Lvl 60s moved to young server

[Xanthippe]

Apparently some 60s were moved to a young server (Eldre' Thalas) from an older server.

Players upset. 

CM forced to eat words.

Banning from the general board ensues.

Collection of board threads here:
http://www.freewebs.com/wowscandal/index.htm

[Xanthippe]

Official Blizz response by Caydiem:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2967688&p=1&tmp=1#post2967688

"Due to the extreme volume of posts on this issue, I am posting this thread to consolidate the discussion. For this particular case alone, we are making an exception to the Disciplinary Action clause of the Code of Conduct, provided the discussion remains civil and constructive.

The guild Displaced was moved from Uther to Eldre'Thalas due to a harassment issue. However, due to the reactions of various groups, the action taken has come under further review. We will be releasing more information on the subject later today, including the resolution.

I ask that, until then, you remain patient and keep the discussion here in this thread. Thank you."

===================================

The plot thickens.

Scott Jennings' wife's guild is the one that got moved.
http://www.brokentoys.org/?p=6748

[WayAbvPar]

I don't understand why someone would be moved in a harrassment situation. If they are the harrassers, ban them. If they are the harrassees, ban the harrassers. I would be willing to bet that the man-hours they have spent dicking around with this adds up to a shitload of monthly fees they may have saved by not banning anyone.


Fucking clownshoes.

[Xanthippe]

And they're back on their original server!

From Ordinn this time:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?ForumName=wow-general&ThreadID=2971204

"Earlier this week, characters belonging to a guild on Uther were moved to Eldre'Thalas to protect them from harassment. Understandably, members of the Eldre’Thalas community were very concerned about this and contacted us through the proper channels, so we investigated the matter internally. After reviewing the steps that were taken, we’ve determined that the appropriate procedure for addressing harassment was not followed.

The person responsible for making this decision saw this case as a good way to test the complex realm-to-realm transfer functionality that we would like to make available to players, while at the same time addressing the harassment concerns in a positive way for everyone involved. Unfortunately, the action caused confusion for both the community and the characters moved to Eldre’Thalas.

We have decided that in order to correct this situation and put the resolution in line with our current policy, all characters transferred to Eldre’Thalas will be moved back to Uther. Furthermore, the appropriate disciplinary action will be taken in regard to the harassment that took place on Uther. In addition to this, we will be reevaluating our communication procedure as it relates to enforcing policy, in order to avoid similar situations in the future.

We apologize for the confusion caused by this matter, and we want to reaffirm that the complex procedure of transferring characters between realms is in no way appropriate for addressing harassment concerns or other policy violations. We also apologize to the players on Eldre’Thalas for having disrupted the current state of their realm with this issue."

=================================================

I thought this sort of shit was, like, so 90s.

[Trippy]

This reminds me of the whole GFrazier/Nebu Kali Campton debacle a while back.

[Sogrinaugh]

This reminds me of the whole GFrazier/Nebu Kali Campton debacle a while back.

What was the Gfraizier bit about?  I played SC/BW religiously back in the day (even more then i play WoW now), i thought myself pretty current with all the buzz, i cant recall anything goin on with him.

On topic, im VERY glad blizzard reversed thier decision here, shows alot of courage and intestinal fortitude to admit you did something wrong and fix it, i tend to view developer hubris as being to great to do this sort of thing.  Glad they proved me wrong

[El Gallo]

Someone got tea in my tempest.

[Trippy]

This reminds me of the whole GFrazier/Nebu Kali Campton debacle a while back.

