The AFK Police

[Troo]

[Troo]

17 minutes ago, GM_GooglyMoogly said:

The only thing regulating ToT critters is team size.

17 minutes ago, GM_GooglyMoogly said:

Six per team having the highest difficulty tied to the trigger

 

In regards to ToT leagues. Door knocking with at least 6 on a team should be most effective. 

 

F-*%ing with players trying to find who is AFK could be considered harassment. You wanna be the AFK police.. become a moderator. It's not your job otherwise. 

[Ghost]

Me thinks though doth protest too much

🤔🤔🤔

[Triumphant]

[Troo]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

Me thinks though doth protest too much

🤔🤔🤔

 

Maybe.

I did play on a lowbie yesterday at the PI motel and kept getting TP'd away from the doors. I was busy clicking doors and slapping monsters. I was not AFK.

The league was frequently teleporting as a group to the giant monsters and back to the motel but every once in a while I'd get teleported individually from the motel. 

 

It's graphically a pretty intense time. Monsters spawning, lots of powers and buffs being unleashed, chasing giant monsters, characters wearing costumes.

After the third or fourth time of being teleported to the hospital across from the motel I noticed there was some random player with Recall Target teleporting other folks one at a time away from the motel. I figured that must be who teleported me.

So I inquired "hey, whatcha doin?" and they replied "I'm checking people to see if they are AFK." 

 

I changed my settings. Options > General > Prompt Team Teleport

Then I missed a league teleport to Jack in Irons. I had left the door clicking popup up while doing my door clicking circuit and couldn't see the teleport prompt. My bad.

Six reward merits missed.

 

When I got a chance, I looked and saw the player was still teleporting people. This time I saw more of what was going on. This player had another character on follow (multiboxing), both were members of the league, and ironically were not helping take down motel targets, just soaking up the exp. They were simply too busy playing judge & jury, teleporting characters one after another away from the motel, the vast majority of whom were innocent and would then scurry back to the group and the motel.. that's when I called them out in the league chat and reported them. 

 

Edited Saturday at 08:13 PM by Troo

[Triumphant]

Okay.  At least now I understand what your topic is about.  You might have led with the last post first. 

For what it's worth, the behavior you described DOES sound exceedingly douchebaggy.

[Bob]

Not as bad as the afkers though.

 

Perhaps you were screwed over, but a quarter of those leagues are either doing nothing, or barely doing anything with something on auto, never clicking doors.  It is a leeching plague and it is annoying to say the least.  

[Troo]

30 minutes ago, Bob said:

It is a leeching plague and it is annoying to say the least.  

 

To get best rewards, door knocking teams need at least 6 members, so I'm okay with leagues that aren't full having 'leeches' because it helps everyone else.

The only time it is really any problem is when zones are full.

Edited Saturday at 09:20 PM by Troo

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Troo said:

After the third or fourth time of being teleported to the hospital across from the motel I noticed there was some random player with Recall Target teleporting other folks one at a time away from the motel. I figured that must be who teleported me.

So I inquired "hey, whatcha doin?" and they replied "I'm checking people to see if they are AFK."

 

Verification of player activity (which, as you noted, was none of his/her business) occurred when you ran back the first time.  The fact that he/she did it several times marks him/her as a determined griefer.

 

That fuckstick should have his/her account locked for the entirety of the event.

[Doomguide2005]

It's one reason my prompt is off, always.  Teleport me around like that and you will have the distinction of being the only the second person in 20 some years to get reported.

The first was porting low level folks they invited to their team and dropping them off the tops of very high buildings in Atlas.

[Ukase]

5 hours ago, Troo said:

F-*%ing with players trying to find who is AFK could be considered harassment.

I don't F with 'em. 

A lot of times, we never know what's going on the other side of the keyboard, so I'm not going to be rude. And I don't fuss immediately; I'm talking about over 10 minutes or so.
If I'm the league lead, I'm just going to send a tell, "Hey, you're taking up a spot that could be taken by someone who is going to be active. Give a shout when you return"

If that constitutes harassment, I'll take the risk. 
 

[Bob]

Yea, one does not need to be an absolute jerk in order to notice the very obvious afkers after 30+ minutes, especially as door knocking lessens.  The occasional person going afk and stating it in chat is one thing (though there is a limit to this as with all group content in any game), but leeching is pathetic, no matter what benefit their mere presence may have on the event itself.  Simply does not change the nature of the choice being made.

