The Martin Fury Controversy, a month later: What would you do?
We get to ask the question, “What would Jesus do?”, when it comes to making life-altering decisions. But in this case, the more appropriate question is this: “What would Karatechop do?”
It’s been around more than a month now since the scandal (not THAT scandal) that shook up the world… of Warcraft to its very core, that being the Martin Fury Controversy. Those who already know of this situation, good for you. For those who haven’t heard of the item that shook Blizzard from left to right, here’s what is known so far:
According to Karatechop of the Vek’nilash server, leader of “The Marvel Family” guild, he received an item called “Martin Fury” (aka the “I.W.I.N” button) via a fellow guildie who’s been suffering problems in lieu of his account being hacked, thus having his characters and the guild bank ransacked. This hacking problem prior to Martin Fury took place months ago. The guildie’s characters eventually got restored and got his items back, but one of the items sent to one of his low-level characters is the said shirt. The shirt was then given to Karatechop, and the rest was history.
The item was used 14 times, making difficult achievements easier to obtain for them, which speaks for itself. In summation, after a while, his account was banned and others were affected as well (ala collateral damage) all in relation to this controversial item.
This raises a ton of questions, especially in relation to company-customer relationships. After all, there are always many sides to every spectrum. Obviously, this entire situation, as per what we know at this point, is all a matter of circumstance. It can be said that it would never have happened had the matter been resolved sooner or that the item was never sent to begin with.
But then again, by all means, it can also be said that he should have informed the GM’s about it (although if he did, would he have been banned for mere possession of the item, putting Karatechop in a pinch either way? Who knows). Remember, the item sent was thought to be part of the Blizzard MO of compensating for hacked accounts, so it was a confusing time to say the least. And the use of the item was said to be for fun.
This is pretty similar to a person having found a briefcase full of cash. There’s so much power, but if there’s a means to return it to the rightful owner, is there a chance for that person to actually return it?
I’m hoping to make an official poll on this in the future, but what do you think? Is it fair for Blizzard to ban If you were in a position that Karatechop was in, regardless of what online game you’re playing, would you have taken the initiative to make an effort and return the item by all means, or would you have taken advantage of the situation? Or if you’re not going to choose either option, then what would you have done instead?
Courtesy: http://www.wow.com (picture from http://www.wowhead.com)
