AFK Checks

The suspensions are concerning, mainly because many players don't know what they did wrong, cannot find a missed /say or /tell in their log. When your friends are getting kicked off the game, other folks don't feel like playing so guilds get quiet fast.

I had 2 accounts suspended Friday and 4 on Monday and the initial 2 were given this reason.



I play on Rizlona. Still waiting on another response from GM via petition. At this rate they will just have been suspended for the whole 7 days and I am 100% going to log them all back in. Worried they will be suspended again or banned because I won't be doing anything different. You are allowed to box on Rizlona.

I also fully support removing afk farmers - but not at the expense of removing legitimate players that may not be watching /say carefully. For myself I’m not worried - I know what to watch for now and I don’t think I’ll have an issue with it again. It’s every other person that’s innocent at the time of suspension in the future I’m trying to help.

Cheaters and hackers and afk campers can all get suspended if that’s what they’re actually doing imho.

It would be great to have DPG weigh-in with some meaningful insight on this post.

I don't think the large majority of the community is looking to circumvent or undermine the rules of the server in anyway - just like there always has been, a few people will continue to push things past the line and they'll be handled with accordingly.

However, the majority of us are trying to play within the confine of the rules set by DPG. The problem is we've received mixed signals to say the very least - one staff member of DPG says aforementioned 3rd party program is perfectly fine on Rizlona (and the community was told this before the server ever even launched). Then you get into a conversation 1-on-1 with a GM who says it isn't allowed. Let's not even get into GM's suspending people on Rizlona for "circumventing truebox" ... how can DPG honestly even begin to pretend they've got a reasonable solution in place when their GM's don't even know what server they are logged into?

Stop being intentionally obtuse to "keep the community on it's toes" - spell out clear guidelines for a precedent that was set by DPG and let us all understand the rules so that we may enjoy our time on the server and not be constantly worried about a phantom suspension when we all believe we're within the confines of the rules.

This method of afk check is poorly designed and even more so poorly executed. With the amount of spam in /say, unless you separate it out to its own window, change colors of npc spam, stare at that window while you play, and not be out pulling, you will miss a /say and the 30 seconds you're given to respond, means you're gonna get suspended/banned. A better way should be investigated.

So I've been boxing for years. Had one issue so far but that was my fault. What I'm seeing and hearing about is not good in anyway shape or form. I box on multiple computers on different servers. I never check say. Hardly respond to tells. This could effect me and it's not a pleasant thought. The guys doing this for cash are going to do this what ever the rules. I just want to play and not get left behind and talk to my buds that still play. I'm just a dude who has only so much playtime and doesn't group much trying to stay current on the tlps anyway and make raids and I pay cash to do it in the way I want to. Anyway much more to spend time banning people for other things. This has had a negative impact on my buds and me because raiders were banned. Please figure out a different form of punishment. Idk the answer but not liking what I'm seeing.

As a guild leader on Rizlona I have heard many different stories and situations. There is no commonality amongst any of them. The AFK checks in say are silly. No one pays attention to say while they are actively xp'ing, farming, etc. This game has some very long spawn and rare percent mobs we are expected as a community to get in order to complete quests like our epics.

However, Darkpaw is now expecting you to be at your computer NON stop with no afks? At the start of this server, [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] was not turned on. It was mentioned in this thread(https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...r-code-for-rizlona.266957/page-5#post-3924315) then Niente took notice and it was turned on for Rizlona. That is third party software. All we want is concise rules with what is and what is not allowed on Rizlona. So we, as paying customers, can decide if we actually want to play on this server and continue being a customer of this company.

You have so many players right now on Rizlona alone who are even scared to log in and play, some do not even box or use any type of software. Please, take notice of this and take some action. You are leaving your player base with less and less effective means of communication with your company.

