griftah
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The real Griftah story
Griftah has now been exiled to the outskirts of Shattrath in Patch 2.2.Players complained loudly on the forums after realizing they paid over 30 gold for an amulet that allowed them to resurrect when they died and were not mollified when informed that they should have shown a bit more caution before buying items from a character named after another word for con artist. Everyone (including me) assumed that Griftah was being exiled from Shattrath because of these complaints.His creator, World Designer Kisirani, says otherwise. Though we don't know how the story is going to unfold, Kisirani says that Griftah is kind of a progressive content guinea pig. He explains:It's a shame you're unwilling to believe what is, in essence, the truth -- that Griftah has been a small foray in progressive content as we gauge certain things.
Griftah being evicted from the Lower City
Anyone who has spent any time tradeskilling in Shattrath has probably run across the Troll merchant, Griftah. Since Burning Crusade came out, Griftah has called a spot near the mana loom in Lower City his home. He has hawked many fun and dubious items like [Soap on a Rope] and [Infallible Tikbalang Ward]. (I must say, my banking alt has been blessedly Tikbalang free!) Griftah loved to talk to anyone and everyone who came anywhere near him and suggest various of his charms that he thought you should purchase -- for a price. However, some people took Griftah seriously, and thought that the white items he was selling were indeed able to do special things like give you free Rezzes much like the old Darkmoon Faire Twisting Nether card would as opposed to reading the lines carefully. (like, how it would Resurrect you if you were already next to your corpse in ghost form.) This led to angry forum threads, and people who were screaming about being grifted by Griftah because, surprise -- the white items didn't actually do anything mystical...
WoW Moviewatch: Think of the animals
ZeusJones sends along this movie he made, in support of his new organization seeking to protect the apparently innocuous wildlife around Azeroth. How many innocent lives have you mindlessly snuffed? Please, stop the slaughter. Now, I'm all for Zeus' little campaign (and he's even got a blog up and running for it), but I want to warn him: those animals might not be as harmless as they seem. True story: I was in Heroic Underbog this weekend, and a frog hopped by while we were waiting for mana. I clicked on him, and Frost Shocked him out of his little froggy existence, as I usually do whenever we see critters around.And I kid you not-- I was very surprised to see a little red 1 roll up my scrolling combat text. I checked the combat window, and sure enough: "Frog hits you for 1." Completely true. I don't know how he did it (it was an instant spell! he's a critter!), but that frog tried to take a bite out of me. Maybe I should have bought Griftah's amulet.
Today, on Not Getting the Joke theater
An ordinary person, upon seeing a guy named "Griftah" selling "Amazing Amulets" in the Lower City of Shattrathfor very high prices, may think twice before buying the amulets. But Gazzle is no ordinary gnome. He spent 25 gold on the "Polished Pendant of Edible Energy" -- whose tooltip states "Focusing one's metabolism, this pendant allows the wearer to draw great energy from ordinary food and drink -- even heal wounds!" Upon equipping it and conjuring up some food and water, he discovered that he wasn't regening health and mana any faster. Disillusioned, he posted a "Shame on you, Blizzard" message on the WoW General forums and went off to try ... the other amulet he purchased. A round of mocking follows in which a ton of people point out that the amulet does exactly what the tooltip says it does, and it's not the amulet's fault if the health and mana would regenerate anyway. It's kind of like purchasing a "Talisman of Protection from Crocodile Attacks" if you live in Minnesota -- hey, it must be working, because I haven't been attacked by crocodiles! Along those lines, Griftah also sells an "Infallible Tikbalang Ward," which protects you from Tikbalang attacks. I agree with Tseric -- let the buyer beware on these items. Or, as another poster states, "I prefer to think of it as a stupid tax." According to Allakhazam, Griftah also sells:
