One of the most annoying things in any MMORPG is having a player block your view of an NPC that you're trying to click on. With the battlemaster blocking going on in World of Warcraft, a curious Blizzard forum member by the name of Mythomania decided to clarify the issue of sitting on top of a battlemaster... and got an interesting set of responses as a result.

Find out more about how the issue "sits" with both Blizzard and other WoW players after the jump.

When Bornakk announced yesterday that the new hotfix will include a reduced number of AFK reports that can be issued in a given Battleground the news was received with a lot of heat. Members from the World of Warcraft forums have expressed a lot of violent reactions to the new update and are looking to Blizzard for a more permanent solution on the long-contested AFK issue.

Read more about this development in the full article!

Over on the World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard CM Bornakk mentioned that a new hotfix will be implemented to help improve the quality of play in Battlegrounds by lessening the amount of AFK reports issued by players. The official website also has a statement outlining the mechanics of AFK reporting related to Bornakk's announcement.

Read more in the full article!

Blizzard Poster Salthem has released the PTR 2.3.2 Patch Notes for World of Warcraft. The notes detail changes made to a number of classes, items, quests and more since the patch for PTR 2.3. The patch notes also outline a number of bug fixes so you might want to take a look see in the full article.

Not really into PvP when you're playing Blizzard's highly-celebrated World of Warcraft? Well, a lot of people have their own reasons for going at PvE than challenge a random Alliance member in the Arena.

However, many also feel that they aren't properly being rewarded in terms of epic loot compared to their PvP-ing brethren. This is related to the previous reports many gamers have been turning about the rampant AFK-ing issue in BGs and in Arena battles.

Many other forum posters replied saying that the way WoW has evolved since it first came online, gamers are free to choose whether they wanted to earn these points through PvP or raiding, or a combination of both.

The game itself balances itself out with every patch released regularly and continually offers players new ways to vie for honor and gold to gain their much coveted equipment. Blizzard blue poster Bornakk, ever the mediator, intervened on the growing thread by saying:

The PvP system has changed numerous times since the first inception and it is being changed again with the addition of personal ratings in season 3. In PvP you get to pit yourself against other people and go toe to toe until the end.

In PvE you get to fight giant monsters of epic proportions. While it may be easier for some people to get gear in one versus the other, we encourage people to do both or really just go for what you enjoy the most.

Basically, it's up to the gamers themselves to choose their poison. As it is, with the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, looming over the horizon, PvP gamers are already farming the much needed reputation and honor for the upcoming set of equipment that's sure to arrive when it goes live next year.

A lot of people have been on the unfortunate receiving end of a recent bug that has been plaguing MMORPG players in Blizzard's World of Warcraft. The MMORPG company giant has been getting a lot of flak lately due to the steps they should be taking to fix the notorious Battle Grounds bug so many PvP savvy players have been complaining about.

However, there may just be a small silver lining to this annoying little problem. While there hasn't been any official word on when the bug will be fixed, Blizzard poster Aeus has listed some easy steps on how to deal with the issue in the meantime:

We are aware that some players might currently be getting stuck at the end of combat in the Battle Grounds. A solution is being worked on and we will let you know when we have more information. Until a fix is made available there are two possible workarounds:

1. Close the client and restart the game.

2. Do /afk at the end of the BG; this has proven to work for some players as well.

Knowing how bugs just pop up everywhere in any new gaming patch, we'll all just have to sit tight and be a little patient until the boys at Blizzard find a more permanent solution to this problem.

Despite the anti-AFK measures that were set in place in World of Warcraft, AFKers would still - inevitably - affect other players. The current setup in the PTR is that other players can report an AFKer in the field and if there are enough reports, the AFKer will get a debuff after 30 seconds if they don't participate in combat, and they won't be able to gain honor.

Fantastiko posed a question in the WoW Forums if whether or not people would report an AFKer or go AFK as well and get some quick Honor. Abominae also addressed the anti-AFK fix by saying that issuing a 30-second warning isn't enough.

Blizzard rep Nethaera explains the issue, and at the same answers Fantastiko's question, saying:

We also have some other things that are going to be changed in AV at some point as Kalgan mentioned at BlizzCon so perhaps the incentive to AFK won't be as great with the report function and the upcoming changes.

I'll be reporting AFKers if I see them.

So if you are morally against AFKers or simply don't like 'em, we should be seeing some new changes to address the issue soon. For now, you can report them and hope they don't use the 30 seconds to do a quick heal and then go AFK again.

 

In a complaint against the Alliance's diminishing Battlegrounds performance against the now dominating Horde in World of Warcraft, community manager Nethaera reminded of the new AFK fix for the Battlegrounds system. The fix would allow a debuff to be granted to AFKers, often regarded as Honor leechers, to keep such offending players from earning Honor while in Battleground maps.

But there's a catch: in order for this debuff to work, offended players will have to observe suspected AFKers and then report them to be fair. Once the number of reports reaches a certain amount, the debuff will then be applied and the player reported will no longer earn Honor. This debuff immediately nullifies once the player engages in combat, however.

Now many negative implications have been brought up because of this system. For the most part, players will have to be idle themselves just to observe potential AFKers properly. And the degree to the conditions of AFK are in question, too. Does AFK apply to those avoiding combat altogether? Or those who are simply not moving, yet move after irregular lengths of idle times?

The fix is expected to make landfall in World of Warcraft's 2.2.0 patch, which is currently under testing phase at the Public Test Realms.

 

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.

Players are currently complaining as to when Blizzard will roll out the Battleground Matchmaking System in World of Warcraft. However, the truth of the matter is, the system has been in placed for some time now. If that's the case, it is then interesting to know why players are having these complaints at all.

But as forum moderator Drysc recently pointed out at the official WoW community forums, there are a lot of contributing factors why it seems and feels like the system is not working as intended. One of the most obvious one is that not a lot of players are interested in the Battlegrounds.

The blue poster added that Blizzard made the BG matchmaking system working loosely because it doesn't want players spending several hours just waiting for an opponent. Drysc mentioned that this will change if the population of the battlegrounds increase in the future. He elaborated:

That is mostly based on the battlegrounds themselves, new battlegrounds coming, and probably ultimately how well they're incentivized. All things we're aware of, and all things that (AV changes, AFK reporting, queue changes, new battlegrounds, new rewards) we're seeing come to a solution at a single point on the horizon.

We hope this thing sorts itself soon because we don't want to see the arrival of the Lich King being spoiled and players getting disappointed just because of problems like this.