Tactical Exploitation?

I am not a high end raider. I am a herder of cats, and seriously would implode if I had to deal with the level of intensity the Ensidia and other "world-first" guilds go through. I also don't see the value of giving up that much of my life to a video game, where it's less about time with friends and having fun than it is about beating out a rival guild from another country...

But in my opinion, there's something fishy here. Supposedly blacked out chat logs and no video? Really? Don't these videos normally get put to "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and spammed on YouTube and every gaming site like a viral epidemic? OK, maybe they were concentrating on the achievement and didn't turn on their tracking cameras. Maybe they aren't proud of the intensity of language at each other in chat logs. I don't know. But what I do know is human nature. And there is no way that not one out of TWENTY FIVE of the raiders didn't realize something wasn't right. And these people are in chat (pretty much guaranteed on headsets) so it's not like communication was barred for some reason. And if you are one of the "premier" raiding guilds, you know when something is too easy, or if the Reanaissance man is right, your toon is not being thrown over the edge when it should be.

Regardless, if Ensidia did not exploit this using their Blizzard-given bomb tactic, then they could have said, "Hey, look what we did. We're not sure if this was supposed to happen or not, so we're going to go in again and try it without, just in case." Again, 25 seasoned raiders with no clue it was a mite easier than it should be to DEFEAT ARTHAS? Swampland in Florida to sell, my friend...

While I may not have enough factual info to render an informed opinion on Ensidia's fate, if Blizzard says it's an exploit, then an exploit it be. It is Blizzard's game. And we know players will use exploits shamelessly, and then contrive any number of excuses until (or when) they're caught. I myself have struggled with the 5 man Halls of Reflective Death "exploit" at the end, following Arthas along. We just stand there and let him walk past. We're not blinking into walls, feigning death to reset him, or anything like that. We stand there and wave as he walks towards Sylvanas. Really, does Arthas give a fig about us anyhow? We're gnats. But once Blizzard tells me "that's a bannable exploit because..." then if I continue it, I deserve to be punished. But do I have to be told? If, like in some of the comments I linked to, I use a mage to blink into a wall and attack King Ymiron, and none of his powers touch me while I DPS the crap out of him, I don't think I need big brother pointing out that's not how the mechanics are supposed to work. You are NOT supposed to be able to farm ore from underground, that is cheating. No one needs to tell you when something is not working as intended, especially when you're a seasoned player and have seen years of appropriate game mechanics.

And I detest cheating and exploits. I left Warhammer for a number of reasons, but I was so sick of players cheating that it was one of the straws that broke the camel's back. Engineers dropping turets into walls or trees where you couldn't kill them, sending pets through walls, that sort of nonsense. I enjoy PvP, but the crap in City of Heroes kept me out of it. Player versus PLAYER, not "spec all my skills into teleport other and grief people into the sentry bots". Cowards and cheaters. And again, people play these games for any number of reasons, some to relax with friends, and some to achieve world firsts and titles. But if how you play is going to screw someone else over, or misuse or misrepresent game mechanics, then think again. You may have been smart enough to figure out how to "bypass fail code lol" or some nonsense, but someone smarter will catch and expose you. And you deserve everything coming to you at that point.

Honestly? A three day ban for Ensidia is not heavy enough if they did this on purpose or even with the suspicion of exploiting, and Blizzard HAS access to their chat logs and information. Cheaters and exploiters are breaking the rules set out by the games. If you don't play by their rules, kiss your ass good-bye. I will toast marshmallows when they explode your avatar in Aion.

-Real Big Kitty