Player receives Developer item in the mail, one-shots Ulduar - WHOOPS!

[ShagnWagn]

It seems pretty clear to me now.

1. People who play WoW are crying and whining because some other player completely unrelated to them somehow had an "advantage" over them. They believe the ban is justifiable because they chose to use an item given to them by a Blizzard employee.

2. People who don't play WoW believe that Blizzard screwed up and the player chose to use an item given to them. If the player used it to kill some rats instead then there would be no griping. Who cares? If Blizzard simply screwed up, then should remove the "unfair" accomplishments acquired with the item. More justifiable would be giving the players involved a free month of play and be done with it.

 

[SilverSliver]

I don't play anymore -- but if I had had my characters hacked and deleted, and Blizzard strung it along for a long time -- then sent this to me? I would figure it's compensation for taking so long/poor customer service.

 

[odoe]

In all honesty, I am not familiar with items that developers use for testing. If I got an item like that in the mail, with charges, I'd just think that maybe I was some lucky random player that got picked from a hat of players that had certain achievements or something.

 

[singe_101]

This is like Chicago winning a rigged NBA lottery, picking Rose, then being banned from the NBA for cheating. What?

(btw I think they just got lucky)

 

[spindoctor]

No, they banned him because they screwed up. If you send someone an item (once again...intentional or not) you cannot ban them for using it. So what if the item wasn't intended for normal players to use. Why are they distributing these to GM's through mail? Blizzard is at fault.

ok let's enter the realm of speculation for a moment. do you believe they would have banned him if he had not used the item and reported it instead? because it would still be their screwup. so by your logic, they would still have to ban him right?

Your making a HUGE assumption about what he knew. The problem is that someone was GIVEN the equipment by a GM, with limited uses. And that item was transferable between characters. It's not like it came with a note "Here you go, but you can't use it". Had he hacked code to get it that would be entirely different. but that's not the case here.

if common sense is a huge assumption, then i suppose you're right. might i suggest that having never played wow, you might not be grasping just how significant an item like this is and how there is no way anyone could ever mistake it as being legitimate in the game?

blizzard's mistake of handing him the item doesn't absolve him from abusing the game with it. one can argue the severity of the punishment (like you did) but it's amusing to see some people saying that it's all blizzard's fault

 

[spindoctor]

It seems pretty clear to me now.

1. People who play WoW are crying and whining because some other player completely unrelated to them somehow had an "advantage" over them. They believe the ban is justifiable because they chose to use an item given to them by a Blizzard employee.

2. People who don't play WoW believe that Blizzard screwed up and the player chose to use an item given to them. If the player used it to kill some rats instead then there would be no griping. Who cares? If Blizzard simply screwed up, then should remove the "unfair" accomplishments acquired with the item. More justifiable would be giving the players involved a free month of play and be done with it.

but i don't play wow and i believe the ban was justified. what now?

 

[gamz247]

they didn't ban him because they screwed up. they banned him because he decided to take advantage of the mistake, knowing clearly well that it was wrong to do so. seriously, are you guys so focused on blizzard's mistake that you forget he actually used the item to exploit the game? unless you believe that it wasn't an exploit and it was perfectly ok to do what he did, in which case i don't know what to say

it's not a big deal for us, but it obviously is for blizzard.

It's only "wrong" because under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be able to do it. If you were to come into possession of an item that allowed you to do something a human normally couldn't do, would it be "wrong" to use it? And if the original owners of this item were to come along and have you arrested, would you think being thrown in jail for the rest of your life an appropriate sentence for using it, even with the full knowledge that anything you had done could be undone by the item's owners?

I mean, this whole situation reeks of people lacking perspective. This is not real life, it's a video game. Everything that was gained thru the use of this item can be reset. Give him a slap on the wrist as a, "We're glad you had fun, but don't do it again" kinda thing and send him on his way.

And for the record, I've been playing WoW for 4.5 years now.

 

[spindoctor]

It's only "wrong" because under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be able to do it.

there's the difference i guess. i believe he shouldn't be knowingly exploiting the game in any circumstances.

I mean, this whole situation reeks of people lacking perspective. This is not real life, it's a video game. Everything that was gained thru the use of this item can be reset. Give him a slap on the wrist as a, "We're glad you had fun, but don't do it again" kinda thing and send him on his way.

And for the record, I've been playing WoW for 4.5 years now.

that's a fair point of view. it's obviously a big enough deal for blizzard to go for an account ban rather than any other course of action they could have taken.

