srsbusiness

If you read this regularly, then you probably know I was at one time a dual-boxer. It’s a hobby within a hobby that I thoroughly enjoyed, but set aside once I took on the mantle of my progression guild’s Main Tank. You are also probably aware that recently I decided to dust off my neglected second account for a little fun, it’s time for an update…

Welcome to Thunderdome, Bitches…
It’s obvious (to me anyway) that I really enjoy playing an Elemental Shaman, so much so in fact that I’ve decided to give my new alt his own category here on the blog. Ergo, welcome to Thunderdome (bitches). Because I can’t say welcome to Thunderdome without qualifying it with the addendum, bitches.

What’s New With Ghroth?

Logging on the Shaman in general takes on an air of serendipity; when I play him, good things happen. Initially, there’s the most obvious perk: no whispers asking me to come tank an instance I was already saved to on Tuesday. I get whispered on Khaas, literally as late as Monday night asking me if I’ll tank ICC 25 or 10, and not always from random people… sometimes these people really should know better. At the same time, I tend to get less questions, etc from guild mates. It still happens, but in general my responsibility level (and therefore stress level) seems to slacken noticeably.

Now, all of this is not to say that I don’t like to play Khaas anymore or anything, far from it. But I’m at a point where I’ve got the same gear I’ve had for months. I’m not really making any progress on my Shadowmourne quest. Same for the Insane title. And the gold, well that I’m doing with alts and I find the less I dip my hands in the pot to try to make money, the better off I am. In essence, with no immediate goals for the Death Knight and the general day to day stresses involved with logging him on, it’s nice to have an alt I can log onto… you know, when I just want to “play”.

Now, recently I’ve been paying more and more attention to this character, getting his gear up and having fun. But a few nights ago, while running 25 toc I hit a snag. The group I was with had rocked 10m toc, but apparently in our haste to get warm bodies in the 25, we forgot to add a third tank. Now, I know what you’re saying… “But wait, can’t Face on Fire do Anub 25 with only 2 tanks?” yes, I’m quite sure any two of our guild’s tanks could accomplish the task. However, this was a pug. A couple of failed attempts later, and it was obvious we had a problem.

Both tanks (A warrior and druid) were undergeared, which was fine in 10 man. But, in 25 with only those 2… it didn’t work out so well. I’m just glad I wasn’t healing that fight. Anyhow, I said over vent after a couple of people left, “I can just log my tank on and box it.” after a moment of stunned silence “Wait, you can box it? With your Shaman and tank? How geared is your tank?” I logged on Khaas and used my tabard (damn is that thing handy) and we were off.

Now, I should say that this would have been a lot easier had I been planning to box these two together. Well, I WAS planning to box them together, but really not until I got some better gear and refined my methods a little bit. I didn’t have any boxing macros set up, or AddOns. Hell, I didn’t even have my KVM software setup. So, I had to do it the old fashioned way: a laptop and a desktop keyboard, with a hand on each. We won, and it was great. I got the kind of feedback over Vent boxers don’t normally get from fellow players. And though it was stressful it was still fun. And though it was stressful, it was indeed a different species of stress entirely from what I normally deal with. All in all, despite not getting any loot I had a lot of fun.

Cross Faction Arbitrage

A while back I created Saahk (Khaas backwards, clever yes?) as an Alliance DK to join up with friends in Draconic Savant and see what kinda hoodoo I could put on the Alliance AH. It worked (to a point) the major thing was getting Pristine Black Diamonds for my Insane title, I found several of the beauties for cheap. How cheap? Try a whole 0 off of the horde price (200g on Horde, 20g on Alliance). Likewise, you may recall that I recently talked about a major dip in herb prices. Notably, the drop from 40g per stack of Lichbloom to 8 and 9g per stack. Well, a portion of those bought were transferred to the little alliance DK and sold at a minimum 300% profit, some as much as 500%.

