World Firsts and Ban Hammers

By now I am sure you have heard of the various guilds that have downed Arthas. The question is, who all will actually get CREDIT for the World First? With Blizzard going over each of the encounters and yelling "exploit" it has to take the joy of all that hard work right out of you.

Mugg from Ensidia has gotten a lot of attention due to just part of his blog post in which he basically said "enough is enough" for five years he has played this game, worked hard and he is tired of being told after beta testing with GM's watching every move LIVE before hand, "Oh that was an EXPLOIT no World First for you, and give us back those Epics! Furthermore here is a slap on the wrist for being naughty and not mind reading that you shouldn't do that in the FIRST place!"

I'm sorry but I really can't sympathies with Blizzard on this. If you are going to release a game and NOT have it tested then you are going to run the risk of it not "working as intended." Why it is this the Player's fault?

Any good parent will tell you the key to setting up rules is to make them CLEAR. That way both you and your child know what to expect. If Johnny chooses to not come home until an hour after his curfew he runs the risk of losing privileges that he enjoys. What "clear indicators" are there for players to know what is an "exploit" vrs what is "working as intended"?

I have dealt with this question myself on a much smaller scale in Halls of Reflection. Is the practice of waiting on the ledge for the Lich King to walk by then running behind him an "exploit" or "working as intended"? It certainly makes the encounter EASIER and several patches have gone by with out it being fixed. I have NEVER seen a clear response to this ANYWHERE and people have even ASKED.

I remember when you use to do the achievement Respect your Elders by kiting Elder Nadox back to the entrance, then they made it so if he left the room he enraged so to do the achievement you had to have two tanks in your group, one of whom needs to be able to heal themselves. (aka Pally) This REALLY limited the ability of people to get the achievement. I recently discovered you can once again kite him, though now only to the bottom of the stairs in the next room. It is still far enough if you have high dps, which in today's over geared heroic is not usually difficult. Is THIS working as intended or an exploit?

Martin's Fury it was clear, it SAID on the shirt "cheat".  How is the average player suppose to know if using a Saronite bomb or standing on a ledge is a "cheat" unless Blizzard TELLS us it is before hand? What indicators are there to let us KNOW that MAYBE this ISN'T what they had in mind? If they are going to keep on with attempting to get content out at a quicker pace, (which I don't think people mind that at all) then they are going to have to come up with more complete testing methods, a clearer way to identify exploits or a new method of discipline. Banning someone for using the mechanics YOU gave them and then FAILED to tell them they COULDN'T or SHOULDN'T use is more a failure on YOUR part than theirs.

Every Rogue engineer I know is out there crying at the moment.