 

[PornoSatan]

I think it's fair to say deep down he knew something was up.

The item itself was buried in a bunch of random restoration mails to miscellaneus chars, this one being on a level 13 warlock. He used it 14 times before he was caught, so obviously he knew it worked. He intentionally didn't tell some of his guildies, so he could surprise them. He used it on multiple raid bosses BEFORE using it to get world firsts. It says "Cheater" on it. He should have just opened a ticket. He had plenty of opportunities.

It's also disturbing that Blizzard didn't catch this earlier. He was caught only because of the world firsts achievement system. If he was more subtle who knows.

 

[Dreaz]

I think it's fair to say deep down he knew something was up.

The item itself was buried in a bunch of random restoration mails to miscellaneus chars, this one being on a level 13 warlock. He used it 14 times before he was caught, so obviously he knew it worked. He intentionally didn't tell some of his guildies, so he could surprise them. He used it on multiple raid bosses BEFORE using it to get world firsts. It says "Cheater" on it. He should have just opened a ticket. He had plenty of opportunities.

It's also disturbing that Blizzard didn't catch this earlier. He was caught only because of the world firsts achievement system. If he was more subtle who knows.

Right, but I don't think the punishment fits the "crime." Permabanned over this? Nah. Maybe character rolled back or items taken away and achievements, but completely taking away all that guy's work because he had a little fun with a Blizzard slip up?

I think the real cheaters and exploiters should be permabanned, not this guy. So, I agree he shares the blame with Blizzard, but the severity of the punishment doesn't fit with what happened.

 

[PornoSatan]

Right, but I don't think the punishment fits the "crime." Permabanned over this? Nah. Maybe character rolled back or items taken away and achievements, but completely taking away all that guy's work because he had a little fun with a Blizzard slip up?

I think the real cheaters and exploiters should be permabanned, not this guy. So, I agree he shares the blame with Blizzard, but the severity of the punishment doesn't fit with what happened.

I don't think he should get permabanned either. But he did have a chance to do his part and notify a GM for example.

 

[singe_101]

So they might have turned off an entire guild from subscribing to WoW? Costly punishment... for their revenue.

I hate when authorities make the rules up as they go. Getting OP items from Blizz and enjoying them is probably not in the EULA as a permaban.

 

[jkr266]

So they might have turned off an entire guild from subscribing to WoW? Costly punishment... for their revenue.

I hate when authorities make the rules up as they go. Getting OP items from Blizz and enjoying them is probably not in the EULA as a permaban.

First off, i very seriously doubt even a large portion of that guild will quit playing. But even if they do, it was probably worth it to blizzard to reinforce thier standing on exploiting in game.

As for making up the rules as they go along, gimme a fuckign break. Blizzard has made it damn clear over the last few years what thier stance on ANY orm of exploitation to get items, you wouldnt otherwise be capable of getting. Yeah, its probably almost draconian, but its most definatly not something they just made up on the spot. and is something that anyone thats played the game long enough to have led a guild through 25man naxx should know. You can argue that they are TOO hard on these types of things, and you may even be right, but its a hell of alot better a stance than the almost apathy most devs take to exploiting in thier games.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I played WoW a couple years ago until about level 50-ish and just got bored out of my mind with the grind of that game. It's not a very good game, honestly, but it will keep you entertained for a couple months.

That said, where this guy messed up is by seeing what this item could do..which is clearly considered a cheat to any legit gamer...and then continuing to re-use it and even using it in instances to benefit his entire guild. This is cheating, pure and simple, and it happens way too often nowadays. People are less concerned with competitiveness and earning their spots than being a recognized great player off their own merit. I feel sad for all the gamers around now that use codes, lag switches, progs, aimbots, etc to make a name for themselves; because none of you will ever have the satisfaction the few of us who really are good have.

 

[MrGuvernment]

Blizz could care less who they offend or whos fault it was. They will ban them knowing some of them will activate new accounts and they will still get paid. Blizz is a POS company in my opinion.

i would be talking to a lawyer. WoW is a paid for service.... to be cut off when you have paid for said service better have a dam good reasons, document in a EULA or something you agreed to when you paid them for the service.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

i would be talking to a lawyer. WoW is a paid for service.... to be cut off when you have paid for said service better have a dam good reasons, document in a EULA or something you agreed to when you paid them for the service.

