Interview With Karatechop Of Martin Fury Fame
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 25 Comments Tags: banhammer, banned, blizzard pr, blizzard pr sucks, cheating, developer item, eula, exploits, karatechop, leeroy jenkins, martin fury, ultimate power corrupts ultimately
iTZKooPA on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 25 Comments Tags: banhammer, banned, blizzard pr, blizzard pr sucks, cheating, developer item, eula, exploits, karatechop, leeroy jenkins, martin fury, ultimate power corrupts ultimately 
The vastness of the WoW-verse almost exploded when Karatechop got his hands on a developer item. Martin Fury in hand, Karatechop and his guild - The Marvel Family - tore through content like Bear Grills through a zebra until he, and most of his guild, were hit with the fabledBanhammer. After our first take on the issue, Karatechop took some time out to detail what happened, how the guild has recovered and what he's up to now.
ProjectLore: With all the criticism you've taken, would you have done things differently or would you still just go have fun?
Karatechop: I’ve played WoW for over four years, and its always been for fun. Given the choice, it would always be fun. Possessing Martin Fury is something I believe no player will ever receive again. In my four years of WoW, I’ve never heard of a normal player receiving such an item, so I doubt it will happen again. Given the chance, I wouldn’t do it again; I’ve used it for fun, but at the cost of nearly destroying my guildies. After all, GM items come and go, but guildies are for keeps.
PL: In hindsight, knowing that you'd be banned, you'd place your account and guildies above the once-in-a-lifetime experience?
Karatechop: Providing the guild members who weren't involved have all punishments lifted, and I told all guild members they could get banned with me, then I would do it again with those willing to risk it all. Getting those who weren't involved hit by the banhammer, I do not wish to see happen again.
PL: You stated that you have been playing the game for over four years. Shouldn't you have known something was up when you were given such an unusual item? I'm fairly certain no shirt exists in WoW that has stats, let alone such a powerful use.
Karatechop: The Shirt Came from Blizzard, so it made me think that they wanted Leroyspeltz (The Person who was originally received the shirt) to have it as some form of compensation for Leroy not having his characters for several months. At first we thought it was a mistake, but the fact it had 100 charges made us consider it was basic compensation for some fun.
PL: Why didn't your guild mate use Martin Fury instead of passing it off to you?
Karatechop: On the basis of me being the tank, so I can get close enough to use it in heroic Uldar. That and I asked him nicely.
PL: Which bosses did you down with the fourteen spent charges?
Karatechop: Four charges weren’t used on bosses as such, the others were used for OS25+3D, Malygos 25-man (looting is impossible when he dies before you get flying mounts) and then the rest were used for some Uldar bosses.
PL: Well, I guess you certainly broke the game in Malygos' fight then.
Karatechop: This actually led to a sort of new guild moto for us, "We Came, We Saw, We Lol'ed."
PL: Was there anything you wanted to do with Martin Fury that you didn't get a chance to accomplish? We know you gained some achievements from its use, did you pick up any loot?
Karatechop: I was curious how it would work in a PvP environment, I did ponder whether to join Alteric Valley and just ride south and take Drek and Galv on my own, or perhaps win some arena matches. Also in hindsight, I should have completed the full Uldar run, just because I got banned anyway.
PL: You mentioned that a collection of your guild mates had their accounts locked. Was it any of the players that you played the joke on? Are they all back to normal now? Have they forgiven you?
Karatechop: The account bannings weren’t as clear as that though. Blizzard simple banned every guild member who was online at that time, instead of just the ones with the saved raid ID. I know the players who petitioned saying they weren’t in the raid are back, but those who had the raid ID had some additional difficulty. Blizzard is treating it as a case-by-case. Despite the issues the majority of the guild members have my back. Some where annoyed, but the general consensus is I aimed for fun, and they had it.
PL: People on both sides of the issue acknowledge that Blizzard did something wrong by allegedly sending your friend the item. In all your interactions with Blizzard, did they admit to any fault?
Karatechop: In the e-mail I received, they did not admit fault. This sums up Blizzard's side:
“The character, "Karatechop," on the realm "Vek'nilash" was found to have obtained an item (inaccessible by standard game play) from another player and trivialized the World of Warcraft raid contents with the exploitative use of this item. Consequently, this character was able to assist with the accumulation of items and achievements through the use of this item that is not obtainable by "normal" means. The character's actions gave the account an unfair advantage over all other players. As a result of the violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use, this account will be permanently closed.”
PL: Hmm, I wonder what would have happened if your guildmate - the original owner of the item - had used it instead of you. The reason for the ban given in the e-mail would have gone out the window.
Karatechop: We can only assume Blizzard would have penalised him as "fairly" as they punished myself.
PL: What would have been a fair punishment to you?
