Saturday, September 26, 2009

Is AFKing that bad?

An article from Zybez defending players right to AFK. I actually don't think AFKing is against the rules, but, IMHO, just like macroing it totally defeats the purpose. Players who AFK don't play the game - they work in the game. I can't imagine anyone enjoing Runescape while AFKing. And if you don't enjoy the game, why spend time and play it in the first place?

Plus it is annoying. Not many things annoy me, but a picture of a player who air splashes a tiny spider in the Lumbridge cellar does. In fact, I avoid the Lumbridge cellar because of it...

7 comments:

Avicile Mohaili said...

Well I think that kind of AFKing is very annoying, but I think it's all right to AFK a little bit while fishing etc to check emails or something. Of course, you have to be right there anyways. The only way I have survived this agility story is by occasionally checking email or blogging :-)

Primadog said...

is it a surprise that this comes from zybez?

NeobotXP said...

Why are zybez blogs always so terrible?

David7raul said...

Depends what you see as AFKing. If your letting your character get exp while your completely away from your keyboard for hours then that's wrong. If your fishing and you go to the bathroom, or watch a video I think it's ok.

Merch Gwyar said...

Tbh I've never seen the huge problem with AFKing, nor where the boundaries lie, until reading this article. I get it a bit better now, as in people are using it in combat.

It seems that it's only the last couple or three months that Jagex have been getting their knickers in a twist over AFKing. Of course, their stern words in various posts and diaries have caused a tidal wave of players going, 'oOOooh! It's bad!' And I've just been left there going, 'huh?'

If I'm fishing sharks, which take several years to catch one, and I'm dying for the toilet, I'm going to run into the next room while my character fishes. That's technically AFKing. However, if I'm thirsty, then it's going to take a few minutes for the kettle to boil, so I log out. If my character is somewhere where it could be killed, then I'm not even nipping to the loo for a minute. I'll log out. That's my rule of thumb.

Is it really that evil?

Now I'm seeing 'watching films' tagged onto AFKing. My monitor is big enough to have Rs in one corner and BBC iPlayer or similar in another. I'm still sitting here and I'm still watching/working my character, but I'm also concentrating on whatever is playing in the other corner. I wouldn't have got half of my grind levels otherwise.

If that's bad, what's next? Thou shalt not play Runescape if a television is in the room; or if someone else, who may engage you in conversation, is in the house? Thou shalt not listen to your own music whilst playing Runescape? Thou shalt not roll a cigarette nor lift up a cup of tea whilst playing Runescape?

*shakes head*

Vaskor said...

Thank you for the comments!

I'd like to clarify my position. I have no problems with people breaking away from Runescape from time to time for whatever reason and leaving the character in game doing stuff. What I don't like is a notion of AFK training, when player is not playing the game but reading/watching tv/doing home work and switching back to Runescape only to load/unload/reload/gulp/eat etc. In those cases players are not playing the game, they are, in fact, grinding. And you know how I feel about grinding... I understand that it is a common practice, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I'd rather get little exp here and there while paying full attention to the game, so I could see what's going on and interact with other players.

NeobotXP said...

It think it is the extreme cases that are worrying.
Autosplashing, bandit training and anything else that doesn't require any attention at all just aren't right.

 
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