Remember the Washington Post writer who got his World of Warcraft account banned because he asked a private company to do the levelling for him? Well, his account got banned because Blizzard has every reason to do it. As you know, sharing passwords and accounts with others are prohibited.

Now, what if you've honestly done nothing wrong and then all of a sudden, your account got banned. Such is the problem faced by user Zurm over at WoW's official community forum. The player mentioned that he contacted in-game GMs and even informed Blizzard's Account and Billing Services about the matter but their replies haven't been helpful: "Uh, okay. The report has been filed."

Blizzard forum moderator Vrakthris addressed the post by explaining how things like these are handled by their team. The blue poster remarked,

When a possible compromise of your account is reported, your information is forwarded to our investigation team, there it will wait in queue until it can be addressed. How long before your issue is resolved is dependent upon how many others are in queue before you and the complexity of your case. Unfortunately, although Game Masters can confirm that your issue was forwarded we are unable to provide you with an estimate on when it will be resolved.

Despite that, Vrakthris added that there are cases that the investigation team are able to restore things just within hours after the incident report. Some cases, however, may take three to five days to resolve. All of these, according to the moderator, is dependent on your case's complexity, and on how many other reports are queued before yours.

Remember Mike Musgrove? He's the Washington Post writer who paid some people from IGE to do his levelling for him in World of Warcraft. Well, since power-levelling is frowned upon by Blizzard, this new update from Musgrove was to be expected.

In his latest blog post, Musgrove announced that he has been booted from WoW. Just for 72 hours, though. Blizzard sent Musgrove an email informing him of his account's suspension, charging that "the registered user of the account has shared account login information and allowed others to access the account."

Musgrove himself has no idea if the suspension came about because of his write-up or if Blizzard found out about the power-levelling on their own (possibly through the use of high-level incantations and dead livestock). Still, it's good to know that Blizzard is still doing what they can to enforce the terms of use that they've laid down for World of Warcraft players.

Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post admits that he doesn't get World of Warcraft. He claims that although he's tried to like the game because all of his acquaintances - sister-in-law included - are into the game, he just can't seem to play into the wee hours. His solution? Hire other folks to do the grunt work for him.

Yep, Musgrove has a report that takes a look, a newbie guide if you will, to the murky world of outsourcing and power-leveling services in World of Warcraft. Known companies like Shanghai-based IGE (the largest outsourcing one around) are looked at, and Blizzard Entertainment's problems with power-leveling services are looked at.

It's a "welcome to the Internetz!" type article; Up on Washington Post so that elder folks can get clued in on what you young'uns (and young-at-heart) are doing with all your free time.

The argument for power-leveling services? Here's IGE's chief operation officer, James Clarke:

The practice is analogous to someone who maintains a beautiful garden but doesn't always have enough time to perform all the yard work himself, and therefore hires a gardener. ...Some purists might call hiring a gardener 'cheating,' but we believe most people are quite comfortable with it.

Yeah, that argument. Not only is it a service, it's the livelihood of thousands of underpaid third-world gamers who'd rather get (under)paid to improve some idiot's Paladin than have to push some papers, mop floors, or make coffee.

The end of the tale? Musgrove got his character back after spending US$ 24. His character, Johnmullet is now Level 20, he's now enjoying the game with his family. Thing is, he's now wondering if he'd enjoy the game more if he spent a bit more than 24 bucks.

If you're curious about his adventures into having underpaid third-world gold-farmers improve his in-game ego, feel free to read Musgrove's entire report via our "read" link below. Oh, and before we go, just one thing: Musgrove who's character is in the Ursin server, is looking to get rid of his gear before Blizzard shuts him down for violating their terms of service.