AFK Checks

I don't wish it on anyone - but I also had a perfect record of not even a warning up until I was suspended within a few minutes of accidentally falling asleep. But hey - I was "afk" because I did fall asleep - intentional or not - technically a violation of the rules and I didn't ask for the suspension to be reversed.

This newest suspension though - I was actively playing - I didn't fall asleep - just BOOM disconnected out of nowhere.

Maybe I did miss a /say from a GM...

I did say this in my petition about /say AFK checks:

GMs showing up, GM invis, and then using /say to see if you're there when /say is the most likely to be missed unintentionally is absurd. Sure - you'll catch some bots - but if you try it on enough people you'll catch legitimate players too.

I don't think that anybody here is really arguing that /say is hard to miss or that /say is really the best way that AFK checks should be performed.

Using /say for AFK check predisposes even the most upstanding of players to false positives. Maybe you get lucky and happen to see it or maybe you don't and you're suspended. Not just kicked offline for being AFK - but suspended.

I know that personally I now have a whole chat window dedicated to /say - a window that regularly gets filled with spam and junk I don't need or want to look at but I have no choice if I don't want to randomly get knocked offline for a week because somebody doesn't like that I'm at a camp they want.

I suggested something similar to this in my petition. Even without making changes to the game they could simply have the GM send a tell with some sort of captcha-like content.

"Hello, I am GM Upstanding and this is an AFK check. If you're not AFK please let me know what the result of 7+3 is as soon as possible."

Sure there's the argument that maybe people don't know how to do simplistic math and this could predispose those people to failure - but being that the GM is human and ideally the person responding is human - the person would likely respond and say something to that effect. I'm sure it'll be pretty easy for the GM to work out whether or not the person is a person.

I had one instance of an AFK check from a GM a few months ago - they sent me a tell - I replied - they told me to have a great day and I wished the same for them. Had they done this check in /say I probably would have been suspended then too.

Bobby nailed it on the second reply, GM's aren't interested in people that randomly have to AFK for real life reasons.

If you're getting checked by a GM there's probably a reason.

Yes the reason is someone reported you because you have the camp they want.

Definitely this. I can't say I've ever seen a GM in the game when there wasn't a petition or a GM event going on.

Many people have been suspended (who otherwise would not have) because the afk check was done in /say rather than /tell without providing sufficient time to respond. This is getting out of control. Has got to stop.

I feel that you created a system where you send a tell and it makes your icon flash if you are tabbed out or on another box...this is a system that the Devs created in their game. So talking to someone in "say" is just avoiding a system you created. If they do not respond to a tell they deserve to get a couple day break from EQ but not answering a channel that is about to be turned off in game by the player is unacceptable. I keep my say box off to the side because I hate seeing all the spam of "location" or "ready" at raids. Not paying attention to a say channel should not result in a ban.

Ive personally been afk checked while pulling on one character and they afk checked the other characters. They did it in say. If I didnt have prior knowledge that i need a say specific window and I didnt have two monitors I would have lost my entire group while pulling.

On rizlona it is basically a weapon at this point. someone has a camp you want press the P button. Some other guild beat you in the dps race? Press your P button when they are xping.

Ive personally Pressed the button on people and with in the hours of 8est to 12 est they respond in minutes and check them in say.

Whats funny was my 6 yr old son was playing when u guys banned my acount. I told him to let me know if someone messages me just in case a guildie or someone wanted to say hellow. I came back seeing him playing a different game saying i got disconnected. I later received an email saying i was cheating. I then saw in my logs A GM came by and said something in say. Then got banned for 7 days. Thankfully it was only for a week but it never should of happened. I even tried replying to the email justifying my actions, but no reply or even a simply reason or a message from the actuall GM so I can have a conversation with him. Btw, I probably let my son play for about 15 mins...

Depressingly sad. Surely the people at DBG must know this is going on.... Surely.

These random suspensions are also happening on Blue servers.

If you open a petition you'll get a boilerplate "unattended gameplay" "you have to respond to a gm" "we looked into this and we're sure we've made the right decision". Every - single - time. I saw it LOTS of times before I was ever suspended by other people sharing it. I honestly never really thought it was an issue until it hit me. Now I see how obviously flawed this system is.

Just don't fail the AFK check then

Probably because they got petitioned for AFK farming.

AFK Checks in /say are not reasonable.

Failing an AFK check that's designed to be failed isn't evidence of anything.

I'm not saying AFK checks shouldn't exist - I'm saying there are definitely better ways to do it that are less likely to falsely label a legitimate player as a cheater.

That said I do have to wonder why a first offense is an immediate 7 day suspension. I guess the paperwork of a warning takes too much time? (Really I don't know.)

I personally do my best to stay within the rules and to my knowledge I haven't violated them and yet I've been suspended twice. I am not sure if accidentally falling asleep at the keyboard really is "cheating" but if it is I guess you can say I was guilty once of falling asleep at the computer.

The suspension that's in place now I was actively playing my character when it happened. I don't remember seeing a /say and neither does anybody else in my group that didn't get suspended.

Yes

Interesting. I suppose for some GM events it would be required.

there were a limit back then, where you could only summon mobs with models in the global pool and in the local pool, if the mob was only in a local pool in another zone it would "bug" aka look like human male or something (been a few years) guides can too and can also change their own looks and everyone elses looks... some "bored" GM's often did it on the servers I played on... so suddenly the guards in guild lobby would look different (horses, elementals and what not) and it is also those tricks they use for guide events (a guide with high enough rank can cast it themselves, lower level ranks need a higher rank one to cast on them) and they can cast any spell/buff they want no matter the class (had a GM fool around casting Aego on ppl in Tutorial once)

I fully support AFK farmers being removed by any means necessary. And I happily cool my GPU with the tears of banned botters.

Keep the copium coming though.