I'll make it simple for the author:
- Anybody who wants CCP to succeed where this game lasts for years as intended is against AFKing.
- Anybody who only cares about their self staying ahead in SP in the short term is for AFKing.
I say that with pure confidence as AFKers are ruining Skirmish play for other players who actually want to play the game. Those that have been with DUST a while will stick with it through this crap but new players will simply move on to the next game rather than endure the extensive AFKing going on.

There's no such thing as "same old maps" to new players.


Again, a new and not yet invested player is not going to give a crap about updates.


Being redlined is pretty easy to happen when 25% of your team is AFKing. Once your team recognizes a chunk of the team is AFKing, another 25% to 50% starts only sniping as they get tired of being constantly overrun by greater numbers.


I've heard this a lot in the BS AFK excuses I've heard. What I don't understand is if the game is SO boring, why keep playing to the extent where you'll AFK? Do you really expect the gameply to be totally redefined or something? No, you obviously don't think the game is that boring; you're just trying to take a shortcut to get ahead.

Long story short, AFKing is hurting DUST (even though I've actually heard a few say they AFK to help it ).

I care less and less as I grow tired of the game in its current form, but I still hate the entitled attitude of the pro-AFK camp. It's also self defeating to boost your own character at the expense of the game's survival. Dust is going to have a hard enough time attracting new players, and AFKing just exacerbates the problem this game has with wildly unbalanced pub-stomping.

Basically, you guys are robbing a bank whilst simultaneously devaluing your stolen currency. Who wants to be the unbeatable master of a game nobody else plays?

Also, it is straight up cowardly. Not just in the usual "I hate dying because my self esteem is disturbingly entwined with my performance in virtual warfare simulators" way, but in the sense that the AFKers are afraid to fight without an SP advantage. Losing a close game is way more fun and interesting than steamrolling people, and the bored of stomping AFKers are just going to find themselves bored with the next build this way.

That said, it's not technically cheating (yet [wink wink, devs]) and hasn't been affecting me much, personally. (In fact, I think the game is a bit easier with so many Imps and Bunnys stowing themselves away.)


Won't somebody please think of the poor blueberries. They're not all as terrible as they collectively appear; this game is just downright brutal to fresh meat. A lot of them probably don't get the chance to even see the other side of the maps in order to learn the lay of the land until they get into a match that spawns them on that side.

You call it an "exploit" however I fail to see where the AFKer has an unfair ability to do this. Everyone had this ability so how can it be an exploit. If you mean exploit in "not being used as intended" then you are wrong there too. CCP made it so that time in game is worth more than playing the game. AFKers are gaining SP as is intended in the same amounts as those who play the game. AFKing is not a glitch it was an intended consquence because CCP wanted the people who cant play well to get rewarded equally with those who can. As a result those who can play well may choose not to play well so that they can get the same benefit as those who cant play well. Its true socialism at its finest. When rewards are equal across the bar no matter your performance then why perform higher than the minimum standard necessary to gain that reward?

Referring to your last BS AFKing excuse, I'm sure there are a lot of new players in CBs too, huh?.
No, seriosuly, pub matches are all new players see. Thanks to AFKing compounding other problems, it's probably all some new players will ever see.

There's a moral argument to be made. They're piggybacking off the work of players who are actually trying to play. Many might be playing for free, but we invest time as well as money into earning sp. Sp that has financial value.
If people want to justify AFK farming with claiming the game isn't fun, how does intentionally making it worse give someone any moral highground or even immunity from criticism?