Karatechop: In the 4+ years I’ve played, I’ve never had an infraction. I would have thought this would have been taken into account. Perhaps removal of achievements and loot, and at max a week or two ban would be justified, that way all the “damage” I have done, is undone.
PL: What's your stance on other EULA issues like purchasing gold or accounts and using bots programs like MMO-Glider.
Karatechop: Programs that “mine” information of Blizzard's or automate parts of the games I do not agree with, that I see as too much of an unfair advantage. As for the buying of gold, I think it’s a hit-or-miss debate. Personally I think casual players who work 40 hours a week and only manage to spend a couple of hours in the evening should be allowed to purchase gold, just so they don’t spend the only time they play grinding for that epic mount or the rep reward, which hardcore players can manage with hours to raid afterwards. Making casual players richer, allows them to raid more and have fun, which is what WoW is about, regardless of which spectrum you side with. Although, I have seen videos of typically Asian/Chinese children forced to play WoW to farm gold. That I do not agree with. I would however fully support Blizzard running their own gold selling store.
PL: Do you think the incident will have any long lasting effects on how Blizzard enforces their rules?
Karatechop: I highly doubt it. I’m assured they have am efficient legal team, who cover all clauses and loop holes in any legal documentation you need to sign before you can even create your WoW account. However, I assume that Blizzard will make some adjustments to their GM interface, to include some form of confirmation when sending items to players.
PL: What are you doing with that new gaming rig now? Are you going to try another MMO like Champions Online or are you going to move to a different genre? Plan on staying in touch with The Marvel Family?
Karatechop: Nothing at the moment. I’m contemplating starting WoW again, as I would still have gold and a large friendship base to help me back to 80, so restarting won't be as difficult as the first time.
PL: Do you plan on doing anything with your new found recognition or are you going to ride it out?
Karatechop: Well we all know what happened to Leeroy Jenkins, yet he managed to get on the Jeopardy, I don’t plan on going that far, nor do I think I could. Occasionally answering some questions on places like PL and WoW-insider will suffice for me.
PL: Lastly, was God Mode worth it?
Karatechop: Absolutely. I’ll get to level 80 again, but I won't ever have God mode again.
PL: Thanks for your time, good luck in your future endeavors.
Reader Comments (25)
aw, hes not that bad of a person
i would have done it too.
and i think blizz over did it on the punishment. there foult they sent it to a player
14 charges eh? if icecrown citadel is open, he would have crash that door swinging the hammer around :D
All the possibilities of the remaining 86 charges :D
sigh, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it feels good lol
'I'll get to level 80 again, but i wont ever have God mode again'
Exactly the way if feel about this. The whole thing was more of a joke to me than anything else. Besides, the reason it takes alot of first-time players so long to get to 80 is because they're still learning the game. I remember my first time climbing up the levels took forever. I started the day BC came out and hit 70 the day WotLK came out. Of course, the quests in Northrend were so simple and chained together so nicely that it didn't take long at all. Before i knew it i was dinging level 75 after only a day or two.
But yea, if you know some people in the game who are already 80, they can seriously speed up your leveling time by running you through dungeons and such.
Please limit future interviews to those who are literate. kthxbai
Zerbet, you hurt my feelings :(
And to iTZKooPA, theres a couple errors there, such as it being OS+2D instead of OS+3D
and;
Getting those who weren’t involved hit by the banhammer, I do wish to see happen again.
should be;
Getting those who weren’t involved hit by the banhammer, I do not wish to see happen again.
I'm pretty sure the only reason Blizzard made this a permanent ban was to make it an example to others. If it was only two weeks and some gold and gear, this might happen again. With a permanent ban (which is really the largest penalty they can give anyone), they likely want to make people think twice.
I am Jack's complete missed oppotunity to practice journalism and merely serving as a open platform for the 'We did it for ze lulz' defense.
How about catching the contradictions? He thought it was a legit compensation, yet he says in his +4 years wow xp, he never ever heard of anything similar?
How about some consistancy:
Q: Would you do it again?
A1: Given the chance, I wouldn’t do it again.
A2: Then I would do it again.
A3: Absolutely.
How about asking his oppinion on potential trivilazation of new content and compare it to this superficial idea, that the only negative consequence for expoiting a GM mistake of this magnitude, was that Blizz had to lock the whole guild down to browse the data and locate the problem?
How about a little more reflection than a:
MATT DAAAAA-MOOOOOOON!!!!
[size=0]Look at me all exitec.[/size]
@ Hank
The way you place other people's words out of context tells me one thing : you would make an awesome journalist. Anyone who says they wouldn't use this item is lying. Everyone knows that they would eventually corrupt to its amazing power and use it. Granted... I'd rather run into an Alliance city and use it... but how is using an item with limited uses going to affect overall game-play? Don't give any BS reasons about loot... because that shouldn't even have entered Blizzard's reasoning for banning him and his guild-mates.
