The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
Random Acts of Kindness
by Vonya
Recently, the Ego team decided to transfer our oldest toons to Drenden and play with the good folks over at Aetherial Circle. (That would be the “Bloggingest Guild in WoW”, according to the Pretty-Much-Always-Right TJ)
We did it partially for the possible opportunity to raid, but mostly because that’s a pretty concentrated mixture of awesome folks. People create alts just to hang out with these people, and with good reason.
However, when I transferred Vonya across, I found that someone already had her name.
“Peanuts*!” I thought.
But fair is fair, so I did a fair bit of mental acrobatics and renamed her Vonyari. She can still be called Vonya, and it has the additional benefit of sounding exceptionally Centauri, satisfying my inner geek.
All was well until I spent my badges to get my hammer upgrade.
Obviously it needed to be enchanted, so the other Ego bloggers cranked into high gear and we all did some power-farming of primals. High fives were had all around, many promises of homemade cookies and muffins, and then my alt mailed the whole kit and kaboodle to Vonya.
Did you catch that?
I didn’t. Not at first. I mailed them to VONYA.
NOT Vonyari.
I was mad enough to spit nails. It was my own dadblasted fault, I should have friended myself on my alt the instant she arrived. I should have been more careful – that was a lot of primals. I should have done a million things, and the plain truth of the matter is that I didn’t do any of them.
I put my brain on autopilot and mailed them off to someone who wasn’t me.
A bit of research showed that ‘Vonya’ was a low level druid. Probably an alt, or perhaps an abandoned account? I could only hope. We re-farmed the Primals, and as the weeks went by, I began to hope that perhaps I’d get a sizeable package in the mail once the 30 day limit on unopened mail had passed.
Until one day, Fio mentioned in guild chat that ‘Vonya’ had logged on.
With extreme trepidation, I sent the stranger a whisper, mentioning the mix-up and hoping for the best.
You can all probably guess where this was going. You’ve all met them. “Strangers” – the people who are more than willing to flip you the bird because they’re separated by a nice, safe wall of interweb tubes and pixels. The folks who find no greater pleasure than to troll, to crush the people around them. The ones who, given an upper hand, will gladly use it to slap around anyone beneath them.
I am more than pleased to tell you that I was wrong. And that if you thought that last paragraph was a prediction, you were wrong, too.
Not only were they polite, kind, and nice, they’d actually logged on earlier that day, noticed the problem, and RETURNED THE WHOLE PACKAGE.
The icing on the cake? They actually needed those primals. Those exact primals. If I were them, it would have seemed like a gift from the gods, this mis-mailed package holding something that was not only valuable, it was exactly what they needed.
And they mailed them back before I’d ever contacted them. And they refused payment**.
And they did all of this without knowing who I was. It’s not like I parade around with my blog name on my sleeve, like BRK. They didn’t do it because I’m a semi-popular WoW blogger (popularity not guaranteed). They didn’t do it because they were in my guild (they weren’t). They didn’t do it because I am best friends with a GM (I’m not) or because I threatened them with the Wrath of Doom (I might’ve).
They did it because that’s how they roll. That’s the kind of person they are.
Vonya of Drenden? I tip my hat to you. It was a distinct pleasure to have met you, and I hope that what goes around really does come around threefold.
* This may not be a 100% accurate representation of the verbiage used.
** I actually split the primals in half and mailed them back. Not accepting payment through whispers is one thing. Having someone shove a mailbox full of primals in your face is quite another. =]
May 20th, 2008
[...] I just read this story from Ego: Random Acts of Kindness. [...]
May 20th, 2008
Awesome story. Same deal, here. I meant to type “99″ in the silver column when bidding on something really cheap. I typed it in the gold column and it happened to be when I *actually* had a hundred gold… The GM I contacted right away said “no way to rescind bids”. The person (added right away as a friend) showed up the next day and said they would return the money “as soon as the auction is over”. I had a funny feeling about this, but I suggested they “please take a tip of 5 or 10g, for the hassle”. Not only did the person send all the money back… They also sent the item! Another reason the game gets referred to as WoW!
May 20th, 2008
[...] Resto Shaman guide is coming soon, but until then, go check out Ego’s post. And to Vonya of Drenden – hats off to you for doing the right thing and being an honest [...]
May 20th, 2008
Every now and again, good deeds do go unpunished. Good deal.
May 20th, 2008
It certainly is refreshing to know there are still genuinely good people out there who realize an honest mistake and give it back.
I’m sure if other things get mistakingly sent to them they’ll definitely send it back now.
May 20th, 2008
I’ve got a story that’s almost as awesome. While leveling my hunter in Blade’s Edge Mtns, I came across two horde priests who were questing together at my level. My server is a PvP server, and I don’t normally appreciate being jumped, so I don’t normally jump others (i’ve been ganked uncountable times questing on my priest ’cause apparently we’re easy marks
) so I left them alone and continued about my business. Immediately after I had killed my next mob I find myself being Mind Controlled and the only thing I can think of is “here it comes…”. Instead of the expected Holy Fire/SW: Pain combo, or being made to run into 3 or 4 mobs, THEY BUFF ME WITH PW: FORT AND SHADOW PROTECTION!!! Then they ran off into the sunset. If there had been a sunset, that is. They buffed my pet too. On a server where groups ganking an individual is the norm, my mind was blown. It’s hard to be nice to the other faction when every encounter turns into a PvP event while questing, but I try to make sure I’m not the one firing the first shot.
May 20th, 2008
Fabulous story. Thanks for publishing it!
May 21st, 2008
I actually did the same when I consolidated my characters on to 1 server. But I have never seen the character which I presume is a level 1 placeholder with “my” name. So 30 days later it bounced back to me.
We run the occasional Sunwell pug raid for trash raiding. While for our guild we have a rule alts pass to mains on patterns/weapons it doesnt apply to any pugs. Sunfire Robe pattern passed, A pug mage won the roll and was promptly awarded the drop. A few seconds later he says he is just a alt and it would be a waste and who would be a main that he can give it to. Our Guild master had rolled 2nd and was soon a very happy mage. Value of pattern? 25k gold or something around that, pretty much whatever the market will bear.
May 21st, 2008
I’m really glad this worked out for you.
I lost several primal mights the exact same way, unfortunately I never did get them back :/
Overall I do feel most WoW players are pretty decent people, at L70 at least. I’m even PUGging a lot now, although I check gear. The idiots and jerks are just very visible.
May 21st, 2008
That’s awesome to hear! Feathermoon US had a thread up recently about a very similar story. I’ve been on the receiving end before, but never of anything so costly!
May 21st, 2008
I did the same exact mistake, except it was a ton of the guild’s MC mats to craft armor. I just accidentally flipped an “a” and an “e”. I totally freaked out. Luckily they bounced back 30 days later. I lost a bit of credibility managing the guild bank on that one.
May 21st, 2008
I did this also. I created a new priest (inspired by this blog, and a few others) and had to add one letter to the name I wanted. I forgot all about that as I went about twinking with 18 slot bags and 500g. When I went to the alt and saw that I did not have any mail, I realized instantly what I had done. Still waiting to see if it all bounces back to me.
Ah well, life’s lessons and all that…
May 22nd, 2008
It’s my understanding that if you add the name to your ignore list, the mail will automatically be bounced back.
I haven’t tried it myself so the info might be off.