Tag Archives: warcraft

30 Million Warcraft Gold GONE!

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They tried to sneak this one past me with a late Friday afternoon post on the Warcraft front page: World of Warcraft accounts closed! There was no need to sneak — not like I’m getting rich in this game, or off of this game.

Ordinn, Blizzard economist wrote:

In keeping with Blizzard’s aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, we banned over 30,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 30 million gold from the economy across all realms. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game’s Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

We will continue to aggressively monitor all World of Warcraft realms in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful effects of cheating. Please note that selling World of Warcraft content, such as gold, items, and characters, can result in a permanent ban of the involved accounts from World of Warcraft.

Many account closures come as the direct result of tips reported to our GMs in game or emailed to hacks@blizzard.com by legitimate World of Warcraft players. If you suspect that a World of Warcraft player is using an illegal third-party program to farm gold or items, or is otherwise violating our Terms of Use, please report the suspected infraction via one of the means listed above. All reports will be investigated, and those that prove false will not result in corrective action.

Thank you for your continued support, and good luck with your adventures in Azeroth!

I’d like to imagine that this was one huge sting, set up over the past few weeks, involving undercover GM agents and late night interrogations of suspected farmers. Probably it was far less glamorous: players ratting out some guys who were stealing spawns in Eastern Plaguelands.

One of our guild priests is relieved he bought his epic mount last week instead of waiting — supply and demand being what they are. And when I say “bought”, you know I meant he used some real life scratch to IGE the damn thing because who has the energy to farm 1000 gold for their second, third or fourth level 60? Nobody I know.

(Furl archive of forum announcement)

The Big Hurt

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I just thought of something about 100 times better than having Curt Schilling in your MMO guild and/or game: FRANK THOMAS.

Here’s why … he’s not one of those “everything is beautiful in it’s own way …” kind of guys. I’ll bet he’d be really moody ingame — yelling at guildmates all the time, and, for sure, he would not tolerate paladins without Blessing of Kings or warlocks that forget to soulstone.

And God help any primary healers who were AFK during a boss pull.

The best part of all, in my mind, would be the guild battlecry … Here Comes THE BIG HURT.

I am so enamored with this idea, I might send this to:
worldofwarcraftfeedbackforhighersubscriptionnumbers@blizzard.com.

Carved Out of Wood

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Previously … I blew up a dying guild alliance with an offhand remark and so began the race to complete content before our former allies.

We avidly recruited, shoring up holes in our raid roster. We added a fourth raiding night. We raided well beyond our abilities at times. A green/blue equipped guild raiding Onyxia with only 28 players is .. not easy. We persevered. We failed. We won. We looted. We sharded.

The race to finish Molten Core content and move into Blackwing Lair was back and forth for a few weeks. Ultimately, they won that battle. They downed Ragnaros first.

They played around with Razorgore for two weeks while we earned our chops on Rag. TwatGuild decided to take (yet another) two week break from raiding to let their people … I dunno, rest or something, rather than have Razorgore rip apart their guild as he’s done to many others before.

From time to time, our guild has suggested raiding breaks, but I, personally, am very anti-raid breaks. Rust never sleeps, yanno. And good thing we didn’t. We downed Razorgore while they were vacationing in Upper Blackrock Spire or somewhere, who knows.

Let the Living Well begin! We dropped Vaelastrasz the next week, and the other BWL bosses in rapid succession. They’re back to messing around with the drakes, last I heard, after TwatGuild Rebuild #5.

While we were gloating in /gu and Ventrilo the other week, it got me to thinking: what a difference a year can make. Then, we were an allied little raiding guild, dependent in many ways on our allies and they on us. Now, we are the smallest endgame raiding guild on our server, still just a bunch of scrubs, only mere weeks behind the top dogs. That could change in Naxxlerammahamma — we’ll see.

We built this guild on next to nothing: a few warriors worth a shit, a core of superlative healers, a raid leader that would not (and still does not) ever give up and a roster of 50-ish determined, dedicated raiders. We are carved out of wood.

One of the pitfalls in running an endgame guild is redoing old content for newer members. To a certain extent, it must be done. Too much of it, and the veterans (read: The Equipment) burn out or look for greener pastures. How to remain accessible to new applicants, yet not backslide into a farm team for another endgame guild. That old chestnut.

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