GM item scandal rocks WoW

After reading the vast majority of these comments, i came to a conclusion that seemed to be missed in the vast majority of your opinions.
To understand this from the perspective of a wow GM, you have to put yourself in a hypothetical RL situation where most of our actions are monitored by a so called "higher power".
Now, in this hypothetical fantasy world...you wake up one morning and check your mail. In you mailbox, you find a strange package among your average letters and such. After further examination, you realize there was a mistake...this wasnt your package, it has a different address on it. You notice that it ALSO has a return address to god. So out of curiosity, you open this package and find a shimmering purple t-shirt with a tag on it that reads " With a single thought this shirt grants you the power to KILL everything around you within a 30 yard radius".
At this point in time, you are faced with a good or bad choice. Either plot the heist of the century that entails the destruction of some of your gods most complicated designs for effortless gain OR return the item, and go about your hard, honest work...which up to this point in time, has proved to be rewarding. In my opinion, both of these choices will grant you some degree of fame.
It is a simple question of character, and if you chose the path of destruction, you shall be smitten as such.
~Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. -MLK

Hmmm, my main question....What happened to the GM that GAVE him the item in the first place? Someone just randomly stuck temptation in his face, what would you do? I personally would think that it would be fun to try it on stuff for a joke (probably not a 25-man raid though). But I haven't seen anything from anyone that says the GM who made this STUPID mistake (?) has been dealt with. I would think that something like this would be a biiig drama within the company. Soooo, what happened to him? They banned the player for giving in to temptation, but they fire the GM for being a tool?

"Second, none of these variables that people are bringing up even matter because the player in question has done nothing wrong.

Game over."

Game over indeed. I agree that the GM at blizz should be held responsible for his part but to claim that Karatechop is faultless is ludicrous.

This item is quite obviously a GM item just by it's abilities alone. Hell just the fact that it was a SHIRT WITH USABLE BONUSES should tip even the most noobish person off. Add to that the fact that the tooltip flat out calls you a cheater. How can that be any more clear that this item was not meant for player hands... esp a lvl 13 or so lock?

Quite simply it sounds to me that Karatechops guildie did exactly what should have been expected of Karatechop himself. And that would be to report it higher up the chain of command and make sure that it's legit before using the item.

Instead Karatechop proves his guilt by taking what is clearly to all but the most brain dead idiot a gm item and one shotting the hardest achievements in the game. With no attempt whatsoever to contact a gm and find if it's legit or not.

Karatechop obviously has been in the game long enough to know how blizz feels about cheating. He was obviously around for the botting purges so how can he tell anyone with a straight face that he was just "joking around" by getting gear and achievements that was way out of their league.

Add to that the fact that I really don't buy the "fact" that the others that went in with him didn't know he had it. They knowingly went super underpowered into one of if not the HARDEST places in the game. Now, if they didn't know he had this, why were they even there?

I don't know about you but I tend to waste as little time as possible on fruitless character suicide. The first thing I do every time I do an instance or raid is check gear. Even guildies. Every competent wow player knows there is few things more disappointing than joining a group and finding out that you just wasted 2 or 3 hours with undergeared people.

I guess my point is that, yes, Blizz deserves some fault, but to me Karatechop and those that exploited it earned their ban's by knowingly using something that they had no business getting. Any responsible leadership would have at least taken the couple of hours to verify with a gm that it was legit.

Temp ban's for the entire guild may have been a little much though.