Hide AFK Players

Big thumbs up on this one. I really like how weapons and names are still visible. Very nice touch.

Hate it. *I* will decide when I'm afk!

So go to options and turn off auto afk.. easy enough, instead of coming on the boards saying you hate it, take a look around the options.

Well, you don't have to be nasty.

Well to be fair, this wasn't about the auto-AFK option at all, it was about the hiding AFK players option. Of course now you can't complain about people not going AFK in places like the Guild Lobby causing lag.

I wish it was forced to be honest, with everyone being able to turn it off it solves nothing, there's no reason to enable it really

Being able to turn it off defeats the purpose. Make it permanently enabled but put some timer options on it.

Most people won't bother turning this off - and why would they? What happens to their character when they're not there (aka are AFK) doesn't really matter to them.

If someone is there and doing stuff they'll be moving around or they can just move and come out of AFK mode. Set an audio trigger for a tell and then respond.

Sorry I don't agree with you.

I choose when I want to display an AFK message and I choose when I don't, I can now also choose to still those who are AFK. I am not a child I don't need a machine to say you haven't done anything you must be afk I'll put a message up.

For a few seconds I considered having hide those who are AFK in non combat zones set to on, but then decided I didn't want half the guild to disappear while we are gathering in the guild hall for raids.

Just because you have a problem in the guild lobby doesn't mean the rest of us should be treated like children. I personally don't use the guild lobby, I just use an anchor and port to the guild hall.

Really only needed for lobby and PoK.

It is a step in the right direction. Next thing needs to be autokick after X hours with no ability to turn it off. Four hours should be plenty for everyone to sponge their buffs.

Why? What purpose would this really serve? People stay logged on AFK for reasons other than getting buffed.

Then don't set the auto-AFK on. Then *you* can decide when *you* are AFK. Problem solved.

I personally think that if you are in a zone that preserves buff timers, and you aren't active for one whole hour, this should kick in, regardless of your setting in options.

I set mine to automatically switch me into and out of afk. On or off is completely insignificant to me but figured I may as well use it.

You do get to decide when you are afk.

When you are at your pc doing things. You aren't.

Actually that is something I find troublesome, and something I will NEVER use.

I mean, if i had that thing set so it did, I go afk a bit, my merc does too by going passive.
I dont notice it, and next time I go fight, I die.

Purpose would be to reduce server overhead so the game might run better.

The rest is common sense. If you are logged on game, and decide to go away for a long weekend to go fishing or whatever and you leave your characters logged on the whole time, than for most people that is just pointless after getting buffs which usually get casted before the EU/USA raiding prime times as a bare minimum. You are just taking up space beyond that. The exception might be if you are a guild officer or leader and decide you need to run a log 24/7 of the guild's activities, act as in answering machine of sorts to push out an automated response or determine a spawn time when you know you can't be around to catch the mob you want the first go. I have no idea how to address those contingencies but most players don't have those scenarios often and there are already work-arounds, such as in game email or guild message boards etc.

Point being, if you are just sitting there, you are doing just that. Being idle. You are not doing quests, slaying monsters, crafting widgets, chatting with other players and otherwise actively interacting with the game world, but the server still has to do work just to keep itself informed with what is going on with your client. If you are not actively interacting, than after a certain generous period, say 4-8 hours, why should you still be in game created a server load? I say generous because other games boot you after an hour or less which is somewhat draconian but being on for days or weeks idle is just ridiculous.

Anyway, Its late and I am tired. Feel free to disprove me.