Battlegrounds - Abuse of the AFK system

[Catamer]

I suggest the same thing, get the insignia that lets you port back to the begining and prevent them from taking your own commander. with rank 6 you can continuously port back. I think it's lots of fun depending on your team. my 5x shaman and the stench of lightning fried horde ....

[thinus]

It's not a violation of WoW's Terms of Use to harass anyone unless it is specifically through Chat. According to the rules, it's perfectly okay to spam someone with guild charters, duels, group/raid invites and indeed the battleground AFK reporting. The only difference is harassment from AFK reporting can't be handled by a UI addon.

I think your interpretation is simplistic.

Rules Related to "Chat" and Interaction With Other Users. Communicating in-game with other Users and Blizzard representatives, whether by text, voice or any other method, is an integral part of the Game and the Service and is referred to here as "Chat."

Flagging you as AFK can be argued as an interaction with you and it is a disruptive effect. You can block most types of harassment with a /ignore. You can also block guild charter spam and duels with native UI settings. You can't prevent someone from flagging you as AFK.

Also:

Rules Related to Game Play. Game play is what World of Warcraft is all about, and Blizzard strictly enforces the rules that govern game play. Blizzard considers most conduct to be part of the Game, and not harassment, so player-killing the enemies of your race and/or alliance, including gravestone and/or corpse camping, is considered a part of the Game. Because the Game is a "player vs. player" game, you should always remember to protect yourself in areas where the members of hostile races can attack you, rather than contacting Blizzard's in-game customer service representatives for help when you have been killed by an enemy of your race. Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Use. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
(i) Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;

(ii) Conduct prohibited by the EULA or elsewhere in these Terms of Use; and

(iii) Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Game.

AFK reporting you can easily be justified as an exploit of an error in design (unintended use of the AFK mechanism) to gain a competitive advantage over you. They earn honor and you get stuck with 15 min deserter flags.

There is currently a macro doing the rounds where the entire raid is reported as AFK. If you are repeatedly flagged as AFK by someone try and get the logs or screenshots of it and submit a harassment ticket with the log entries. In my experience Blizzard is not very tolerant of any kind of harassment or abuse and if it is one person or a guild doing this all the time then I am convinced the GM will ask them to cease and desist which should be enough to stop them doing it.

Just remember that you are not doing the GMs job. The information you give to the GM is that you are being targeted by other players and you provide proof in the form of chat log entries or screenshots. Then you let the GM talk to them about it. If the GM sounds doubtful then ask him if it is their official stance that it is OK for other players to target and disrupt your gameplay in this way.

[valkry]

DAVID, Atox here from frostmourne, we have met a few times in AV. I know your problem mate and I have experienced it myself. They tried to report me as idle but I just akept attacking horde to clear it. I spose that is all you can do and seeing as they are a premade, you don't have to camp a tower or bunker as they will do it so you get a nice honour fillled win anyway.

I actually have joined up with them before, on Bloodlust battlegroup it is called "QQ cross realm premade AV" but stopped after the first game when the organiser told us to "report everyone AFK who isn't in our premade so we can get our guys in" which is just being a tool.

At the start, if you notice them not lining up at the gate, go and stand with them (they report everyone past the last lamp post in the cave). That might save you.

Some of them spam the emote saying ur afk and to type /afk to remove it, THIS is reportable, feel free to open a ticket about that.

They failed to get me kicked and I managed to get about 10 of them kicked (I fought back after i got reported idle), then I went on their vent and told them it's pointless to keep reporting someone who knows how to remove it and won't fall for their tricks, and I hope their 10 players with the deserter debuff are having a nice time.

[Naysayer]

Dave, just bring a mage and open a bunch of portals at the AV gate

You know a good bunch of idiots will click on them....

you're 2 years too late.

[daviddoran]

the direbrew remote doesn't work anymore either.

Thanks for all the advice. It didn't happen again today, so hopefully these run ins will be the exception rather than the rule.

[Budkin]

I get so many hks no way you ever get afk flagged lol .I'm going for my 100k life time hks title 75k + atm They love me on my battle group i haven't had any hate in a long time kinda nice .

[Hurricane]

Valkry how the hell did you find their vent chanel :P

[shaeman]

They still do it in Dalaran with WG pops....

Do people still wait at the portal for WG now - I thought they had changed it to teleport you there instantly if you got chosen. (although I should say I haven't done WG since the changes to BG's).

[Alemi]

EDIT: Holy shit, Vyndree's post is almost 2 years old. Ya.... this problem has been around for awhile.

Vyndree's advice is still sound today:

Wow. I remember that thread. Hard to believe it was that long ago. Now, I feel old. Thanks Fur!

There's just the one striking difference between than and now... the old afk system would flag you as unable to get honor but it would not boot you from the game, or give you a deserter debuff. And you didn't have a ticking time bomb on you while you're trying to get into combat. And in some BGs, it's just not that easy, considering most of the time you'll get it while dead at a graveyard and there's 15-30 of your precious seconds.

It's just frustrating.

[Ualaa]

Every time it happens, I'd open a ticket.
Don't need to mention that you were boxing.

Just pick one toon, mention you were actively participating in the BG.
And that you were flagged as AFK.
Ask if this type of harrassment is ok with Blizzard.

The squeeky wheel gets the grease.