AFK-ing at Aspenwood - An Ongoing Protest

oki - ive posted this over at gwo - but sadly it got closed down since
so i am posting this again here - and hopefully it will stay open long enough for the protest to finish.


my original post:



hope to see you there - in teams that wont have AFKs so we can have a good game!

a link to the original thread:
http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum...d.php?t=442934

to explain once again:
1. no set time - if you feel like playing a game of aspy - you enter
2. if you have just 1 leecher - you say that you will leave because of leechers - make a screenshot of it - and leave - PLEASE ONLY LEAVE IF YOU HAVE LEECHERS! leaving just for the sake of protesting if you have a full team IS NOT SOMETHING I PROPOSED!
3. post the screenshot here (be sure to mind the rules of this forum - i am guessing no names are allowed!)

i hope to wish you all a leecher-free game!

have fun!

(and yes - i am aware of the gamer weekend might make all the afks to move to shing jea - but like i said - if that means that well be able to play without leechers - thats not bad! - besides - we can always repeat it again! )


EDIT:
hoping that this thread wil stay open - ive decided to make it the offical thread about this protest.
ive posted an invitation to post the results only in this thread at gwo also.

sorry...i dont see what this will achive?

The leechers wont see the protest cuase there AFK
the rest of us lose out on a god game of aspenwood
This forum gets spammed by pics..

might just be me - i dont see the point

Hi, again, Upier!

Well, it achieves certainly nothing, if we don't even try.

AFK-leeching is very ugly in Aspenwood. I've played a LOT in there, and I've played there for fun, not for faction or raw materials. But when half the team is AFK, it's not fun. Sometimes the other team suffers so much from leechers, they all leave. Sometimes you see the same leechers there all day - just standing. And I KNOW you who play Aspenwood, are all very much upset of it. So let's do something about it!

Please do not post here suggestions on how to quit leeching. There's been plenty of posts and very good suggestions in other threads. Keep this thread for the protest.

I'm gonna be there, and I follow OP's suggestion. If there will be AFKers, I'll tell them I'm protesting Arenanet's decision not to do anything about it.

Still, I'm thinking we should actually protest elsewhere, not in Aspenwood. If other players ruin our fun in Aspenwood by AFK-leeching, and if Arenanet doesn't see that as a problem, let us spread the pain! Let's join teams, and do NOTHING else but say "I'm protesting against Aspenwood AFK-leeching - Arenanet do something about it!". See if people find AFKing not a problem! Then post your screen captures/stories in here. Maybe we could pick each time a new place? This Saturday Aspenwood. Tuesday Fissure of Woe. Thursday Vizunah Square. Or something.

I'm saying, we need serious action to make Arenanet do something about it.

AFK leechers have killed Aspenwood a long time ago. Most people who cared have long given up because Anet just doesnt care about this issue. So I doubt you'll see much support for this and it won't do much good anyway.

This is one of few things that I think Anet completely dropped the ball on. Leeching is as bad as or worse than botting in some ways and yet they won't do anything?

I agree that aspenwood is fun, i must have almost 100 hours logged into that place across my account. Even though Leeching is a problem, it's really quite simple to work around:

Step 1: Enter new Aspenwood Game.
Step 2: Check for Leechers
Step 3: Is Leechers > 2? If Yes go to Step 1.
Step 4: enjoy Aspenwood

I have found that having 1-2 leechers hardly impacts your game since the other team is very likely to have the same amount, and have won many games with 1-2 leechers.

PS. there will NEVER be zero leechers, stop dreaming.

i think the issue is how do you stop them from afk leeching? you cant ban them, as they are not violating the EULA (unless they are using some kind of bot to do it, and then you have to be able to prove that). you cant have some kind of player vote-out option, because it would be abused ("we dont like you, so voted out!"). the only option is to write some kind of auto-kick script into the game itself (say if they dont move for X number of seconds). but then that gets buggy too (say as the battle is winding down, outcome already determined, i go answer my ringing phone, do i get kicked if im gone for a second too long?). or they just make the bot run back and forth, or tap WASD as they sit back and do nothing.

outside of bot uses, i dont see what can be done here. which is why i havnt been to FA in over 6 months.

