Today I picked up our first dungeon journey. The typical chatter of "LFG WC" (looking for group, Wailing Caverns) was crackling over the Barren's channels. I decided to give it a try as I figured there would be some decent items to pawn from the dungeon. I noted my interest on the group channel. My first attempt to form a group was with a fellow named Powderedhulk. He invited me to his group; I accepted and began the trek over to rendezvous with him in front of Wailing Caverns. Other invites quickly came up and I responded to each inviting them to join up with Powderedhulk's group. Several other players responded saying that Powderedhulk was a 'ninja looter'. I had no idea what that meant, but it proved to foreshadow an interesting event in my cavern adventure. I eventually joined up with another band of players as no one seemed to be joining the Powderedhulk group.
We charged into the dungeon and hit the first few enemies. Boy, I was glad to have 5 companions on this trip as all the beasts in the caverns were extremely tough to bring down. Although they were of comparable levels to the simple beasts outside the cavern, they were all elite and could soak up a huge amount of damage. When our enemies would drop quality items (item name highlighted in green) a small box would appear. I could choose either 'need' or 'greed'. We had agreed before joining our group that we would only choose 'need' for items that we really needed. The 'need' requests automatically won over the 'greed' requests. If there were more than one 'need' request, the highest random roll won. Most of the time I chose 'greed', as did the rest of the party.
The drops were good, and the experience was fantastic. Everything was clicking, that is until we came upon a chest deep in the caverns. Slayman (our party's warrior) called out, "Chest." We had a few more beasts to fight off near the back of our group, so I didn't pay too much attention at the time. As a couple of us finished off our Shambling beast, everyone else was standing around the chest healing up, eating food and the like. No one was moving to open the chest. With a pang of greed I ran up to the chest and popped it open. Cha-ching. A quality sword, magic wand, 8 slot bag, mail armor, and a handful of other items were inside.
"What are you doing?" Slayman asked angrily.
"I don't need the sword," I responded.
"That wasn't your chest - it's Maris'," he replied. "You are supposed to roll," someone else added.
Roll? I assumed when I opened the chest the little box for quality items would pop up and we would choose like before. Wrong. I scrolled up in my message box and it looked like everyone had 'rolled' a number between 1-100. Now I felt the pressure. Would they turn on me, leave me in the dungeon to rot? Now I guess I knew what 'ninja looting' meant and I had done it to my own fellow party by accident.
"Ok, sorry I'll give everything to Maris," I pleaded. "How do you roll anyway?"
"Man, just type /roll and the guy with the highest roll gets the chest - its only fair," Maris said.
"Sorry, here is all the stuff."
Only I didn't give Maris everything. Oh sure, I did give him the shiny sword and armor but I greedily kept the 8 slot bag to myself. I had successfully appeased the party by giving back 'all' the chest items, but I also knew they would never know that there was one thing I did not give back. I had a pang of guilt and started to wonder - in a game where I can hide behind a virtual character and do as I please with no repercussions, does one's true nature come out? I knew no one would ever know I had kept the bag and I had done enough to keep the party from cutting me out. However, I did lie and break the honor of the party. Oh sure, some of the members chose 'need' one too many times on the best items, but I still felt bad. We finished off the last few beasts, left the cavern, and went our separate ways likely to never meet up or speak again. If one of those guys had been my friend or coworker in real life, would I have done the same? Is the knowledge that we have to interact with people daily what keeps us honest and willing to respect each other? Does total anonymity in an online game bring out the worst of human nature? Interesting...
5 comments:
Ugh, the damn loot issue. When I first started this game (and I'm still new), I hated trying to figure out my toon, my responsibilities AND then have to try to figure out if what dropped was an upgrade to me. Everything was happening too fast for me to do it all! Fortunately, I have a great guild that has netted me a ton of fine items and so most loot is just a "greed" roll for me to sell on AH at this point. Hope it stays this way. ;)
How does your guild feel about you having the goal of making money? Or are they all in the same boat?
Hmm, good question. I haven't really told them that making money is a goal of mine. They are all well established 60s and are busy with their raids. As someone that is leveling, I just kinda do my own thing...level, play with the AH, etc. I don't think it would be a big deal if they did know though. Different people have different goals for games...be it roleplay, uber loot/gear, many alts, money.
Actually, everyone in the group knows what anyone else picks up. There is a message in the chat window. But I wouldn't worry too much about it - it's just a chest. I've seen a priest roll 'need' on a epic axe and hearth out of the party right away. That's a real 'ninja looter'!
Sorry to break this to you...
But, everything you take is displayed for your party to see.
Try it sometime if you don't believe me.
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