We were running through Grim Batol on heroic, when I started to see a Real ID friend logging on, and off, and on and off…..
Now I don’t normally like Real ID. I find it intrusive at best, and at worst I might have been known to swear loudly at it…..but if there’s one thing I despise more than my privacy being invaded it’s hackers and goldsellers. And tonight something seemed incredibly fishy with this person’s activity – aside from the fact he’d not said hello. In brief pauses in between fights, I clicked on the social panel, and saw something strange and my gut feeling was confirmed. So I asked for a pause in the action to follow it through. Lots of different characters popping up. I clicked on one and it had a typical JXSSWERFD goldseller name. Level 1 warrior, Elwynn Forest……Now I live in Wales and so does this friend. So technically it’s feasible that it could have been a genuine name. You know, all those lls and cwchs you know, from the land that brought you Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch*. There’s a gold seller name if ever….
At another pause, I clicked again.
My heart sank. Another goldseller style name.
We rang him, just in case my suspicions were wrong. Sadly they weren’t. He’d been hacked. So I opened a ticket, and reported it, and within the hour, everything had been sorted out. Really quick and impressive work by the GMs and I made certain to thank the one I spoke to, and wish them a happy New Year.
And I wandered away from the situation, mentally punching the air, happy at my -albeit small – victory over the hacker/goldseller, while the friend started to scan their computer very carefully.
But it got me thinking. Had this friend not been on Real ID, I wouldn’t have known, I wouldn’t have seen the cross server mad-and-out-of-character activity happening, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to act as quickly. So, much as it DOES intrude on privacy, it can also serve as an early warning system for people. I was grateful for Real ID tonight. Damn. Didn’t think I’d ever see that one coming…..
*I’ve been there. It’s….yeah. A long name on a signpost.
I didn’t realise you were Welsh! My mum is from Bridgend
Yep – was born and brought up in Cardiff – and now live in the Valleys. I guess our Welsh connections may have influenced our choosing druid – although I couldn’t see Alq turning up at an Eisteddfod!
I rarely laugh out loud when reading blogs, but yours sure made me. Well not at your friend being hacked of course. But the “welsh names sound like gold sellers”-part. ^^ Does it really have four L after another? What does that mean? o.O
Yep, it does really have four Ls! The name translates as “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave” . “Llan” is a pretty common prefix in Welsh place names, as it means “church” – and this place, known as Llanfair or Llanfair PG by the locals – well, wouldn’t you shorten it if you lived there too?! – seems to have one word ending in ll followed by a “llan”…so uh yeah!
One of my other favourite place names is Penrhyndeudraeth….try saying THAT when you’re drunk!
aha! You mean Pennywennydendrith!
Well, yeah….
Thinking about it, would make a great character name too. How to annoy people….!
Pennywenny. I am so stealing that for my next bank alt.