We're in your docks, kidnapping your flightmaster
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Dec 10th 2006 at 8:00PM
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With the disappearance of dishonorable kills, many people are hoping for the return of innovative world PvP. As an example of "innovative world PvP," and how angry people get when it actually occurs, we present last month's Mal'Ganis Flightmaster Hostage Crisis.
Mal'Ganis is a fairly overcrowded PvP server, hosting both some of the world's best guilds (Ret, Elitist Jerks) and some of the world's best drama (the guildmaster who threatened to kill a guy who gquit after spending a month in the hospital.) One of the native Mal'Ganis guilds is Goon Squad, a giant Horde crew that was formed from readers of http://www.somethingawful.com. Goon Squad is known for pranks and odd ideas, the most well-known of which is their "I Summon People Off Cliffs" warlock PvP video.
On the night of November 4, Goon Squad snuck into Theramore and kited away the Alliance flightmaster. Soon after, they posted a ransom demand on the Mal'Ganis realm forums: If the Alliance bought out two Lightforge Belts listed for 1500g each in the neutral auction house, Goon Squad would free their hostage. If not, wrote Stuul from Goon Squad, "It would be very unfortunate if we were forced to hold him for the weekend while you try to raid." To encourage the Alliance to pay up, they also camped the Ratchet boat and kidnapped the Auberdine flight master.
A large group of Alliance joined in the fun and vowed to hunt down their beloved flightmasters rather than pay the ransom. Goon Squad soon posted that the hostages were in Bael'Dun Keep in the southern Barrens, and challenged Alliance to come and get them.
Unfortunately for the Horde, enough people complained to GMs that the incipient world PvP battle was nipped in the bud. Five hours into the hostage crisis, GMs struck down the kited flightmasters with instant Curse of Dooms, killing them and allowing Alliance to fly free in Kalimdor once more. "Your flight masters were slaughtered by a overexcited GM," Arktdnonoobs wrote. "We had no part in their deaths."
Goon Squad received commendations from both Horde and Alliance on several servers. Even a CM on the Customer Service Forum, Batta, noted that while the GMs had to kill the flight masters to keep them from being "lost", he admired Goon Squad's ingenuity in pulling off the caper.
So is this an example of innovative world PvP, or a bunch of Horde being jerks? Do you have any plans to spice up your server's PvP in the future?
Filed under: Realm News, Guilds, PvP, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jonathan Mead Dec 10th 2006 9:01PM
This is why I am seriously considering quitting WOW. A group of players get together and create an event that adds something to the game (it is called WARcraft after all), and the GM's kill it due to a bunch of whiny babies.
I am so sick of Blizzard's attitude toward things. NOTHING ever happens. When players actually take it upon themselves to make the world something other than a static event, they get spanked.
Pathetic, and a big part of why I'll most likely be cancelling my account.
isocrazy Dec 10th 2006 9:16PM
Thats what I've always said. Warcraft is too care bear. World PVP would pwn.
Woild Dec 10th 2006 9:22PM
This is by far the most ingenious and fun thing that I have ever seen happen in WoW, props go out "Goon Squad."
The one thing I want to know is who kited him? And to kite him for that long shows dedication in the extreme, I love it.
I think the best thing for Bliz to do would have been to buy out the items themselves, just to say, "Nice one guys, you deserve this for making world PvP that much more interesting."
Of course copy-cats would just have to be dealt with by killing the flight master, but why take the recognition from the actual innovators, they earnt it.
Drew Dec 10th 2006 9:26PM
It's too bad this is the ONLY time a GM gets involved and actually DOES anything - and frankly those guys were playing by the rules. I lost out on a TON of AV marks today because the servers kept crashing. GM reponse: We cannot restore battlegrond marks. Thank you and safe travels in Azeroth.
So, a guild gets creative, albeit a bit vindictive and the GMs stop the fun but when it's due to hardware inefficiencies due to them putting out a bug-ridden crap patch they do nothing?
I think I want my $15/month back.
Marfu Dec 10th 2006 9:56PM
I think this is great, though I hear people get warnings and even bans for like, Standing on the roof when assaulting i.e. Darkshire. I mean what the F*! If it was for real people would probably attack from roofs as well, why not in game.
We need more of this in game, it just adds to it so much. We did a konga line today in orgrimmar and eventually ended up in cross roads in protest against the battle grounds crashing all the time hehe. Was great.
Yes to more of the little extra that adds to the game so much.
No to Blizzard getting involved like in the example above.
Keep it up, more pranks
Elizabeth Wachowski Dec 10th 2006 9:55PM
To defend the GMs here a bit, Batta posted that since the ransom scheme was not known outside the forums, the GMs originally thought someone had just kited the flightmasters and they had been evade bugged in the world.
Omerta Dec 10th 2006 10:02PM
You're going to quit the game over this?
Abe Dec 10th 2006 10:12PM
http://www.wowinsider.com/2006/11/15/wired-looks-at-your-typical-mmorpg-forum/
nuff said.
