The Queue: Will I get banned for raiding as a ret paladin last night?
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.
There has been a fury of concerned players over the problems with the paladin bug discovered last night. I'll provide some historical perspective.
Many people asked:
My DPS was really high due to the bug. Am I going to be banned for exploiting the game, I didn't try to take advantage of it; the bug just happened?
No.
If you were just one of countless other paladins raiding last night, then you're not going to be banned. You did absolutely nothing wrong, and you have no reason to worry. Blizzard would never ban you over a problem in its system.
However ...
If after learning about the bug, you decided to take nine other paladins into Firelands and clear it all, you've probably gotten yourself a long suspension from the game or an outright perma-ban. This has happened often, and Blizzard will ban those players in cases where it has clear evidence of active and legitimate exploitation of bugs. It's happened in every tier of raiding for a long time, and it'll continue to happen, because players are really smart and there are so many of us that eventually, we'll find a bug.
But the ones who continually take advantage of bugs and actively seek them out -- those are the ones who get suspended or banned. Not the guys and gals raiding or questing.
Remember that this is in the Terms of Service, and you agreed to it when signing up to play WoW. And really, all the news sites and community sites talk about this enough that it shouldn't really be a surprise. It's also common sense.
(i) 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.
Many people asked:
How long until the paladin bug is fixed?
We've gotten reports that it's fixed on some realms but still broken on others. Once we know for sure or once Blizzard posts about it, we'll get the word out.
Incoming asked:
Why does night time in game not look like if its night time at all? I remember playing a free mmo before playing wow and when it was night real time it was night server time. The game actually looked like the setting was in the middle of the night. Most of Azeroth in server night time looks just as bright as day.
Sometimes it's hard for folks to see in low-light situations, and given that so many people play at night, it really doesn't make sense from a gameplay perspective to limit visibility. So Blizzard darkens the sky to a deep shade of blue. That's really enough. Suspend your disbelief, and it's night time!
Puntable commented:
Can we get a new class of water mounts, such as rowboats, canoes, kayaks, and surfboards? And of course, the ability to fish while mounted on them.
That's actually a crazy-good idea. I doubt it'll happen, since Blizzard has said it's not going to do another under water zone ... but a surfboard? That takes me back to my Anarchy Online days of water mounts. Damn, those were totally useless (and totally awesome).
Maybe engineers will make a hoverboard, since human scientists have dropped the ball on that one.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
