Breakfast Topic: Revenge is oh so sweet
The Piccolo of the Flaming Fire used to be one of the most hated trinkets in World of Warcraft. Using it causes everyone around you to spontaneously burst into dance. At the time, there were exactly two auction houses in WoW -- one in Ironforge, and one in Orgrimmar -- so the banks were constantly jammed full of bank alts trying to do a little business. Imagine 85 bank alts spontaneously bursting into dance, and you understand the source of the annoyance. Since then, the game has progressed beyond the magic flute and few remember, care or carry the things in their bags. But the flute's legacy lives on in a rather unique way on my realm.
Gold spammers have gotten a little more creative these days. They don't leave corpses littering the streets; instead they have a fleet of level 1 characters that float in midair in annoying formations, or sleep on the ground and spell out the name of whatever website they happen to be advertising for. I cannot stand these guys, and I don't think there's anyone on my server who finds them remotely amusing.
Which is where my old friend the piccolo comes in. Want to get rid of the gold spammers fast? Stand in the middle of the group and use the trinket. Suddenly, all of the carefully designed formations are broken up as the level 1 orcs proceed to bust a move. The gold spammers hate this and will quickly log out. It's become something that's announced in trade -- the spammers will show up, and someone will pipe up in trade chat, "Spammers in Orgrimmar, bring your piccolos." At least a dozen people will usually show up to break up the gold-selling party.
Want in on this delicious revenge? The piccolo drops off of Hearthsinger Forresten, a rare boss in Stratholme who can spawn in one of three different locations. At level 80, the place is ridiculously easy to solo, so picking up a piccolo of your very own isn't any more difficult than getting it to drop off the boss -- and it's a fairly frequent drop. Do you still carry the piccolo in your pack? Does your server have its own unique way of dealing with gold spammers? Do you hold mammoth parties on the sleeping URLs, or do you just ignore the floating advertisements and carry on with your day?