They cheated, which is against the EULA, and then got banned for doing so. If you find a lawyer they will tell you that you cheated and got banned for not controlling your urge to use your impending weapon of doom that you shouldn't have had. Just because you have it is no reason to go around using it.

It's shocking that cheating is so accepted in the gaming community.

 

[haitu]

analogy:

your father possess a 1938 the Phantom Corsair that he never lets you drive and a family honda accord. he leaves for a trip and accidentally leaves the corsair keys on the table instead of the 98 accord. you know you are not suppose to drive the thing but you know you will be looking fly cruising down the town. so... you say, "why not?"

you use it and get mucho puntang and all the boys are jealous @ your school. your father gets a call from the neighbors informing him of the house parties and naked chicks running in and out of your house. he comes home and sees that you have had the time of your life thanks to the help of his 1938 corsair. since you live under his roof, he makes the rules and dishes out the punishment.

 

[hfk]

I can't see how that could happen unless a blizzard employee actually sent it, which seems kinda logical anyway; what would you do if you were a dev/employee with access to this and also played the game like a normal player? You'd send it from your dev account to your spare-time account to clear ulduar fast and get the cool loot?

In the light of that I think it's pretty nice they banned the account.

 

[Technoob]

i would be talking to a lawyer. WoW is a paid for service.... to be cut off when you have paid for said service better have a dam good reasons, document in a EULA or something you agreed to when you paid them for the service.

Blizzard's EULA would laugh in any lawyer's face. And I say that as a lawyer. You sign your life away. And what would his damages be even if you could get some theory under the EULA where they violated the mutual agreement? Whatever portion of his 15 dollars that was left for the month. Yeah, get someone to take that on a contingency basis.

 

[Katalysis]

Blizzard's EULA would laugh in any lawyer's face. And I say that as a lawyer. You sign your life away. And what would his damages be even if you could get some theory under the EULA where they violated the mutual agreement? Whatever portion of his 15 dollars that was left for the month. Yeah, get someone to take that on a contingency basis.

+1. It may as well say "Blizzard owns your soul." More realistically, I can't speak for Technoob, but I know I charge an exponentially higher amount per hour than your $15 a month, so I'm pretty sure no lawyers will be involved in this one.

 

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

I think any honest player who is even remotely unsure about the legitimacy of the item would contact a GM immediately and ask "Is this some kind of gift bestowed upon me, or a really bad screw-up?" The best response he could get is "Yes! Enjoy your free epics with your buddies!" and the worst is "No, but thanks for reporting this." It's pretty obvious that he knew what the answer would be and tried to take advantage of the situation while it lasted. I think he knew what he was doing was technically wrong, and just expected a slap on the hands after a little "enjoyment." Sucks to have that kind of thinking though.

 

[koopaGG]

It seems pretty clear to me now.

1. People who play WoW are crying and whining because some other player completely unrelated to them somehow had an "advantage" over them. They believe the ban is justifiable because they chose to use an item given to them by a Blizzard employee.

2. People who don't play WoW believe that Blizzard screwed up and the player chose to use an item given to them. If the player used it to kill some rats instead then there would be no griping. Who cares? If Blizzard simply screwed up, then should remove the "unfair" accomplishments acquired with the item. More justifiable would be giving the players involved a free month of play and be done with it.

This pretty much seems correct.

ok let's enter the realm of speculation for a moment. do you believe they would have banned him if he had not used the item and reported it instead? because it would still be their screwup. so by your logic, they would still have to ban him right?

Your name really fits the way you like to debate.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

Blizzard had to ban them to appease the neck beards who were pissed.

 

[Fliddycent]

Wow, some complete mongs in here.

This is impartial input, here, but it also happens to come from me, and by now you ought all to be able to identify me for the inestimable superhuman that I am; it's not a big fucking deal. Anyone saying that banning bunches of people over this is justified is an idiot.

 

[Azureth]

This is why I have trouble enjoying WoW, people take it wayyyy to seriously. "OMG he used an uber weapon that was accidentally given to him!! OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!"

 

[Pr0d1gy]

This is why I have trouble enjoying WoW, people take it wayyyy to seriously. "OMG he used an uber weapon that was accidentally given to him!! OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!"

I don't even play it, it's just that whatever games I do play I go out of my way to play fairly....unlike most people, apparently.

 

[FoxhoundOp]

It was pretty stupid of him to use it to exploit raids, but I probably would have done the same thing

 

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

I don't even play it, it's just that whatever games I do play I go out of my way to play fairly....unlike most people, apparently.

