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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSolving the holiday boss summon problem
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 22nd 2008 at 6:00PM
We've heard about a lot of problems with the Headless Horseman summon this year already (and Coren Direbrew had issues as well), but Kimberly over on WoW LJ has the worst story I've heard so far -- a group asked her to heal, claimed they all had summons, and then after killing the HH with her summon, ditched her, presumably to find some other sucker with a summon. That's not just scamming someone into taking you along for a round of summons (as we heard about in Guildwatch yesterday), it's actually scamming someone out of the rest of their chances, because, assuming Kimberly is honest for the rest of the day, why would another group take her?So this is clearly a problem. Let's fix it for Blizzard: how can we make sure everyone has five chances a day at summoning the Headless Horseman (one per day per group member) without ripping off people for helping their guildies or friends? Basically, we need a clear way of seeing whether someone has a summon or not -- maybe a debuff that resets at midnight every night, or a changing number of candles on the pedestal based on how many people in the instance can still do the daily quest? Right now, there's no accountability at all, and with droprates the way they are, getting screwed out of another chance at the HH (or even four chances, in the worst cases) can make the difference between having the achievement and not.
Any other good ideas on how to solve this problem and keep players accountable? I'm sure players with less than upright morals have no problem claiming their brother used their summon or lying to steal the summons of others, but it would be a lot more fair for everyone if the possibility for scamming wasn't there at all.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Raiding, Bosses, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Janaa Oct 22nd 2008 6:42PM
James - you're not too bright.. You missed the entire point of the post.
Brian - well said. :) I learnt that lesson long ago, and haven't PUGd since pre-BC.
Elph Oct 22nd 2008 6:21PM
This is just awful. A group on Kalecgos tried to do this to me the other night. They summoned me to SM and told me to use my summon first. I said "No, I will go second.". Someone then slipped up and said none of them had their summon. I left.
Johan Oct 22nd 2008 6:22PM
Have the mount/sword/helm/pet/etc. drop for ALL members of the party. That'd eliminate 99% of douchebag behavior immediately.
Shionia Oct 22nd 2008 6:23PM
the debuff idea automates it, but having everyone pick up the quest is a good temporary workaround
James Oct 22nd 2008 6:24PM
Those people ruin wow for everone...
I hate them...
They need to go play in traffic, you should post his name and server so we can make alts and spam him for being a loser hahahahahahahaha...
- James -
Magma Oct 22nd 2008 6:25PM
1. Get lock, tank, heals. They don't need summon but make sure they can stay for at least an hour preferably.
2. /who all characters 65-69. Send them a whisper asking them if they'd like to get an easy epic ring by summoning HH for you. Explain the only catch is they cannot roll on (Insert rare item your group needs).
3. Lock summons lowbie and group does event. Most lowbies have not done the run at all so you will get 2 chances out of them. You may want to use master loot to make sure they get ring and you get what you want.
4. Congrats them (Most lowbies will get HH achivement from this) and thank them for their time. When they leave group, go to next player on /who list (or refresh it) and summon them. Make sure lock keeps getting shards from boss to keep the summons going.
5. Repeat until everyone has the rare item they want.
Todd Oct 22nd 2008 6:26PM
Is it supposed to be 5?? I've only been 3 manning it with no healers. The same 3 people. This kind of stuff you just can't pug.
Schadow Oct 22nd 2008 6:32PM
There's an add-on you can get called Grouper. In it you rate the people you have grouped with, and when they say something in chat it displays the rating number next to their name.
If people do something like this, drop their rating and never have anything to do with them again. Refuse to be in groups with them, never invite them to yours, etc.
I can practically guarantee there will come a time when you will influence whether or not they get included in something they want to do. At that time, their past can come back to haunt them.
The only way to get around the anonymity of an MMO is to hold people accountable for their actions.
P.S.: You can always tattle on them to their guild leader. If it's a reputable guild they may censure the player. If it's not, then you know what to expect form other members of that guild in the future.
Verit Oct 22nd 2008 6:41PM
If you run into scammers on your realm report them for such on the realm forums.
This happened with direbrew too - the way we worked around it was doing all the summons as a guild event.
VSUReaper Oct 22nd 2008 6:50PM
We could just turn into corpses via the plague and attack the scammers...
There is also the way of spreading the word in the cities about the people that scammed you, so that way they wont be able to get a group for the rest of the event.
freecia Oct 22nd 2008 6:55PM
I forsaw this as a problem also, so to prevent it a friend and I are actually being a bit anti-social during this particular event. We both have multiple accounts and discovered that all we need is a tank,healer, and dps class. So, I dps on my warlock while he tanks and heals(minimally at that tbh), and I bring in other toons to summon with. We do it 6 times a day.
