Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 news[1.Local]: The theory, debate, controversy and scandal edition
by Lisa Poisso 
May 3rd 2009 at 12:00PM
The [1.Local] PuG was in rare form this week, postulating theories and pontificating on issues ranging from the Martin Fury scandal to whether or not Ulduar difficulty and loot is on target. We highlight not one but two in-depth posts on the lore behind the Horde/Alliance relationship, each with extensive reader reaction.
This edition of [1.Local] also spotlights fresh reaction from Karatechop, the player at the epicenter of the Martin Fury brouhaha. What does he think about all the hullabaloo over his banning in the wake of his use of a GM-only item that came into the hands of a guildmate? Karatechop responds to the pages of comments on our exclusive interview with him about the incident. All this and more, after the break.
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Loot rationality We begin this week with a couple of posts focusing on endgame raiding. First up for debate: Should loot tables for 10-man raids remain superior to loot tables for the 25-man versions? "You are missing the most obvious compromise between both positions," writes Nikkodemus. "That is to say, make 10-man raiding provide a limited selection of BiS (Best in Slot) gear. This would let 10-man-only casuals get something that is BiS and give 25-man raiders an incentive to do both. Alternatively, bring in some kind of hard mode based on casual questing. For example, I was a casual in vanilla WoW, and frankly, the quests for Tier 0.5 to upgrade the blue dungeon set into dungeon set 2 were pretty tough. Why abandon that line of thought?" "I am a 10-man raider, because my guild simply does not have the people for 25-man content," adds Robert. "I would be fine with having two separate but equal progressions, with 10-mans one tier lower -- but that's not how it is working out. I think it is highly unfair that while I am raiding Ulduar, I cannot buy Ulduar gear with my badges, only Naxx25 gear. That makes no sense to me. "I still think that if they awarded the same loot but 25-mans provided MORE loot (above the increase granted by having more people), then people would still do 25-mans because they would have a better shot at more gear." "... I don't know why you're so focused on the actual item levels," interjects AShadowPriest . "You're complaining about your badge upgrades being six item levels lower than the gear that drops in the instance you're progressing in. Would you rather you find that the boss you just killed after a week of wipes dropped sidegrade or even inferior quality gear to the gear you just purchased with badges? I wouldn't. Boss loot is supposed to be superior, to reward the raid for progressing. If anything, it's the 25-man raiders who get boned with the badge loot this time around, as it's all sidegrades from normal-mode 25-man boss drops. "Besides, if your guild is progression-oriented, you should be getting Conquest badges from the 10-man hard modes anyway. It's only a matter of time before you get Ulduar on farm and eventually the hard modes as well. Enjoy rolling around in 25-man badge gear in your 10-man guild. "What was the problem here again?" |
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Is Ulduar too easy? Next up on the raiding debate menu: What do players think of Ulduar tuning? Too hard and in need of more nerfs and tuning – or too easy? "... I honestly don't think Blizzard can make the content any harder on normal mode," says Julie. "Because if they do, they are risking resetting things to how they were before (ie. only top guilds will see the content). The way things are right now, I can almost guarantee you a big chunk (maybe 20-50%) of the people who cleared Naxx will not clear Ulduar. "I actually think the encounters are a little too hard for casual players. That's not QQ, that's just an observation. If you're not in a set group with the right composition, then basically you are having to adjust the fight every time you do it because the people/classes are different. That is much harder to coordinate than having the same group that always runs together. So any fight that requires precise coordination, is already going to be harder on the casual player. And that's what 'normal' mode should be, i.e. casual." "My guild is in the same category as Julia's," adds ChiperSoft, "casual players, some better skilled then others. Our GM picked the best players in the guild for the Ulduar-10 group, and they just this past weekend finally got to the antechamber. We've had to re-prioritize gear distribution in the Naxx-25 run to make sure our best players are well equipped. "Memzer says that 'most' guilds are working on Yogg-Saron. On my realm (Khaz Modan-US), no one has even SEEN Yogg-Saron. There is only one guild that has defeated all the Keepers on 25-man and only a handful that have accomplished it on 10-man. And these are guilds much more hardcore then we are, guilds that regularly kill Sarth 3D. "The difficulty is right where it needs to be. Let it be." |
