Ninja | Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog

Posts Tagged 'Ninja'

Pay attention to the signs

Published September 11, 2010 World Of Warcraft 6 Comments
Tags: Ninja, raid

We all hate people who give up easily.

The person who leaves after one wipe, or at the first sign of trouble that sort of thing.

Well you need to add up some things before you judge them so harshly. Because at least 3 people managed to escape the drama that enfolded by making a judgment call and leaving when their tolerance for bullcrap was reached.

6/12 ICC was going, which was perfect for my healing priest who isn’t doing much at the moment, so even though the Raid Leader was guild-less, it was still kind of low risk, it was only 6/12 so expectations weren’t high, killing 1st 4 is easy and my tolerance was going to be determined by how bad a wipe on Marrow/Marrow trash . If we did that I would evaluate the situation, and see if it was worth continuing. That was my tolerance. I wasn’t going to be saved – and I would have only had my time wasted.

So, someone pulls while we are still forming, people die, – and we lose a tank because I guess their tolerance was a little lower than mine.

We get in, the lazy people summoned, and find that someone has turned off the buff – we all leave instance – walk into the arms of horde outside the instance – wipe at the entrance, and we lose another person from the raid because their tolerance was reached.

Its getting kind of clear by now what sort of group this is – I’m still not saved so no skin off my teeth yet.

Rogues don’t disarm trap 1 – we get a skelly with adds, its ok we are fine

Rogues still don’t disarm traps, and we get 3 skellys at once. Its ok we get 2 down before we wipe. We lose another person – guess they had a 3 strikes your out kinda thing going.

Marrow dies ok, Tank had add issues on Lady, H Gunship is all good, and then! GUESS WHAT HAPPENS ON SUARFANG

Besides stupid people, and silly tanks Aoeing adds, and us getting 3 marks and awesome healers such as myself were keeping everyone up.

Raid leader Ninj’as DeathBringers Will after looting a mark of sanc to his friend Champo ( who Dc’s straight after)

Of course I should have expected this – so Gargran of no guild from Blackrock, who will probably faction change or name change or whatever anyway. You suck.

I mean I don’t care about DBW – not like I can use it, but you’re an affront to fairness and all that stuff. As for his friend Champo – can’t prove he was or wasn’t in on it. But he certainly benefited from it.

I report him and Champo, add them both to my ignore list, tell the raid to do the same – Whisper the Ninja that he has been reported, and then some brave soul says! Hey lets continue! – and after some mumbling we go sure. We are saved anyway. Assists are given out. Some people leave then anyway.

When suddenly the Ninjas is invited back and the new leader tells us to summon

Huh?

Well considering his friend was a lock, and is no longer in raid its a bit hard.

At this point I decided my tolerance has been reached, and I tell the raid, well if your willing to invite the ninja back attack of conscious or not ( how many ninja’s change their mind.. really.. my guess was he only accepted the invite to play further games. I mean come on, This guy planed a whole raid around getting his DBW ) I told them I was no longer interested in being in the raid, and left.

Oh Look! Both him and Champo seem to be ex members of Cherry Sauce – there’s some collaboration for you.

Sat in trade for a little while longer watching various people advising trade of the ninja, so our ninja that was invited back doesn’t seem to have stayed in raid, and I feel a little sorry for the poor person who tried to keep the raid going by recruiting in trade with a RL Ninja logged.. looking for more! message.

So looking back you could see several signs where this wasn’t going to end well, and also why people don’t do pugs, only so much crap you can tolerate before saying this game is no longer fun.

Can a Ninja Change their Ways?

Published July 23, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG 24 Comments
Tags: Ninja, WOW

There was a thread on our Realm forums from someone running a Lotto recently ( seems to be gone now – possibly removed) when the person who was running it was accused of being a Ninja in the past – they responded with a ” But I have changed my ways”

I’ve seen the ease in which Known ninjas name change, switch factions, change servers, come back and do it all over again.

I’ve seen known ninja’s and scammers boasting on other accounts about their bans.

It is frustrating the injustice of it all.

