Afk BGs

Submitted 3 years, 4 months ago by

What is your opinion of it? I tried it for about 4 hours today and i barely got 200 xp, maybe it was good when the system first came out and i heard rumbling of a stealth nerf to it. But personally i think it's a decent workaround for the system if you don't care about playing the game or your BGs ranking(i went from around 1.5k to zero doing this very quickly, which doesn't matter since i don't care about the ranking and it doesn't matter) I have two accounts, i have a phone i don't use it's pretty easy to do, and it helps people get their "finish in top 2 in BGs" quest which shouldn't even exist.

  • clawz161's Avatar
    The Undying 825 827 Posts Joined 07/16/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago

    What is your opinion of it? I tried it for about 4 hours today and i barely got 200 xp, maybe it was good when the system first came out and i heard rumbling of a stealth nerf to it. But personally i think it's a decent workaround for the system if you don't care about playing the game or your BGs ranking(i went from around 1.5k to zero doing this very quickly, which doesn't matter since i don't care about the ranking and it doesn't matter) I have two accounts, i have a phone i don't use it's pretty easy to do, and it helps people get their "finish in top 2 in BGs" quest which shouldn't even exist.

    Living like that.

    0
  • Ethardoth's Avatar
    Harpy Lieutenant 435 389 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago

    200 xp is worth around 10 g or less, so for 4 hours no way it's worth it even if you scripted it. I think we should all take a break of thinking about xp and the system and enter the game when we want to relax and have fun :) 

    3
  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5544 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago

    If you can bot it then its still free xp. Essentially the idea is that you can leave it up all night and be up like around 1000xp per day depending on the hours you're willing to leave your device turned on.

    There's going to be a time where blizz starts putting a cap on the max amount of xp possible in a day, and perhaps even implement something like giving extraordinarily low xp for those under, say, bottom 2 of the list, or tie it up to the number of moves completed per game. You getting only a mere 200xp for 4 hours is testament to them willing and having spent every ounce of muscle to stop easy xp from rolling in.

    But 200xp for no effort on your part is still free xp. Why not?

    0
  • Ethardoth's Avatar
    Harpy Lieutenant 435 389 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago

    You still need a bot and electricity and device life are not free. 

    1
  • clawz161's Avatar
    The Undying 825 827 Posts Joined 07/16/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago
    Quote From Ethardoth

    You still need a bot and electricity and device life are not free. 

    I have no idea why you're equating this to that

    Living like that.

    0
  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5544 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago
    Quote From Ethardoth

    You still need a bot and electricity and device life are not free. 

    Obviously when I used the word 'free' it is in the context of the current situation which is 'playing the game', therefore the intention of my original use of the term is to describe the pursuance of experience points without putting the necessary effort as another person would in the same situation.

    0
  • Ethardoth's Avatar
    Harpy Lieutenant 435 389 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago

    Well, you can also just buy packs if financial aspect is not a problem. That's why I made that point, clawz. 

    0
  • Alfi's Avatar
    Devoted Academic 1790 1375 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago
    Quote From clawz161
    Quote From Ethardoth

    You still need a bot and electricity and device life are not free. 

    I have no idea why you're equating this to that

    Because it may be cheaper to buy packs for money than to pay for electricity for “free” pack

    -=alfi=-

    1
  • iWatchUSleep's Avatar
    1095 819 Posts Joined 05/28/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago
    Quote From Alfi
    Quote From clawz161
    Quote From Ethardoth

    You still need a bot and electricity and device life are not free. 

    I have no idea why you're equating this to that

    Because it may be cheaper to buy packs for money than to pay for electricity for “free” pack

    But then you're supporting Blizzard with your money. Which is the polar opposite of what most people want to do currently.

    2
  • Ethardoth's Avatar
    Harpy Lieutenant 435 389 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago
    Quote From iWatchUSleep
    Quote From Alfi
    Quote From clawz161
    Quote From Ethardoth

    You still need a bot and electricity and device life are not free. 

    I have no idea why you're equating this to that

    Because it may be cheaper to buy packs for money than to pay for electricity for “free” pack

    But then you're supporting Blizzard with your money. Which is the polar opposite of what most people want to do currently.

    Saving environment by preserving energy should be more important than boycotting a greedy company.

    Anyways, I just think it's too small of amount of exp to rationalize afk-ing BG. Maybe in ranked it's worth it in terms of personal gain, but you ruin other's entertainment. If you want to send Blizzard a message, it's probably better to play less, rather then increasing their playtime numbers with afk-ing. 

    Playing the game naturally is healthier for everyone.

    0
  • meisterz39's Avatar
    925 1200 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago

    Quote From clawz161
    I tried it for about 4 hours today and i barely got 200 xp, maybe it was good when the system first came out and i heard rumbling of a stealth nerf to it.

    This is much lower than what I've seen on reddit, where the average xp/min is around 4.5 (including this analysis from a couple of weeks ago). Perhaps you're right, and there was a server-side patch to the system, but if you could, I think it would be useful to provide more info about how you implemented the strategy (e.g. how long do you think you were in queue, did you consistently queue up right after each match or was there some delay, etc.).

