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.
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iTZKooPA on 
I first heard about the whole Karatechop case early this week. I even ventured over to the forum thread that followed the "investigation," only to be dismayed at how unreadable the blues made it via deletions. Due to the confusion, conjectures, and chaos surrounding the topic at the time I chuckled at the situation and decided to move on. It wasn't until yesterday that a more reputable collection of information was gathered by WoWInsider's Alex Zeibart.
To summarize Alex's investigation, Karatechop appeared on the radar because of the way the toon exploded onto the raiding scene. His guild and his character were previously a normal raiding guild, dressed in mostly Naxxramas loot. All of a sudden they began dominating Ulduar's hard modes left and right, while scoring the achievements to boot. A quick trip to Karatechop's Achievements list and it became obvious that something was up. I don't care how overpowered you are, no one does ~354,000,000 damage in a single blow. Since the report went live other team members have followed up with a full interview and confirmation of Karatechop's account closure.
The topic at hand has taken the greater WoW community by storm. I'll admit, I would almost certainly use the item. If I thought there was a remote possibility that I wouldn't get banned, I'd definitely go dominate everything. But I am a realist, I know that if I didn't report the error Solidsamm would get hit with the banhammer. My character is too precious to me, so I honestly believe I would have tried it out, reported it to a GM, and then abused it while I awaited a response. It could elicit a ban anyways, but hopefully it'd be a temporary one.
In my opinion Karatechop was in the wrong and deserved what he got. Friends and guildies who participated in the raids also deserve some sort of punishment, perhaps an Achievement reset and a temp ban, since they also exploited the game. To me, the punishments and who deserves what is a secondary issue.
How did Karatechop get Martin Fury - a developer item - in the first place? (In the interview he claims it came from Blizzard via an in-game mail as part of an account restoration to a friend's hacked account)
Blizzard needs to get their PR to tell us exactly what happened, and what has been done. The community knows that mistakes happen. Missed keys, a rogue keystroke, a ferret running across the keyboard, these are all common typing blunders. The bottom line is that we need to be reassured that there wasn't any foul play. The kind of stuff that we have heard about in EVE and Darkfall. We want to know that Blizzard is on top of this, instead of swinging the hammer at a pinata while blindfolded and dizzy. I doubt it'll happen though, and that is what I hate most about Blizzard.
I told you I couldn't hold back completely, what about you? As the saying goes, "Power corrupts and ultimate power corrupts ultimately." Do you think that Karatechop deserves the permanent ban he has been handed or should they have come up with some other solution? What are the odds that Blizzard will make anything on the topic public?