It’s quite clear that if you are busted you will be punished by Blizzard – but we never find out what would get you a permanent account /membership ban – and that is the only punishment I could see ever having a sustained effect on a player. 24 hours. No sweat. Account stripped. They probably have gold on another account, or sitting with a friend – stripped down to boxers – they scam/ninja/ behave badly to get the gear they need again.

I pose that Ninja’s and scammers know they will get busted – and live with the consequences because where the stripping of the account, and anything they earned may take away the virtual benefit of such deception. It doesn’t take away the thrill they got when they scammed/ninja’d from 24 other people.

You can’t take that away.

Ever done something naughty? How did you feel? Remember that feeling?

Arsonists usually hang around after a fire to get their ‘high’ afterwards. A ninja/scammer will sit in trade and watch, and listen and often chime in – It’s not the depriving you of the goods that gives them the thrill, it’s the aftermath. The trade chat, the forum posts.

We feed it.

We feed it partly as defence mechanisms – most people want to avoid pain and stress where possible. So we talk – Some people try to warn others in trade, on forums – people share experiences. I went through my realm ignore list with a friend one time – jogging each others memories as to why they ended up on the list. ( some people are more memorable than others)

Touching wood – but I’ve never been ninja’d – yet I know of people who have had it done to them 2 weeks in a row. So far my cautious picky approach seems to work. If in doubt – don’t join.

So my theory – that they are getting their kicks from the actual scam /fraud/ninja – and not the actual benefit from the virtual goods has plenty of holes in it, but I guess the thinking that they get some form of pleasure out of this explains why they are repeat offenders. Why they go to such lengths, server transfers, faction changes, name changes so they can start fresh and do it all over again.

How do you change someones behaviour when they derive pleasure, or a thrill from it? Send them on team bonding sessions? Get victims to make ” I feel this statements?”

I don’t know what the answer is. But Blizzards punishments isn’t changing behaviour or reforming them.

Raid Safe List

Published June 16, 2010 Gaming , Guild , MMORPG , raid , World Of Warcraft 10 Comments
Tags: Guild, Ninja, raid

Matryoshka Nesting Ninjas Via Thinkgeek.com

Blackrock has its own Raid Safe list, with names, and screenshots of known ninjas at Straferight.com

“The people in this list are proven to steal or scam players out of items. Grouping, trading or any other type of interaction with them may result in being scammed. “

It’s a blacklist of sorts with guilds, and players, of known ninja’s – with a strict rule of – must have screenshot evidence. It seems mainly aimed at Horde Side, because it seems to be more of a problem on that side of the fence, but there are a few Alliance in there as well . I can’t find however, the names of at least two people I was aware were confirmed ninja’s alliance side recently.

List is here and is 121 pages long to date of names, screenshots, posts,

It’s moderated, and as the moderators says

” I have removed many people from the list. I update and research it often. Shit happens and sometimes people get shit mixed up. I am a realist.”

and as for its accuracy – and should you rely on the information?

“I know the time and effort it takes to keep a list accurate…… it is up to you to trust the link and to trust the content”

It’s quite a collection -a history of people who really do go out of their way to make things ‘unfair’ Keyword though is Scam. They have scammed other players, and that is what Blizzard does not like.

How useful is the information?

While using my google fu, I found someone who app’d to a Alliance guild and the first response from the guild was the link to the post at straferight which included multiple screenshots of that person ninjaing something. He was not accepted to that guild.

I also found reading back through the thread someone who was implicated as being a ninja or being stupid for rolling on an item because the poster didn’t think it was an upgrade. The accused/implicated had to defend themselves for gear choices, and his explanation seems reasonable – maybe this is the type of post that gets moderated eventually, especially when the posters link to image is broken.

It seems to be the most comprehensively organised list available. It’s not defamation if it’s true, and for the most – the cases put forwarded are backed by screenshots. Some realm forums try and keep a list, but most end up degrading into mush.

I could keep a separate list of people I have pugged with / raided with that have annoyed me and publish them here – they would become googleable. My posts get google indexed, and I have a google rank of sorts – so if I named someone, and you google the right words, in theory you will find them here, which I why I do not want to post such things here It’s one persons experience – mine- even if they are true, , and unless someone is moderating me and they have the opportunity to share their side. It wouldn’t seem fair.