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The state of the Horde and the Alliance Another topic to hit the chopping block of debate this week was lore – in the first instance, the state of the Horde/Alliance relationship. "It's about time we had somebody like Varian," claims Narakku. "It's one thing to work together toward some common goal, but let's not forget that the Horde has savaged not only Azeroth but Draenor as well. I say it's fine to put off the cleansing, but payment is going to have to come some day. The Forsaken and Orcs at least have to be put down. They are a danger, and the Alliance should not forgive what they have both done. "I think Garrosh only proves what the Horde is, and the Forsaken want nothing better to wipe all living off the face of Azeroth. We might not be pure as driven snow, but neither did we try to commit genocide -- and we, frankly, were here first. It was the Horde who started this fight, not the Alliance. If Varian goes up against the Horde, then he will have my mace and shield. "P.S. That whiny sympathizer Jaina has her day coming. She messed up a perfectly good chance to retake Lordaeron. I doubt she even considers herself Alliance anymore." "Narakku, your honesty is refreshing and appreciated," replies dpoyesac. "To my fellow Horde: this is exactly why I'm thinking Thrall has to go ... and we loyal Horde ought to install Garosh as top dog. "Thrall and Jaina and their bleeding-heart commitment to 'peace' are commendable, but how can there ever be 'peace' with people like Narakku? How can we justify putting the future of the young orclings and Troll-pups at risk in the pursuit of a shiny tantalizing pipe-dream when warmongers like Narakku won't be satisfied until they've spilt rivers of blood? We Horde have to defend our way of life! And if the only way to do it is to raze Stormwind AGAIN, then that's what the Horde will do! "(I'm really hoping the next expansion is full-on, complete Horde/Allaince WAR across a new, phased version of Azeroth.)" |
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Varian Wrynn is right The debate about Varian Wrynn continued on this post. Kylenne jumps right in: "@ Alc: Good kings don't escalate a conflict with a crucial ally at the doorstep of a mutual foe, particularly when said foe has the ability to raise your dead as cannon fodder to then be used against you. Good kings are not ruled by their emotions. They calm the hell down and wait for all the facts to come in on a given situation before flying off half-cocked on some vigilante mission like this is an episode of the A-Team. Good kings think before they act, something that would probably give Varian an aneurysm. "Varian was so blinded by his CAPS LOCK OF RAGE that he apparently missed the fact that half the corpses on the ground at the Wrathgate were wearing Horde colors, and that while he lost Fordragon, we lost the son of one of our most cherished leaders. Obviously something was amiss, there, and if Captain Emo was remotely paying attention to what was going on -- or, hell, listening to Jaina and probably Alexstrasza, too -- he would have seen that. Hell, if Varian was at all smart, he'd have been fighting Varimathras in the Undercity alongside those 'green skins' instead of showing up a day late and a dollar short and jumping to conclusions, his favorite past-time. "This guy is going to get half the Alliance killed and the other half doing the Thriller dance in front of Icecrown if he keeps this up, mark my words. If I still played Alliance, I would not be trying to prop him up; I'd be looking for any way possible to get rid of him and set up Jaina as Regent Lord or something." Gannar despairs over the entire post: "No, damn you, Daniel! Your entire argument has made me lose the will to play Horde; I can't play a faction that is proven to be bad! I liked the 'blood and honor' ideals, but I always thought that, in the end, the Alliance was as good/bad as the Horde (and that Varian was a jerk). "Now I can't pick up my Horde chars (and I find all the Alliance races' models hideous -_-). I would've preferred to remain an ignorant T.T." |
