then their pathetic excuse would have sounded more realistic, but they didn't.

I don't think that the sale was a scheme and I think that the dual ban was probably more about the way the mechanics of pvp regions are set up in game than an intentional snipe. I don't think there is anyone out there that thinks that multiboxers are a problem in arenas. I think they were just lazy and couldn't find a quick way to do the follow break in just BGs.

[Palee]

I don't think that the sale was a scheme and I think that the dual ban was probably more about the way the mechanics of pvp regions are set up in game than an intentional snipe. I don't think there is anyone out there that thinks that multiboxers are a problem in arenas. I think they were just lazy and couldn't find a quick way to do the follow break in just BGs.

Man, read this quote again and tell me what you think then:

Right now /follow is also disabled in Arenas, but we’re looking to revert that change as bots don’t typically exist in Arenas, and multiboxing in that kind of pre-determined group environment doesn’t tend to be as disruptive.

After you read that quote, read just this part 10 times:

as bots don’t typically exist in Arenas, and multiboxing in that kind of pre-determined group environment doesn’t tend to be as disruptive.

[Palee]

What I mean in case it's not clear, is that they just don't like us, that we are disruptive of their gameplay. Saying that they are looking to revert that change it means they could have not done it in the first place. I don't think it's a lazy kind of thing.

[moosejaw]

I only had 2 accounts active when 5.2 hit and I am so glad I didn't do 6 month subs for all of my accounts ( I almost did that a few weeks back). Last night I transferred my 2 personal guilds to my best friend here in STL with the strong possibility of not coming back. When I took time off the game previously I kept the guilds in my hands. I feel I have logged in for the last time.

During the xmass 2011 sales I picked up battlechests and expansions in anticipation of 10 boxing. Yesterday I gave a coworker a cata box and a wrath key so she could start catching up to her husbands account. My best friend was going to start a second account so I can boost him to cata if he goes through with it.

When I canceled my other accounts a while back I noted the increasing hostile atmosphere toward boxers and that blizzard wasn't doing enough to counter the misinformed.

For blizzard with love,

[Meathead]

hahaha ^^^ So true....DONE! But once the makers of the bot's get around this follow issue there will be tons back in the BG's Botting. Give it a few weeks Ima kno