You can whine/bitch/cry/protest (whatever you wanna call it) all you like. Anet won't do a sodding thing to stop it. They can't even do simple things like make Sunspear Points attainable at Castellan, what makes you think they'd be able to fix the AFK situation in Fort Aspenwood. Something like that may actually require thinking and effort.

at least it sends a message, and it tells anet that some people are getting fed up

EDIT: A lot of delete-keys

i really dont get how they can fix *leeching* without making another problem in place of it.

Aspenwood is boring now...

JADE QUARRY!!!

I don't get it.

To be honest I don't even notice the leechers anymore. There is almost always 1-2 on both sides so it usually turns out to still be a fair game, just with less people. Not much of a problem if you ask me.

Qft.

Just play on the luxon side, you don't get a lot of leechers.

I would seriously wish this will help because I really like doing the Fort Aspenwood PvP and such and in the end left it for only when I desperatly need the materials because of leechers.

I think its a horrid practice on Anets part to simply cast a blind eye on this issue when im pretty sure its fairly simple to add a small bit of code that forces someone out if they dont do anythign for so long and make it so emotes dont count in doing something. I saw it sometimes when I laged fairly harshly in rollerbeetle id just be sent right back to the public place to renter if I lagged so I couldnt do anything in those crucial first seconds. Why not AB too?

And if they say thats too much hassle then simple remove the gained 100 to 200 faction to the losers? Yeah I know there would be initial outcry to this but I say id willingly give up that bit of faction and settle for the little bits for being near and involved in kills and ultimatly have fair honest 8v8 matches cause mass majority of leechers would leave then. As it stands now theres nothign more irritating then losing cause you had 1 or 2 leechers on your team wanting that 100 to 200 faction or winning with that tainted victory knowing you gave some scum arewipe tool using leecher 600 or more faction when they dont deserve it.

Anets current attitute to that place truly disheartens me and gave me much frustration and disapointment in them to such a point I dont willingly go in there to avoid these feelings and I think its a crappy pactice to allow those feelings to fester in your gamers for this long.

I just think if Anet ha the time to within hours remove the spiked eggnog to losers of the snowball fights in wintersday those few months back then why cant they do somethign similar for AB and such in the months time its been out and save what could of been a great introduction to PvP experiences for PVErs and just generally a fun thing to play in general if it werent for leechers

errrr make it non random pvp? RA, AB, snowball and other random pvp have the same problem. If you dont like non random pvp, then bad luck .... live with leechers.

oki - the problem isnt not being able to win with less then 8 ppl. heck ive won games with 4-ish ppl.
the problem is that aspy is balanced for 8v8. theres ton of things to do - and only 8v8 is fun there. (heck its only really fun if you have 8v8 and players that know what they are doing - on both sides - so that you actually need to think - not just run in while the kurzick are taking down the commanders and nobody is even considering taking down the mines). and if 8v8 is balanced and currently the game there isnt - i dont see why anet cant fix this - since they are doing so many things in the name of balance! its even pvp!


and yes - we actually had 0 leechers on a few games in the last week at aspy! it was superb - untill we realized that the kurzicks normally had 4-6 afks!


the reason why this is being done is actually simple:
i really doubt anyone that has anything to do with the decision making at anet is playing aspy. since theres just no freaking way to not be seriously bothred by afks if youre an active player there. (and although this being a bad weekend - since i think most ppl will really be afking at shing jea) i hope that we can show them with screenshots just how many games are really affected by leeching.
and i also hope that we actually might get to some of the players playing there - and that they will see that if they have leechers on their team - that leaving those suckers behind is a perfectly reasonable option. that just because you landed in a team with some swine - that doesnt make you required to play insted of him! and if we get to enough ppl that will leave if there are afks on ones team - maybe JUST MAYBE a few leeching swines will reconsider since it might not be profitable anymore to leech KNOWING that ppl WILL leave if they end up in teams with them!


