Monday, May 11, 2009

Stealing

Imagine for a moment that you get recruited to a Naxx 25 PUG. All is going well, but the raid leader is acting a bit fishy. He doesn't talk much in Vent and on occasion he leaves the channel and goes to another private channel with another person in the raid. You get to Kel'Thuzad, one shot him and get to the loot. Your dream weapon drops and the raid leader doesn't start linking loot for rolls. He just takes everything, hearths and is gone.

Some call it "loot ninja". I call it stealing. Even though it's nothing material, stealing is stealing. I know of several guild members who PUG regularly and all of them have had gear stolen by the raid leader/loot master. It says a lot about our online society that it happens so much. Is it that it’s so easy and there are absolutely NO consequences for stealing that it happens so much? Or are these same people the ones who walk into a convenience store and slip a candy bar into their pocket? I don’t think there’s any way to tell, but it’s a sad state of affairs either way.

So, what can we do to prevent this behavior in the future? Well, for one, don’t PUG with a raid leader that you don’t trust. I know there are plenty of players out there that have to PUG for one reason or another. Keep a list of the good players you’ve raided with. Another thing you could do is PUG with guilds that have a good reputation. Lastly, take control of the situation and start your own PUG by recruiting players that you know and trust.

It would be great if there was a way customer service could help with stealing. One idea I heard from a former guild mate would be if raiders could put in a group trouble ticket that a CS rep could use as evidence against the thief. It would go a long way towards ending the behavior. Until Blizzard makes a policy on it, then there’s not much we can do about it other than what I’ve mentioned above.

5 comments:

  1. Nothing puts me over the edge more than Ninja looters. Your are right about the lack of consequences placed on this deed. The only thing you can do is to spread the word of their ninja so hopefully others won't raid with them but that doesn't take from the fact you spent 3 hours in Naxx to get that weapon and have it stolen as you properly put it.

    It absolutely disgusts me that people are so disrespectful and I think the lack of consequences simply encourages people to do it.

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  2. Millie - Everyone's Favorite Shammy:)May 12, 2009 at 1:43 PM

    Cathy, I couldn't have said it better myself. Ninjas make me sick. It's pretty awful when not only is crime rampant in the REAL world but then it happens frequently in a freaking fantasty world. What is wrong with people? There is really nothing I can say other than the fact that there are just massive amounts of a-holes out there. To the a-holes; it's all good...I believe in Karma and you're eventually going to get what you deserve. To the good folks; don't get discouraged. Have faith, follow some of Rorik's tips and you'll be just fine. Eventually the evil-doers will get their come-uppins and maybe just maybe you'll have the fortune of seeing karma in action:)

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  3. This happened yesterday to one of our guildies. They get to KT and after several attempts they down him. The master looter moves to another vent room with 2 of his people then the loot is given to his guildies.

    I was just so angry when I heard about this. All that time invested by folks to have this happen. The guild they are from has a strange name and I think they will probably re-form their guild and/or change their toon names to continue this nonsense.

    The MT is the GM for their guild. Nice example ..UGH

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  4. You know what would go far for this? A player ranking system. Sure it could be abused, but if it worked like ebay where you can put in comments? And have the commenters rank show up? Ie, i'm a vet, i have 1000 points all positive. Some twerp doesn't like me and leaves a negative comment. However, they only have 10 points. So people can see and judge for themselves. Would be easy to impliment (maybe), but likely not going to happen.

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  5. A rep/ranking system could work. It would certainly be better than the status quo of absolutely no recourse against the thief.

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