In the pre-patch of WoW WotLK Classic, there was some proper hullabaloo a few days ago. Numerous players were banned for not properly participating in battlegrounds. Even though many bans were rescinded, Blizzard later explained that you can be fined for defending a tower if it means acting against the will of the group. The outcry was great and did not only lead to understanding among fellow players, because many also said:

You know perfectly well that you are actually afk in the tower and doing something else. A clip serves as anecdotal evidence of this – vicariously.

What’s the problem? In the Alterac Valley of World of Warcraft, one of the large battlefields that is good for farming honor and experience points, there are several mission objectives. Even though the primary objective is to destroy the enemy NPC boss, there are some secondary objectives, such as capturing and defending towers and bunkers – because they reinforce the respective boss as long as he lives.

So while some characters sincerely want to defend these towers, for others they also provide a clever excuse: you can just afk standing around in a tower and then claim that yes, you were defending.

Rogue shows how “well” players defend: Proving that defenders are afk is usually very difficult at a distance. However, it is quite easy for the other side to prove it, for example in the form of the rogue Rams. She showed a clip in the WoW Classic subreddit of how she calmly recaptured an Alliance bunker while a full 10 enemy players were “protecting” it.

This is how the community reacts: The community is amused by this video and gives it almost 3,000 upvotes. The whole topic is also taken up again humorously in the comments:

• “People fail to realize that this is the normal case in Alterac Valley.
  I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the banning was absolutely justified.”
• “If you take a step back, it’s really weird that you’re paying monthly for a game that you then … don’t play.”
• “Can you actually prove that I was afk? How can you be sure I didn’t plan to stand around motionless for 20 minutes to lull the opponent into safety? Checkmate, Blizzard! I’m contacting my lawyer.”
• “The rogue entered the battle again, he must have been afk too!”

As a stealth class, do you guys know situations like this too? Did you find the bans justified?

There’s a lot of criticism right now because of an €80 package for a game that’s been yours for a long time.