Guild Wars 2

Love this event. Easily my fave since game release. However, almost ever time I do it, there are probably 15 or 20 people just standing either at a gate or in a hidden corner. It’s pretty apparent they run in, then shrink the game to do something else, while receiving bags for doing absolutely nothing. If anything, they are keeping out players who want to actively participate.

thread merge with the other 2-3 afk threads. please bump those if you want to rant instead of creating a new afk thread.

~ new mechanic afki’ing for more than 10 minutes causes friendly fire – i’d use the hammer to send flying those who just stand there back through that exit gate.

Hey look! This again.

They aren’t bots. They are afk. Play YOUR game and stop worrying about what other people are doing. The more time you spend looking and complaining about afkers the less time you are saving civilians.

a bot made this thread ._.

Kumu Honua.2751:

Hey look! This again.

They aren’t bots. They are afk. Play YOUR game and stop worrying about what other people are doing. The more time you spend looking and complaining about afkers the less time you are saving civilians.

No, they could use bots to move their characters to their desired places to afk while they sleep or go to someplace else. I know because “somebody I know” built a simple one but relented to use it.

Kumu Honua.2751:

The more time you spend looking and complaining about afkers the less time you are saving civilians.

This is really not an argument. Spotting the AFKers is a simple as using the WPs and looking at the screen while you run by, and the people making the complaints are (hopefully) not doing the LA event while they’re here making the post. They see the AFKers while running around and then come on here later to post.

Imagine if you were at lunch with someone and they made a complaint about something they saw on the side of the road on their way over, and you said “the more time you spend looking and complaining about it the less time you are driving to lunch.” Same argument, same amount of sense (none.)

Also, the previous thread on this topic was closed by the mods, hence no thread to bump. In fact the dev post basically said “please create a new thread on this topic if you want to discuss it” so here we are.

Kalarchis.8635:

Kumu Honua.2751:

The more time you spend looking and complaining about afkers the less time you are saving civilians.

This is really not an argument. Spotting the AFKers is a simple as using the WPs and looking at the screen while you run by, and the people making the complaints are (hopefully) not doing the LA event while they’re here making the post. They see the AFKers while running around and then come on here later to post.

Imagine if you were at lunch with someone and they made a complaint about something they saw on the side of the road on their way over, and you said “the more time you spend looking and complaining about it the less time you are driving to lunch.” Same argument, same amount of sense (none.)

Also, the previous thread on this topic was closed by the mods, hence no thread to bump. In fact the dev post basically said “please create a new thread on this topic if you want to discuss it” so here we are.

The interesting thing about all this is….ZZzzZzZZzzzZZZZzz

There have been several discussions regarding players being AFK inside LA during the event and how Anet did not think to prevent such behavior by making a required number of tasks to be completed to “earn” the reward. I’m also totally fine with players doing this as long as they do not use disallowed programs to circumvent the AFK timer and prevent themselves from being kicked or break any other rules agreed upon by us all in the Terms of Service. Honestly, Anet should have thought about this potentially being an issue. If it was something they didn’t want to happen then they should’ve changed the AFK timer while in LA or, more appropriately, make required actions be completed to be eligible for the reward bag. This became an issue for many on day 1 of the patch and it was quickly brought to Anet’s attention. If Anet didn’t want to permit this behavior then they should have patched the game to have the said requirement for reward and/or the shortened AFK timer. By not fixing the supposed problem, they essentially said it was permissible behavior (within the limits of the ToS). Inaction is an action. Leaving it as is without it being corrected shows it is permissible (despite an actual employee seeming to become annoyed by this behavior and decided to take personal and flat out wrong action against legitimate players playing the game in a permissible way).

Several of such threads have been closed due to people being people, but feel free to browse the forums for those threads as anything else that can be said about the situation has been said in those.

