A Dood Named Booz

This is the story of my friend Booz. Booz is a good guy, and was in my guild for a while. He is, or should I say was, a level 69 undead mage. He was good at playing his class. He was good in raids, good in PvP, and was a good guildie to have in instances. He was also funny, and was a good guy to hang out with in general.

But alas, Booz is no more. Don?t get me wrong, the player is alive. His World of Warcraft toons, however, are gone forever. They?ve gone to that great virtual world in the sky. Why? Well, it?s because Booz got himself permanently banned.

How did he lose his virtual life? How did Booz come to an untimely end in World of Warcraft? Well, it all started because Booz got himself tricked, mistreated, and used by some people he trusted.

The Fever

Booz was something of a new player, and he had the fever. If you?re a WoW player, or a player of any good MMORPG on the market, you know exactly what I?m talking about. We?ve all had it. He couldn?t pull himself away from the game. He played daily, for hours each day.

We know for a fact that Booz wasn?t just managing one account, either. He had at least two. While Booz was leveling his main character, his alt was also logged on. When asked, Booz simply replied that his alt was being played by his friend. There is also some possibility he had a third account, or at least access to one.

Was this situation typical? That?s hard to say. Most of the people I know have only one account. But that doesn?t hold true for everyone; I know a few with two or more accounts. I also know of numerous instances of nebulous account ownership, with brothers, friends, and various family members swapping account information like illegally downloaded music. Not that I would know anything about that, of course. No siree.

Whatever Booz? access to accounts, his situation spoke of his strong commitment to the game. He wanted to achieve level 70; he wanted to experience end-game content. Certainly, he wanted to raid with the guild, and to have a shot at the tantalizing epic gear that only drops in raid instances.

This posed two problems. The first was that Booz was a working man. Since he had a job, he was forced to play when he got home. And play he did; he logged on when he got home, and he played until the wee hours of the morning. The wee hours. That?s fun to say. Weeeeeeee!

The Aggro Sponge

This, of course, caused his second problem: wife aggro. For those not in the know, ?wife aggro? is the term that refers to the frustration, anger, and genuine outrage that aggrieved wives feel when their husbands play too much WoW. If you were to play some WoW every couple days, you?d get a little bit of wife aggro. Not too much, but after a while you?d have a couple ?discussions? about how you?re neglecting the kids and household chores and other responsibilities for a silly computer game.

If, on the other hand, you played a little more often — say, a couple hours each day, with longer sessions on Saturday and Sunday — you?d get more wife aggro. The discussions would be more frequent, and more heated (and the amount of, shall we say, wild booty in your future would be seriously reduced).  If you were like your average WoW player, and you played for several hours every single day, with nice, long 9-hour sessions on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you?d pick up lots and lots of wife aggro. She?d let you know exactly how she felt about your time spent gaming in those papers her lawyer sent to you.

When provoked by too much gaming, angry wives can suddenly attack without warning

Wife aggro is closely related to girlfriend agro (contrary to popular belief, there are a few Wowheads who have actual girlfriends). In a similar way, there is mom aggro (she wants you to go outside and play), and dad aggro (Remember him? He expects you to actually finish college or get a job). And if you manage to find a way to play the game at your job, you might also pick up boss aggro (from the guy that actually wants you to do some real work).

Solving the Aggro Problem

There aren?t a lot of solutions to wife aggro. You might try getting her to play; that works sometimes. Heck, if your wife?s a gamer, this isn?t even a challenge. However, if she?s not a gamer, one of the few solutions out there is to kick the habit. But hell, let?s be realistic; most MMORPG addicts are not going to quit. Usually they just try to cut down. It helps some.

Now where were we? Oh yeah, Booz was picking up some serious wife aggro. Despite this, he couldn?t break away from the game. We know he kept right on playing. Because he kept showing up in-game, we can surmise that he managed, for a while, to keep his spouse reasonably happy. It may not have been an ideal situation, but it appeared, on the surface, to be a workable one.

Apparently it wasn?t enough. Booz was approaching 70 with his main character, his mage, but his alts were suffering. He had a druid, Animusrex, on a second account, and wanted to level that character to 70 as well. In order to do both, he?d have to play quite a bit.  Of course, in order to do that, he?d have to give up his family.  Not worth it.

Wife vs. Job vs. WoW

Booz came up with a solution. We came to suspect, for various reasons, that Booz had hired a power-leveling service. It appeared that the ?friend? that was playing Animusrex wasn?t actually anyone known to Booz. Clearly, Booz and Animusrex were on at the same time, but the two characters rarely interacted. In addition, Animusrex was constantly in the game. Heck, that toon was leveling like a madman.

One of the dangers of “converting” your wife into a gamer: she may become an incurable dork. Probably not what you had planned.