Unfortunately, earlier this week I decided to transfer the gold from the alliance side back to the Horde, the transaction apparently set an alarm off at Blizzard and I was hit with yet another 3 day suspension (it was lifted before then). The damage was done however, it meant I couldn’t tank ICC 25 this Tuesday. So, I went on Ghroth instead… Which was a fun change, I assure you. So, sickened by the whole scene, I took my remaining goods on the alliance side and deposited them in the DS guild bank, then proceeded to delete my alliance DK. This has marked the end of my cross faction trading. So, with free time on my hands I looked elsewhere…

Battered Hilt Farming

Yep, I’ve learned that on Khaas I’m quite capable of soloing trash in Pit of Saron, it’s actually not terribly hard in the first place. I’m just going with my normal tanking gear/spec. It takes a little bit of time to kill these guys, just because I’m not doing hellacious damage to them. But they die, and they have a chance of dropping the Hilt. To date, I haven’t really spent a lot of time on this, nor have I actually gotten a Hilt yet. But, now that my Shaman is going strong I imagine I’ll start dual boxing this farm spot to make it go quicker. And I imagine I can probably duo the bosses, or at the very least one or two of them.

The Rest
I’ve been making huge strides on the Shaman, in one Ulduar 10 run I managed to get every hard mode achievement except Flame Leviathan and Kologarn, that’s right I got all of the hard ones… and missed two of the easiest ones. I will get them down though, I’m not the least bit concerned on that front. My gear on the Shaman is likewise getting better and better, I’m at the point of stacking the Haste to the ceiling. But what about Khaas?

Well, I realized that I’m at a point where I need my Bracers off of Marrowgar, and I need to get my T10 Helm to replace the Broken Ram Skull Helm that I have now. Then of course the trinket off of Sindragosa, and finish Shadowmourne. After that… I feel like I’ve beaten the expansion.

And it’s a weird feeling…

No seriously, completing Shadowmourne is going to be the culmination of all I’ve done over the past year… Of course, as I told a guild mate who asked recently, “close is relative where legendaries are concerned”. I still have to get the Blood infusion done, though we’ve killed BQ several times now. And then, we’ve got to push past that last few % on Sindragosa. After that it’s really just going through the motions in 25 man and waiting on Shards to drop. It’s funny, because my gear hasn’t really changed over the past couple of months. I got a lot of stuff pretty quickly in ICC, and then kinda hit a wall.

In a way, it’s somewhat anti climactic, because now there’s not really a lot to get excited about. When we do kill LK, it’s going to be great to have seen him die. But more and more lately, I’m feeling the coming of the end of Wrath. The Ruby Sanctum will hopefully stave off burnout for a while, and of course I have my projects (my shaman, my gold making, etc). But in the end, it all comes down to this: the expansion is as dead as disco and flared jeans. I’m looking forward to Cata, and I’m hopefully I’ll get into the Beta this time around.

Anyhow, so as not to end this on a completely morose note, I would like to take a moment to address some awesome…

A couple of friends recently transferred to the Scalp, Kauzmo (AKA Cosmo D) of GTFOOTF made the leap and he brought a friend: Maryssa (AKA Razer). So far, the Auction House remains intact. I’ve only gotten to run a few instances with these guys so far, but I’m glad they came over. So, officially… welcome you two.

So, with that I leave you at least no lower than I found you.

Good night sweet prince, may a flock of seagulls carry you to your rest.

P.S. Frostvein. I <3 U. And you feel me. That is all.

In July 1908 Henry Ford, Charles E. Sorensen and others at the Ford Motor Co. were hard at work, the moving assembly line and the Model T were the result of their efforts. Both of which revolutionized industry in America, and indeed the world. Prior to this, cars were toys of the rich. The Model T and the moving assembly line changed that, mass production was now possible. Along with other innovations, costs were kept low. And by mass producing a set of identical parts, repair of the vehicles became easier. This revolution meant that 15,000,000 Model Ts were produced (and sold) in the coming years. An empire was created on these ideas, a legacy that exists today. And a valuable lesson for those looking to make their mark on wow’s economy…

The Beginning: The Terracotta Army (circa 215 BC)
Ford didn’t create the moving assembly line out of thin air, instead there were several sources of inspiration. Various innovations in the end, were compiled by Ford making a streamlined industrial assembly line, and though the Terracotta Army was not discoverd until the 70s, it provides the earliest notable example of the assembly line. The Terracotta Army (roughly 8000 clay soldiers) of The first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi was commissioned to be buried with the emperor at the time of his death. Each soldier was manufactured piece by piece and assembled (one would assume) inside the tomb. Individual pieces were signed by the respective creators, to ensure quality control (a tradition that persists today).

