Not too long ago, we discussed how World of Warcraft fans had grown sick of the rampant botting issues in World of Warcraft: Classic, taking to social media to accuse Blizzard of resting on their haunches and doing nothing. Today, though, we have Blizzard’s response to such claims – a high number of bans against the violators.
“Yesterday, we issued numerous suspensions to WoW accounts that we found to be violating our Code of Conduct,” Blizzard writes on their forums. “Affected players were e-mailed with details about the violation and suspension – a great many of which were found to be using anti-AFK cheats or bots that automate movement, especially in Alterac Valley.”
If you’re unfamiliar with battlegrounds in WoW, it’s important to note that anyone in the battleground is expected to be active and participating. If your character is set to AFK, as the game does automatically after a short period of inactivity, you are immediately booted from the battleground.
Still, some players will jump into the battlegrounds and move every minute or so to stop the game from registering them as AFK. This is a way that some reprobates will use to farm honor without having to actually play the game that they pay a monthly subscription fee for because apparently it’s still fun to them to do such a thing somehow. Not here to cast judgments, of course.
Moreover, many won’t even put in that minuscule amount of effort and opt instead to install third-party programs and bots that move through the battleground automatically. Completing a battleground rewards honor regardless of your score, so these players utilize this strategy.
Of course, as the bans plainly tell, this sort of behavior is very against the World of Warcraft code of conduct, and is a bannable offense. Many players report those that do this, as it sets the team to an immediate disadvantage. Maps like Alterac Valley, which are considerably larger than Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin, have areas where AFKers can go to seem as if they’re farming and instead sit in the corner of a cave, so reporting isn’t always done, unfortunately.
It’s great to know that Blizzard is taking these problems seriously, as they can make a massive dent in the enjoyability of the game for players that actually want to play the game they play for. Hopefully,Blizzard keeps the bans coming so that people can go through an Alterac Valley game in peace.
