The Light and How to Swing It: May 2008

So, I mentioned the Kevlar Lined Walls of Blizzard in my last post. As I may or may not have written about, I toured Blizzard headquarters back in the old building somewhere around 2005-6ish. My tour guide was the Chief Operating Officer, Paul Sams, who showed me around the whole joint. Before our trip started however, I met him in his office, which was adorned with things that anyone as into WoW as I am, would fall head over heels for. All the collectibles you can imagine, WoW Coke Cans from China, figurines, miniatures, everything! A side point, every 5 years with the company, the employees get a token, like a metal sword, or shield or something like that.

Anywho, before we started our tour, Mr. Sams told me a story about how they made a change to the game at one point, that made so many people mad, a mob of people came to the building with guns and started shooting at the walls. After that, they decided to get each outside wall reinforced with kevlar, to prevent anything like that from occuring again.

Anyway, it's late, and this entire post probably contains terrible sentence structure as I'm sure I'll find out in the morning.

You've been Hathorned.

As you all know, I used to be in Aetherial Circle, and during my time there I got to know a lot of people, some more than others. One of the people I did not get to spend a lot of time getting to know was Lamaa, and even though I did not know him all that well, I knew about him, and what a great person he was.

While this opening paragraph sounds mighty grim, like my post about "teh Moo," it is about something entirely different.

As I was reading Temerity-Jane today I read her story about Lamaa getting banned for supposedly using Glider, you can see his personal story here:

***Notice of Account Closure***

Access to the World of Warcraft account, ********, and any World of Warcraft account associated with the payment information you have provided, has been permanently disabled. The account has been identified as having used unauthorized game modifications and thus is in violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. The recurring subscription on the account has been disabled to prevent further charges.

Please review the World of Warcraft Terms of Use at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html, which you accepted when you installed World of Warcraft and established the account(s). Section 4, Paragraphs A and B detail the limitations of game play modifications and use of any third-party or packet sniffing software.

Furthermore, any activities not intended by game design which affect the economy, the client, player characters or the world itself have a tremendous negative impact on the potential enjoyment for all players. The effects of these activities take many forms including a bloated game economy, server instability, and allowing unauthorized access to accounts, computers, and player data.

As a result, the account(s) will no longer be accessible and will unfortunately not be reopened under any circumstances.

Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter and respecting our position and all statutes within the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

Regards,

Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
www.WorldOfWarcraft.com

This was the message I received when I got home from work on Tuesday. I have replied to the email requesting for the reason for the closure and for further investigation, as I’m sure if they actually looked into the account and the characters they would realize their mistake. I let them know about my use of wine/linux and the logitech g15 keyboard

I did try to contact them via phone. The billing department is the only people who will talk to you and are absolutley useless to talk to, even concerning the 3 month subscription charge that was renewed the day my account was closed that is apparently non-refundable.

I really don’t know what else I can do. I’m frustrated and a little sick to my stomach over it. It’s not like I have a whole lot in life to look forward to right now and it really feels like they are ripping away the past couple years of memories and experiences with the friends I’ve made in game.

Though they can’t really take that away despite everything; the friendships I’ve made here with you guys will endure even this.

It just may be awhile before we play together again Smile

Thank you all for your support! <3

On a side note, I made a trial account and got spammed with 4 gold selling/powerleveling advertisments as soon as I logged on to the character. GG bliz, way to get the bad guys!

As TJ said, you guys probably don't know him, but if you know of anyway of getting past the Kevlar lined walls (yes, this is a true fact, more on that later) of Blizzard, please let me know, and I'll try and get in contact with someone who can get in contact with Lamaa directly.

You've been Hathorned.