In WoW the assembly line works along the same rudimentary lines of the the Terracotta Army’s production. Raw materials are gathered, processed into serviceable parts and then assembled info the final product. For me, mass production means my own personal army of alts spanning two accounts. There are definite pros and cons to this method, but it does perform and is pretty stable once you’re up and running.

Overview of the System
This wow assembly relies heavily on the synergy between two professions: Alchemy and Jewelcrafting. My army of alts is comprised of Alchemists, all but two are Transmutation Masters, the remaining two are Elixir Mastery and Potion Mastery respectively. Using my main account as an example I have 10 characters. One being my main, who has Enchanting/Jewelcrafting. This is the character with the epic cuts. I also have a farmer, my rogue Cicatriz who is both Herbalism and Mining. The remaining 8 are Alchemists. My Paladin makes potions (Runic Healing Potion, Runic Mana Potion, and Potion of Speed primarilly) and my Priest who is Elixir’s makes flasks. This maximizes my potential when making either, while still allowing me to do a single gem transmute per day from each.

Altaholic proves to be an invaluable tool for organizing production.

The real stars here are the gems themselves, and that’s where the other six alchemists come in. With Transmutation Mastery each day I have a roughly 20% chance per transmute to produce 1-4 extra gems. Each bonus gem is pure profit, and with the amount of Transmute Alchemists I have I’m likely to get at least one extra gem per day. Note however, that I said “likely” it’s just as likely to get zero procs as it is to get six in one day. The important thing to remember is that production is fast, in a matter of minutes I’ll have approximately ten epic gems. On average I can sell the gems at about 150g each (uncut) which puts me at 1500g from the gems. After cutting the gems however (another quick process) I add an average of 30g to the value of each gem, bringing the total to 1800g for about 10-15 minutes worth of effort.

So, the real beauty here is that for minimal effort/time you can generate a large amount of gold that is reliable and relatively stable, each day. Prices may change, but the lion’s share of the gold made in this method is profit anyway, so it’s not that big of a deal. Additionally, with this method you don’t have to worry about competition (as much) as with other professions. You’re only sending out one or two of a particular cut at a time. So, your gems are likely to sell (assuming you do your homework and have the right cuts). When the Zamboni Method which I talked about in a previous post “War(craft) is Hell” is employed in conjunction with this method can create HUGE dividends. But at the cost of making yourself a target for any other big fish already entrenched in the market.

The Problem With this Method
There are a few major concerns with this system, first is the same problem that any gold making strategy has: focus on it too much and you’re really risking everything. Putting all of your eggs in one basket is never really a good idea, which is precisely why I have worked so hard at cultivating other markets and professions. If the bottom falls out of the assembly line, I can still manage. But again, this is something you need to think about with ANY market or gold making strategy.

Secondly, start up costs. Building this little army did not come cheap (in terms of labor), remember the first time you leveled to sixty? Now add twenty more levels and multiply that by ten (or twenty as I’m now working on account two in earnest). Add in professions and you get very real, liquid costs. If you power level as I did from 1-450 you’re looking at a high amount of gold spent in a short amount of time. Over the course of a week I leveled Alchemy x4, Tailoring, and Leatherworking each from 1-450… The price can be deferred by using your own farmer, and maybe some wheeling and dealing. But, it’s hard to argue past these initial costs.

Finally, there’s the future concerns. How likely is this to continue to be a profitable system in Cataclysm and beyond? Judging from previous expansions, it’s likely to continue to be profitable. Vanilla had transmute Arcanite which was profitable, and I’m sure would’ve been profitable on a similar scale to what I’m doing now. And BC introduced even more with the Transmute Mastery and the introduction of Primals, especially Primal Might which even now still sells for a pretty penny. Jewelcrafting is going to continue to cut gems at a profit, so in the end I think it’s a reasonably safe bet. If I didn’t, I would’ve have invested as heavily as I have into it.

