Comments on Bannable Offenses: This... Is My Boomstick!

Funny how you complain about how people abused a b...

2009-05-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

Funny how you complain about how people abused a bug in FFXI but if someone abuses something in WoW, it's great.
I understand bias. I felt it towards WoW too when I played FFXI. Then I realized my brain stem was actually useful, and quit FFXI.

Bit of a dual standard when you like this guy, but...

2009-05-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Bit of a dual standard when you like this guy, but not the people who got stuff via the salvage exploits

If the title is a quote from army of darkness my l...

2009-05-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

If the title is a quote from army of darkness my love for GM dave just grew.

Martin Fury and Martin Thunder are both in the mul...

2009-05-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

Martin Fury and Martin Thunder are both in the multiple WoW databases out there.

Yeah.. call Bullshit all you like but when one person gets an item on accident, gives it to the main tank of their guild, they use it for multiple raids on 10 and 25 man settings, then realize that "oh shit we're gonna get in trouble" try mailing it off to another person... they deserve a ban and worse.

*shrug* I don't like people who cheat regardless of -why- or -how- an item was obtained. Common sense should tell someone "Hey this isn't right."

How can I get myself one of these shirts? And I t...

2009-05-05T03:10:00.000-07:00

How can I get myself one of these shirts?

And I thought it was a two-hand mace called "Martin Thunder", and happened years ago? Or is this deja-vu?

This seems to be the standard policy for most MMO ...

2009-05-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

This seems to be the standard policy for most MMO operating companies.
Probably SE as well, even if GM Dave doesn't want to ban such a person, company policy will force his hand.

Frankly I don't see it as any different from exploiting an item duping bug.
One could argue that the programmers left glitch in, so it should be OK for the players to use it.
But we all know that won't fly, not in WoW, not in FFXI.

He did piss of quite a few people by screwing with the "server first" achievements, which can be considered interfere with the game that is ban worthy.
I think some people on the WoW forums are taking this whole thing a little too seriously, but then I don't raid. And Blizzard could just reset the achievements.
But I suppose they don't want to encourage exploitive behaviour. /shrug

IMO SE would have probably done the same thing.

If it was I who received the item, I would have sent in a ticket.
I have heard of an item known as "Martin Thunder" which is a sword, that does the exact same thing. And that it's mostly used by GMs and developers to troubleshoot the game.
For example, testing the responsiveness of mobs to see if they are glitching out, or if a quest is working right.
Heaven knows what it really does internally on the server and what "side effects" on the server it would have if you used it.
It could set the server into debug mode for all you know, in the process crash the whole thing. ><

Well, if you really thought the GM's were sending ...

2009-05-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, if you really thought the GM's were sending you the best b-day gift ever then you'd have no problems checking with a GM to be sure... right? Or would you not check knowing full well that you weren't supposed to have that item of kicka$$ness +5. Either way, saying this is nowhere near the same as the FFXI bannings is crap too. It's an exploit in the game being used by a player. Hell if this WAS FF you know the people in his guild who weren't even on would have been banned but all the people who were blatantly involved would have had a slap on the wrist... because SE is all about consistency.

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed, with...

2009-05-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed, with the title being the greatest line from Evil Dead, I was hoping for something along those lines. Anyway.

If I got that shirt, I can't say that I would have used it. I definitely wouldn't have called up a GM to take it away, I would have just put it into that dark part of my bank storage until I decided I was done with WoW.

And then, THEN, once I don't care about WoW anymore, I would just start destroying everything.

You know very well you'd ban the holy f$%@ outta h...

2009-05-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

You know very well you'd ban the holy f$%@ outta him just because he was encroaching on your turf.

Paul: Gotta agree with you on that. People can cal...

2009-05-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

Paul: Gotta agree with you on that. People can call bullshit all they like, and say that he just wouldn't have known. But there's no way that they'd just hand some player an item that does that. Call WoW easy all you like - it's not *that* freakin' easy.

Anybody that would've taken two seconds to realize what that shirt did should've known that it wasn't something they were supposed to have.

And you can say all you like that nobody would turn it in if they received it. But I'm one of many that would have. I've put too much time into those characters to lose them to such a stupid thing. It's not worth it.

Haha, so the GMs should have asked politely for hi...

2009-05-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

Haha, so the GMs should have asked politely for him to delete the item? Why? If it was such a big issue why not just destroy the item for him, can't GM's do this.

I would guess that they did not talk to him about it at all before straight up banning his ass.

The whole thing also makes me laugh due to the fact that WoW is nothing more than a clamber for OMG FIRST!!!11 type of situations these days.

I call bullshit.Funny, I was thinking the same thi...

2009-05-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

I call bullshit.Funny, I was thinking the same thing when you said this:
If gamemasters send me an email in game or items in game, I assume said items are legit.
Normally, yeah, sure. But in this case anyone with the tiniest amount of common sense could not possibly believe that such an item was legitimately sent. It's obviously far more powerful than anything a developer could possibly want a player to have.

"We're sorry you lost your gear, here, have it all back and a shirt that lets you kill boss mobs and everything around it with the click of a button." Yeah... no.

WOAH WOAH WOAH... Hold on a minute... so you're sa...

2009-05-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

WOAH WOAH WOAH... Hold on a minute... so you're saying that if there's a mistake made by Blizzard in WoW, no punishment should be made from the player abusing it, but if it's in FFXI, then they should be banned on the spot, without complaining? I'm sorry Dave, I know you're a hypocrite, but COME ON!

But any item that says "cheater" on it you can't t...

2009-05-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

But any item that says "cheater" on it you can't think would be good.After seeing many of the bizarre things Blizz has in its item flavor text, I wouldn't have paid that any second thought.

