AFK Checks

I'm 90% expecting my forum access to be revoked for what I've posted in this thread so far.

This could be automated. I'm not sure DBG is using real GMs now. I'd rather challenge THEM. "Prove you are a human!"

Maybe it all boils down to a staffing issue. Not enough GMs to actually investigate petitions / to keep up with them so they shortcut it. Suspending people without looking into it first / without actually investigating.

Investigation takes time. Suspending somebody I would presume is a few keystrokes. This really does feel like a case of suspend first ignore petitions later.

It looks like they fielded around ~500 new petitions since yesterday [the petition IDs are sequential].

76,908 new petitions over the last 8 months averages out to around ~317 petitions per day. This isn't specific to EverQuest though - but all DBG titles as I understand their helpdesk.

Maybe it isn't even GMs doing it - a lot of people have been getting suspended lately and many of them claiming no contact from a GM. Perhaps DBG is using automated methods to 'detect' AFK players and then is issuing suspensions with that system keeping a GM out of the loop entirely.

On February 3rd when I was suspended the first time for 'AFK play' their initial response was "You must respond to a GM when they contact you in-game." I said that I was not contacted in game and shortly there-after my account was unsuspended.

I wasn't even asking for unsuspension - just clarification on what I had done wrong so I could avoid it in the future. I never got that clarification.

I'm shocked and saddened to see that you're not allowed to suck group XP on those servers. On the live servers, when a level cap increases, members of a guild will do take shifts earning so for the group. I used to let people afk for their Lessons while I headshotted lizards in the Temples! That rule is NOT authentic EQ.

All this raises an interesting question. On the rare occasion that we notice a GM in game and ask them to respond and they fail to do so, would we have the right to demand a suspend a 7 day suspension for AFK play? How do we know that they aren't exploiting some aspect of gameplay?

I don't think the issue is that you're not allowed to leech experience - but that you cannot be afk while you do so.

The problem is - they're suspending people that aren't AFK.

I was sitting here chatting on both characters when I got "YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED". I wasn't afk and I hadn't been AFK.

No tells from a GM, nothing in /say, nothing. Just chatting in /tells one moment and disconnected and suspended the next.

A visual pop-up would be so much better. Pokemon Go! does it!

GMs aren't held to the same ruleset as players. Even with as ridiculous as these suspensions they're giving out to people that aren't AFK for being AFK - your proposal is ridiculous but still humorous .

That was my attempt Hadce. I still would like to see the common player able to demand a "citizen's arrest" for unethical GMs.

There are numerous better options.

That said personally I have no issue with a GM sending you a tell and expecting a response within a few minutes. If I had gotten a tell from a GM that I failed to respond to - I wouldn't be here posting and my petition wouldn't exist.

If you consistently received a message from a GM prior to suspension for AFK I don't think this thread would exist. DBG is suspending people without warning.

Walking away from your computer to get a glass of water or to empty your bladder is not cheating.

Not responding to a tell or say that you never got is not cheating.

In this case I don't think or at least I hope that it's not actually a GM that's responsible for the suspensions for AFK play without warning.

I'm really hoping it's somebody higher up in the chain of command that thought it was a "good idea" and will eventually see the error of their ways as GMs report back that the "good idea" isn't working and is creating more problems and petitions than it's preventing.

Without knowing / being there, none of us will know 100%. I'm sure there are a very small amount of cases where people are innocent. Most, however, I strongly believe are lying about what they were doing in regards to following the rules. It's so common for people to claim to be innocent, especially on the forums (especially when you've seen someone cheat and then claim innocence), that it makes it very difficult to believe the ones legitimately screwed over.

Well there we go - my petition opened 2 hours ago had its status updated 12 minutes ago without a reply. If I did something that violates the rules - why is it so hard to just tell me what that was?

[I didn't violate the rules as I understand them, so perhaps that's why they aren't responding.]

Are there people that are guilty that are claiming they are not? I'm sure there are.

You're right - guilty people will almost always claim they weren't doing what they're accused of doing.

I assumed the moment "YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED" showed up that I was being accused of AFK play but I was sitting there actually typing a message up to a friend when it happened. I wasn't afk and hadn't been afk.

But like I've said numerous times in this thread - I'm not here to convince anybody of my innocence. I'm not even here trying to get my secondary account unsuspended - I'm just trying to get an actual explanation of what I've done wrong so that I can make sure it doesn't happen again.

I've read through the rules a couple of times now and there is nothing within the rules as I understand them that I've violated. I can see no reason for the suspension of my account under the rules - so I have reached out in a petition asking why.

I've not asked for unsuspension. I've not asked for reconsideration. I simply asked why?

I was suspended while actively sitting at my computer playing my characters. I'd probably have been fine if I were in the Nexus though.

I have seen a GM twice since I started up on Aradune. Once was when they showed up to give me my corpse after I was randomly summoned to some part of the zone I wasn't supposed to be in [a bug].

The second time was when one did show up to see if I was AFK. Honestly I don't remember where I was or what I was camping but the GM said something along the lines of, "Hello! This is GM [NameHere]. If you're at your computer please respond." I replied, "I'm here, what's up?" to which I got "Just making sure you aren't AFK. Have a good day!" and they disappeared. I think it may have been at the Shady Goblin in Kunark.

On February 3rd my account was suspended. I had fallen asleep while playing and was definitely AFK as a result so I didn't dispute the suspension. I did ask what exactly I had done wrong as I didn't believe that accidentally falling asleep while playing the game should lead to a suspension. Perhaps kicking me off / sending me a warning - but a suspension?

They replied and stated that if a GM sends you a tell that you have to reply to it and that it's in the rules. I replied that I had checked my logs and do not see any tells or any messages at all from a GM. Strange enough within a few hours my account was re-activated. You almost never hear of this happening because it rarely does.

Now I'm waiting on a reply to my petition to find out why I was suspended while actively playing yesterday. I was not and had not been AFK. If a GM had sent me a tell I'd have seen it as I was actively conversing with several people when the suspension came in.

Maybe the GM sent somebody else in my group a tell and they were afk and they assumed we were all the same box crew? I mean - should they suspend a whole group if a single person doesn't respond?

What I'm most bothered about all of this by is not the suspension itself but the total lack of clarity. Suspended for "cheating"? What did I do? I wasn't afk and I wasn't running software that breaks the rules.... so why?

Problem with say is that mobs use say as well. It is easy for it to spam out. Also, assume you went afk and took a dump then came back. Chances are the say has scrolled off the screen.

I spend more time in this game than I should and only one of my two accounts seems to have problems.

Even when both accounts are in the same zone doing the same things - one got suspended - one did not. Didn't miss any messages from any GMs according to my logs. Is it possible they used a /say and I was outside of the range of seeing it? Sure.

I can receive a /tell from anybody anywhere in the server - heck I can even get tells from people on other servers but if you're too far away from me in the zone I won't see your /say even if I don't have it filtered and I don't miss it in a sea of other text.

Never saw a GM yesterday before I was suspended on one of my two accounts. No tells, no says, no physical GM in front of me. Just playing the game and chatting with friends one second and "YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED" the next.

Same thing that happened to me - except I was occasionally meleeing / moving around. I was also actively chatting in /tell, /guild, and /group when I got "YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED" on one of my two characters.

I checked my logs and there were no /says or /tells that I missed that I can see. There are definitely no instances of "GM".

Every time I have ever intentionally gone AFK I put /afk on with a reason. /afk Gotta poop BRB. /afk Grabbing some water, brb.

GM's can show up and be GM invis. I don't think anything sees GM invis, not even cheating.