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The Martin Fury scandal: Karatechop replies And finally, we bring you a reply to our exclusive interview on the Martin Fury scandal from the player at its epicenter, Karatechop himself. "First off, I would like to apologize if any of this is incoherent," he writes. "I've been writing it for about 30 minutes now and my head is spinning. "What do you want to know? Where is anything I have said inconsistent? I never claimed it was sent to Leroy as any kind of thank you, rather we thought it was sent to him as a 'We are sorry for your account issues we ignored for four months.' Leroy admitted that he thought it was a mistake, to which I responded how the hell could someone make that kind of mistake? Then we justified it due to the limited charges on the item and Blizzard's neglect of Leroy's account for over four months. "Granted, in hindsight, any of these justifications were apparently extremely naïve, according to a lot of people here. And to the comments of the 14 times we used it, I would've used it 100 times as those were the number of charges the item had. IF a GM had contacted me at anytime in the game or even via email and said 'WTF are you doin'?', I would've promptly cooperated with them, as I am still willing to do so. But I didn't honestly think it was something that was so far from believable, I never thought to open a ticket and obviously didn't think about being banned. I seriously justified this as customer service. "In the aftermath of all this, I even tried to call Blizzard on Tuesday of this week, to offer my help with the investigation so that my guildies who weren't involved in this 'scandal' would stop being punished as well by Blizzard's blanket ban. But you can't speak to anyone except for Billing at Blizzard, and so I spoke to several people in Billing for a long time. Very nice people, too, I might add. But they couldn't help me. "So I had to wait for email responses from people with names like Absinia, Tokimanthu and Sycronis who were not so nice or understanding. They have snippets of conversations from private and party chat, but this reflects at best half the conversations we were having at the time, as most of my guild's communication was done on Vent. And if you read those snippets, it does seem pretty dastardly. But the rationale on Vent was always Blizzard sent this item to him. Period. They sent it to him. "And as for punishment for me, I think a perma-ban is a bit over the top. I've been told by Blizzard that 'This account will not be reactivated under any circumstances. We hope this has cleared up any concerns you may have had and expect no further communication on this matter.' So I guess that's that. But I wouldn't have skipped a beat if all of my achievements and gear even the ones I came by legitimately were stripped and I logged in as a naked Gnome (no one wants to see a naked Gnome, mind you). Because it was an awesome story. And I did love this game. "We never meant to upset people, anyone, by personal gain of loot or achievements. That's never how TMF rolled. It was simply a ridiculous amount of fun. That's all. "I cheated. I know this. The item said 'Cheater.' I justified it, to be sure, and it was an easy thing to find justification for. "But I did learn some things: "1. If something is too good to be true and you use that something to its fullest potential, then you might get perma-banned for it. "2. If you are given power by those who have the ability to give you power and you share that power with your guildmates, then you might get people in your guild banned who had nothing to do with any of it. (Granted, I think most of them have been reinstated now.) "3. Don't trust anything that shows up in the mailbox. I'm going to very skeptical about my cable bill this month. Surely Comcast is going to trick me with something. "I didn't hack anything. We stumbled upon it, and to be sure, it was as if Blizzard had given us the 'Sword of a Thousand Truths.' And sure at times during the eight days, EIGHT DAYS, it was in my possession, I was uncomfortable. But I never thought I needed to hide anything from Blizzard. I wore the shirt as I logged out, which is why this story broke at all, because people would be able to find out what it was on the Armory by the item ID. Never thinking once that there was a reason to hide it, I just left it on. "I was not forthcoming with my guild, because we had picked up a lot of newer people and we were already having a bunch of 'I just joined yesterday and I'm wearing greens. Why am I not invited to raids?' The only people I asked to keep it from were guildies who I hadn't gotten to know yet. "And we did do some things that apparently no one else in the world had done. Well, that was a mistake. We never cleared anything; we were just having fun. We never meant to steal glory from anyone else. So, if you take a moment there to see that, the truth as it is, it is pretty plain. Fourteen uses in EIGHT DAYS. Surely we were out to destroy game content and enjoyment for everyone and get the most we could out of this blessing/burden as soon as we got it. Fourteen uses in eight days. Or maybe in eight days of time, we had a little bit of fun on a couple of occasions beyond the tons of fun we would have had on any other week. "I have also been accused of hacking the game to get my professions to insane levels. This is not true, either. I have no idea why one of my secondary skills was 900. The most I know about computers is some basic -- I'm talking the stone age of HTML. Otherwise, this shiny new computer I bought four weeks ago with an awesome video card so that I could play WoW maxed out for the first time ever (oh, the irony) is little more than an internet box. Well, now that's what it is. But these comments look amazing on this 64-bit box with 6G ram. /cry. "I'll answer any question anyone has, just make it a recent comment and don't nest it in a reply, because some of those comments are just to painful to read again. I loved this game and I will miss it, but more so, I will miss the friendships I had built over the last four years and the people I respected who helped me learn to be a better player. "I'm sorry if anyone is truly upset by this, but I feel I'm getting more then my share of ridicule over things that only about 23 other people could even possibly comment on or truly understand. I hope that you people who have insinuated that I'm somehow comparable to a bank robber, a murderer or child molester, never have to struggle with a problem like this. It's easy to say what you might have done without ever having been in this situation. I don't think you are thinking this through; instead, it seems like a lot of reactionary responses. Because that's all any of you can do, is react to what happened to us (receiving Martin Fury), and what we then did with the result of what happened to us (using Martin Fury)." |
Until next week!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cheats, Features, Raiding, Interviews, [1.Local]
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 13)
Daelan May 3rd 2009 6:20PM
Karatechop shouldn't have been banned. Bliz gave them the item. Why should we be responsible for policing the actions of their GMs?
Yes, the achievements and gear gained through it's use should have been wiped. And the GM who was the reason for the whole mess should be reprimanded or fired. But the consequences of the actions of an agent of Blizzard should never be laid upon the players.
Hoggersbud May 3rd 2009 6:56PM
>Why should we be responsible for policing the actions of their GMs?
You're not. Karatechop is being held responsible for his actions.
He'd not have been punished if he'd just reported the action, or if he'd not taken it from his guild mate's alt and then run into Ulduar one-shotting bosses over it.
Angus May 3rd 2009 8:05PM
Amazing.
Other people that get it.
"If I had gotten it, I would have made a GM ticket immediately."
BS
If they had gotten it, they would have tested it to see if it really was what it said it was. They might have opened a GM ticket too. But human nature being what it is, I'd bet 90% of the population in WoW would have used it. Some would have used it on a lark, others in a way that would be broken as hell.
Like I said before, had I gotten it, I would have made a GM ticket about 10 minutes before I used it. I would have made a raid with a level 1 alt and gone into Icecrown Citadel the day it opened and so the entire server would see the achievement for killing Arthas first and only 1 name would show up. That would be followed by
/1 Pwned nubs. 1 less emo king wannabe, Varian's next.
The sheer number of tells I would get would probably crash the server. And it would be glorious.
At least the gnome did it to be funny.
Daelan May 3rd 2009 8:44PM
>>You're not. Karatechop is being held responsible for his actions.
No, he was given the item by a GM. It's reasonable to expect using something given to you by a GM would not be a bannable offense for the player using it.
GM's don't get fired when we do something wrong on their watch. Why should player's be held to higher standard then Blizzard employees are?
>>He'd not have been punished if he'd just reported the action
Again, why is he responsible for reporting the actions of the GM?
He doesn't give them their paychecks.
He doesn't hire them.
He doesn't train them.
He doesn't know if they are allowed to give someone a god item with a charge limit or not.
He doesn't know *what* a GMs limits are.
Because he's not the GM's supervisor.
Making sure the GM is doing their job right and double checking their work should not be our responsibility. Nor should we be punished for not double checking their work.
Karatechop and his guildmates that were involved should have all gotten the same punishment mechanics exploiters and the like usually get. A *temporary*24-72 hour ban and the gains earned removed from their character(s).
Perma banning him from the game for being unable to resist temptation when it is thrust upon him, unsolicited, by a Blizzard employee makes Blizzard look petty. It's quite obvious they're banning him for the public embarassment his use of the item caused them by exposing the incompetence of the GM as botters, BG AFKers, and other exploiters have caused far more grief for players and the game then this did and they typically receive much lighter punishments for a first offense.
