I think Graffix is doing an amazing job as a GM because he really cares about the players and wants them to have a good experience on VG. But here, his gut feeling to "do the right thing" has actually caused some trouble because Blizzard's in-game PvP mechanics are specifically designed to set the limits on what is allowed. All pvp disputes are resolved without GM intervention because Blizzard knew that undertaking to decide where to draw the line between legitimate pvp and griefing presents a slippery slope and an ever-increasing workload for GMs. The GM's have enough tickets already!
Let me be honest with you for a moment, I put in my app to be a gm to help improve the server and see what I could do to change some of the issues others gm's wouldn't touch. This topic for one was one of those issues that needed dealt with and talked about. As was previously stated, it is no guarantee that there will be retribution for such actions, what was said is there could be. Each time one of these incidents occurs it is situational, which means that if a GM is around or involved in it, it is up to them to make decisions on what to do using reasonable judgement. Far too long every time one of these topics come up, the argument ends up with it being players can do such actions as much as they want and no punishment will ever arise. That is not true.
Some of these issues that used to end like that everytime they are talked about was:
Camping and Griefing(this is being dealt with here)
Being kicked from a group and pulling mobs(Had a issue where a player was reported for doing it in AQ20, he was kicked from the group and wiped the entire group. I said something to him, but then he went offline. 2 days later he was in ZG, same situation, kicked from the group, wiped the group and died. He the got into a group with someone else, turned it into a raid and ran back into the instance since they did not fill the 20th spot yet and did it again. He then stood over their corpses taunting them and saying that he was not going to stop. When I froze him, was going to give him a day, but instead he decided to taunt me too by saying that there was absolutely nothing I could do, so I gave him a few.)
Taking mats that are traded for enchants or crafted items(Had a issue the other day where someone stole the mats from another player that was looking to get hide of the wild made, I went to have a little talk about the situation with the thief. You know what he told me? "I did it because it happened to me a few times and the GM's never did anything, so I did it to someone else." He then logged off, I talked to him the next time that he logged on, I asked him to give back the mats, he told me that he had already made the hide of the wild for the other player and gave it too him, then asked me to ban him. I of course didn't)
Abusing guards terrain in neutral towns(Was able to get this fixed before I became GM by finding a blizzard rep post on Rooftop Camping)
When I got the gm position, I was on the look out for situations of these actions that could be punished, I do not intend to find and or be able to deal with all or even most of these situations, most of the time all that will be done is a warning. But I wanted to end the "there is nothing that GM's can or will be able to do, no matter how far these people take it"
