martin-fury-scandal
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The Azeroth Ethicist: Special I.W.I.N. edition
In reading the commentary on the site concerning the brouhaha surrounding Martin Fury and The Marvel Family's steamrolling of raid content, there were a lot of assertions made that left an impression on me, but the overwhelming feeling I had coming away from it was the players were treating it as a TOS issue when ultimately it's not. For obvious reasons, Blizzard doesn't spend a lot of time creating specific rules for what happens when players get ahold of items that are not officially supposed to exist. I do, however, believe it to be a moral issue.Was Karatechop wrong to use the shirt, or just wrong past a certain point?Someone made of stricter stuff than myself would probably say that it was wrong to use the shirt at all, but I have to admit -- I don't have it in me to condemn Karatechop's initial impulse to try it out. GM items don't officially exist for players; we know about them only because they've been data-mined, and you'd have to be a fairly frequent habitué of Warcraft fan sites to have any inkling that they're in the game at all. If I'd been in Karatechop's position, like many players I would've believed that Martin Fury was a joke when I first saw it. Who honestly expects to run across an item like that, let alone one that was mailed to a guildie's level 13 Warlock? I don't believe Karatechop was wrong to try the shirt when he had no reason to believe it was anything other than a joke or some bizarre glitch.
GM item scandal rocks WoW
As epic scandals go, WoW has had its fair share and the latest -- centred around a rather boring looking shirt called Martin Fury -- has had everyone talking over at our sister site WoW Insider.So it goes like this. One of the guild members of The Marvel Family on US-Vek'nilash, a fellow named Leroyspeltz, discovered a mysterious GM-only item has been sent to one of his alts when Blizzard were restoring items after his account had been hacked. So he gives this unassuming shirt to his Guild Leader, Karatechop, who decided to take it for a spin -- in Ulduar. He didn't file a ticket but rather assumed it was okay for them to have it because it came from Blizzard. They used it fourteen times in various instances as well as Malgyos and 25-man Obsidian Sanctum.
[1.Local]: The theory, debate, controversy and scandal edition
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.The [1.Local] PuG was in rare form this week, postulating theories and pontificating on issues ranging from the Martin Fury scandal to whether or not Ulduar difficulty and loot is on target. We highlight not one but two in-depth posts on the lore behind the Horde/Alliance relationship, each with extensive reader reaction.This edition of [1.Local] also spotlights fresh reaction from Karatechop, the player at the epicenter of the Martin Fury brouhaha. What does he think about all the hullabaloo over his banning in the wake of his use of a GM-only item that came into the hands of a guildmate? Karatechop responds to the pages of comments on our exclusive interview with him about the incident. All this and more, after the break.
Sunday Morning Funnies: They did it with a shirt
This week's set of comics is actually quite topical, from a recent scandal, to world news to proper feline nutrition. There also aren't as many Noblegarden-themed comics as I expected. Cru the Dwarf is making fire. Nifty things are afoot! Experience Points examines the latest content patch. Flintlocke vs the Horde: War Party part 11. GU Comics: It Figures. This is related to a recent story that we covered involving hacked accounts, a GM item, and some very naughty players. Read all about the Martin Fury Scandal, and then tell us what you thought in our polls. GU Comics also hosted a guest strip by Stormhaven, called Inconsistent Know-How. Don't forget to read the explanation underneath! Before I did, I thought it was about the fact that Mustard Dogs seems to never come up. I have stacks and stacks of the Rhino Dogs, but no dice. GU Comics also posted a comic about last week's Noblegarden festivities, Rabbits Everywhere. This is the second-latest LFG comic, but I thought that it stood better on its own than #248. NoObz: Useless. NPC: For the Taurine! I love this one. If you don't know what Taurine is, you don't love your cats enough. Yep, I said it. Check out the latest from Teh Gladiators. The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf has updated, and I have to agree, I Love the Smell of Bacon in the Morning. Here is another from It's a 2v2 Life. Here's a newbie: KUO, with Eyebeam Irony. I couldn't decide which one to list, so check out a few of them, and I'll go with the latest next week.
The Martin Fury scandal: Karatechop reveals all
Over the last week the Martin Fury scandal has rocked the world ... of Warcraft. I got the chance to sit down with Karatechop, the player at the centre of the scandal, to hear his side of the story.WoW Insider: Who are you?Karatechop: I'm Karatechop, the Guild Leader of The Marvel Family on Vek'nilash-US.There are postings on the net where someone purporting to be Karatechop says they work for Blizzard. I'm assuming this is not the case?I'm not an employee of Blizzard. I'm not a hacker, I'm just a person who had a pretty tight regular group of people who liked playing WoW.How did this whole thing start? One of my guild members, Leroyspeltz, had his account hacked back in December. He was an Officer at the time and whoever hacked his account ravaged the guild bank, which happens. Once Blizzard was able to rescue his account, he noticed several of his toons were gone.