Hoggersbud May 3rd 2009 10:16PM
>>You're not. Karatechop is being held responsible for his actions.
>No, he was given the item by a GM. It's reasonable to expect using something given to you by a GM would not be a bannable offense for the player using it.
Not when it's a developer item, with a power that is explicitly beyond ANYTHING in the game.
If this was an epic, I would probably agree with you. Maybe even a legendary. Turns out it is not. This is a developer item, no player has such an item, ever has such an item, and if you aren't aware of how unreasonable it is to expect this item to be acceptable to be usable, well, I'm glad you know now, and this is why it's apparently necessary that Karatechop be perma-banned.
I guess the whole WOW community needed to be hit with a clue-train. Now you've been given a clue, I hope you use it.
>GM's don't get fired when we do something wrong on their watch. Why should player's be held to higher standard then Blizzard employees are?
How do you know when GMs are fired? How do you know anything of their internal processes and disciplines?
>>He'd not have been punished if he'd just reported the action
>Again, why is he responsible for reporting the actions of the GM?
Sorry I left out a word. I meant to say "not reported the action" but left out the not by mistake.
Pexxle -=SilverHand (RP)=- May 4th 2009 10:25AM
Honestly idc either way, the whole situation is ugly.
It seems some info was left out regarding the quoted script Blizz showed back to him...What exactly were he and his guildies saying?
"Ha ha yeah! We can burn down Ulduar!"
"Yeah!, but wait, you think we would get in trouble?"
I get the feeling their chat was incriminating enough showing that they knew the consequences and went ahead anyway. They showed him quotes, but they can pull up his WHOLE chat history and read it word for word. Stupidity all around.
Innocence Fail
vengence2k4 May 3rd 2009 1:10PM
I don't know, but I think any kind of ban over an item that "they" gave you is rediculous. I would hope that at the very least the individual that sent the item to Karatechop is dealt with as harshly as Karatechop was.
Todd May 3rd 2009 12:38PM
I hope whoever at Blizz that sent the item got banned from their job too. After all I feel they are even moreso guilty for this mishap than some random sap player that happened to get it.
Eversor May 3rd 2009 1:52PM
God... really? So a GM is to blame for slipping his guard a bit, by mixing up some symbol in the code, while this guy, receiving a fucking oneshot ultimate godmode weapon is not to blame for exploiting it in PROGRESSION CONTENT? Really?
Jesus flying Christ on a frying pan...
CursedSeishi May 3rd 2009 2:09PM
Except, Eversor, he stated he didn't mean to really take anything from anyone, he just wanted to have fun. If the item infact, did have 86 charges left after 8 days, its pretty easy to say he didn't exploit jack sh**.
If he exploited it, then I'd expect that item to be empty. After 8 days, he could of cleared all the raids on their respective hardmodes, and only equipped it for when they were at a boss fight, not leave it on even after logging off. Not once either, but twice.
Blizzard is the one that needs to be nerfed. They're starting to act like Arthas after he got Frostmourne, and they don't need god powers if they are going to bi***slap someone after they gave that person the item, mistake or not. Moreso since the item in question isn't really even in the game, since its a GM-only item.
Hell, why didn't blizzard put some insane level requirement on it, they have the ability to raise their levels to insane heights, so why not make it require them to be lvl 200 or something. Would of stopped this from happening, no matter how idiotic the GM is.
Palatel May 3rd 2009 2:11PM
I am sure the GM got fired, as he should have been.
(I am a Karate sympathizer as I know I, and 99% of us, would have done the same)
Seedcake May 3rd 2009 3:21PM
OH NOES MY PROGRESSION CONTENT
For FFS, get real.
Hansbo May 3rd 2009 4:02PM
While, if Karate is telling the truth and the intent was innocent, I agree that blizzard was way harsh, I can't believe you guys think that someone should actually lose their job over a small slip-up (be it with large media coverage) like this. I mean come on. An account is one thing, but a JOB?