I'm kind of in the middle. I'm willing play a game as far as that people may consider it "dishonorable" or "cheap," but only if it's placed in the game as an intended mechanic. But if there's a blatant exploit that gets discovered (aka not intended by the developers), I'll refuse to abuse it at all.

 

[MassConfusion]

This is why I have trouble enjoying WoW, people take it wayyyy to seriously. "OMG he used an uber weapon that was accidentally given to him!! OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!"

That's what I said. I believe it was more like "We give you this item. OMG, Your using it?!? YOU CHEAT!! NOW BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!" or something like that.

Now just to go over it again, his account got hacked, an account that Blizzard should have kept safe to begin with. Then Blizzard fixes the account, and after that sends him an awsomely powerful piece of gear WITH A LIMIT (I just wanted that bit be seen by certain people, "cough...spindoctor...cough"). He then uses the weapon because it was sent to him THROUGH THE GAME. He then tries it out on some hard boses and begins to get recognition. All of a sudden, Blizzard swoops in and locks EVERYBODY in the guild for 24 hourswhether or not they were involved. The Blizzard says, "Karatechop, because you used an item that was given to you, even though it was from us, we will ban you, NOW BURN IN HELL."

Yeah that is perfectly justifiable, eh spindoctor? It's not like he went in and completely raped an opposing capital city, he and his friends were just trying it out in a way that could be easily and quickly repaired. I think Blizzard just panicked, which big name businesses usually do, and unjustly punished the gamer to make a statement, which is also wrong. If you deny this spindoctor, boy, your more messed up than I thought.

 

[MassConfusion]

I'm kind of in the middle. I'm willing play a game as far as that people may consider it "dishonorable" or "cheap," but only if it's placed in the game as an intended mechanic. But if there's a blatant exploit that gets discovered (aka not intended by the developers), I'll refuse to abuse it at all.

Exploiting is way to strong of a word, and trying to say that deep down inside, he knew it was wrong is speculating WAY too much. And don't go on and TRY to define exploiting to me with some lame analogy that doesn't even make sense.

I just say that the player was punished way to exesively for a mistake Blizzard made, and one that was already easily fixed. No damage done, and I am sure if Blizzard is capable of actually learning from their mistakes, that they won't send uber-powered items through the game.

 

[MassConfusion]

good to see you missed the actual point of the analogy.



i wouldn't try and exploit the game mechanics using an illegitimate item that was given to me by mistake. you seem to focus only on blizzard's mistake in giving the item to him... i'm fairly confident if he hadn't chosen to cheat/exploit the game then it wouldn't have come down to banning him.

You lie. DO NOT give me this "I am so holy and righteous" bull. You are human, and you would most definitely have used this item in some form at least once.

 

[haitu]

You lie. DO NOT give me this "I am so holy and righteous" bull. You are human, and you would most definitely have used this item in some form at least once.

this must have been what eve was telling adam eh?

listen the whole freaking point is YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE ABUSED IT. i think each and everyone of us would have been guilty of using it. some of us may have only used it once, some of us may have used it 30 times! in this case, the guy who had it used it to run through the hardest dungeon and illegitimately got top loot and achievement.

fuck man, if you don't deserve some sort of punishment for abusing it than i don't know what. its blizzard's game. they can do whatever they want. but what they did was set a precedence.


*on a side note i would've attempted to sell it on ebay for real $.

 

[thisperishedmin]

I know if I was in his position I would have played with it too...wouldn't be able to resist.

Yes sometimes exploits happen but I think it makes the game that much more fun...this was the neatest thing i read about WoW in ages, but of course the blizzard reaction and more importantly, GAMER reaction is a great reminder to stay the fuck away from the game.

for a very loosely related comparison - there are the map glitches in something like call of duty. Occasionally i find it fun to go in places developers may not have intended for me to go. Eventually people figure it out and can kill me anyway. if the server owners dont like it they give a warning and its let go.

Yes im aware its "wrong" - but at the same time the developers put it there and many patches later STILL havent fixed it....so is it really "wrong"? Maybe its just a bit of fun...

tl;dr - as a gamer this is funny. your reactions make me hate WoW. as a gamer i would have done the same thing.

 

[gamz247]

tl;dr - as a gamer this is funny. your reactions make me hate WoW. as a gamer i would have done the same thing.

