Officers' Quarters: Partners in crime

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Patch 3.2 brought a welcome change for both raid leaders and game masters: BOP loot no longer binds to a character immediately. We now have a convenient two-hour window to make sure the item goes to the right player. It's a change that saves both time and hassle, and I applaud it.

However, now that items aren't bound as soon as they're looted, I've noticed some shenanigans going on in my guild's partially pugged 25-player ToC runs. Sometimes, when a player wins an item with a roll, a few people who really want that item have been offering the winner gold in exchange for trading the still-unbound item to them.

I've made it clear that we're not running a GDKP raid and that I don't want to hear about any such transactions. It's a slippery slope. Pretty soon you'll have everyone who's eligible for an item rolling on it whether they want it or not, solely in hopes of banking a tidy profit.

It seems this two-hour window has also brought back a classic cheat. Click through to read about it in this week's e-mail!

Hi, Scott.

I have been an Officer with a guild for over a year or so. It's kind of a family atmosphere guild. The GM owners of the guild are husband/wife and we all seem to get along great. We raid and have progressed well for group we ran Weekly 25 Naxx runs before Ulduar came out.

Once the GM's were geared and did not need loot they tired from running weekly Naxx. We switched to Ulduar when it came out. We progressed 10 man content and our 25 dissolved due to inactivity for some time. Now, that we do not have a core 25 we run split guilds 25 group.

Recently, blizzard has changed the loot so it could be passed to others in the raid within a two hour period. So, here is the core issue. We have recently Observed the GM husband/wife double rolling on loot.

Example: 10 man ToC

Loot rules: 1 epic per person on what you are doing at the time of raid, 1 tier token per run (25), open to normal roll per spec, off spec rolls secondary if no one wants.

An item drops, GM husband rolls a 29, DPS Guild Officer rolls a 52.

5 seconds later . . .

GM wife rolls 67.

OK, GM Wife wins, two minutes later Husband is wearing this item on next boss. GM Husband still has loot roll and gets another item from the run. So technically they didn't break the 1 epic per person so to speak.

They were called out by the other guild officer after the raid who lost the roll and the item went to the guild officer who should have technically won.

Now progress to this week. GM Husband is well geared all 245 gear and no need for Triumph tokens. Even states that he will not be rolling on Triumph tokens in earlier raid this week. 25 man Semi-pug ToC raid forms mid-week. Both husband/wife are there and he continues to roll on Triumph tokens.

So back to the same double roll odds again.

I like the guild, but feel this is a major loot Issue as most of our group is unaware of the officers catching the GMs behavior. And I am not sure if this is cheating, or double odds 2 VS 1 does not seem very fair. We are losing officers who refuse to raid within the guild (or with husband/wife) and have lost 2-3 guild members to this issue who are wise enough to watch loot.

Any advice? This was not a issue (that we were aware of ) till the recent loot 2 hour exchange.

Thank you,

Anonymous

Ah, the old double roll -- it's not a new scam, but delayed-binding items allow you to be much sneakier about it. Previously, what you'd do is have both players roll for an item and then the winning roller would "pass" the item to the other player, essentially giving that player two chances at the drop. It's obviously a cheat, since you're giving that person twice the opportunity that anyone else has.

Now that items don't bind right away, you don't even have to be that blatant. You can just accept the item and then tacitly pass it on to your partner. It amazes me that people think they can get away with it, but then, honestly, how many people actually check that every item gets equipped to every player who wins one?

What is most baffling to me about this situation, even beyond the fact that it's your own guild leaders pulling this underhanded con, is that they got called out on it and still weren't shamed into stopping!

Husband/wife teams have a pretty big stigma in the community as it is. This pair isn't helping the situation. Add to that the fact that they're the guild leaders and you've got a great big mess.

I don't blame your players for bailing on this guild. Your leaders are unabashedly selfish jerks and no conversation you could have with them is going to change that. Normally I'd recommend talking to them about it, letting them know that players are catching on and gquitting as a direct result of their scam, and asking them to cut it out. I might even recommend demanding a different loot system that can't be cheated.

But in this case, they've already been caught once. They put on a show of contrition and then just blazed ahead with their scheme regardless. That is the kind of attitude you don't really have a chance against. Even if you successfully lobbied for a different loot system, they'd just find another way to make sure their characters have an unfair advantage. This couple isn't going to change.

It would be one thing if they were just members and you as the officer could put a stop to it. But they are the ultimate authority. So I hate to say this, but the only thing you can do in this situation is to leave the guild.

All that remains is for you to decide whether to leave quietly and let them keep operating that way or to expose them to the guild -- and the server -- with a public post. That depends on how much drama you want to stir up and how many friends you have in the guild that you don't want to see screwed over by them. If it were me, I'd make the post. They deserve the consequences.

Has anyone else seen similar or other scams now that items wait to bind? How did you handle the situation? Tell us below!

/salute

Send Scott your guild-related questions, conundrums, ideas, and suggestions at scott.andrews@weblogsinc.com. You may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!