The First Descendant is being plagued by loot-lurking AFK players, and the community is demanding a vote-to-kick fix

Third-person looter shooter The First Descendant might have launched a week ago, but servers are already besieged by semi-idle "players" leeching off of their teammates.

Frankly, the community is already sick of it. "Originally I'm opposed to a vote kick, because it can be easily abused and typically a solid AFK kick system tends to do the job," Reddit user 2Board_ writes on the official subreddit. But after farming for in-game materials needed to unlock a new First Descendant character, they're having second thoughts. 

"I've changed my mind. Make a vote kick option, because holy f*** are there so many AFKing leechers," they continue. Given how rewards (including rare loot drops) and XP are divided among the active players, this is a way for sneaky First Descendant players to do the bare minimum and still reap the rewards. Another Reddit user took to the community with an equally colorful message for people like this. "From the deepest of my heart: f*** you and all the trash in our playerbase like you. Rant over."

This champ following me in missions just to hide in the nearbies afk until 5 seconds before objective completion. When he would just dmg 1 enemy and get the rewards. From the deepest of my heart: f*** you and all the trash in our playerbase like you. Rant over. from r/TheFirstDescendant

It's not a crime to step away from an online multiplayer game for a few moments, but in the case of The First Descendant, it sounds like a tactical loot-grubbing strategy is gaining popularity. These fake-AFK gamers are crafty in their bid to evade the idleness timer, which would usually boot players from a server after a period of inactivity. But 2Board_ remarks how this particular problem sees supposedly away-from-keyboard players "slightly move every now and then, or shoot randomly once, so they don't get AFK timed out."

2Board_'s demands for a vote-to-kick option are echoed by others, including in a general discussion on Steam. "I'm not doing the grinding for you," says one frustrated player.

Sneaky server-lurkers are never fun, but the truth is that vote-to-kick powers can be just as easily abused as a foolsome AFK timer. Developer Nexon has yet to address these community concerns, but if it's keen to keep rectifying its mixed review status on Steam, a little acknowledgment could go a long way.

Here's everything you need to know about First Descendant's crossplay capabilties