    Depending on how you're implementing it, it's very possible that your four hours spent doing this AFK strategy translated to much less time in games than a bot doing the same thing would have had.

    Quote From dapperdog
    You getting only a mere 200xp for 4 hours is testament to them willing and having spent every ounce of muscle to stop easy xp from rolling in.

    Is it really so bad that they want to limit people AFKing the game for XP? It makes for a more worse player experience if your opponents are regularly just roping/doing nothing. That negative impact is certainly diminished in battlegrounds (because you have six other opponents), but if everyone who AFKs ends up with a low MMR, it also creates two pretty bad results: 1) it means anyone trying out BG for the first time may be stuck with lots of AFK opponents at very low MMRs, and 2) it means the potential of wasting the cost of running servers on games populated mostly by AFK BG lobbies.

    The game ought to reward you for playing the game rather than merely spending time in the game. There's room for improvement to how players gain XP, and the issues around queue times, etc., that make it hard for players to get the full value of an hour spent honestly playing the game. But despite that, I think it's entirely appropriate for them to try to prevent people from manipulating XP systems, because no matter how generous they are to players who are seriously playing the game, people will try to manipulate the reward system with bots, etc.

    0
  • clawz161's Avatar
    The Undying 825 827 Posts Joined 07/16/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago
    Quote From meisterz39

    Quote From clawz161
    I tried it for about 4 hours today and i barely got 200 xp, maybe it was good when the system first came out and i heard rumbling of a stealth nerf to it.

    This is much lower than what I've seen on reddit, where the average xp/min is around 4.5 (including this analysis from a couple of weeks ago). Perhaps you're right, and there was a server-side patch to the system, but if you could, I think it would be useful to provide more info about how you implemented the strategy (e.g. how long do you think you were in queue, did you consistently queue up right after each match or was there some delay, etc.).

    Depending on how you're implementing it, it's very possible that your four hours spent doing this AFK strategy translated to much less time in games than a bot doing the same thing would have had.

    Quote From dapperdog
    You getting only a mere 200xp for 4 hours is testament to them willing and having spent every ounce of muscle to stop easy xp from rolling in.

    Is it really so bad that they want to limit people AFKing the game for XP? It makes for a more worse player experience if your opponents are regularly just roping/doing nothing. That negative impact is certainly diminished in battlegrounds (because you have six other opponents), but if everyone who AFKs ends up with a low MMR, it also creates two pretty bad results: 1) it means anyone trying out BG for the first time may be stuck with lots of AFK opponents at very low MMRs, and 2) it means the potential of wasting the cost of running servers on games populated mostly by AFK BG lobbies.

    The game ought to reward you for playing the game rather than merely spending time in the game. There's room for improvement to how players gain XP, and the issues around queue times, etc., that make it hard for players to get the full value of an hour spent honestly playing the game. But despite that, I think it's entirely appropriate for them to try to prevent people from manipulating XP systems, because no matter how generous they are to players who are seriously playing the game, people will try to manipulate the reward system with bots, etc.

    If a system is bad and built around exploiting you, you should be able to do the same to it without a guilty conscience. It literally gave me nothing doing this, i only did it because i was close to leveling up an didn't want to play any more games because i was busy with something else. I had already done my three quests i had and it didn't even give me a level up. The system is a joke. I think everyone should afk BGs, because "don't you guys have phones?" The small indie company that is ACTIVISION BLIZZARD can afford to pay for servers....Get in as much experience as you can before they cap it to to 1k experience a day and screw us even harder.

    Living like that.

    0
  • meisterz39's Avatar
    925 1200 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 3 years, 4 months ago
    Quote From clawz161

    If a system is bad and built around exploiting you, you should be able to do the same to it without a guilty conscience. It literally gave me nothing doing this, i only did it because i was close to leveling up an didn't want to play any more games because i was busy with something else. I had already done my three quests i had and it didn't even give me a level up. The system is a joke. I think everyone should afk BGs, because "don't you guys have phones?" The small indie company that is ACTIVISION BLIZZARD can afford to pay for servers....Get in as much experience as you can before they cap it to to 1k experience a day and screw us even harder.

    I feel like you're kind of putting words in my mouth here. I'm not saying that you should feel guilty about exploiting the system as it exists. Rather, I'm saying that there several compelling reasons for Blizzard to disincentivize that kind of behavior (including the costs of running the game and a bad player experience), so if they're doing that and making it harder for people to game the system, I'm neither surprised nor upset. At the end of the day, it's all just economics. The game should be rewarding for people who are playing the game in earnest, and it should not be rewarding for players who are trying to exploit it. If they succeed at that, whether or not you "should" feel guilty about exploiting it would be irrelevant, as that would simply be a dumb thing to do.

    Certainly, any effort to "stealth nerf" the XP for this AFK strategy would be the "stick" approach to nudging players towards positive gaming experiences in Hearthstone rather than exploitative ones. And you're right that they could stand to push harder on the "carrot" approach by making the system more generous for when people are playing the game for fun, thus decreasing the incentive to exploit it. But one way or another, I doubt I'll adopt this approach - it just seems tedious and boring.

    0
  • Leave a Comment

    You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign in here.

    ODYN
    0 Users Here