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The Daily Grind: What's the strangest AFK you've experienced?
Sometimes, people go away from the keyboard for normal reasons. Saying that I had to go AFK from World of Warcraft for a phone call wasn't all that abnormal, even if it was a call I had never expected to get from the woman who would eventually marry me. But then there are the more unusual times, like when I had to go AFK because my house was being pelted with rocks. Or the story a friend relayed of a guildmate saying, "BRB, someone is breaking into my house." There's always a story behind these incidents, even if it's just a bluff and you're running to the bathroom. So what's the strangest AFK you've experienced? Was it a case of something weird in your own life like calling animal control to deal with the wolves in your front yard, or was it a friend suddenly leaving the raid to put out a grease fire in the kitchen? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The epic raid AFK
There are few things more frustrating in the game than a person going AFK in the middle of a fight. Sometimes there are good reasons, and sometimes the reasons are...less than adequate. But no matter what, we all have an epic AFK story that makes us laugh and cry all at the same time.The ultimate AFK (so far) in my WoW career happened while we were on Illidan last week. Uly, a good Mage in our guild, was standing with the ranged group dpsing Illidan during phase 1. He was a little high on threat, so he switched to his wand. Nothing wrong there.So he's standing there, wanding away as I'm moving Illidan across the terrace to avoid the fire. It looks like he's doing his job. He get the parasites."Uly," the raid leader calls out.A second goes by."Uly, move," calls the class lead.Another moment."Oh $!@# he's AFK."
A message to those that ask me to group
Dear PUG Members,Recently you've asked me to group with you. This is cool, and I appreciate being wanted. It gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The same warm and fuzzy feeling you get after you've killed a million boars and are holding the Sword of a Thousand Truths. However, if you don't mind, could we go over a few dos and don'ts?Here's what you should do: Do ask nicely if I have time to join your group. Do look to see if I'm using the LFG tool. If I'm not, I probably don't want to group. Do offer me at least 100 gold to run you through the Stockades. The two gold you're putting forth does not make up for the time it's going to take me to run you through. Do talk in English or some other real language. I'll even accept Klingon. Leet speak is not a language. Do ask if everyone is ready before MDing the boss to me. Do use Omen or KTM. Do use something more than auto-attack. Here's what you should NOT do:
Disastrous AFKs
While I'm sure we've all had the experience where a crucial group member went away from their keyboard at a bad time, a whole different type of disastrous AFK was brought up on the WoW forums the other day. An earthquake in the San Francisco area was cause for a lot of sudden AFKs for many posters, including Delthen who started the thread. It seems that many of the posters actually told their group that they were going away from the keyboard. Apparently they failed to read the recent article on the subject by our own Robin Torres. Nethaera chimed in with her own story of a group member needing to leave the game due to a tornado warning, one which I've seen occur in-game myself. Personally, the worst thing that's suddenly taken my attention from the game is my dog getting sick or maybe a desperate cry for me to kill a spider that's harassing my wife. What's the worst thing that's caused you to go AFK?