Another redress for these concerns is this: by the time Cataclysm gets here I will have moved past my initial costs (even on the second account). The start up capital necessary is just that: start up. It’s a one time fee, to get the skill up to 450, and to get the character leveled to 68 or higher. Since I’m leveling these all to 80 I should have no problem getting the new skill cap with these alts (525 I believe) which as getting from 375 to 450 now proves to be much cheaper than earlier levels of skill. So, in the end it’s a risk but a highly calculated one that should pay out massively in the end. And even knowing that, I’m still hedging my bets. I’ve got the other professions to fall back on, to prop me up for those inevitable times where (if like Wrath) there are no Epic gems available for a time, and I’m trying to make some money in the interim. I will likely be doing transmutes of the “new” Primal then, to make the “new” Darkmoon Decks, or whatever else is hot. I’ve designed my army so as to remain agile, I want to be able to change with the times as necessary. So that said, remember that this assembly line is merely one aspect of how I make my gold, and if you are going to do something like this yourself you should consider diversity yourself, to maximize earning potential and to provide safety in an ever changing economic environment. Thanks for reading.

The Bloodscalp Report
This week has been a mixed bag, the gems are selling great. Increasing production has increased my needed materials, which thus far hasn’t been a problem. I just keep my eyes peeled for deals (as usual) and buy up what I can, when I can. Unfortunately, all of the skilling up has taken it’s toll on my funds, I only cleared a profit of about 3K this week. Why? Restocking fees, and development fees. I leveled alchemy (four times over) as well as Leatherworking and Tailoring. Neither of these was cheap, I also finished off Engineering on my Elemental Shaman, Ghroth. With my recent suspension troubles I’m being much more conservative with my buying and shifting my interests to my second account (for security purposes). Likewise, I was suspended AGAIN this morning. I believe this was likely a result of my cross faction arbitrage, which was still in it’s infancy but had made me a couple K and found me a handful of cheap Pristine Black Diamonds for my Insane Title.

In light of this, I’ve decided to cease all cross faction trading entirely, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Sadly, I’m going to be deleting my alliance DK and filling the slot with another alchemist (A horde DK) which is likely to become my new AH alt.

As for the Bloodscalp market itself, it’s in flux atm. With the release of 3.3.3 a lot of things are in question, there’s speculation but little more than that until we get some time to see what happens. My guess is that Frozen Orbs are going to continue to rise in price, until about 30g (roughly) where they’ll meet with Frost Lotus. This may in fact raise the value of some Eternals (which I doubt), more likely the Eternals will stay in relatively the same price as they are now. And people just won’t use their Orbs for Eternals. That’s it for me this week, time to go wrestle with Blizzard’s account management team again, and hopefully get my account back before raid time.

Today we’re going to switch gears slightly, our topic is not directly related to making obscene amounts of gold, but it’s arguably just as important as the price of Cardinal Rubies. Remember, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you…

Protecting Your Investment
As many of you are probably already aware, I was suspended temporarily this week. Fortunately, I hadn’t done anything wrong and was able to resolve the issue with Blizzard without losing too much. But, it could have been much worse. Considering my recent misfortune, it’s understandable that I’m a little preoccupied with the issue of security. As such, today’s post won’t be about making gold, but about protecting the gold you have (and everything else on your account).

What Happened and Why Should I Care?
Tuesday night after our normal raids, I ran TOC with my Shaman. I picked up several upgrades and afterward decided to grab some gems and enchants for the stuff with my AH alt. When I loaded up the alt my spider sense was tingling, it was quite late and there were deals afoot. I’m always keeping at least one eye on trade chat whenever I’m in a major city and this night proved to be a major boon. I’ve been dealing primarily in Cardinal Ruby cuts lately, and someone was selling a large quantity of epic gems for cheap. I decided to pounce.

Initially, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The character’s name was Jinshao and was speaking in somewhat broken English. So, I wasn’t completely surprised when Jinshao offered me more than what I wanted to buy. There are certainly enough asian players on Bloodscalp, and they tend to sell late and often at insane (for primetime) prices. I ended up buying him all out, I figured I could flip it all and turn a nice profit. For 10K I got a bunch of loot (pictured below) as well as a large quantity of Titanium Ore, which was quickly prospected.

Now, at the time I didn’t suspect anything. I just figured I got a good deal, and in fact there was another person making a good deal on gems in trade at the same time. I missed the second, but was happy with my find. And I set to work processing the goods, which were then posted on the AH for a solid profit (about double what I paid). I grabbed the necessary stuff out of the guild bank on my second account and gemmed/enchanted my new gear on my Shaman. By this time it was early in the AM, and time for bed. I took a shower with the intention of heading to bed afterward, but I heard the familiar noise as I walked by my officer, a loud ding alerting me that I had new email.