(and yes - i am aware that this will prolly change nothing - not with anets attitude towards aspy nor with the attitude of most players there - but hey - a boy can dream cant he?)

with or without leechers i still win in luxon aspenwood

If you don't like leechers, do FFF or AB...

One problem I see with technology to prevent afk leeching is what happens with the rest of the game? I mean, getting defender of ascalon title is impossible without afking. If you sit there watching yourself die for weeks on end, then I'd say you a) have a lot of patience; b) have too much time on your hands; c) have a vitamin D deficiency.

My point is that there will be problems with other aspects of the game that require a bit of afk.

I have no problem with afk in parts of the game, like LDoA (even though I hate how they support things like DL). The problem with AFKers in places like Aspenwood is the fact that they ruin other peoples experience. I have had TONS of fun in FA, met some really nice people and made plenty friends.

Something that might limit Afkers is removing the exp gain, some people afk for the exp toward survival title on Lux side, because you don't have to come into contact with people. I don't know many people that really "need" the exp gain from here, other than people who afk for it.

oki got into a few games - 2 to be exact for now - since it seems that aspy this weekend might be a bit less populated (had to wait ages to get in - might get a bit better in the afternnon - since its still a bit early in europe)
entered on the luxon side:
and both games no leechers on our side! woohoo!! and no reason to leave!
well 'woohoo' until we reached the kurzick base and we were greated with this:

2 and 5 afks!
seriously not fun!

Fun for the winning team...

Actually, if you really want to screw over the people who AFK in Fort Aspenwood, get everyone who isn't AFK'ing to move over to Jade Quarry. It's more fun there anyway, in my opinion.

And you would get them to do that.. how?

Yeah, I wasn't commenting on anyone having problems with afking in other parts of the game. It's just that a system like this will probably be bugged so that these other parts of the game will be affected. It'd be fantastic if they managed to develop a system without any flaws that only affected areas that are ruined by people afking just to reap the rewards that others earn. But it's unlikely that this system will have no impact on the rest of the game. In other words, I am so glad I am getting my LDoA title now.

Played about a dozen games so far, Luxon side. 2 times we had full team. Leechers from 1 to 3 per a game.

What is Aspenwood how do i play it?

how..can..you..fix being away from guild wars????

In protest of protesters im going afk at aspenwood right noW!

I just felt I had to respond to this :s

Sure in the end you can take that victory and put it in the win collum but at what cost and what kinda win is that anyway?

I mean I can only relate those kinda wins to the equivalent to beating a 1 legged midget in an arse kicking contest, or beating a weak nerdy 5 year old in a streat fight. Sure there wins but nothing to write home about and have bragging rights and sense of acomplishment over.

Furthermore in the case presented above with the kurzicks having 5 afkers on 1 side. but 2 were willing to try in an extent. What kind of impression does such an experience leave on them? In the end they probably spited that place and said never again. What a wonderful sentiment to leave in your players yeah?

In response to everyone leaving to Jade. I just think thats a poor solution and again Anet shirking responsibility to fix what is clearly somethign that needs a solid solution and really should of had it much sooner then this. Its been close to a year now and the problem only slowly gets worse like a spreding infection.
Even then if we do the mass exodus to Jade you know the leechers would only follow you. My wonder with that solution would be what would happen first. Solid 8v8 matches in Aspenwood of all leecher teams or them migrating with the migration of honest players. What must be done for Anet to finally take notice of this is what I ask. I mean this is there career and peope take pride in there careers right? Im a carpenter and I take pride in my work and thus make sure that all partso f that house that I had a part in its creation is as close to perfection as humanly possible. In a metaphor sense that roof is sagging with Anets imperfection. Are they gonna wait till it collapses in on itself till they admit theres a problem that needs fixing?