Jonathan Mead Dec 10th 2006 10:32PM
Omerta: No, not this specifically. Blizzard's attitude has been bugging me for a few months now. This incident is just one more in a long line of nonsense from Blizzard that stifles any sort of interesting random events in the world. Blizzard seem to be saying "This is our sandbox, and if you mess with it, we'll spank you." Bots, gold farming... Sure, spank those. But folk playing within the rules deserves kudos for creating interesting content in the absence of the damn games creator not doing a damn thing.
Everything stays the same. Nothing changes. Blizzard go out of their way to make the game as static as possible. Why does nothing ever happen? Because Blizzard don't care. You've got all these uber badguys, and what do they do? Sit in their dungeons all day doing nothing. Why does Teremus not wake up one day and say "Think I'll go barbecue some folk on Goldshire."
Nothing changes. Every stays the same. And Blizzard go out of their way to stifle players trying to be creative.
THAT is why I'm considering quitting.
Sylythn Dec 10th 2006 10:52PM
Oh man - anyone who doesn't laugh at this is too much of a tight-ass. I wish the GMs had looked into it a bit more and let it progress normally. I would have loved to see a massive raid on the hostage holders play out.
If stuff like this happened regularly on PvP servers, I'd actually regret my transfer to a PvE.
RJ Dec 11th 2006 1:09AM
Even scripted attacks would be nice. They have them out there, so it isn't all that hard. Hammerfall gets attacked by trolls every few hours or so. So it would be nice to see things like the Burning Blade assault Orgrimmar every few months, or more undead attacks in Undercity, even down to lesser things like centaur or quillboar raid the crossroads. Doesn't have to be every day, just far enough apart that it isn't a problem to everyday play, and close enough together so people actually remember/know when it happens and can be there.
Necro Dec 11th 2006 5:18AM
This is why i love my server. Even though Goon Squad annoys me somewhat i still have to give them props for this.
michel Dec 11th 2006 2:22AM
it seems fair and smart for me.
and people can always use others roads or to hunt down the "bad" guys to free the flightmasters.
so yeah, in a game, the opponent can use everything the rules allow and not every day is easy.
it helps to create an interesting game.
obo Dec 11th 2006 4:07AM
"it helps to create an interesting game."
which is why the GMs had to put an end to that, because if players make the game interesting on their own, who'd buy an expansion?
Tim Engelbart Dec 11th 2006 6:11AM
ROFL, this owns to a magnificent extent. Thumbs up for Goon Squad.
Purplewedgie Dec 11th 2006 7:57AM
I'd have to hear the whole story but I agree with #5 before I'd jump all over the GM. If this "ransom" was only posted on the forums (that only a very small percentage of WOW players and probably less GMs actually read) the GM probably thought that this group was just maliciously exploiting game mechanics (not that something like that would *ever* happen in Azeroth).
ghlellin Dec 11th 2006 8:30AM
Last night on Elune, one of the big horde raiding guilds decided to rush Ironforge. We were ready for them (someone flew in to the great forge and started yelling about it) and everybody formed up for battle at the gates.
Unfortunately, it all ended with hundreds of characters running in place for 5 minutes before the continent crashed. So much for massively multiplayer.
Drew Dec 11th 2006 9:08AM
The frustration I was trying to convey was that they (Blizzard) created a virtual world that has some rules and allows other situations to be exploited. This guild was being highly creative and frankly quite clever in exploiting something in game. If the opposing faction has a big problem with it, get off a PvP server. Period.
But, what gets me is that Blizzard decides to intervene on their in a situation like this, but when their own hardware failures cause a server to crash or partially crash (as has been the case a LOT lately) and players end up losing items in inventory, don't get battleground marks they worked hard to earn because the battleground crashes as it closes, Blizzard just offers a boilerplate answer that they can do nothing about it. Pure crap. If you pay $180 a year for a stupid game, you expect a minimum of service that isn't being provided. That's what frustrates me about GM involvement in one cleverly-planned prank and non-involvement in real, in-game issues due to inadequate hardware and support behind it all.
Asher Dec 11th 2006 9:24AM
Love it. It's a pity that Blizz hates creative PvP.
Ken Dec 11th 2006 9:24AM
I'm on Mal'ganis too. From One Truth (Malganis-A)Guilds website:
"After receiving intelligence from my scouts and resources I have picked up recent coverage of Goon Movement. It seems as if they got an AV premade together only to turtle it on purpose to launch a full scale attack on Dun Baldar. Alliance on scene this Goon victory report as only getting 1 honor per kill and eventually giving up. As you can see in this video captured from a Goon last night:
http://www.thebrokenconsole.com/gooons.wmv
They proceed to launch a full scale attack on the alliance in this clip absolutely obliterating them with a full NPC attack. Alliance witness to this were shattered and heartbroken and some still have memories of the incident eventually resorting to a full forum topic about it only to receive laughter and excitement from the Goon Squad.
This footage will likely suggest more horde will switch to the goons to only increase their numbers. Intelligence suggests that with the victory in Ironforge and the capture of the Flightmaster of Theramore, their numbers are only increasing."