A permanent ban does seem harsh but I get the feel...

2009-05-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

A permanent ban does seem harsh but I get the feeling we're not seeing the whole story on this.

It's the internet. Things get passed around to the point where the real story is so shrouded in lies and hersay that it's hard to know what's true and what's not.

When Blizzard found out what was going on, did they ask the guy to delete the shirt and he said no? DId they give him some sort of warning or did they ban him right off? It's hard to say.

But any item that says "cheater" on it you can't think would be good. Honestly? The shirt WARNS you that you are CHEATING, which is against the rules. At the end of the day, he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Strange. I seem to remember a post a few weeks ago...

2009-05-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

Strange. I seem to remember a post a few weeks ago about a bunch of players using an exploit to get cool items (in this case, duping).There's no contradiction. In the WoW case, it wasn't an exploit, this wasn't a flaw in the programming -- this was an item that the GAMEMASTERS SENT THE PLAYER IN QUESTION.

If gamemasters send me an email in game or items in game, I assume said items are legit. Otherwise what's the point of having gamemasters send you emails?

I've been watching the WoW forums and boards on this, and everyone's getting oh-so-self-righteous about how THEY would've opened a ticket, how how THEY would've done this, and done that, and oh my word no they would NEVER have used the item.

I call bullshit.

Never mind that the guy's entire raid group knew what was going on and said nothing. None of THEM opened a ticket or thought there was anything wrong with using an item that the GM had sent their guildie, evidently.

And Taera, yeah, everyone has a right to get upset about the achieves -- but all Blizz has to do is own up & admit THEIR mistake, and rescind the guy's gotten-gear and achieves. Banning him is just not right.

Strange. I seem to remember a post a few weeks ago...

2009-05-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

Strange. I seem to remember a post a few weeks ago about a bunch of players using an exploit to get cool items (in this case, duping). And [GM]Dave calling them retarded for not only using them, but doing it more than once. And not reporting it as soon as it was discovered.

Oh well, I'm probably mistaken. It must be the amyloydosis.

Ben, at least from my perspective, it's not that w...

2009-05-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Ben, at least from my perspective, it's not that what he did was bad (though I feel it was definitely something he shouldn't have done). He got a bunch of achievements for server-first kills and such, which while they don't *do* anything, are things that guilds who aren't cheating now can never legitimately get.

And I'm not convinced that the good Dave wouldn't ...

2009-05-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

And I'm not convinced that the good Dave wouldn't have banned someone for doing the same thing in FFXI.You really think Dave would BAN someone for using an item that Dave had sent that person?

An item that comes from a GM?

Yeah, this IS GM Dave we're talking about, but I'd think Dave would more likely ban that person for being stupid enough to NOT use the item sent to him by the Rightful Game Masters...

Is what he did really all that bad? I mean, it is ...

2009-05-03T04:57:00.000-07:00

Is what he did really all that bad? I mean, it is WoW... Players don't suffer that badly from dieing, mobs spawn faster than rabbits on viagra, and would you really waste time farming?

And to be honest, you could give it back... You could play it safe...

But... I'm not sure I could pass up the chance to do something so radically different in our beloved, but terribly unimaginative MMOs.

Hmm...

Wonder if there's an item in Eve which lets you blow up entire solar systems...

I'm not sure I would give it back right away if I ...

2009-05-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I would give it back right away if I found such an item in my MMO of choice, but he should if he wants to keep his character. It's exploiting, plain and simple. Sure, it should have never happened, but code has bugs and people make mistakes. And he didn't just farm some gold or something with it, he rampaged through all sorts of high-end content. If I had been the CSR that got that call, I woulda banned his ass too.

What he did was awesome, I would have loved to see it firsthand, but it still is rightfully a bannable offense.

Along the same lines: http://kotaku.com/5215836/pac+man-trashes-french-supermarket
Hilarious, awesome, would have loved to see it live, doesn't mean the store didn't do the right thing kicking him out. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't call the cops.

@MinorAgentofChaos: According to the guild's lead...

2009-05-03T01:05:00.000-07:00

@MinorAgentofChaos:

According to the guild's leader, who WAS banned, the entire guild was given a 24-hour temp suspension. There were no other bannings.

And while I'm not going to argue back and forth about what he should or should not have done, I personally would have paged a GM as soon as I saw the item.

Why?

I've invested years in my WoW main. I wouldn't want to even take the slightest chance of losing all that. And I'm not convinced that the good Dave wouldn't have banned someone for doing the same thing in FFXI. Maybe offered him a job on the side, but banned him all the same. =P

Wait, wouldn't this essentially be the same thing ...

2009-05-03T00:39:00.000-07:00

Wait, wouldn't this essentially be the same thing as XI players being banned for finding, and abusing gil exploits?

They're both essentially using a break inherit in the system for one's own gain.

I mean, granted, if you gave me a shirt of DOOM +4, I'd damn sure use it. AV or PW solo FTW!

I'd get banned I'm sure, but I'd go down being awesome.

Hey, the biggest deal about this story is the fact...

2009-05-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, the biggest deal about this story is the fact that the guild he was in used the shirt to one shot I believe every single boss in the New raid instance Ulduar which would cause them to get free epic loot. They were exploiting the shirt in the wrong manner, I think if all the guy did was go around kill random things I don't think blizzard would've cared that much, it's just the fact that they exploited it to get Loot that they didn't earn. I do think it's BS that people who weren't even involved in the raid got banned as well, blizz did take it way too far in that aspect.

Oh..my..Gawd, having that shirt and running throug...

2009-05-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

Oh..my..Gawd, having that shirt and running through ur opposite faction's main cities has to be the most epic thing ever.. 1 man raid ftw.