I’m supposed to be writing a cryptid corner, but I’m fresh out of cryptids.
Well that’s not entirely true. I think we’re never fresh out of cryptids. I’m just out of compelling cryptids that I want to write about right now.
So instead, I’m posting an lolcat because lolcats are always good for a laugh and this one is Warcraft related.
For those that don’t know, /afk means “Away from Keyboard.” In WoW, it’s an easy way to let others know that although you are still logged into the game, you aren’t at the computer.
It’s taken on a life of it’s own though when related to the PVP elements of the game where people go AFK and just let others earn them a bunch of honor.
This led Blizz to make it such that if you go AFK while in a battleground, you immediately exit the battleground.
So then that led to creative uses of things such as the Logitech G15 Keyboard to make the game think you aren’t AFK when you really are.
And now there’s going to be a new feature in which people can ‘report’ people as AFK in a battleground, causing them to get no honor if enough people agree that said person is AFK.
Sounds like a good way to grief someone to me, but we’ll see how it goes.
The topic of going AFK and letting others do the dirty work is a long standing problem with WoW that the developers may never fully tackle.
EDIT: Lest you think that I think WoW invented AFK, I only say this picture is related to Warcraft because that’s Warcraft on the screen in the background. It’s a warlock to be exact. /shudder