April Fools = Not Funny (aka Darth Vader and his 56k modem)

Today, before leaving for school, I decided to log onto WoW in order to gather screenshots for my upcoming visual aid speech on the Eternity Matters guild for my Oral Communications class. Things were going fine, as I had captured a couple of screenshots for my first character and was loggingoff to switch to the second character. The login seemed normal enough until I was literally blasted out of my seat by the sound of a 56k modem making a connection. I was baffled by this, and asked in guild chat if anyone else had experienced this, to which the reply was "no". I thought maybe it was something going on in the background, as I had one or two sites open behind the WoW screen, and shrugged it off. Second character captured in a screenshot and repeat logout/login procedure for the third. Again with the modem sound. By this point, I was beginning to get a little freaked out and thiking that maybe someone had hacked my account, so I opened up a GM ticket, and repeated the procedure for the rest of the characters while waiting. Once I had gotten my screenshots, I logged back onto my main character, and saw that I still had 20 minutes to wait until my ticket was answered, so decided to do some google searching on the subject while talking to my best friend to see if she had encountered the same thing. I think she either thought I was nuts, or trying to play a mean April fool's prank on her because she hadn't experienced it when switching her characters. Just then, I got an IM from some random joe in the game and again with the sound effects. This one was Darth Vader breathing, and really got me scared, as the player messaging me had a name something akin to MajorlyPwned or something along those lines. I promptly closed the window, and resumed my google search. That was when I had found the culprit here (reprinted below for those who don't wish to clicky on the link):
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News

04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

March 31, 2009, 05:24:53 PM by Pazza
Quick reply regarding the April Fools Joke:

1. I am sorry if this scared the crap out of you. That wasn't my intention. I thought it would simply raise a brow and go "wtf?!". I guess that was my mistake. So if you want a formal apology. I'm sorry.

2. A quick way to stop the sounds which doesn't involve modifying code. Go into your addons directory and navigate to "WIM/Sounds" and delete the 2 files aping1.wav and aping2.mp3. You will no longer be bothered by Darth Vader and his crappy modem.

3. If you feel I betrayed your trust, don't. Or do for that matter. The choice is up to you. Whether you use WIM or not doesn't affect me. I don't get paid for the time I put into it. In fact, it costs me money. I've invested about $2,000 into it over the past 2 years in hosting to make it easily accessible for everyone.

4. It's April 1st everyone. I even wrote this storyline for it...




StarWars

Episode VII
The Wrath of Dialup

As the rebellion continues to strengthen after teaming up with both the

Alliance and the Horde to help destroy the empire, Vader tries to

sneak below radar by infiltrating Azeroth and tainting the minds of many

World of Warcraft players. Unfortunately, Vader's plan is foiled! After being

destroyed so many times, the Death Star is no longer equipped with

broadband, so Vader's only option is DIALUP! Vader's determination leads

him to continue his quest hoping that users will have their sound muted

as to take over their Warcraft experience undetected! God... What a noob!



Never Fear however, to help combat against Vader and his evil storm

troopers, you might get lucky and have R2-D2 come to your aid!



Good luck noobies round the world and may the force be with you!
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Thanks a lot Nubcakes for nearly giving me a coronary at 42.

Shortly after I found this, my ticket was answered, and I explained the problem, and told the GM what/who the culprit (WoW Instant Messenger) was. I apologized for bothering him, closed the IM, and logged off and hurried out the door to go to school, all the way vowing that the next person to prank me today would regret it.