*Disclaimer*I did name one person in an incident – and included screenshots which showed me telling him to read the blog – never heard from him, but he continued to be bad for other reasons, and got called out on the realm forums, so that google rank beats mine hands down. Still it was bad of me.

I’ve been in some pugs that have made me angry – frustrated, but honestly without a permanent record of those I feel have ‘wronged’ me in some way I’m going to forget your name in 2 weeks, maybe 3 and I want to keep it that way.

I don’t want to feel obligated to check a list, be it mine, or somewhere on the web incase they are a bad. It would destroy the game a little for me each time I did. I’ve never been ninja’d. ( Touch wood) – but the choices I have made that turned out to be no so-good choices, had signs that it wasn’t going to end well – but I went on the raid anyway. Weigh up the rewards v risk. Set your standards, and for the sake of your stress levels. Keep them.

One thing I will offer advise on is, read trade chat – people who ninja get talked about. People who are idiots often trade spam stupid things. Think upon it as your local gossip rag. It’s good to keep your ear to the ground.

I think a ninja list can be a dangerous thing – and I know by posting this – opening it up to discussion I am bringing it more attention. I do think though it has it’s uses, as long as it’s moderated by people who do not have bias and the blackrock list seems to be done fairly.

If the behaviour – personality of a player is as easily discovered by a google search, or a report, I am sure guilds would love to do that for all their apps. I wrote a post some time ago “ How to use Warcraft Realms to investigate a Guild application” as an example of armory crawlers that are already out there.

Even now, any guild forum indexed by google becomes a potential information source on players. It’s amazing how easy it is to find guild applications, forum posts by, and to by any player name. A raid safe list just makes it easier.

Herb a Ninja.. there a Ninja..

Published July 7, 2008 World Of Warcraft 3 Comments
Tags: Herbing, Ninja

And tonight ladies and gentlemen we have the race that you have all been waiting for… lets see who can Farm.. Ur Hrm.. Ninja the most herbs out from under people in 1 hour!

The price of Herbs have gone ballistic on the AH – Netherbloom 80G, Nightmarevine, also around 70-80 G and the things that use them, and other herbs EG like Mana pots on my sever are going for 30G for 5 ( so my Alt who had 50 odd mana pots stored in the bank has been trying to even out the economy by offering them a much more resonable price, and ensureing almost an instant buyout. ) Super Health Pots are as rare as hens teeth, and the Luxury of all those other fandangled potions and elixors that you take for granted have inflated. Fel Lotus from 48 G onwards… This is the current market

Is the true effect of the of the the War on Botters on the AH now comming to light, as guild stores and individuals who have been saving Mats and Pots in their banks supplys start drying up – add into the whole Gold Oversupply issue blah blah.. Old AH Econonmy ect ect…

So given that 1 piece of Terocone now goes for around 4-6 Gold its no wonder that people are forgetting their manners while collecting herbs, My Alt Mage Herbie and Alch while wandering around doing her quests, spies a Yellow dot on the map, and gleefully skips over to it thinking, that will make a nice Pot to sent to my Sugar Mama,

Senario 1 – Sees a nearby Mob – decides to take care of that incase as its path will probably cause agro, and starts to kill it, as a Druid in flight form swoops down and takes the Herb…

Zophina ( my mage ) Shakes her fist into the Dark skies cursing such rudeness.

Senario 2 – Zophina is standing on top of herb, about to click and a tag team herbal crew dismount ontop and click faster then she can.

Yes, its her fault for not being quick enough. So the Lesson learnt is – The Rules are There are no rules. You spy a herb, no dillydallying.. you jump on it right away. If there is a mob in your way Sheep it and Herb and then kill Mob.

I can’t help it, I’m too polite, I will always ask if In doubt as to if its been claimed or not. Even abandoned, looted Boglords, If they aren’t leaving a huge trail behind them I’ll ask, you don’t get too many herbs off them but the ones from the spawning Glen will have Terocone, and Ancient Lichen more often then the ones in the Mire, and motes of life drop rate are better,

I have found though, that its the miners who are more politer, they fly down, and if your near a node will ask, “Do you mine?” whereas the herbalists will just herb away….