It all comes down the devs if they will do something about this on the next update. The code is probably finished, tested, and ready for deployment, but I don’t know if they still have time to put some automated checks in the upcoming March 4 event to deal with this “problem” (depending on your view). Chances are, we will still see more of them, if the event’s game mechanics would entice afkers again. There’s a scenario where this could get chronic, and that is when more and more people decide to go afk as a solution, and like what OP said, some might use bots to move their characters around and rez them automatically.

There should be a code whereas if someone is afk for more than 20 mins, or only performs the same tasks over and over at the same interval, they lose one exp level and 2% of their account currencies for every further minute they remain in that status.

That would highly amuse me.

GuzziHero.2467:

they lose one exp level and 2% of their account currencies for every further minute they remain in that status.
.

easy
all my money are in my personal guild bank and you can use a level 1 character to stay afk since reward are not level related.

checkmate

actually let ppl who stay afk stay afk.

10 20 ppl who know what to do are enough to get 1200 free citizens they just have to patrol the same zone covering all the city.

That’s amazing how ridiculous ideas some come up with. Punish afkers, ban afkers, kill afkers. This is 3rd thread (I think) about the same and yet you can’t see that the problem is reward system giving loot to afkers.

While I hope the Lion’s Arch event ends soon, I think the general design of the event is good and can be reused. They just need to learn from the mistakes they’ve made, and giving rewards to people that are not actually doing the zone event is a big one.

Now you see why people vote Republican. Free riders are everywhere, not just in game but in real life as well. When you get tired of enriching freeloaders with your own efforts, you will choose accordingly.

No sense in complaining about this anymore. It seems to be becoming accepted by the community so don’t expect anything to change. It has gotten so bad now, I recently saw roughly 10 or so players, all in the same guild autorun threw the gate without helping us fight the mob, then once inside, they all took off their armor and stood against the back wall. Well organized laziness/leeching.

Klonex.4562:

thread merge with the other 2-3 afk threads. please bump those if you want to rant instead of creating a new afk thread.

~ new mechanic afki’ing for more than 10 minutes causes friendly fire – i’d use the hammer to send flying those who just stand there back through that exit gate.

Those threads got locked, cause the only definite is that eventually this will devolve into bickering and nonsense and it too will be locked.

Steel Fenrir.2791:

Kumu Honua.2751:

Hey look! This again.

They aren’t bots. They are afk. Play YOUR game and stop worrying about what other people are doing. The more time you spend looking and complaining about afkers the less time you are saving civilians.

No, they could use bots to move their characters to their desired places to afk while they sleep or go to someplace else. I know because “somebody I know” built a simple one but relented to use it.

Just because someone COULD do a thing doesn’t mean they ARE doing a thing. If you think they’re botting, report them and move on. Otherwise, just move on.

GuzziHero.2467:

There should be a code whereas if someone is afk for more than 20 mins, or only performs the same tasks over and over at the same interval, they lose one exp level and 2% of their account currencies for every further minute they remain in that status.

That would highly amuse me.

Sounds like a griefer to me.

I’ll quote myself since still there are ppl who believe auto-afk-kicker is a problem. No girls, it isn’t.

szygum.2607:

That’s amazing how ridiculous ideas some come up with. Punish afkers, ban afkers, kill afkers. This is 3rd thread (I think) about the same and yet you can’t see that the problem is reward system giving loot to afkers.

szygum.2607:

I’ll quote myself since still there are ppl who believe auto-afk-kicker is a problem. No girls, it isn’t.

szygum.2607:

That’s amazing how ridiculous ideas some come up with. Punish afkers, ban afkers, kill afkers. This is 3rd thread (I think) about the same and yet you can’t see that the problem is reward system giving loot to afkers.

Quoting yourself isn’t going to change anybody’s mind if the first time didn’t.

Kal Spiro.9745:

szygum.2607:

I’ll quote myself since still there are ppl who believe auto-afk-kicker is a problem. No girls, it isn’t.

szygum.2607:

That’s amazing how ridiculous ideas some come up with. Punish afkers, ban afkers, kill afkers. This is 3rd thread (I think) about the same and yet you can’t see that the problem is reward system giving loot to afkers.

