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

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VermillionZ

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http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/04/29/player-receives-developer-item-in-the-mail-one-shots-ulduar/

We first received a tip on a mysterious guild that was blowing through Ulduar's hardest achievements one after the other, all in one day, about a day or two ago. Their gear and raid experience stated very well that they were in no position to do any of those achievements, but we sort of shrugged and let it pass by. It was odd that these players were barely in Naxxramas gear, and their first recorded Kel'thuzad kill was only two weeks prior to their explosion of Ulduar achievements, but we initially ignored these reports because surely, nobody could be hacking the game. On top of that, the forum threads submitted to us all had so many posts deleted from them that they were completely incomprehensible. There was nothing solid about any of it.
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No matter how this happened, you can bet a pretty massive internal investigation is happening (or has happened) to find out how it all went down. A member of The Marvel Family posted on his blog about this event, stating that the entire guild has received bans over this even if they weren't present at any of Karatechop's miracle raids. How long these bans will last, we don't know. We can't ask, either. This event essentially brought the entire population of WoW down on this guy's blog like a nuke. It's down for the count
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I can see stripping the gear the guys got for doing this, but banning the accounts was stupid.
 
I'm unable to click on the link. I don't understand the reference "Player receives Developer item in the mail". Did he receive a piece of equipment in the internal wow mail that allowed him to do all this?

I'm okay with banning the dude and the members of the particular raids when they were happening, but to ban the entire guild (which surely has members that didn't participate in any of the raids) is lame.
 
This is the followup interview with him:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/04/30/the-martin-fury-scandal-karatechop-reveals-all/21

WoW Insider: Who are you?
Karatechop: I'm Karatechop, the Guild Leader of The Marvel Family on Vek'nilash-US.

There are postings on the net where someone purporting to be Karatechop says they work for Blizzard. I'm assuming this is not the case?
I'm not an employee of Blizzard. I'm not a hacker, I'm just a person who had a pretty tight regular group of people who liked playing WoW.

How did this whole thing start?
One of my guild members, Leroyspeltz, had his account hacked back in December. He was an Officer at the time and whoever hacked his account ravaged the guild bank, which happens. Once Blizzard was able to rescue his account, he noticed several of his toons were gone.

When you say gone? Are we talking deleted or transferred?
According to him, some were deleted and some were transferred to other accounts, but at the time he assumed they had been deleted. He opened a ticket with Blizzard back in December I believe and they never responded.

Things just sat there until sometime in mid-March. We had a looting error in 25 man OS . As the guild leader I handed an item to Leroy by mistake so he immediately opened a ticket so the item would go to the proper player. They resolved that problem then they asked him for more information on this problem he had reported months ago that hadn't been solved. He received some emails from Blizzard detailing what they were sending him, and when he logged in on April 19th all of his characters were back.

So what happened next?
All of them had in-game mail from Blizzard and lots of random items. He had no idea why he was getting them. Most of them seemed to fit Blizzard's usual M.O. for restoring hacked account, tons of low level stuff, stacks of Silverleaf and the like. Blizzard has rarely restored any toon I've seen hacked to its former glory. They seem to give you some random stuff and just leave it in one of these multiple in-game mails. On his level 13 warlock, I believe, was Martin Fury.

When he realized he had Martin Fury and shared that information with you, why not open a ticket immediately?
I was unsure of what it was exactly. Sure, we read the stats, but we didn't even contemplate a ticket.

Why not?
It was in-game mail from Blizzard. We just assumed it was something they sent him. We didn't think it was real. I honestly thought it was something Blizzard gave to one of Leroy's alts for four months of ignoring the problems with his account.

So when did you first use Martin Fury?
On April 20th the guild was in a 10-man Ulduar run. Leroyspeltz was not in my Ulduar group at the time when he opened the mail. We were on Ignis and I brought Leroy into the group. We tried it and it worked.

And you didn't consider this cheating or worry that a GM might notice? You didn't worry you might get into trouble?
No, it came from Blizzard. We were laughing about it. After killing Ignis we went out and reset the raid to heroic. We went back in and killed Flame Leviathan

How many charges did the item have?
When we got it, Martin Fury had 100. We used it fourteen times.

So when did things go wrong?
We had used it on Malygos and 25-man OS earlier in the week and, again, this wasn't, for me anyways, a way to get loot or achievements. This was purely a comedy thing for me. It was funny. We went back to Ulduar with twenty-two people and made several legitimate attempts at Flame Leviathan. This is where I feel really bad. Some of the people we had with us didn't know we had Martin's Fury. Then we engaged and used the item, it was a riot!