My final view on this is that Anet suspends and banns scammers and such. Well in a sense leeching is scamming too. I mean a leecher is going in there willingly ad knowingly gonna ruin the experience of the 7 other honest players on his team. Hes ripping them off of there hard work fo a fun experience and winning knowingly and willingly. How is leeching not a version of scamming there?

Dont get me wrong someone said it before in here and its true. Anet has done a lot of good but this is one horrid blemesh and imperfection they totally fell off on and its only as bad as it is because of there ignorant lasy attitude to it to let the problem exist this long when it could of been solved and saved so much sooner and fairer and not destroy what could of been a GREAT intro to PvP.

look we all know Anet is screwed up. No matter what we do leechers will leech. So i say we take advantage of it. find a oppenent with alot of leechers and kill them. easy win,easy faction.

Thats not totally true to a near flat out wrong. They leech right now cause they know they can get away with it. That even if there team loses which they know they almost garentee it happening they will still come out with exp, and faction.
However if they suddenly had to work for that exp and faction or lose and get nothing they would either start to contribute or leave all together.

The example that wasnt too long ago was the snowball PvP fighting we had in wintersday. Leechers started going in there and screwing teams over so they could get thre free spiked eggnog but in the time it took me to go to bed and wake up and reload on my vacation Anet had removed the losers getting spiked eggnog and by the end of that day leechers had all but left cause they knew there wasnt anything for them there unless they contributed to help get a win.

So assuming Anet would put that same aspect into Aspenwood the mass majority of our present leechers would leave cause they can no longer get there free faction and exp at the expense of the honest players trying to have a fun fair balanced experienced and trying to win.

Im sorry but the folocophy of "easy money" is a pretty lame reason to turning a blind eye and cheek on this issue and not only that but is still frustrating for you when you get hit by the latter rather then your free faction and if you got it it also came at the expece of the other teams honest players. Its a crappy phylosophy and does nothign but leave bad impressions in your gamers. And Anet should take pride in all aspects of there game including the life of a fair honest Aspenwood. The players have given Anet a lot of time on it. Almost a year now. Its a horrid practice to make your gamers lose faith in you and resign themselves to countless matches of frustration well they wait for there chance for "easy faction" when every match should be "fun faction"

And yeah its also crappy that we had to resign ourselves to a "face it Anet is lasy and dont give a crap" attitude but still a voice is a powerful thing and if you dont speak up and out how can things improve.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naf Olbaid And you would get them to do that.. how?

We (a couple players that frequent the GWG IRC) managed to pull sixteen or so people to each side of Jade Quarry the other day, and had more than five matches play out if I recall correctly (after that I left to do some forum work, so I don't know what went on from that point).

It's not that hard. We just asked people to come, and they came.

Well no matter what im gonna leech. Im proably gonna go leach right now. Its just easy while i do something else. And i get faction. Anet wont do anything about it. Thats how I like it.

Just because ArenaNet wont do anything doesn't mean you need to show up here and say you are going to leech because people are protesting, you are obviously not interested in anyones in-game experience around you, Yosh.

So he wants to protest something that needs to be changed? Why do you have a problem with this? Because you will lose the best way you can earn faction without working for it? If you are serious about going to leech, you are obviously not interested in earning anything you get, you are one of those people who complain that some titles are too hard and should be easier. Don't ruin other peoples experience because you want to gain faction without working for it while doing something else.

I dont care about others in game experience. and ive never complained about a title being to hard. And soome guy on a forum isnt gonna stop me from leeching.

I was using that as an example, people who complain about titles are people who wont take the long road and work for what they earn. I realize that I will not change your mind about this but you do not need to come here and tell everyone you are going to go leech now, that is just terrible.

How to ruin Leechers

No opposing party joined etc...

I protested by not playing at all