Quoting yourself isn’t going to change anybody’s mind if the first time didn’t.

Thank you for this extremely important post. We will call you.

szygum.2607:

Kal Spiro.9745:

szygum.2607:

I’ll quote myself since still there are ppl who believe auto-afk-kicker is a problem. No girls, it isn’t.

szygum.2607:

That’s amazing how ridiculous ideas some come up with. Punish afkers, ban afkers, kill afkers. This is 3rd thread (I think) about the same and yet you can’t see that the problem is reward system giving loot to afkers.

Quoting yourself isn’t going to change anybody’s mind if the first time didn’t.

Thank you for this extremely important post. We will call you.

Lovely, well I guess there are people on both sides of the debate that have nothing to offer to it. So there’s that.

Kal Spiro.9745:

szygum.2607:

Kal Spiro.9745:

szygum.2607:

I’ll quote myself since still there are ppl who believe auto-afk-kicker is a problem. No girls, it isn’t.

szygum.2607:

That’s amazing how ridiculous ideas some come up with. Punish afkers, ban afkers, kill afkers. This is 3rd thread (I think) about the same and yet you can’t see that the problem is reward system giving loot to afkers.

Quoting yourself isn’t going to change anybody’s mind if the first time didn’t.

Thank you for this extremely important post. We will call you.

Lovely, well I guess there are people on both sides of the debate that have nothing to offer to it. So there’s that.

What is more to offer? It’s the 3rd topic about the same. Everything has been already told. Reward system is broken, not afkers’ fault. As time goes, more bugs are revealed. Developers are silent. Consider more same poor content in the future.

I would prefer not to “punish” folks who are AFK, or implement an idle timer that logs you out if you don’t move after a couple minutes. Really it seems this whole thing could be resolved if the Group Effort rewards were truly based on group effort. If you participate in events, kill mobs, revive people, etc. you get the group effort reward. If you stand idle and do none of those things, then you shouldn’t get a group effort reward.

szygum.2607:

What is more to offer? It’s the 3rd topic about the same. Everything has been already told. Reward system is broken, not afkers’ fault. As time goes, more bugs are revealed. Developers are silent. Consider more same poor content in the future.

So you agree that AFKers are exploiting and should be banned? Ok, thanks.

The reward system is not broken. They intend everyone in the zone to get the reward. They however didn’t think that people would be doing a perfectly acceptable action of sitting there afk while not participating.

They do have the tools to fix the issue. They can change the afk timer to 5 minutes or whatever they want to use.

Being afk is not an exploit or the ENTIRE POPULATION should be banned because every last person has been afk at one point or another.

I saw someone AFKing at the top of the TP where a rubble pile was, the character was running in to wall. All I did was /wave and then /dance near him/her and then went on my way. I understand why people are angry on both sides of this argument, but for me, life’s too short to get angry at people, especially people I don’t know.

Abaia.1365:

szygum.2607:

What is more to offer? It’s the 3rd topic about the same. Everything has been already told. Reward system is broken, not afkers’ fault. As time goes, more bugs are revealed. Developers are silent. Consider more same poor content in the future.

So you agree that AFKers are exploiting and should be banned? Ok, thanks.

“Broken” as in “badly designed”. The reward system is doing exactly what it was meant to do – giving out rewards to everyone regardless of their participation. AFKers are using (using, not exploting) this to get a meager reward when they are doing something outside of game. Don’t blame them for it. Besides, it’s not like they are getting rich on your work (let’s face it, the “citizen saved” rewards are pathetic). If you want to blame someone, aim your complaints at Anet developers and ask them to design the next event better.

Abaia.1365:

szygum.2607:

What is more to offer? It’s the 3rd topic about the same. Everything has been already told. Reward system is broken, not afkers’ fault. As time goes, more bugs are revealed. Developers are silent. Consider more same poor content in the future.