I was unable to play over the weekend and didn't check in with my friends. When I tried to login on Tuesday is when I had discovered my account was banned. That's when they started to let me know that we had achieved some world's first, which was also never my intent.

So you hadn't achieved any world firsts?
Some of the people wanted full clears, but I didn't want to take that away from the guilds who had worked so hard to get there. I didn't think we had world firsts, but some people have claimed we had. I also wasn't worried about hiding anything as, again, it was an item sent to us by Blizzard.

Did Blizzard get in touch with you? No GMs mid-instance?
No. They claimed to have sent me an email once I found my account was banned, but this didn't happen either. I had to jump through the hoops to reset my email address with my account banned and open a web form questionnaire.

And your account is still banned?
Yep.

And, during any of this, you never took screenshots?
I'm not that type of player. We never took screen shots that often of anything. We didn't record encounters. Again, it was a group of friends who just had a good time playing the game together

Do you think it's fair that you've been banned?
No, I don't believe banning is fair, especially since this would be my first infraction in the 4+ years I've played the game. But it's Blizzard's game and they are the ones calling the shots, so fair is relative. Up until the bans, I honestly didn't think I was destroying the World of Warcraft.

You must have thought that this item didn't belong in a player's hands even if it came from Blizzard?
I thought it odd, but with the charges I wasn't sure.

Do you expect to get your account back?
No.

Do this bother you? Has it put you off WoW?
Yes, I loved that game. I was never bored with it, I had 159 days of my life on that character.

Are you going to reroll?
I don't believe so. I think I'm going to try something else. Again, this being my first infraction on any level whatsoever it seems like they overreacted. Where they really failed was that they locked the accounts of all my guildies who were online at the time. Not people who had any of those raid IDs mind you, but everyone.

Did many people on your realm know what was going on?
No. Not even the whole guild just the people on the runs. Actually it wasn't even all of them. As I said before I tricked 3 or 4 of them, I thought it was funny.

Who else has been banned as a result? Was it just you and Leeroy? Was it other folks in the raid or your guild?
Everyone in the guild who was online had their accounts locked for twenty four hours, regardless of whether or not they were in the run.

How are they reacting to this?
They aren't happy. Some are upset at me, but most of them have my back on this. We didn't hack the game. We were given a 'You Win' button and it was something we used.

Well thank you for speaking to us.
Thanks for taking the time.
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Wow, I don't think any of them should have got banned. Fire the GM that did it and take the item. The player didn't cheat to get it, it was given to him by a Blizzard employee. And his Guild mates certainly didn't deserve to be banned.

Blizzard = Fail. As usual. This is why I play Eve Online. :p
 
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Sweeping mistakes under the carpet isn't just for governments anymore.
 
sword_thousand_truths.jpg
 
As long as he didn't obtain the item through any sort of hack and it was a blizzard mistake, I don't feel he should be banned. There was once someone on a server of mine with an actual spotted leopard mount that he was accidentally given in a gear restore. He had it for years, before finally being asked to relinquish it, as it was an item that wasn't supposed to be on any live servers - I think it had something like 250% ground run speed, making it the fastest mount in the game. He wasn't banned for having it, but he did have to give it back. I hear the GM in charge of the case gave him something awesome/free in return for losing it, which was either the spectral tiger mount or one of the other trading card items.

Blizz screwed up releasing a god-class item to players. Dont' punish them for using it beyond taking it away and maybe resetting any ill-gotten achievements, and certainly don't ban an entire guild for one raid's transgression.
 
Being banned seems harsh. Not just Karatechop, but all else members.

What a way to diminish his fun of the game.

Guess due to all of this, he will need to find another MMORPG to play.
 
Does this remind anyone of the Southpark episode Make Love, Not Warcraft (S10E08)?
 
Well thats going out with a bang.

Thats sorta the response I expect from Blizzard after playing WoW for a few years.

Hearing about the account restoration process is kinda interesting. My EVE account was hacked two weeks ago. Cleaned out, all the ships and modules within a few jumps were scrapped for spare parts, and every last penny sent to another account. The GMs were great with explaining how it was hacked then banned as a response to foreign IP access, restoring the money that was taken, and returning the account to me. I barely play anymore but it was nicely handled.
 
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Although I think banning his entire guild, regardless of even being present for the infraction, is way over the top, he deserved to get banned. It might have been a complete joke to him, but he still knowingly used an item that completely alters the gameplay experience.

The keyword here is "knowingly".