These are not the behaviors of a buddy, messing around, helping out, or trying out the game. Further, Animusrex was strangely silent any time anyone tried to contact him. For a friend of a friendly guy like Booz, Animusrex certainly wasn?t very friendly himself. It was also clear that Booz almost never played Animusrex himself. Someone else was always driving that particular toon. Ultimately, after everything broke loose, Booz admitted that his other toons were being professionally power-leveled.

Now the ?morality? of power-leveling services, like gold-selling services, is often questioned by gamers. Personally, I?ve never had a problem with either one. However, there are a lot of people that think that power-leveling and gold-selling ruin the in-game economy and otherwise imbalance the game. They believe that the only way to obtain high-level characters equipped with epic gear is to earn both. People who hold this attitude are often called ?purists?. I call people who hold this attitude ?people who are too poor to afford power-leveling and gold-selling services?.

But where were we? Oh yes — Booz wasn?t a college student with buckets of free time. He wasn?t some 35 year-old ?career challenged? loser, living in his parent?s basement, spending every pointless day in-game. He simply wasn?t able to spend 40 hours a week leveling up his toons and getting them tier-11 armor and uber-epic weapons. Booz had a job. He had a family.

And he wanted to keep both. What he didn?t have was two level 70 toons in decked out in epics. But Booz did have one thing many college students don?t have: a credit card. And with that credit card, he paid for a little power leveling.

At first, things went well. He played Booz, his mage, and leveled it up legitimately. On his other account, Animusrex the druid, was being leveled up by a power-leveling company. The druid wasn?t far behind his mage. His dream of having a job, a family and, most importantly, two level 70 characters was within reach.

Until he got screwed. Badly.

Getting Completely Screwed Over: A Short Guide

The power-leveling service he?d hired did something nasty and unscrupulous. It was really dirty pool. We came to believe that the company Booz had hired actually began to advertise their services in game. This kind of ?advertising? usually takes the form of in-game shouts, and the sending of mass emails to everyone on the server. These adverts have a tendency to irritate people. And when people get irritated, they report irritating behavior to GMs.

The evidence was right there; the GMs had no trouble whatsoever finding it. And since Animusrex had engaged in this kind of behavior, Blizzard banned the account.

Booz tried to protest. He tried to appeal. He whined. He cried like a baby. He offered them his body if they?d just restore his accounts (Okay, okay, so I?m exaggerating. A lot. So sue me.) The point is, nothing worked. Even though it really wasn?t Booz that did the advertising, it was his account. He was banned.

I?m not sure, exactly, what happened next. Booz was somewhat vague on the details. The best information at hand led us to believe that, somehow, the GMs somehow figured out he had two accounts. Both accounts got banned. It?s kind of hard to get the details out of Booz. He would only say that the GMs told him he was banned for ?negatively impacting the in-game economy?, or something similarly worded. I?m not sure he even fully understood what happened.

If the GMs catch you violating the EULA, you can be suspended. It can be a pretty painful experience.

The Fallout

Maybe Booz was too embarrassed to say more. Some people would say he got his just desserts for ?cheating? in this way. Although I?ve never felt it imbalanced the game, or ruined the economy, my opinion, I fully realize, isn?t shared by everyone. In fact, I have a good friend who is downright vehement that gold-selling, for example, ruins otherwise good games. If he knew of it, he?d have given Booz a hard time about the whole affair.

I think it?s very possible that Booz was simply embarrassed because he?d been had. The professional power-leveling company he hired had used him, they lied to him, and he paid them to do it. Despite the fact that he only wanted power-leveling, they used his accounts to advertise their services in-game, and they got him perma-banned.

A Cautionary Tale

One thing is clear: everything Booz did is against the World of Warcraft EULA. Blizzard owns the game, and Blizzard can make the rules. If they catch you, they can enforce the rules, too. Just ask Booz.

Some of Booz? losses can be counted. He?s out the price of at least two WoW accounts, both of which he?d upgraded with The Burning Crusade expansion. That?s 200 bucks. The power leveling services he employed typically cost a few hundred dollars, so he?s out that much, too. What can?t be calculated is the loss of Booz? time and effort. He put a lot into the game ? he had characters he?d legitimately leveled ? and those are gone now, too. Whatever items he?d earned are gone. Even his low level alts are gone. His account is no more. And his toons are dead.

Of course, every cloud has a silver lining. As much as Booz has lost, he has at least gained in one area. I?m confident that, at least for now, Booz? ?wife aggro? problem is resolved.

The previous story is the most accurate account of affairs that we at WanderingGoblin.com were able to put together. However, despite our efforts to ascertain and verify the most accurate and up-to-date information, there are some minor aspects of this tale, as made clear in the narrative itself, that remain in the realm of conjecture. Names, occasional humorous elements, and other details ?none of which affected the story as a whole ? were changed, predominantly to protect the identities of those involved.

Copyright 2007 by WanderingGoblin.com