Damn, you are cold bastards.
Eversor May 3rd 2009 4:40PM
Yeah, let's allow people do whatever they want, as long as they promise to play nice. Cause that will work. Yeah.
I simply cannot grasp the concept that people are defending this guy. Not knowing the rules does not free you from the responsibility. Using items that you are not supposed to have... doesn't that sort of sound wrong to you?
And the best part is that he knew what it was. To top that, Blizzard log everything. They have no problems finding the right logs of his action to prove him guilty. He was guilty, and this whiteknighting is completely and utterly pointless.
Hm. I am trying to talk sense in WoW community. Why do I even bother...
jbodar May 3rd 2009 5:31PM
@Eversor
I realize WoW is "srs bsns" and all but maybe you should take your pills or something. He got banned to foster "zero-tolerance" and because he caused some GMs to do some work to clean up all the ill-gotten loot. In the end, items and achievements are just bits to be flipped on or off.
Eversor May 3rd 2009 6:45PM
Rules are rules are rules. Stop making excuses.
Deadly. Off. Topic. May 4th 2009 10:51AM
What you need to understand is that everyone who is disagreeing with you are the selfish little kiddies (or grown adults who didn’t bother to develop common sense and brain power) who would condone this sort of crap. They’re the kind of people who would ride up Blizzard’s ass and blame Blizzard because one person in their organization made a mistake and handed out the item. It’s like a teller at a bank handing over 1000 dollars to you instead of $100. Sure it was the teller’s mistake, but you’re the selfish jerk who can’t be bothered to say, “Wait, this is wrong.” if you end up keeping the money.
I really HATE people saying “Oh you would do the same thing.” Who the HELL do you people think you are? I know I would NOT. I’d be tempted, but I’d know the difference and the fact is I WOULD put in a ticket if the damn item said “CHEATER” on it. Hell, I’ve been playing the game long enough that stuff like that would be a huge RED ALERT to me.
These aren’t some stupid little bugs that get fixed and no one gets banned over for.. The guy abused an item and then took the angle of, “It was in good fun, I didn’t mean any harm.” Maybe deep down he didn’t mean any harm, but 14 times?! He didn’t mean harm when he used it 14 different times?
Cinzano May 3rd 2009 12:39PM
Hey Karate, In your shoes, I would have done the same exact thing. Everyone who has commented about this would have done exactly the same thing as you, whether they say it outright or not. You are 100% not at fault. Your account should be reinstated, and your record cleared.(Maybe a slight mark, but no more) Blizzard has gone to far trying to blame someone for their mistake. Until they can come out and say how you came into possession of the item, this is and will always be on their hands. Ive been fallowing this for the past week or so now, and all the while ive lost a little respect for blizzard along the way.
We all love this game. Its an extension of your lives. You cant take that away from someone who has done nothing wrong.
I wish you the best,
~Cinzano
Hydraxis
blindlinus May 3rd 2009 12:40PM
first of all, people need to chill and realize this is a game, meant for enjoyment. if you want to blame anybody, let it be blizzard. if anybody "hacked" themselves up anything comparable to that i'm sure they would raise quite a few flags along the way. if you are really that offended by a few firsts getting snagged and/or you think that it's something you are capable of achieving (i.e. members of a top raiding guild) then you should petition blizzard to undo the files/records if they haven't already done so. bad enough that he lost his account. if you're that bothered by this, please think how you would feel if you lost your account over something that was not your fault (see: blame Blizz). everyone needs to chill out. if you want to get up in arms about something, go complain about WG lag and how it can affect the server as a whole. hope a veterinarian comes to pronounce this horse dead soon.
Chzeptr May 3rd 2009 12:49PM
Personally, I think the banning results from Blizzard's inability to take the responsibility for the trouble that it caused. If someone who runs the game gives you something like this after an inconvenience lasting months, it's only logical to assume that the item was meant as a form of compensation. This whole controvercy has really started to make me pay more attention to who I'm paying to play a game that can be horribly unfair...