What would you do?

[Dominian]

Would you report it or try it out?? :D

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

[Gurblash]

I'd roll with it, although I'm not sure I'd drag a whole guild into the drama... guild wide bans FTL

[Oatboat]

thats my server.. been alot of lawls in the trade about it.

[Zal]

depends on if i would get banned for using it or not....

[unseen]

One thing that doesn't jive is that the article states (and I read in another article, also) that he claims to have gotten this item from his mailbox.

However, I found a thread about him here ('http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=clnk&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2F74.125.95.132%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcach e%3AoRcnSfHjGxIJ%3Aforums.worldofwarcraft.com%2Fth read.html%253FtopicId%253D16473754918%2526sid%253D 1%2Bkaratechop%2Bwarcraft%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct% 3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ei=K_75SdqqOYvSNKC6lcQE&rct=j&q=karatechop+warcraft&usg=AFQjCNFMCqmJKSb2r8_Ji8XmVkg4LSR05w') that adds a few more details. There's also his WowWiki profile ('http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wowwiki.com%2FServer%3AVek%25 27nilash_US%2FKaratechop&ei=K_75SdqqOYvSNKC6lcQE&rct=j&q=karatechop+warcraft&usg=AFQjCNF5AP0UWXtJhPx7dfEJandNfJisPA') that gives more info.

From all of this there's a few things that stick out:
His guildmate claims he received this item to "make up" for not having received an item from a ticket he had opened weeks before.
His first aid is at 900. It would seem like a GM took more interest in his account than simply passing him this item or emailing it on accident.

I think this is why the threads about him have been deleted, because this could be a real case of a GM doing something wrong on purpose.

[falsfire3401]

Armory of him now shows that they've removed all his ulduar achievements except normal difficulty 'shutdown'. Also he doesn't have gear in some slots - I suspect items earned via this exploit were removed from his toon too.

As much fun as this item would be, I would report it if I got it, not use it. It's the same as if your bank makes an error and deposits a million dollars in your account: if you go out and spend it you're an idiot, because sooner or later they'll realize their mistake and you ARE criminally liable if you spent any of the money received in error. There are recent occurrences of this in my local news, a woman received $150k by accident in her account and spent $30k of it before the bank caught up to her, now she's in jail for it.

[Enndo]

LOL 1st rule of fight club, don't talk about fight club, 2nd rule of fight club, don't talk about fight club. I woulda kept my mouth shut and enjoyed it for a very long time or until it was taken away. Loose lips sink ships. Now the whole guild is banned.

[Terraelf]

Hrmm.. tough one.. what would I do? Probably go test it on Doomwalker just to see if it actually worked.... then open a ticket. After reading what's there, I'm inclined to believe this guy is a Blizz employee and made the poor decision to abuse his power.

[mmcookies]

I get the feeilng this was more than an accident.
I wonder what perks the GM got in return.

[Tasty]

I'd like to think I'd do the right thing, but even knowing my account would get banned I'd still prolly charge into orgrimmar and start pewpewing :p

[Xinxo]

I have to agree with mmcookies. It's just like when someone comes here and says they were banned and did nothing to provoke it. Then we learn later on that none of their accounts were in there name : /

[Tasty]

I get the feeilng this was more than an accident.
I wonder what perks the GM got in return.

You'd have to be dumb to risk a job at blizzard though :p thats like the dream place to work

And yes yes I know its actual hard work and not all cookies and sunshine but thats beside the point.

And in this day and age, even if you put false info into your account I'm sure theres still a few ways you could get tracked down.

This is all merely speculation of course.

[Starbuck_Jones]

Most GM's work from home and are little more than fan boys that get paid to answer petitions out of web based tool. This was either an accident, or intentional. Either way all transactions are logged and the employees responsible are already fired. Accident or not, it cost them customers.

Now if I logged on one day to find this item in my mail box I would prolly have used it to see if it worked and what not. Maybe had some fun with it, but past that I prolly would have banked it and forgotten about it. I sure as heck would not have plowed through the latest raid content with it.

[Yamio]

In the item's description it clearly states "cheater" which means you aren't supposed to use it period, and I for one wouldn't have. I think Blizz was justified in banning him, although I don't agree with the banning of his guildmates if they weren't on any of runs, but it's not surprising since Blizz has been known to get a little heavy handed on the kinds of issues that exploits their game.

If he was a GM then yes, you ban and fire him for his stupidity. Nothing teaches employee wisdom faster than getting sacked for doing something you know is wrong.

[kadaan]

I just finished reading though three WoW Insider articles on this, and frankly I'm amazed how many people think he did absolutely nothing wrong. It also scares me how many people say they'd have abused it as well, or abused it in worse ways ("I'd go to WG and just stop the opposing faction from ever taking it!")

The lack of common sense combined with both greed and the anonymity of the internet is unbelievable at times. It's no wonder people mortgage their house to send $400k to Nigerian Scammers (http://consumerist.com/5087211/woman-loses-400000-to-nigerian-email-scam), or how you can fall for a Nigerian scam TWICE (http://guanabee.com/2009/01/beyond-the-barrio-nigerian-myspace-scam).

If I got the item in question in the mail, I'd immediately open a ticket and try to think of how much fun I can have with it without abusing it and getting banned. Start a duel with a guildie and 1-shot them? Definitely. Kill a raid boss or pvp with it? How can you even THINK that doesn't count as abuse and you won't get banned?