To me, it seems the ones who've had the strongest responses in favor of Blizzard's reaction to the incident are those who don't play the game.

 

[thisperishedmin]

To me, it seems the ones who've had the strongest responses in favor of Blizzard's reaction to the incident are those who don't play the game.

I see both sides to the reaction...leaning towards their reaction was bullshit.

its the players bickering over it that is mind numbing to me. probably couldnt stand most of the playerbase if i actually played.

if it was me, and i used it, and got banned - i would probably laugh about it more and move along to something else....not worth getting upset over.

EDIT: For clarification, i call myself a gamer, but I DO NOT play WoW. I meant gamer in general

 

[spindoctor]

You lie. DO NOT give me this "I am so holy and righteous" bull. You are human, and you would most definitely have used this item in some form at least once.

i never said i wouldn't use it. i'd probably try it out to see if it works or even what the hell it really is. that's natural curiousity. i would also raise a ticket and report it to a gm, and i imagine the item would be gone from my possession within a few hours.

what i would not do is decide to hold onto it, hide it from everyone else and then proceed to blatantly exploit the game with it. that's what got the guy banned.

 

[Azureth]

i never said i wouldn't use it. i'd probably try it out to see if it works or even what the hell it really is. that's natural curiousity. i would also raise a ticket and report it to a gm, and i imagine the item would be gone from my possession within a few hours.

what i would not do is decide to hold onto it, hide it from everyone else and then proceed to blatantly exploit the game with it. that's what got the guy banned.

Exploit the game? You act as if he hacked into it and did some horrible things like went around killing other players. All he did is use it on CPUs. That'd be like someone giving someone a powerful item in a FPS killing mindless AI yet banning them as if they used it against other people.

 

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

Exploiting is way to strong of a word, and trying to say that deep down inside, he knew it was wrong is speculating WAY too much. And don't go on and TRY to define exploiting to me with some lame analogy that doesn't even make sense.

I just say that the player was punished way to exesively for a mistake Blizzard made, and one that was already easily fixed. No damage done, and I am sure if Blizzard is capable of actually learning from their mistakes, that they won't send uber-powered items through the game.

Yes, exploiting is quite a strong word. I don't doubt it. And yes, I'm speculating that he knew it was wrong, but I have a very good reason to. From the perspective of any WoW player, any item that grants insta-gib on any enemy, whether it has limited charges or not, and whether it was "given" to them or not, raises huge questions on the legitimacy of the person obtaining it. His excuse is that Blizzard may have given it to his buddy as compensation for all the hacking issues he had. Considering that he may be the only known person in the world that received such an item, wouldn't it have crossed his mind that "Hey, this may be some screw-up I gotta clarify"?

As for the severity of the punishment, I have no real opinion to give on that. Right or wrong, I honestly don't care. But I can speculate with great certainty that, had he reported the situation, he would have most certainly gone without the item with no problems at all.

 

[Azureth]

Yes, exploiting is quite a strong word. I don't doubt it. And yes, I'm speculating that he knew it was wrong, but I have a very good reason to. From the perspective of any WoW player, any item that grants insta-gib on any enemy, whether it has limited charges or not, and whether it was "given" to them or not, raises huge questions on the legitimacy of the person obtaining it. His excuse is that Blizzard may have given it to his buddy as compensation for all the hacking issues he had. Considering that he may be the only known person in the world that received such an item, wouldn't it have crossed his mind that "Hey, this may be some screw-up I gotta clarify"?

As for the severity of the punishment, I have no real opinion to give on that. Right or wrong, I honestly don't care. But I can speculate with great certainty that, had he reported the situation, he would have most certainly gone without the item with no problems at all.

I honestly doubt many people really think he didn't know that it wasn't for him, you know the saying "If it's to good to be true it probably is"? Well, I think that applies here. I'm pretty sure he knew full well it wasn't meant for him but used it anyway. Even so, I don't think it was worth a ban. Yeah, he used it even though he wasn't supposed to, so what? He didn't grief people or do something horrible, he just used it on some computers, I really don't think it's right for Blizzard to be upset at him using it since it's way to tempting NOT to use, and I guarantee almost anyone would.

Sure, take it and all his achievements away, MAYBE suspend his account for a bit, but permanently banning someone for using something he was GIVEN? No way! If he deserves to be banned then the GM deserves to be fired.

 

[arr4ws]

this is funny as hell ... go on im having fun reading!