If you have spent anytime at all in the battlegrounds especially Alterac Valley you will have noticed the consistent number of players who AFK (Away from Keyboard) and not participating to help their side try to win the battle. The issue of AFK players has been a sore subject for many World of Warcraft battlegrounds players for quite some time.
Many times within Alterac Valley you can see at any given time from 3 to as many as 10 or more players who are simply sitting within the cave on either side or somewhere else on the map. The lost production of even a few players can make the difference between a win and loss in the battlegrounds. The worst part of this whole situation it seems that the same players are seemingly in almost every battleground doing the same thing.
The frustrating part of this situation is that these players are receiving honor based on the hard work of others are able to obtain enough points on any given day to gear their characters with epics they so obviously do not deserve.
Blizzard last year implemented a report player AFK option into the battlegrounds system, but this seems to be only a minor deterrent as it takes several players to take the time to find and report these players for them to lose any chance of receiving honor in the battleground; and how many of us have time to do this on a consitent basis in the battlegrounds?
One thing that should be done within the battlegrounds system to discourage this practice would be the implementation of Bans to those players who are reported excessively. These bans could be something similar to a one week ban from the battlegrounds for the first offense to a permanent ban for repeat offenders.
It is simply not fair that players such as this are allowed to receive epic level gear when so many people are legitametely putting in the hours and effort needed to get the epic pvp gear from the battlegrounds. Blizzard needs to seriously consider the implementation of a stronger battlegrounds AFK policy to help weed out those who are simply taking advantage of the hard work of others.