So you agree that AFKers are exploiting and should be banned? Ok, thanks.

No, I don’t. You’re funny guy anyway.

Is there a way to lure mobs on them? Aggro mobs, move slowly to afk group, stealth?

Buttercup.5871:

Is there a way to lure mobs on them? Aggro mobs, move slowly to afk group, stealth?

Yes. Lure mobs. But what is the point?

So, is there actually any reason to not afk in this event? You get rewards, you won’t get banned, you don’t have to do anything? It’s not like we never had this problem before (Scarlet Invasions) but I really don’t see a reason to “play this event” when I get rewarded without doing anything and apparently A.Net thinks the same way because in those 2 weeks there was no update that fixed this problem.

The OP does have a valid point though. Not once have I been able to get into my servers LA instance, I have been placed into overflows (Story of my life in GW2, the pain that is constant overflows). Now if people are AFK’ing in LA they should be kicked to allow those of us that would like to try and organise something with our own server to do so.

Buttercup.5871:

Is there a way to lure mobs on them? Aggro mobs, move slowly to afk group, stealth?

That is griefing and you can be reported for doing it.

What is great about the entire argument is that you can get 1200 with only 30 people if you just disperse and rez citizens. The only reason you fail is because of zerging and scaling of events which I think is a much greater issue. That Anet doesn’t know how to scale events.

I bet 100% of people who are complaining where with zerg with a loot stick

We where able with a zerg of 100 collect all 40 relecks at reset and still get 1200. So your argument about afks and bots really hold no water.

The fundamental reason is it is more rewarding to zerg and scale events then to win which has always been a problem with living story events with a timer attached to it. Since the scarlet invasions Anet really has never address this.

An they do have an afk kicking code if you are inactive more then 5mins-10mins or so. Put the people you are talking about are actively afk. And if you give kicking power to hands of players large guilds will kick others for a solo guild run. So I don’t really see how any of your solutions are really addressing this aspect of it.

True problem with LS is people don’t read about event mechanics then complain its too hard or we cant get the coordination. Expecting to win with minimal effort. And Anet doesn’t roll that way.

easy fix. only give the players who do at least 3 events or save 10 civilians the bags. afk should get what they deserve, nothing.

Still won’t fix problem adding 30 to the zerg won’t cause the event to suddenly succeed. In fact afkers are better then players who stay dead in events scaling them so they cant be done. how is that for karma

afk are still worse

Fafnir.5124:

Still won’t fix problem adding 30 to the zerg won’t cause the event to suddenly succeed. In fact afkers are better then players who stay dead in events scaling them so they cant be done. how is that for karma

So you actually defending those leechers? :/

kokiman.2364:

Fafnir.5124:

Still won’t fix problem adding 30 to the zerg won’t cause the event to suddenly succeed. In fact afkers are better then players who stay dead in events scaling them so they cant be done. how is that for karma

So you actually defending those leechers? :/

Do you hate leechers but you don’t say a thing about zergers? They’re doing the SAME, not helping citizens.

Headless.3718:

easy fix. only give the players who do at least 3 events or save 10 civilians the bags. afk should get what they deserve, nothing.

I thought about suggesting something like this, but there’s a problem with it. What about the person that’s actually TRYING to help, but running into bad luck? What if they’re getting there right as someone else saves a civilian, or dying right as they jump into an event and it’s over by the time they can get back and at least get a bronze for helping?

Yes, it’s easy to get to those limits for the whole event, but what about for the 200 rescue reward? I can easily see a LOT of people missing out on that one, even if they’re trying their hardest. Bad luck, a bit of lag… it wouldn’t take much, really.

I’m pretty sure this is why the rewards go to everyone in the zone, to avoid this problem. It’s just that in trying to be fair to those that are giving their all to help, AFKers get a free ride. Between the two choices, I think I prefer this over honest players not getting the reward they’ve worked for.