What was the Gfraizier bit about?  I played SC/BW religiously back in the day (even more then i play WoW now), i thought myself pretty current with all the buzz, i cant recall anything goin on with him.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details cause I only read about this after the fact and all the juicy posts about this were deleted. So GFrazier was running a WoW guild called "Kali Compton" (originally his pre-Blizzard employment WC guild) using, among various aliases, "Nebu" (as in Nebucannezer) and "Windy". This guild was notorious during Beta for being a zerg griefing guild -- basically everybody hated them. After release somebody started a thread speculating what names Nebu was using for his various alts, using information on their guild page (i.e. "public" information) as a guide. This apparently pissed Nebu off and either he or a board moderator friend of his started deleting posts, and then suspending board accounts, and there were even rumors of people being suspended in game by GMs. As you can imagine this caused all sorts of chaos on the boards with people accusing Blizzard of favoring his guild because he was an employee, and a lot of guilds who at the time had their named changed were really pissed cause they felt "Kali Compton" violated Blizzard's own naming policies. Eventually the CMs had to step in to undo all the board bannings and to force Kali Compton to change their name. Rumor had it that GFrazier got fired over this incident but I've never seen that confirmed.

[Sogrinaugh]

oooh, ok so this was recent dirt.  I hadn't heard a peep outta GF since d2/d2x era.  He was always an unprofessional ass, though i give him credit for the work he did on the official d2 webpage (incredible really, i've never seen anything of the like before or since).

I find the lack of professionalism good and bad for blizzard.  In my heart of hearts, i simply dont believe that the typical "professional" can make something really fun.  Gamers, in general, are left-of-center.  Square pegs.  If you wear a tie when you go to work (and dont mind it), speak in a politically correct manner out of habit rather then because its forced, can you really tap into the mental wavelength of the people for whom you are making the game?  Not saying you gotta be an asshole to be a good dev... but i dunno maybe im not making any sense, so i'll stop.

[HaemishM]

I'm absolutely flabbergasted. How the fuck do you have someone working for you, much less someone with the power to transfer an entire fucking guild of people, and yet this person doesn't know how to deal with harrassment correctly? WHAT... THE... FUCK?

A guild is getting harrassed? YOU BAN THE FUCKING HARRASSERS. END OF PROBLEM. You don't use the opportunity to test "complex character transfer procedures." You sure don't move an assload of equipped level 60's onto a relatively new server. I mean, why the fuck couldn't the harrassers be banned and everyone move on? This is just mindnumbingly stupid, especially considering the jacktardery that a majority of the vocal WoW user base displays on their forums on a daily basis. That is either a spectacular failure in management explaining the principles and procedures of CS, or one lone idiot being given more access to tools than he should have.

But yeah, it really is a tempest in a teapot.

[Jayce]

or one lone idiot being given more access to tools than he should have.

I think it's that one.

I can see what he was trying to do, but I mean - what if it had failed?  You test that stuff on test servers, not on real servers in response to a live CS issue.

[Righ]

I wish I had the confidence that it were some numbskull with too much power, and not an endemic issue at Blizzard. However, simply by tracking the regular population of a small group such as Earthen Ring Horde it is clear that repeat farmers, griefers and exploiters tend to be renamed rather than banned if enough complaints are made against them. The excuse that it was done as a test of the realm transfer code is also a transparent lie.

[jpark]

Overall I am happy with the outcome.

This is my server.  Of course alliance outnumbers Horde and the only thing not killed in TM so far is the bat rider.  Moving an alliance guild of level 60's to our server in the context of this was not well received.

[Sky]

There's a bat handler in TM?

[WayAbvPar]

He is the guy near the gallows standing in bones up to his nipples. You can't miss him.

[Yegolev]

and yet this person doesn't know how to deal with harrassment correctly? WHAT... THE... FUCK?

They knew.  Come on.  Favoritism, stupidity, no matter... follow policy and let management take the heat.  I knowingly violate policy at times and sometimes I get called on it.  I just have to fight my anti-authority nature and follow procedure.

Not banning the harassERs, though?  Asinine, policy or not.

[Yegolev]

There's a bat handler in TM?

There was one before 1.4 patch.

[Slayerik]

I think it was a joke, as in horde are always so overrun there. $

[Yegolev]

I think it was a joke, as in horde are always so overrun there. $

Very astute, young ward.  I was making teh funneh.