Deathmatches in Overwatch are usually pretty simple. That’s not to say the maps aren’t beautifully designed, but they are rather easy to get around and find someone quick because of how small and open-spaced they are. That’s not a complaint, it makes the game mode a lot more intense. However, the new Overwatch Petra map is a lot different from the other maps, and it’s causing more than a few problems for players.
Petra is full of passageways with a health pack right in the middle of the map, which seems like an easy way to help navigate. But according to the players, this doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Players are getting lost trying to get to the center of the map, so lost to the point that they are getting away-from-keyboard (AFK) messages, initially designed to make sure people are actually playing the game.
An Overwatch player took to the forums to explain the problem in more detail. They state, referring to how players get kicked if they don’t participate in a game, “I am getting AFK warnings because I can’t find any other players on the map.” They continue. “Most other Deathmatch maps, you can barely turn a corner without running into another player, but here it’s not uncommon to wander around for a whole minute without so much as getting shot at.”
As stated previously, an AFK timer is enabled to make sure players are actively participating in the game. However, when a player hasn’t landed a shot in a fixed amount of time (the length hasn’t officially been stated by Blizzard, though we speculate at least 30 seconds), the system will warn the player that they must do so soon or get kicked from the game.
Fortunately, Overwatch developer Bill Warnecke responded to the forum post to assure fans Blizzard is working on a fix, though didn’t specify when that fix would be coming.
“We appreciate the feedback on AFK timings for Petra,” he commented. “We’ve been looking into this and are planning an adjustment to the timing in an upcoming patch or hotfix.”
