New Layout!/Honesty Is the Best Policy

I decided to de-pink things a little, and found this template which I modified a bit. I am not really an HTML expert so after a while of fiddling with things to try and change that bright assed background color I finally just said screw it and changed to this setup. Hope you like it. :)

Also, I got myself on to the Blogroll at http://blogwarhammer.net now that I have a few posts up. Hopefully this will get some people reading and commenting on some of my mindless rants.

So tonight is Lost Vale again. Last night was some oRvR, then we wound up recruiting a new Chosen and I helped him squeak out the last bit of XP he needed till 40. Only took about an hour and a half and we now have another R40 tank. A healer or two and we should be set. :D

Anyone out there on Iron Rock server looking for a semi-hardcore guild that knows how to toss the heals around? (Actually, come to think of it, a little ranged DPS wouldn't hurt either...). Drop Vinda a line. ;)

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So there has been a huge explosion of drama on Iron Rock lately regarding banner buff stacking and pulling Fortress Lords into places where they don't belong. People have pretty much gone on a report-fest, putting in CSR tickets and turning in anyone they see with stacked buffs... and I'm seeing a number of problems with this.

1. Mythic needs to fix this, plain and simple. Certain claimed keeps are stacking the buffs, and the cheaters know which ones they are. Until they fix this, the people who intentionally exploit and cheat will continue to exploit and cheat.

2. People who are not intending to cheat can get the stacked buffs by accident if they chase the opposing faction around an active RvR area for long enough. Go in and out of the Keep area enough times and you're going to get the buffs stacked on you whether you like it or not.

3. There are mods in use that hide the little buff icons for players, defensive targets and red targets. This means that if someone is using one of these mods, they won't know they have the buffs on them and could find themselves with a suspension or a ban for not having intentionally done anything at all. One of the mods is called Phantom, and I myself use it. I could see being pretty pissed off if I wound up with a ban for having buffs I didn't even know I had.

4. People are going report-crazy. Order is mass reporting any Destro players they see with the buffs and vice versa. Bans and suspensions are flying around like mad. Now I refuse to believe that the majority of people on either side either a) intend to cheat or b) even know about the bug in the first place (given the relatively small number of people who actually read WHA). Therefore, these "Buff Police" aren't hurting anyone but themselves in the long run. First off, reporting every random person you see with the buffs doesn't mean you're "catching the bad guys", it just means that you're more than likely getting a guy banned who probably had no idea he was doing anything wrong. Second, if this keeps up and ban after ban is issued, who is going to be left to oRvR? As it stands right now, I refuse to participate in any Fortress attempts because quite frankly I'm afraid someone on my side will exploit or cheat again and I'll find my name plastered all over WHA as having associated with them or taken advantage of some exploit. No thank you very much.

My idea (which I have stated on WHA and was told I was "glossing over" cheating somehow) is to report the zone/keep in your CSR report instead of the player. Personally, I'm not looking to get Joe Schmoe from Idaho who plays for an hour after working on the potato farm all day a big fat ban for having buffs he was unaware of. I look at this method as a way of letting Mythic know (repetitively and persistently) that this bug needs a fix NOW without the server becoming underpop because people are getting ban-happy.

The other problem is people are now doing this purely out of spite. They got caught cheating, so now they're ban-happy, or they're lumping all of one Realm into the same mold as the small minority of cheaters and bitter about the actual intentional cheating that DID go on and now theyre looking at themselves like they're some sort of defenders of all that is just and righteous.

I'm no hippy, but I tend to think of a certain quote:

"An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind." - Mahatma Ghandi