I know some will say, but what about those that don't have multiple accounts? Count your lucky stars that you aren't as addicted to this game as I wish we weren't. :-(
Sl0th Oct 22nd 2008 6:57PM
This wasn't a scam (or at least a good scam.) but this was something that cost us a chance at loot. The other day, I went with a group with my mage, a warrior, a paladin, a warlock, and I think another mage. After we downed the first two tries, our healer, the paladin, had to go AFK. Our warrior somehow didn't notice this and went and started his try. Horseman immediately killed the fool, who promptly dropped group out of what I can only think was embarrassment. So horseman was on the loose and our warlock, fortunately demonology, sent his felguard in to tank it and try to salvage the run. And it almost worked. We lost only because the warlock ended up swarmed with the adds and died before we could stop them.
I think that was the only wipe I've seen with HH this year.
My favorite run this year was with two Ret paladins, a warrior, a mage and my feral druid in which nobody healed. And we crushed horseman easily and nobody died.
TomWolf Oct 22nd 2008 7:07PM
I don't agree. Ninjas, summon steals, gold scams...they aren't in any way a breach of any game rules and SHOULD NOT BE. Why? Same reason why you shouldn't lend your ferarri to strangers in real life you shouldn't give your summon to a group of strangers if you feel it's worth a lot to you.
Personally I do my five summons (9 with alts within the group I regularly do it with) and then I am honest about not having a summon but that I want to go anyway and so far I've had 13+ summons every day. And with this I also get a reputation for being straight forward and honest. =)
Going first as healer in a group you don't know is a bad idea. Tank is the natural starter and if the tank can't start there's something fishy.
That's my 2 cents =)
ginka Oct 22nd 2008 7:14PM
"Ninjas, summon steals, gold scams...they aren't in any way a breach of any game rules and SHOULD NOT BE."
You're essentially saying that theft and fraud shouldn't be illegal. In a game that relies on social interaction, if there are not standards of conduct, it has a negative effect on gameplay. Who would spend $39.99, then spend another $15.00 per month, to be defrauded or treated poorly?
I have a hard time understanding why you would be against the establishment and enforcement of the basic social rules that make any community sustainable -- even a game community.
Averroes Oct 24th 2008 12:29AM
My suggestion is to do them with friends or guildies which I do other then that gl pugging since you really cant do anything with people scamming you.
Kyle Oct 22nd 2008 7:53PM
Lower the insanely low drop rate for the mount and people won't be so desperate to get it. Why are they making this horse soooo hard to get in the first place. And if she is a healer it is not that hard to get into a group without lying. A lot of groups on my server will take a healer or tank along knowing they don't have a summon because both are sometimes hard to come by especially if they need a summon to be worth while. Anyways, I'm on summon #65 on this character and haven't seen the mount drop. Thanks Blizzard for making it so damn rare. Why not make it an impossible achievement for Hallowed Be Thy Name meta while your at it?
Lemons Oct 22nd 2008 8:42PM
wow, 65 times, that's harsh. But it's the way the developers intended it.
Rare mounts are rare mounts have to be rare or they're not as cool. I'd have to say I never wanted a Bear Mount from Zul' Aman because I've seen too many people riding one. If something is on a 1% drop rate (most rare mounts are probably even less than that) that means that you'd have to run HH 100 times before you get it, even more if you're unlucky.
Gazmik Fizzwidget Oct 22nd 2008 7:56PM
Don't PUG it... go with guildies or people you can trust.
DamianL Oct 22nd 2008 8:54PM
That really sucks for Kimberly,
It's assholes like those guys who ruin events.
Well, my group were made up of my girlfriend, sister, brother, me and whoever of our friends wanted to come.
We always had room for running randoms too. (Although it's best for master loot with PUGs)
Ninjas are everywhere these days.
Anyway, I hope all goes better for Kimberly with future runs.
~ßlack[Khaz'goroth[Alliance]]
Lemons Oct 22nd 2008 8:52PM
The debuff is an excellent idea! I would really hope a blue reads this article and blizz implements this idea. I haven't had this problem happen to me yet because I pretty much do guild runs, but I've heard stories about it and it seems like a pretty big problem to me. And instead of forcing players to interrogate their groups to see if they have their summon a debuff would be a simple elegant solution.