Spooncraft

        Grinding for Honor in the BGs has been something that most players are pretty sick of by now. Before the initial revamping of the honor system, grinding to get to the highest rank was something that was either controlled through manipulation of the system or through complete and utter self destruction in playing nonstop and there simply wasn’t a bot program out there that could PVP well enough to make it trivial.

        So Blizzard changed things so that honor was like currency and was earned by winning BGs and getting honor kills that really opened things up for the casual player or for the PVP player base in general that couldn’t commit the man hours needed with the original system. When Burning Crusade was released the Arena system through another wrench into the balance and mechanics of PVP. Eventually season 1 arena gear was dropped down the totem pole and now requires honor points to purchase. People being AFK in battlegrounds has been around before for a plethora of reasons, one of the biggest being the burnout factor. People that played under the original honor system already gave their endless hours and devotion and for one reason or the next didn’t reach the goal, or they did and now the bar has been raised again with the introduction of more levels and new gear. So why bother actually fighting? Just sit in the BG AFK and do it often enough that through wins or loses you accrue enough bonus honor granted from the BG (not honor kills) to get the gear.

        Another cause of the AFK fad spreading to massive levels was the actual addition of season 1 arena gear being obtained through the honor system. So there was a major influx of new players that didn’t really PVP as much before and were losing constantly. The kneejerk reaction for the losing side is to just turtle somewhere and farm honor kills, but with diminishing returns in the equation, that wasn’t even a slightly viable way to get the honor needed to buy the epic gear. Slowly one could save enough and buy pieces of gear, but the time invested in no way would reflect the rewards, so people decided to AFK. Blizzard did try to slap a band aid on the problem by introducing the inactive debuff that players would get if other people in the battleground reported them as being AFK, the debuff would negate any honor gained and would not allow any more honor to be obtained until the player actually engaged in combat with somebody from the opposing faction. The AFK bots are only programmed to make sure you move a little bit once every couple of minutes in order to not actually be labeled as AFK thusly booting you from the battleground and getting the 15 minute deserter debuff that wouldn’t allow you re-entry into any other BGs until it wore off.

        Another jolt to the issue was when Blizzard began tracking accounts of players that were constantly being reported as inactive, those accounts were then followed and eventually, punishment was dealt. Any items that were purchased using honor regardless of modification (gems, enchants, armor kits, etc) are deleted off the character and the account given a temporary ban. Now that Blizzard is removing the diminishing returns people will actually be able to gain the honor they work for without having to deal with the uncertainty of estimated honor and diminished gains. This change might bring a lot more honor farming just by mindlessly fighting in a BG but at least it will give a more tangible incentive to participate.