I decided to check it out then hit the sack, it was a suspension email from Blizzard. Obviously, my first reaction were best summed up by “WTF?!” I spent some time trying to figure out what was going on, and eventually managed to talk to a rep from Blizzard on the phone (they had me on wait for an hour and a half before talking to me), by the time I reached a human they only told me exactly what I already knew. To which I replied, “Ok gaylord, get me your supervisor, I’m done fucking around.” I was answered with a dial tone.

Obviously, I was frustrated…

I did some research, and found that I was not the only one to fall prey to this 3 day suspension after making “the deal of a lifetime” with a level 1 alt of questionable intent. Several people reported almost identical scenarios, some saying they spoke to a blizzard rep and were informed that they had been tied to a hacker via a recent trade. When I read this, I thought, “that completely makes sense”. Though, obviously the credibility of such anecdotal evidence has to be taken with a grain of salt. Especially when you consider Blizzard has never been known for transparency, they’re much more likely to accuse you of something (without really disclosing what you did wrong) when they ban you.

The Scam and Why Goblins are Vulnerable
The scam is quite simple, someone (likely a gold seller) compromises an account. They log on and pillage the account, getting epic gems from honor, emblems, etc. Clean out guild bank and regular banks. And when all of that is done, move the goods to a new level 1 alt and try to sell it all before Blizzard catches wind of the activity and locks the account for investigation. My guess is that there are some who attempt to “launder” the ill gotten goods by trading them with a confederate, then selling and transferring the gold to a third party who “on the surface” had nothing to do with the theft. How precisely that would work? I don’t know, and honestly this isn’t supposed to be a how to rob and get away with it post.

This leaves Goblins at a particular risk, though indirectly. As we’re not the ones getting compromised (hopefully) but we’re the perfect targets for someone doing this to unload their ill gotten goods on. As with my own experience, I didn’t need a lot of convincing before I bought out everything they had. Because I knew I could resell every single item I got for a profit. This is precisely what makes like minded traders so vulnerable, we tend to get wrapped up in calculating profit margins, and in the end greed gets us.

How Can You Protect Yourself?
There’s two basic risks here, first is the obvious. Having your account compromised. Blizzard and other websites talk about this a lot, so I’m not going to belabor the issue. I do feel the need however to go over several key points.

First, get an Authenticator. No really, if nothing else it’s an inexpensive hunk of plastic that will give you peace of mind. I know, why does Blizzard charge you money for improved security? Because… this thing is not essential to your play, it’s an extra. And a really cheap extra, in all honesty they’re probably not making any money off these things in the first place, so just swallow your useless indignation and pony up the $7 (or whatever it is, I know it was under 10 when I got mine) to get one.

Second, don’t be stupid with your username/password. Since the Battle.net conversion people now use an email address to log in, this would be safer… IF people didn’t use say, the email they also use for Facebook, their guild forums, Arena Junkies, etc. I can not stress this enough, since it is so simple to make a new email address, just do it. My advice, make a gmail account and simply forward messages to your main email account. You may decide to use it for various games, which is probably fine. But of course, this is still a risk (though minor). In my honest opinion, it is best to keep your gaming email seperate from your regular email. Now that you have your two email addresses, use your normal email address to register for wow related forums, and use the dummy address ONLY for registering accounts.

This protects you from the odd security holes that sometimes happen with amateur websites, an unscrupulous person could simply do a search for wow related message boards and copy down addresses, at which point it’s just a matter of trying to find the password (which they can probably do in several ways, the easiest of which would be number 3).

Number 3, STOP OPENING EMAIL TELLING YOU YOU’RE SPECIAL! Ok, seriously if Blizzard wants to give you a special mount, they will send it to you in the mail. They won’t bother trying to get you to click a link that goes to blizz-mountspecial.co.uk either.

