Changes to be made in Alterac Valley addresses AFK issue

 

With the AFK issue in Alterac Valley still being debated by many players despite Blizzard having recently implemented a reporting feature, it looks like the company responsible for the legendary MMORPG World of Warcraft is once again heeding the call to arms, this time with some yet-to-be-declared changes that promise not only to resolve the issue, but also to balance things out.

In a response to a thread discussing these changes that are yet to be implemented in the game, Blizzard Poster Drysc sheds some light on the topic at hand – namely, revealing just what Blizzard is planning to do. Here is the post, as is and unedited:

Obviously as most people know we have the anti-afk reporting measure, by which you can right click on someone in the battleground and mark them as AFK. With enough reports they receive a debuff that keeps them from earning honor in that battleground, and only by entering combat can they remove that debuff. It’s going to help, but it’s certainly not enough on its own.

Other things we’re doing are changing or pulling out NPCs in key locations to help even out the balance of time and effort each side has to take to push through. As well as some minor changes to locations that people find are easily exploited to advance faster. We’re shifting some of the honor from the earlier NPCs, that help make AFKing so lucrative, to the end of the battleground and more for actually winning.

The graveyard spawning is being changed so that players aren’t sent back to the cave unless there is nowhere else to spawn, which should help encourage horde to play a bit more defense if they’re being beaten back. And we’re also correcting the … I think Jeff referred to them as “creative pulling mechanics” with the general’s.

Everything together, we feel, should help encourage players to participate, while also improving overall balance.

Certainly a long list, and a very much-needed one at that. After all, it’s not much fun participating when you realize that the other side has it just a tad better than yours in terms of terrain advantage, is it? We’ll keep you up to date on this issue as developments unfold.

 

With the AFK issue in Alterac Valley still being debated by many players despite Blizzard having recently implemented a reporting feature, it looks like the company responsible for the legendary MMORPG World of Warcraft is once again heeding the call to arms, this time with some yet-to-be-declared changes that promise not only to resolve the issue, but also to balance things out.

In a response to a thread discussing these changes that are yet to be implemented in the game, Blizzard Poster Drysc sheds some light on the topic at hand – namely, revealing just what Blizzard is planning to do. Here is the post, as is and unedited:

Obviously as most people know we have the anti-afk reporting measure, by which you can right click on someone in the battleground and mark them as AFK. With enough reports they receive a debuff that keeps them from earning honor in that battleground, and only by entering combat can they remove that debuff. It’s going to help, but it’s certainly not enough on its own.

Other things we’re doing are changing or pulling out NPCs in key locations to help even out the balance of time and effort each side has to take to push through. As well as some minor changes to locations that people find are easily exploited to advance faster. We’re shifting some of the honor from the earlier NPCs, that help make AFKing so lucrative, to the end of the battleground and more for actually winning.

The graveyard spawning is being changed so that players aren’t sent back to the cave unless there is nowhere else to spawn, which should help encourage horde to play a bit more defense if they’re being beaten back. And we’re also correcting the … I think Jeff referred to them as “creative pulling mechanics” with the general’s.

Everything together, we feel, should help encourage players to participate, while also improving overall balance.

Certainly a long list, and a very much-needed one at that. After all, it’s not much fun participating when you realize that the other side has it just a tad better than yours in terms of terrain advantage, is it? We’ll keep you up to date on this issue as developments unfold.