Imho, this was Blizzard's fault.
They said the item is not obtainable for the players. That is correct, you can't LOOT that item, but if a Blizzard Employee sends it to you, you were given something and therefore, you can use it.
For example, you were born with 1337 skills for math. Then you go to your school and they say ''Noo! You have an unfair advantage over the other students! Go aweh nao!
C'mon, you can't judge someone by a single thing.
@Schnoo
Believe it or not, not everyone has a failure of conscience.
First, its Bear Grylls not Grills (I love the comparison though).
It's nice to get a full interview after all the bits and pieces that have been floating around. I fully support Karatechop's actions and decry the extreme punishment Blizzard meted out. Nothing a player does in game cannot be undone, it just takes Blizz getting up off their asses and doing their job. This is a game after all, meant to be fun.
@Hank
Good job completely ignoring context and qualifying statements. Continue your efforts to destroy journalism with the rest of the mass media.
Neitehr side is blameless and it's been a fuck up since day one. Blizzard shouldn't have sent it to him and he shouldn't have used it. And as a player who's been playing for 4 years, he would have know the sometimes draconian measures that Blizzard have taken against people who break the rules. I feel more sorry for the people who got caught in the middle of the stupid mistakes of two people.
Here's the context: Lack of personal accountability.
when i heard about this i thought he was a D bad but now i see what he mans. cudos and keep on rocking karotychop
i honestly think Bliz did what they thought was nesasary(dont hate cus i cant spell). granted they did overreact just a tad. and granted i would have used the item in the same exact way home dude did. hell come one i know every single one of you would! full clear Ulduar 25! Nax 25...and many many more! so i bow to thee Karotychop! i bow to thee.
he should get the account back, blizzard would get some of its fans back ;p
blizzard has no real royalty they just care about money, i think the ban was unfair when their are still people using bots and gold farmers
i think any1 in his postion would abuse the power think about it, didnt a paladin 1 shot lord kazzak with a reckoning bomb ?
I've used cheats on non-MMO video games before, it totally destroyed my interest in those games.
/rant on
All the people saying it wasn't so bad to use the item seem to be pretty immature.
If someone put a million dollars (or pounds) into your bank account would you spend all or part of it?
I'm guessing not because you know you would get found out and it would be treated as 'stealing'.
Karatechop's comments regarding buying gold etc. show that he only considers the short term and disregards the effect on other players.
The suggestions that because some people are using bots etc. are justification for his action are one way to see the game descend into anarchy.
Reading between the lines I would suggest that after 4 years his interest in WoW was already on the wane, an atitude that seems common amongst many long time players.
/rant off
Blizzard however decided their loyalty favoured the apparently small # of players who does not deserve bans. I could care less about KC, my main problem with both interviews is, since Blizzard cannot comment on such cases, PL and Insider should have made some effort to press his lame excuses.
And not ude their exelent sites to give cheaters a voice.
*use
@ robingtons
Yes, it used to stack endlessly. There's a video of it on youtube.
That paladin let it stack 1300 times before running in and using it. So, technically, he didn't 1 shot Lord Kazzak, he hit him over 1300 times just really really fast. lol
Im not going to say everyone would deffinatly use this item if it came into their hands. But i will say that there would definatly be some temptation. Some of you guys may have more will power than I. But if i knew that with this one item, i could clear 25 Naxx and even Ulduar, id deffinatly go. As i said earlier, losing your character isn't the biggest tragedy in the world. You'll be able to join again. You can always level back up to 80.
But chances are you'll never get another chance to see w hat it's like to go 1 shot kill bosses.
But one does have to wonder. If this item is so clearly OP and not lootable in game, what was it even doing in the game inventory?
15 minutes are up. Time for this to go away.
This is not the real Karatechop. I actually know Karatechop. We were in a guild together (not marvel family.)
He does not work for blizzard. He did not receive the item, a guild mate did.
This guys story does not flow with the true events of that night. They found out over the next few days about being banned. He did not find out that night as they were not kicked off the server.
The real karatechop will remember me. He will remember running SSC/TK with myself and Sylvan and Baker. I'm sure the REAL karatechop will be able to name the guild we were all in.
Why punish the guy if Blizz sent his friend the item? Someone at Blizzard messed up, and THEY should be the ones getting punished. But after all, its a game. It's like if a child moved a piece on a checker board while you were looking away but you noticed it and fixed it when he went to the bathroom. Blizz has omnipotence over WoW, they mess up, they fix it. They shouldnt penalise someone who only thought they were doing something fun that was given to them by someone at Blizz.