Number 4, and this is probably one of the most important. Sometimes you have to trust your instincts, if you don’t like a situation pull out. If an email comes to you and appears to be from Blizzard at first glance, read it. If you feel at all uneasy don’t click any links, just delete it. Look for misspellings, and weird link URLs like the one listed above. Broken English is another red flag, the economy may be bad but Blizzard does have a tendency to at least write like they’re from the US. This rule also applies in game, and is certainly applicable in a situation like the one I had above. I took the screenshots because I was excited about the profit this was going to turn into, but it turns out I got parts of the conversation as well. And it’s very telling, I should’ve been a little more hesitant when the alt started being “pushy” of course by then it was probably already too late, but it’s certainly something to look out for. TLDR version, if it doesn’t feel right, GTFO.

And let me be clear, I’m not saying avoid asians trying to sell you some items. I know I deal with several asians whom I’ve known a considerable length of time, they’ve always supplied me with materials at good prices and we’ve dealt in other miscellaneous items at times too. I’ve never had problems with these guys, and doubt I ever will (least I hope not). I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t let the sound of the number crunching in your head drown your common sense. Anyhow, that’s all I have to say on the subject. And hopefully, this proves at least in some way useful. Sorry for the late post, it’s been one of those weeks. And I promise next week to have more gold goodness for you.

The Bloodscalp Report
Some prices appear to be in flux atm, large amounts of herbs have gone to ridiculously low prices over the weekend. I managed to buy out a lot but it was a veritable flood, I have my theories. But I’m going to hold off on speculating too much till I see what happens over the next day or two. The Flask market has tanked pretty hard, probably at least in part due to the bottom falling out of these herbs (seriously, 8g per stack for Lichbloom. Inconceivable!) I listed a batch of Flasks today, and of course they sold out pretty quickly. But seeing flasks sell for 15-20g each just makes you die a little inside.

Glyphs definitely took an upswing this weekend, I’ve been clearing a lot of my overstock (ie the shitty glyphs no one wants, and are priced far below my threshold). Less glyphs overall to tend to has made my job a bit easier, as I’m now focused on those glyphs that still make a decent amount per glyph. Until the patch reduces the amount of ink necessary for many glyphs, this seems to be the most competent strategy.

Gems continue to sell, the prices are trending steadily down but, I’ve added 2 new alchemists to my stable. This gives me a total of 6 alchemists, 1 Elixir, 1 Potion, and 4 Transmutation specialists. This week I’ll be working on the remaining 2 alchemists on my account, before I start work on my second account and working on remaining professions. My goal here, to get everyone up to snuff well ahead of Cataclysm, I want to hit the ground running. This is the reason why I’m not showing a change in my gold for the week, all of my profit has gone into building my assets and expanding my business. More alchemists, engineering capped on my Shaman. More information on my ever growing business is forth coming. Thanks for reading.

Salutations,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding the World of Warcraft account you are using. We understand your point of view and have thoroughly reviewed this issue. As a result, the account action has been removed from the account and all involved parties have been addressed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Please feel free to contact us with any further questions or concerns you may have. Thank you for your time and patience in this matter and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.

Sincerely,

Seralactin
In-Game Support
Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com

The News
Yesterday was a rough day, I got called in for a split shift. A co worker was shot and killed by her boyfriend (not kidding) and that means I’ve been getting some extra hours at my new job. I’ve been a bit sick, and the air conditioner at work has been dead for a couple of days. We live in Bayou country in the deep South, so it’s already getting pretty hot and steamy here. Apparently I blacked out in the bathroom when I got up from the toilet, I guess I got too hot. Anyhow, I fell over and smacked my head into the handicapped rail inside the bathroom stall. When I came to, the rail was pulled a bit out of the wall, and I had a nice tender spot on my forehead. I went back to work for a couple of hours, then the rain started… It started getting nasty, so about half an hour before I was supposed to get off my boss sent me home (I live about 20 minutes from work, everyone else there was in walking distance from their apartments/houses).

On the way home, the rain went from bad to bullshit, and a wind shear knocked me off of the interstate… I managed to get control before catastrophic failure, basically I went off into the median and got things back under control. After I got home I checked my email, no word on my main account yet. So I logged on for the Ulduar 10 drake run with my Shaman, Ghroth. With Yogg down and only 2 achievements left after this run to get my own drake, I logged off and went to bed. I woke up around noon today… and to my surprise I had my account back, and even more surprising… AN APOLOGY!

It was a really frustrating, annoying experience. And I’m glad it’s over, but I’ve already started working on Tuesdays post. In light of these events, I’m going to be talking about securing your investment. That’s all for now.