Also, another thing to take into consideration that I call complete BS on is the fact that he just *had* to waltz into Ulduar to try then shirt out, when any mob within 30 yards would have worked. And once he figured out it would work on raid level bosses, he restarted the instance at Heroic level and proceeded to do it again.

The whole, "Blizzard put it in my hands, therefore I'm not guilty," is a complete crock of shit. For one, Blizzard didn't even put it in his hands, they gave it to his friend's level 13 alt. Secondly, just because someone gives you a gun doesn't mean you have to pull the trigger.

Keywords for non-WoW players here:
-Heroic raids are the names for 25 man raids (10-man raids are called "Normal" raids). All raid content in the latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, can be done in both 10 and 25 man format. The loot for 25 man is obviously better.
-Ulduar is the latest raid zone introduced with the last patch, and can be done in both 10 and 25 man flavors.
 
I don't understand why they're taking it so seriously. It's just a game and it didn't hurt anyone else.
 
Everett1 said:
Being banned seems harsh. Not just Karatechop, but all else members.

What a way to diminish his fun of the game.

Guess due to all of this, he will need to find another MMORPG to play.
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Thank goodness for Star Wars: The Old Republic! :D
 
Ranari said:
Although I think banning his entire guild, regardless of even being present for the infraction, is way over the top, he deserved to get banned. It might have been a complete joke to him, but he still knowingly used an item that completely alters the gameplay experience.
QUOTE]

Don't be absurd. Even if he did do this knowingly, everything can be put right without Blizz acting like they're a bunch of spiteful 12 year olds. This just reeks of Blizzards traditional method of overhanded, "punish to make an example" bullshit. It's garbage that players have to pay the price for incompetent devs.
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Azureth said:
I don't understand why they're taking it so seriously. It's just a game and it didn't hurt anyone else.
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Agreed, this seems kinda silly. The sad thing is I can see other people whining and crying about how they play 40 hours a week and "work" so hard to accomplish the same things. Its a video game, I don't understand the obsession with "integrity."
 
It was odd that these players were barely in Naxxramas gear, and their first recorded Kel'thuzad kill was only two weeks prior to their explosion of Ulduar achievements
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What the hell does this mean?
 
For all of you crying about the entire guild getting banned: read his responses, the entire guild didn't get BANNED. Their accounts were locked for 24 hours, and it was only the people who were logged on at the time. Presumably they're back playing and enjoying themselves, and unless I'm told otherwise the word of the guy who did get banned is good enough for me.

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Even so, what was the point of suspending everyone? Only one person had access to said item so why not just take said item away from him and be done with it?
 
Ritorix said:
WoW: Waiting on Wookies?
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You know it!


Yeah. The point of punishing the player and not the dev. who was stupid enough to release an item that was never intended for regular gameplay:confused: is just extremely poor management. It's like these people in Blizzard don't even know how to respond to complete incompentence. The player RECEIVED this item from Blizzard and had a set number of uses. Who wouldn't think that this was Blizzard's way of saying, "Hey we're sorry. Here is a little something for your trouble." I mean banning a person from a game they enjoy and have not cheated and/or tampered with for 4 years just for a mistake that was made BY THEIR OWN EMPLOYEES!!!!! Complete stupidy, poor management, and WAY to much overkill.
 
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It's like leaving a stack of 100s on your desk at work with a note that says, I don't need these, please take them. Someone then takes them and you have them arrested for stealing.
 
Azureth said:
I don't understand why they're taking it so seriously. It's just a game and it didn't hurt anyone else.
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Internet is serious business. If Blizzard allowed people to go around one-shotting the hardest stuff in the game, their loyal content grinding guilds may realize the game is just a part-time job with full-time hours.

The game used to be fun, but this story just shows what it has become.
 
Quotes from Karatechop on wowdb...

Hiya all

I am infact Karatechop, Due to this event I have been told to be quiet as its pending investigation here at Blizzard I do infact work for Blizzard Entertainment.

I came in control of such item as a bit of a joke with my guild I was telling them about it once before and none of them believed me, Once I was given the right to equip such item on my GM toon I decided to test it on my Warrior and what better place to test it,

We would have taken it further but the red flags started going off when it was one hardmode after another, Shortly before pulling The Iron Council I was disconnected from server and the ban message was present when I attempted to log back in, Shortly after that the rest of the raid had the same problem.

This is all I have to say at this time

Thank you
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For the record the person they interviewed is not Karatechop, I was indeed asked to do a interview but turned it down, Why would I want to make things more public then they already are?