 

Also, if you are leading a league and trying to balance teams while keeping people relatively 'happy'; leechers make that a whole lot more difficult than it needs to be.  It is a huge reason why consistency is so wildly different throughout the day.  The most rewarding and action packed groups I have been in, had leaders who would privately message people to start participating, but kick them if they continued doing nothing.  I see nothing wrong with that at all.  

[randomperson]

 

I wonder how many of the AFK's are multiboxes of someone who is actually participating on their other account?

 

I wonder how many people would want to do one of these if the ground rule was " one AFK multi per participant', and leeching was considered ok within that limit?

[Ghost]

[tidge]

[Ravenplume]

23 hours ago, randomperson said:

 

I wonder how many of the AFK's are multiboxes of someone who is actually participating on their other account?

 

I wonder how many people would want to do one of these if the ground rule was " one AFK multi per participant', and leeching was considered ok within that limit?

 

Ugh, can't imagine trying to multibox myself.

 

I do like how on Everlasting (so far, only ever seen it on MSRs, especially instanced ones) the League leader will set the ground rules in advance, effectively, everyone fights; nobody leeches.  If you have to go AFK, say so.

 

For ToT leagues, the team leaders are told they can go ahead and boot obvious AFKers if need be.

 

All in all, should be the league lead's rules whether AFKers should be booted or allowed to leech.  All leagues I've been on have been pretty good and everyone just has fun, with plenty of on and off topic banter in the mix.

 

The Rat City hosted MSR that just finished was a blast, by the way.  Need to finally get my own Macarena Mouse into that group soon(tm)

[Snarky]

wait, you want me to do something?  i am here to look fabulous.  bask in my presence.  but, be quiet about it.

[High_Beam]

I want to circle back to his concept of there being such a thing as excessive masturbation, I am pretty sure that's not a thing.  🙂

[Ukase]

23 hours ago, randomperson said:

I wonder how many of the AFK's are multiboxes of someone who is actually participating on their other account?

On Excelsior, one is too many, even if the population is less than 1100. (but that's my personal take, not a rule, as far as I know)  On some of the lower pop servers, I'd think it might actually be encouraged. Context means a lot. 

[Snarky]

5 minutes ago, High_Beam said:

I want to circle back to his concept of there being such a thing as excessive masturbation, I am pretty sure that's not a thing.  🙂

pure jealousy

[Krimson]

People are complaining about sitters in a FARM. 😄 The solution... Stop farming and run some missions.

[Clave Dark 5]

3 hours ago, High_Beam said:

I want to circle back to his concept of there being such a thing as excessive masturbation, I am pretty sure that's not a thing.  🙂

Challenge accepted!

[biostem]

It stinks when a lot of people go afk, but if and when it gets to the point of bothering me too much, I'll just excuse myself and go elsewhere...

[Ukase]

On 10/4/2025 at 4:19 PM, Troo said:

To get best rewards, door knocking teams need at least 6 members, so I'm okay with leagues that aren't full having 'leeches' because it helps everyone else.

So, when I first read this, I saw the logic. It bugged me a bit, but now that I've slept on it, I see the flaw more clearly. 

Best rewards are great and all, but by this standard, this means I can just head to a lower population instance of PI, join the teams, and do literally nothing, but nudge my character every so often to avoid auto-logging off. It's just wrong. And yeah, I completely get that if I'm the active player, I should mind my own business. I'm still getting to blast the npcs, I'm still getting my prismatics and if I'm very honest with everyone, the reason it bugs me is because I'd like to do this myself sometimes. 

But I don't. 

If you're afk long enough for the white AFK bubble to appear over your head, and your team/league doesn't know why you went afk or when you'll be back - you're wrong. It may be completely innocent on your part - kid may have fallen down and started screaming. That's justified reason to step away. And I wouldn't expect any parent to pre-explain the reason before they left - but - it's still creating an opportunity for a player get loot while doing nothing - and I am doing my part, plus some of yours. In some context, going afk for awhile is perfectly understandable. But when I see the notes I've made on a player from the year before, or the days before, yeah, it's pretty clear what's going on. These are people that do this kind of thing habitually. 
 

This is just my take. I don't pretend to think the way others do. Opinions vary. 

[Maagic]

9 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Challenge accepted!