Why Blizzard is Wrong for the Martin Fury Bans

First, let me start off by saying I love WoW. I spend time learning my classes and think that despite all the grief that Ghostcrawler gets for the things that have happened on his watch, he is the single best thing to happen to all the classes in WoW. The company (and the game) is better served by having a true renaissance man, something some many of the gaming geeks forget every time they log on.

I will also say that, as a prot pally, who didn’t start playing a paladin until after TBC, that when Kaplan dies, I hope his eternal damnation is nothing less than having to play vanilla WoW as a prot paladin, and watching him fail miserably. After each wipe, I want his raid to tell him how much he sucks and then have them all laugh at him in vent when he reminds them that he used to be a guildleader of one of the top guilds in Everquest. I hope this happens everyday for eternity, and I hope he cries and repents for the evil things he did to prot paladins (all hybrids really) early in the game’s life.

Now with that off my chest, the recent Martin Fury ban is completely out of line. I won’t pretend that I would have used the “legendary” chest piece. I won’t pretend that I wouldn’t have used it. To be completely honest, I have no way of knowing what I would have done. I would like to think that I would have reported the issue to a GM, but as someone who has had their account hacked and received what could best be described as a pathetic restoration, I might have scoffed at the mistake that was made and told Blizzard to kiss my ass and, of course, subsequently they would have told me to kiss theirs with an account ban.

The problem though is that the player didn’t do anything wrong. Not in the grand scheme of things. Sure it may have been morally suspect, but deciding whether something is wrong is a little more difficult. The item was not obtained through a hack, nor was it used in any way other than its intended use. It clearly calls you a cheater, and clearly says it will one shot anything. The problem with the cheater tag is that Blizzard often tags gear facetiously and therefore, though we can all acknowledge that it is “cheating,” it is also a Blizzard issued item. This isn’t an item that has any use but for that of questionable purpose. I have no idea why it would even exist except for the sole purpose of fart smelling*.

Since we all know about the item, how many of you would not have even tried it? I am not saying we all would have taken it into Ulduar, but I am sure we all might, following an account restoration, if it was some kind of joke. Say maybe take out the fel reaver roaming Hellfire? After finding it did in fact worked, we might have then reported it to a GM, but some of us would not have.

I know that the terms of service do not include using items in game that are officially received from Blizzard, and that they will stand behind section 8 of the terms of service that allows them to ban an account for any reason, and that they may try and point to section 9.C.i that states 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. The problem is here, the item is not a bug. It, again, clearly states it’s intended purpose, and that purpose is to allow one shots. A bug is a design flaw; this item was, in Ghostcrawler’s favorite line, “functioning as intended.”

To obtain access that was otherwise unavailable, they received a little help from a GM. I remember a certain time when there was a bug in Dustwallow Marsh that would not allow me to complete a quest, I had a GM transport me there from Darnassus. This was access that was not otherwise available and allowed me to gain a certain advantage in completing the quest and therefore leveling which other players did not receive. Was I also violating the ToS?

I am not saying that the player in question, or his guild, was the smartest in the world. I am also not implying that what they did was right, but to ban the account when Blizzard seems to have taken zero responsibility, at least publically, for their participation in the debacle is an embarrassment.

-Rhab

*fart smelling is the term I use in honor of one of my favorite Southpark episodes where all the hybrid drivers also like to smell their own farts. It's a joke on elitism and ego and one I thouroughly enjoy and have made the term a part of my everyday vernacular.