Account Action: 72 Hour Suspension
Reason for Action: Terms of Use Violation — Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This suspension happened because one or more characters on the account were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for “real-world” currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.

Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.

We’ve found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/antigold.html

The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html. Note that additional Terms of Use violations may result in more severe actions against this account, up to and including permanent closure.

For any disputes of this action, please visit the Exploitative Activity FAQ and Contact page here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/exploitfaq

Regards,
Blizzard Entertainment Support

Calm Like a Bomb
Last night was a solid night of raiding, in four hours we managed to clear up to Sindragosa and get in a couple of attempts. Feeling good, a few of us decided that since Jaraxxus was the weekly we should do an alt run through a 10 man ToGC, we were going for Insanity (we came very close actually). Even so, we managed it with a ragtag group that included my Elemental Shaman, Ghroth. I got a few upgrades and logged over to my main account to get the goodies gemmed and enchanted. While on my banker alt, I noticed someone selling stacks of epic gems (cheap). I made away with a stack of Cardinals, 2 stacks of Dreadstones, and an assortment of other gems and goods. The level one alt named Jinshao gave me the lot for about 10K, I figured good investment. There was a little haggling on those items that I wasn’t real keen on, I figured out pretty quickly “want sell quick, give good deal” so the Crusader Orbs and Epic patterns I got for about 200 lower than the original (already low) asking price.

Feeling good, I began processing the raw mats I got (a couple hundred stacks of Saronite Ore and 50 stacks of Titanium Ore for prospecting). I made a few stacks of Belt Buckles (none were in the AH so should’ve made some profit) after processing and listing my stock, I switched back to Ghroth to gem and enchant the stuff. By this time it was nearly four AM and I was beyond ready for bed…

Twenty Minutes Later
After a trip to the bathroom to get ready for bed, taking out my dog (one last time) and checking the lights in the house I heard a familiar beep. Apparently I’d left my speakers on, and I had mail. So I decided to check it before I went to sleep, that’s when I saw the above message from Blizzard…

Now, I’ve been getting a lot of fake phishing emails in the past, so I gave the email enough skepticism to verify my account status. I tried to log on, and found that my password had changed (curiouser and curiouser). So, I logged into battle.net and changed my password and verified that yes, my main account was indeed suspended. I’ve sent Blizzard an eMail concerning this and as I write this, I’m on hold with customer service… waiting for an answer.

In classic Blizzard fashion, they’ve not really given me an explanation as to what I’m accused of. They’ve simply suspended me and told me I’ve been found guilty of something. Judging by past experiences and anecdotal evidence, I don’t suspect I’ll ever know why I’ve been suspended. And if I ever DO get a meaningful explanation, it will likely be AFTER the suspension is up. My thoughts, a while back I gave out some gold to guild mates to help with Shadow’s Edge, etc. This I suppose could be a red flag, however I was giving gold to people in my own guild… it’s not like I was logging an AH alt and meeting random people in Org to give them gold…

The other thing, low level (probably asian) alt that I bought from late last night. Jinshao said a couple of times that he/she was in a hurry and needed to sell this stuff quick, and therefore willing to make a deal. At the time, I was just in “how much can I flip this for?” mode. But in light of what’s happened, I have to concede it’s possible this was a bunch of hacked goods, which gibes with (exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for “real-world” currency).

Of course, they may simply be running along the lines that most people do when they see someone with 70,000 gold (or more)… I must’ve bought it on eBay or something. Of course, there’s the worst case scenario, which is what I’m most concerned about right now… The possibility that my account was compromised. This was my first thought when I saw that the password had been changed, as far as I know when Blizzard suspends an account they don’t change the password. I do use an Authenticator, but after the recent news about the Man in the Middle scheme, I have to concede it’s possible someone got me.

The Long Short of It
Whether the guild wins or loses against Sindragosa Thursday, I won’t be there. And that pisses me off more than anything, more than missing out on a few days of wheeling and dealing, more than if I lost all of the gold I have. We’ve worked hard to get this far, and after last night’s raids I was on a high, fully expecting to down Sindy Thursday night. It’s a real punch in the gut. Anyhow, I should be back in this weekend (hopefully) and it looks like I can still play my Shaman so stay tuned, if there’s any new revelations you can be sure I’ll post about it here.