[Bigfish]

If something like that randomly showed up in my mailbox, sure, I'd use it. That is, of course, assuming it was an actual random mailing. I get the feeling that regardless of what anyone claims, there is more to meets the eye on this. Wouldn't surprise me if its a case of post-restoration GM enabling that someone took advantage of.

[kadaan]

The fact that his armory shows him as having first aid skill at 900 also makes me wonder.

[Souca]

Clearly Blizzard and CCP have a GM exchange program ('http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=424') .

Sadly, I think even filling a ticket for getting this in the mail would likely result in you getting banned. I mean, you must have done something wrong, Blizzard doesn't make mistakes ;)

- Souca -

[Starbuck_Jones]

If it let you get xp from mobs it killed. I prolly would just pass the item from noob to noob and self powerlevel a couple of 80's in instances.

[Basilikos]

Based on other incidents in the past (let alone this one), I'd NOT EVER CONSIDER using it since it's obviously NOT something you're supposed to have.

[Allestaria]

I would of used it.
Hell wouldn't of had a clue what it was for in the first place. I mean we get random crap in our mail all the time. I don't see anyone knowing what it was for. Hell looks like a crap piece of gear to me. This item goes along with the hoax items in Shat. And that is just how I would of seen it..
Just like the necklace that says you get more items when using it. Its fake and doesn't work. So what would make this piece any different.

But all in all sounds like someone tired to get away with something and got cocky and caught. I wonder how much he paid the gm for that item. We probably will never know.

[Spin]

More than likely, I'd just run around by myself in raid instances and just one shot stuff before opening the ticket and reporting it. It sounds like it would be hella fun to abuse--like run into the AH of a busy city and use it, but m3h, I don't think that this was a random item.

[Caspian]

I actually had a similar thing happen to me (well sort of but not to this extent). It was back in vanilla wow I was 60 and had a green BoP gun from Dire Maul, if I remember correctly it was http://www.wowhead.com/?item=18460 . I was using it to level my Gun skill to 300. I would use it in the world and on Trash Pulls in MC.

After one patch there was a bug with the item and instead of the normal 30 yard range warriors have with shoot, it was 300 yards. But only with this gun. I didn't even realize it until I moused over and read the tool tip that said "Range 300 "one day. I tested it out alone in the world and sure enough if I could see it, I could shoot it. I showed off to a couple of friends. Then I opened a ticket. My friends asked why and I said it is broke, I need to at least report it as a bug. I talked to a GM. They basically said they were aware of the issue and "shh don't tell anyone :D". I asked if I could continue to use it and they said I could just don't abuse it "too much".

I was a prot warrior, there wasn't much "abuse" I could do with it. I did shoot people across the map in WSG - for 100 damage. In AB I had LoS issues trying to hit people at the BS from the LM and vice-versa. Back then AV might happen once a month so I never got to take it in there. The only really cool thing I did was pull the entire first ramp in MC - from the bridge in the front to the bridge to Luci and Mags - all from the first bridge. The raid thought it was pretty funny. In reality it might have bought us 2 minutes on the way down. I think I got to do this for maybe two weeks before another patch came out and the bug was fixed.

This was likely just an extra 0 getting added to the item by mistake.

I read the articles and if the Karatechop guy is telling the truth about how they got the item I could see how it might have happened by accident.

I would assume that Account Specialists, when restoring an account, do not drag or click items into the mailbox like we do, or even how a normal GM might. I think that they likely go through log files and database extracts/queries to figure out what you get back. This is all likely text, probably looking at item numbers or at least data with the item number in it. They go through this and create a list. They then would load this text list into some program that generates the in game mail to the player with the items attached. I suppose it would be possible that in the creation of the list an extra Carrige Return was entered in the middle of an item that happened to be #17[something] creating a line with just #17 causing the item to be sent when it went into the program.

If that is how the process works. Thats all pure speculation by me - but not impossible. It could have been on purpose just as easily too.

I also remember Eyonix telling a story about testing Hakkar before ZG was released. Eyonix had been MC'd by Hakkar and suddenly the whole raid was wiped. Apparently when Hakkar had control of him he used his "death to all enemies" ability and wiped the whole raid. It could have been this very item.

If something like this showed up in my mailbox I would test it once. Then open a ticket. I would beg to be allowed to go around one shotting an instance or two. That I didn't want any achievements or loot just to get to have a little fun for myself and maybe a few friends before they took it away from me.

@Starbuck_Jones ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=User&userID=1056') all Blizzard GMs work onsite for Blizzard. I know they have GM offices at their main HQ and in Austin as well as France for EU.

[Dominian]

well when you think about it a gun with 300 yards range could be extremley OP in AB! :P

You can stay at LM and interrupt flag caps at farm/bs/stables! :D

A rogue with this tool would be extremley annoying since you would never be able to see him before he restealthed! :P

[SilverSlice]

if i had a death to all mobs ability i would head over to ulduar instance, creata a ticket, enter uldaur, and see if i could get some oppgrades before they reacted to the ticket :)
i can see some nice achivmeents from that to :)


silver

[Caspian]

well when you think about it a gun with 300 yards range could be extremley OP in AB! :P

You can stay at LM and interrupt flag caps at farm/bs/stables! :D

A rogue with this tool would be extremley annoying since you would never be able to see him before he restealthed! :PI tried that in AB but targets were not in line of sight. I could hit the BS flag from the bridges to the BS but not from the LM. I don't remember if I could go Farm to BS or not. I might not have tried.

A hunter would be unstoppable. You would be dead before you could get in range to do anything.