Having recently emigrated to Rizlona from another TLP, I'd like to say I thought it was gonna be a toxic cesspool of cheating and hacking. But I have to say so far it's been an awesome server where people seem to be quite helpful toward each other. I do not box at all and came to the server to play with old friends. Hearing about how your company is handling this situation is extremely poor. Surely there is a better way to watch for cheaters and such than using /say?

I play ONE character and miss /say 75% of the time. should cheaters be suspended/banned? Of course they should. But I would hope that a company with a 22 year old game and a worldwide loyal playerbase would have a better solution to cheating than:

/say

I mean, whats to stop a GM from actually watching people and how they're playing, its pretty easy to spot who's running afk automation, or using software (that is allowed on rizlona) in an illegal way according to the rules.

In the end DBG, your chasing away not only players with a lot of boxes, but players like myself who would rather spend money on entertainment knowing they won't have it stolen by someone using

/say

Absolutely ridiculous that you could get a suspension or ban by not responding immediately to something that is said in a chat channel. By all means get rid of the cheaters. All it should take is watching someone for a minute or less to tell if someone is breaking the rules.

I run 3 characters and use NO 3rd party software to help manage/run them. That means that if I want to do something or say something on any one specific toon I have to be looking at that specific account. If I'm trying to figure out a complicated pull on one screen, I won't see anything going on on the other two in terms of a chat window.

Learning that I could have my accounts suspended/banned while playing for simply running more than one account on a BOXING server is flat out wrong.

What is really cool is when you aren't afk killing and are in a safe spot, but they summon you near an aggressive mob, which attacks you and your pet defends, which they then ban you for.

And usually that reason is someone wanting to boot you from a camp.

I knew the GMs would be used for witch hunts on Aradune, I didn't think it would happen on Rizlona though.

Sad to say, but the community brought this on themselves by demanding GMs who are probably paid little more than minimum wage and don't have any understanding of EQ or the people who play it.

Darkpaw Games, suspending people for "circumventing Truebox" on. a server without Truebox is a new low. From what I have heard, the quoted person is not one isolated mistake. Can we please have clear rules, some form of consistency in your policing, and better training for your GM/CS staff?

I think it’s important to consider that those who cheat in a video game are motivated to play for different reasons than those who do it for fun. People who box several characters for fun do so because it adds a new dimension to gameplay (e.g., added complexity, ‘macro’ vs. ‘micro’ thinking, etc.). Others play multiple characters at a time in order to directly benefit (for-profit gameplay).

My understanding is that these policies have always intended to deter 'for profit' gameplay, while maximizing the enjoyment potential for the player base. Isn't that why Rizlona was created... for players who wanted to enjoy a different dimension of this game?

This conversation is happening because those responsible for enforcing rulesets have historically supported the ‘added complexity’ rationale supportive of boxing as indicated by their decision to create a server that supports this style of gameplay. Controlling against ‘for-profit’ gameplay is a persistent issue, but I'm pretty sure that spotting it goes beyond checking for "afk gameplay".

In terms of rules enforcement, it’s a fair conclusion that differences in opinion and perception of the ‘rules’ can be attributed to staff and company ownership changes, of which there have been several over the years. Speculative rulesets can also lead to unfair application for a variety of other reasons as well.

The only information consumers have in terms of a ‘roadmap’ is what is provided in official documentation, and any historical precedents set through the application of those rules.

As has been identified throughout this thread, the application of these rules has changed over time, and “Cheating” as defined in the current Terms of Service is vague:

The phrase “any kind of advantage” is clearly causing a great deal of speculation between administrators and users alike. As an example, one can argue that the use of a mouse gives advantage to typical users over those who need assistive technology. That's how broadly such a statement can be interpreted.

Application of these speculations around unfair advantage hasn’t been consistently applied by staff, and it has been widely speculated by players in terms of what is, and is not considered "cheating". Without concrete examples, these sweeping assumptions and generalizations are contributing to a highly toxic community regulated by potential enforcement actions.