The wowinsider crew are full of scrubs and liars, They hyped this whole thing up way too much the past few days, All I want is to leave the subject alone and move on, I did the crime and I am being punished in and out of game.

So yeah you can believe that was the real Karatechop or you can choose to believe It isnt upto you.
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gtg465x said:
Quotes from Karatechop on wowdb...
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You actually believe some random douche who just recently registered on wowdb, who's only two posts are on the Martin Fury page, who claims he works for Blizzard, and then tries to say "Why would I want to make things more public then they already are?".

Cmon. That could be any stupid person, whos "credentials" anyone could obviously make up. You mean wowinsider exposed the whole thing and then they're going to make up an interview with the person? Please. Use your head.

Established site > Random poser registering 4 days ago.
 
PornoSatan said:
You actually believe some random douche who just recently registered on wowdb, who's only two posts are on the Martin Fury page, who claims he works for Blizzard, and then tries to say "Why would I want to make things more public then they already are?".

Cmon. That could be any stupid person, whos "credentials" anyone could obviously make up. You mean wowinsider exposed the whole thing and then they're going to make up an interview with the person? Please. Use your head.

Established site > Random poser registering 4 days ago.
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Exactly. It could be anyone:confused:, plus if you look further down the comments, you'll find another person who claims he knows the real Karatechop and that he doesn't work for Blizzard. So remember the old saying," Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear!":cool:
 
Ha Ha. I love it. Wow is serious business. This is why when a game goes from being fun to being work, you should stop playing. Seriously, put down the mouse, step away from the keyboard macros and go outside.
 
Sounds like Blizzard WoW devs are more immature than their players, and that is saying a lot. It's like handing your son a slingshot, let him shoot it at a fence, then lock him in the basement for punishment.

I don't see why an item like this would exist, even in a test environment.
 
ShagnWagn said:
Sounds like Blizzard WoW devs are more immature than their players, and that is saying a lot. It's like handing your son a slingshot, let him shoot it at a fence, then lock him in the basement for punishment.

I don't see why an item like this would exist, even in a test environment.
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They use it as a required item when testing quests. Also, the devs don't do any item restoration or banning. GM's do that.
 
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PornoSatan said:
They use it as a required item when testing quests. Also, the devs don't do any item restoration or banning. GM's do that.
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Oops, you are right. I meant the GM's are more immature than the players. The devs are irresponsible for even putting an item on a live server like that (which could have avoided all this mess).

I guess this is about as crappy as EVE employees giving special items to BoB players (not sure how true that really was though).
 
Azureth said:
Even so, what was the point of suspending everyone? Only one person had access to said item so why not just take said item away from him and be done with it?
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I'm sure they did it in order to investigate how many or who might have this dev item. They relized that an item that was NOT soul bound was on one of there servers so its natural to assume that it was passed around so they wanted to make sure they checked everyone that was online at the time to make sure there wasn't any more of these dev items floating around.
 
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.
 
He should not have used it. He cheated, and most of his online members knew about it, so they deserve to get banned. I wish more shooter developers would take this approach.
 
It's funny how blizzard bans for this:
Terms of Use Violation - Abuse of Game Mechanics
• Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;
• Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Game.
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Yet they freely will allow players to use a program that lets them control up to 4+ other Player Characters at once.

When I used to play WoW I ran into users quading arcance mages in PvP instances.
Nothing like being quad spammed with arcane blast by 4 level 80's

Katalysis said:
Internet is serious business. If Blizzard allowed people to go around one-shotting the hardest stuff in the game, their loyal content grinding guilds may realize the game is just a part-time job with full-time hours.

The game used to be fun, but this story just shows what it has become.
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The game was fun before The Burning Crusade came out I quit after that.
Came back just for a little bit to try the new release and quit again a month later.

It's boring, very repetitive to the point I'd rather stab my eyes out, and 90% of the player population are a bunch of fucktwits or 5-10 year olds that just annoy the hell out of me.
A better name for this game should be "never ending questing" it's a worse grind-a-thon than everquest ever way since it holds your hands and drags you around like a 5 year old telling you how and what to do in the game.

In my opinion the only thing that makes any MMORP a hit is the fact people can socialize and being complete anon twits.
The shit some of the no lifers do in those games they would and couldn't do in the real world.
You can tell the people who are fat no lifers because they spend every moment they can in some MMORP the only time they are not gaming is when they have to goto work.

Personally I wouldn't mind seeing all the MMORPs dumped and people going outside again instead of sitting in front of a computer or console all day.
 
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