Last Time I Checked, Theft is Theft

I think I have mentioned before that I play World of Warcraft. I've been playing for the last 18 months or so. TJ got me hooked. So I have a lil undead warlock--I've been through a few guilds, as everyone has--and I play and I've made some cyber-friends, one of which we met when we went through NC. These are carefully built relationships.

I am part of a developing end-game guild that had the highest of intentions. We have a de-facto guildmaster, an expatriate Scots-Canadian, who came from one of the BIG end game guilds. It was considered quite the coup, and high expectations were made by everyone. There is also a "council"... but I won't go into that.

There has been a group of what I call s__tdisturbers. They have been fomenting ill intents for awhile now. Well, this past week, part of the "council" not only left the guild, but have left the server. This in itself has been no big deal, right? Happens all the time. They also pulled a bunch of people with them. Again, it happens.

Problem is, one of them had the guild "bank toon," a character a player has that is used solely to store profession materials, valuable item drops, and other things saved for the guild as a whole. Not only did that person take the toon with them, they took the items with them, items that belonged to the guild as a whole--a couple of month's worth of raiding days into Molten Core kind of materials and drops, raids that last a minimum of three hours and are difficult to fill spots for. Hard-won things. All gone. Not even on the server anymore.

To add insult to injury, the person "returned" items such as wool bandages, which anyone can make. The guild is left with nothing.

Yes, it's just a game. I have a problem, though, with thievery of any kind, be it virtual or real. Those items did not just belong to these five to eight people, it belonged to the guild of over 200. So my faith is shaken in these people I had considered cyber-friends. There is still the core of infuriated and depressed guildies, everyone's in shock, and there's a lot of name calling and finger pointing. Sad.

I am thinking of taking a sabbatical. My friends Donkeysaurus, Thanakar, Darkraevyn, and Rathdeathch will scream to high heaven, but the desire to play has now worn off. On top of it, the expansion pack is coming out in November--just in time for Christmas! eep!--and I just can't justify spending $50 for 10 levels, flying mounts or no.

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So if you are a World of Warcraft player on the Eldre'Thalas realm, and hear about a guild that got their entire guild bank ripped off, I swear it's true. And if you know Sindarella, Plural, Jezzabelle or any of their friends on the Eldre'Thalas server or the one they scarpered off to, give 'em hell. Spread the word.

These people... holy cow! If they do this in a game, what are they like in real life?

What do you call something worse than a ninja-looter?