Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Ninjas are Now Scammers, or "Yeah! Screw You, Ninjas!"

The scamming policy was updated not too long ago to give players protection from people who intentionally defraud (i.e. lie to) others in order to ninja an item. We have exquisite clarifications from Vaneras, who cheerfully does not mince words.

If your group has made a clear statement on how loot is to be handled and someone breaks the agreement, you may report them under the revised scamming policy. (Punishments include taking away the ninja'd item and potentially a suspension or ban.)

From now on, to protect yourself, request that the loot rules be clearly stated before the item you want drops. If it is not clearly stated in-game and the master looter steals something, you cannot effectively report the situation as a scam.

To explain how things were before this, May 2009 I wrote some disjointed posts about a 25-man raid my guildmates joined. A member of the guild Pure Insanity was loot master. The loot rules were clearly stated at the outset. At the end of the run, a member of my guild won a best-in-slot weapon.

The master looter claimed he couldn't loot it to the appropriate winner and promised to ticket it. Five of my guildmates stayed in the raid to make sure he didn't return to loot it for himself.

He did return, they accused him of trying to steal the item, and he used their accusations as justification to steal the item. He and his guildmates taunted my guildmates. My GL talked to their GL, who was polite but did nothing. My guildmates then put in tickets, but the GMs didn't do anything but offer platititudes. We had a report from a more sympathetic Pure Insanity member that when a GM spoke to the ninja, the GM asked if he'd been the master looter and then said it was the master looter's choice to do what he wanted with the items that dropped.

My guild was dissatisfied but unable to pursue any other form of justice. The people who'd been on that run cut off all ties with Pure Insanity, and the rest of us avoid them as common sense.

Thus, my guild is quite happy about this change. The same tickets that the GMs couldn't help with would be valid now.

This change can also be useful for members of guilds with untrustworthy raid leaders. Simply whisper your leader and ask them to repeat the guild's loot rules before you start a raid (easy enough with a macro).

Good raiding, everyone!

5 comments:

  1. Yeah, my husband and I both cheered when we saw these changes. It's too bad that it took so many bad experiences before they changed their policy but I'm glad they did. Even if the rightful winner of the item does not receive it, at least the ninja won't be able to keep it either.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you have to take a screenshot of the ML saying something about the loot rules or something? Just so it's proven? Or do you have to have other witnesses? How would this be proven? xD

    ReplyDelete
  3. GMs can go through the chat logs and find the statement. If you want to make it easier for them, screenshot or download a chat logging addon so you can tell the GM the exact day, time, chat channel, and location of the statement.

    Note that you don't need to spell out everyone's reactions to the situation. Only the exact facts that prove a deception occurred and (if relevant) that someone else won the item (in which case, it will be moved to that person).

    Such as:
    Character: Dustfire (server Zuluhed)
    Raid Chat in Icecrown Citadel

    11:53AM 6/23/2010: [Dustfire says] We will /roll for shinies.

    12:10PM 6/23/2010: [Shirohibiki] wins the roll for a shiny. [Dustfire] master loots that shiny to herself.

    Under game policy, this constitutes a scam.

    "A scam is the act of acquiring items or any other possession from another player through misinformation, confusion, or fraud. In short, using any sort of deception to gain at another's expense."

    ReplyDelete
  4. okay that made me laugh so hard I love you so much XDDD <3333
    but okay I understand now :) thank you! <3

    ReplyDelete
  5. New Note:
    "have to state that 'Highest roll wins' and 'Loot rules may not be changed in the middle of the run'"
    (source)

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.