Players and staff are both contributing to a problem that promotes and spreads fear, and this is really unhealthy. It can also be considered “unfair and inconsistent practice” in the business world.

A study in 2016 into unfair and inconsistent practices by business representatives concluded that

A company has every right to create policies and enforce them. Consumers have the right to understand those policies and expect fair and consistent application of those policies.

This issue requires an official response, including proper clarification around assumptions being made around what is ‘cheating’ that considers the differences between different server communities (e.g., different types of boxing servers vs. standard servers). This response should take care to consider historical information concerning policy and rulesets, including all official communications impacted by them and as they were perceived by this community over time.

Every player in this community has contributed a significant investment of their time and money into this game. It is reasonable for players to expect the service provider of this game to make a reasonable effort to observe and respect the historical understanding and awareness of these policies, and who they are meant to protect.

Sources Cited:

• Daybreak Games. (2017). Daybreak Terms of Service. Accessed on Feb. 24, 2021 from: https://www.daybreakgames.com/terms-of-service
• Fernandes, T, and Calamote, A. (2016). Unfairness in consumer services: Outcomes of differential treatment of new and existing clients. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. ResearchGate, DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.08.008. Accessed on Feb. 24, 2021 from: https://www.researchgate.net/public...rential_treatment_of_new_and_existing_clients

I'm afraid to step away for a bio break while I'm camping the VT key on my 3box. Why do I feel like boxing, on a server with boxing listed on the name, has potential to get me banned or suspended?

For the record. I alt tab and have no other software installed. But if I alt tab and hit a macro before seeing something in Say, should that warrant a ban? I sincerely hope not.

Is there some rule here preventing posting the picture getting passed around yesterday of the player on Rizlona getting AFK checked/suspended by the GM enforcing Aradune's ruleset on them? Was surprised to not see it here.

While the image has some questionable redactions and there are no timestamps to know how long it took the player to respond and we don't know what the player was doing at the time, it's still generally pretty damning showing this level of GM incompetence/lack of education about their job. At a minimum it shows DPG needs to (temporarily) halt this process until everyone can get on the same page.

Having personally witnessed what I would consider a substantial amount of AFK killing, I've been on the side of "this is the internet and no one knows the truth in what anyone here is saying." That's while I unsuccessfully try to convince my anxious spouse that the way we play (boxing on the boxing TLP without 3rd party software, always at least one of us in the room, not doing anything shady or getting into altercations) leaves us with virtually no risk. Someone getting AFK checked and suspended on Rizlona using Aradune's ruleset as justification really puts a wrench in my insistence that DPG is surely just going after cheaters. That guy might have also been cheating but that GM isn't doing anything to quell the paranoid uprising among the playerbase citing the wrong server's ruleset while actively disconnecting that player's characters.

Players griefing other players via petitions also aren't helping the situation, especially when the GM who shows up to check doesn't even know what server they're on.

What a mess.

Imagine rolling on a boxing server, then reporting the people who box on it for boxing.

Earlier posts are correct - the reporting/banning of people on Rizlona is being weaponized. GMs need to step back and let the players deal with it.

I've reported several people for blatant kill stealing on raid-targets and they don't even get a slap on the wrist but people who just want to be left alone, trying to grind AAs, will catch 7 days or a ban. Where is the logic in that?

In my knowledge a GM should always identified himself in a tell.I been playing Everquest of and on since 1999 and never I had to deal with a GM in say. I don't even have the filter say , I wouldnt even pay attention most of the time if anyone would speak in say ,so suspending people who are AFK or simply arent responding to a say is totally absurd. On Rizlona I have been send some weird tells about a few months ago which i believe it was some kind of GM hiding. As soon I would reply no other words would come out.

I absolutely refuse to send /say to a separate window or to try to do anything to ensure I don't miss a /say from a GM. If I get 7 day suspension for that position, so be it. I'm not playing their stupid game (the /say game, not EQ).