AFK Checks

Is this really what's going to dictate what gives us a suspension, when we are legitimately away from keyboard, with the tag up and not casting/attacking/moving? I mean, you can sit at the zone in of Ssra, have someone petition you for AFK fighting, and then receive this notice and a suspension shortly after. Without ever doing anything.


So.. Pro Tip: Camp out if you're away from the keyboard more than 10 seconds.

I have a problem with the length of time they allow for a response. If they're not sending a tell, the chances are 7/8ths that I won't be looking for /say on that character. If they sent a tell, I could localize the computer that it's coming from, sooner. So, the GM says something in say, you have to search through 8 characters to see where he is to target him to respond. If he use /tell, not only could you do an /rt, but you could also find him faster. My learning disability is coding speed (hand-eye coordination.) If I didn't have this disability, I'd be playing a tank not a wizard. I want to see the player given at least 30 seconds to respond.
You made accommodations for color-blind people. Do it for people with slow motor skills.

Also, someone subject to emergency medical conditions like Crohns or a child with seizures should be able to register with you so she doesn't get dinged for sudden AFKs. (No, I am NOT going to move to a safe location before I grab my son to keep him from falling out of his chair.)

I feel like if you drew a Venn diagram of "People that have GMs perform an AFK Check on" and "People with children with Crohn's Disease that play EQ" there would be a pretty small overlap. Probably about the same overlap as the people that have a household of 6 individuals that all play EQ and need IP exemptions for Truebox but there DOES seem to be a lot of those...

You need to localize what character/computer...? Are they doing these afk checks on Rizlona b/c... On Aradune how hard is it? One computer. Two computers. Are you... Playing MORE than 2 chars in Aradune??? Gasp.

yeah same issue here some years ago, sitting there foraging WHILE chatting in guild with a guildie... BAM booted... all my forages deleted... I log straight back in and wtf? send in petition I never got a tell and I never look in SAY unless I am questing, that window is blocked due to high spam in certain areas... so that way of business they are doing there is really sh|tty, either they can take proper contact and give a proper amount of time to get a reply (not all type equally fast) I even sent them the log file of me chatting with guildie to prove I were there... to no avail...

*gasp* when I box I just use a Orbweaver to control the box... so it got buttons that activate hotbar buttons or spell buttons in game, nothing automated... but to get to the keyboard I would need to move to the laptop to type on it, I just have the monitor + orbweaver running on the desk, laptop to the side

Performing AFK checks in a channel that can be turned off or filtered out at the user's preference is ridiculous, especially when they would lead to account action.

I'm okay with Tells

I actually have a medical condition where I need to make frequent bathroom trips and explained this to the GM in a petition. Doesn't matter. They have an infallibility that surpasses the Pope and don't expect any due process.

This raises an interesting question. If we're expected to sit at our computers without the ability to step away for a few moments (without being banned), or camp out and lose our camp/very rare mob pop, is DBG going to be liable if a player develops DVT? The population of this game is an aging one, and I would bet that many players are at risk.

The problem is, there are SO MANY problems Still in this 21 year old game that the GMs could be working on, rather than them acting as the Tonton Macoute trying to catch a person who stepped away for a few. A week after my suspension, I did a turn in for the Kael armor to one of the dwarves. It ate my pattern; an obvious bug. I petitioned for the return of the pattern and received the reply that the GM/CS staph doesn't get involved with bugs involving "new content." That is, "new content" for an expansion that's TWENTY years old.

do any other games do things like this? Just curious since I never heard of an AFK check in FFXIV or WOW...and if they do...do they do it this way? Seems actively customer hostile.

Don't attack the GM for doing their job. This policy isn't just something they uphold, it was put in place by someone in management, they are just doing their job. If you have a problem with it, you need to complain to the people upstairs.

Oh hello, I went AFK to use the washroom, or grab a drink .. oh im banned now .. ok well gg I guess.

yeah totally fair the GM's were just "doing their job"

This is a ridiculous way of afk checking. Absolutely ridiculous.

I am extremely paranoid on getting an afk check and getting caught, so here are some tips that I use

>Filter all say chat to a window and change PC text to red in that window. Everything will be white except for that.
>I have set up audio triggers when someone says anything in Say around me. yeah can get annoying tho.
>If you use Gina, set up some Gina triggers to go off if a person shows up and says the are a GM.

But I do agree, the response time to reply is ridiculously low.

Setup up a GINA trigger if anyone uses /say and your name is in it.

There shouldn't be a reason for me to create triggers to know that my account is about to be banned because I had to take a dump.

They should start banning people who petition for afk checks. That would be a much better solution. Players are using it as a weapon against other players at this point. This is a fact.

Another thing I have seen people do is start up a video with timestamps in chat when they have to go afk and start it and say AFK to Bio whatever, and then say back when they get back and turn it off, that way if you did get banned you have video you can send it saying Hey I said I was AFK and my toons literally did NOTHING while I was afk

So they are banning people simply because they are AFK? Or are they banning people that are killing things while they are AFK?

And is this a permanent ban or are we just talking about a suspension?

Most boxers are using a 3rd party program to control their bot crews and therefore should be banned as per the restriction of running 3rd party programs in the EULA "you agreed to".