Now, for the final reward bag? I say they should require some effort check to be passed. It doesn’t have to be high (I like the ones you suggested), just enough to show that they’ve been trying. Something that’s easy to do within the span of an entire run of the event, but requires more than grinding your face into a wall.

While it’s easy to assume that everyone not moving is some lazy leech that refuses to help.. a lot of them are:

- alt-tabbed to an achievement guide to figure out their next step.
- clearing some inventory by using the Trading Post.
- chatting with others, possibly to co-ordinate events.
- still loading in.

Zabrios.6079:

kokiman.2364:

Fafnir.5124:

Still won’t fix problem adding 30 to the zerg won’t cause the event to suddenly succeed. In fact afkers are better then players who stay dead in events scaling them so they cant be done. how is that for karma

So you actually defending those leechers? :/

Do you hate leechers but you don’t say a thing about zergers? They’re doing the SAME, not helping citizens.

Leechers are a community problem, the zerger mentality is a problem that comes from all the previous content, so it’s a.nets “fault”. A.Net can fix that zerger mentality without our help, we can’t fix the leecher problem without A.Nets help.

kokiman.2364:

Leechers are a community problem, the zerger mentality is a problem that comes from all the previous content, so it’s a.nets “fault”. A.Net can fix that zerger mentality without our help, we can’t fix the leecher problem without A.Nets help.

Anet can change the afk timer in the LA event to 5 minutes like it is in wvwvw. They have the tools to fix the issue. They haven’t done so.

“Leeches”, not “bots”. Learn your terminology.

danbuter.2314:

Love this event. Easily my fave since game release. However, almost ever time I do it, there are probably 15 or 20 people just standing either at a gate or in a hidden corner. It’s pretty apparent they run in, then shrink the game to do something else, while receiving bags for doing absolutely nothing. If anything, they are keeping out players who want to actively participate.

Kumu Honua.2751:

kokiman.2364:

Leechers are a community problem, the zerger mentality is a problem that comes from all the previous content, so it’s a.nets “fault”. A.Net can fix that zerger mentality without our help, we can’t fix the leecher problem without A.Nets help.

Anet can change the afk timer in the LA event to 5 minutes like it is in wvwvw. They have the tools to fix the issue. They haven’t done so.

Maybe this timer only works playmode wide, so either everywhere in pve or nowhere. Dunno, they must have a reason why they are not fixing it. Would be kinda interessting to hear about those reasons, to be honest.

Kumu Honua.2751:

kokiman.2364:

Leechers are a community problem, the zerger mentality is a problem that comes from all the previous content, so it’s a.nets “fault”. A.Net can fix that zerger mentality without our help, we can’t fix the leecher problem without A.Nets help.

Anet can change the afk timer in the LA event to 5 minutes like it is in wvwvw. They have the tools to fix the issue. They haven’t done so.

Yep, Anet doesn’t give a skritt’s shiney. Same amount of concern they provided for the AFKers in Dragon Ball mini game.

The event design is really at fault for this. Non-participation should mean no rewards. Can’t blame people for taking advantage of flawed game design IMO (slightly different to true exploits).

Missywink.7162:

The OP does have a valid point though. Not once have I been able to get into my servers LA instance, I have been placed into overflows (Story of my life in GW2, the pain that is constant overflows). Now if people are AFK’ing in LA they should be kicked to allow those of us that would like to try and organise something with our own server to do so.

Sorry, but no. I’m from TC which is one of the top pop servers and I can still manage to get into my server 2 out of 5 tries or better. If you really want to be in there you can get in there.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

While it’s easy to assume that everyone not moving is some lazy leech that refuses to help.. a lot of them are:

- alt-tabbed to an achievement guide to figure out their next step.
- clearing some inventory by using the Trading Post.
- chatting with others, possibly to co-ordinate events.
- still loading in.

No, seriously. Some of them may be, but the ones clustered around the gate the entire time are leechers, period. That’s a thing.