Blizzard wields the Banhammer in Diablo III

[dlevere]

That sound you hear is Blizzard hoisting its mighty Diablo III Banhammer, and getting ready to bring it down in a mighty swing.

Shortly after restating their stance on cheating, Blizzard announces several thousand Diablo III players have been banned "for cheating and/or using botting or hacking programs."

We recently issued a round of account suspensions and bans to several thousand Diablo® III players who were in violation of the Battle.net® Terms of Use for cheating and/or using botting or hacking programs while playing.

In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play that’s essential to everyone’s enjoyment of the game, botting, hacking, and other such exploitative behavior can contribute to stability and performance issues with the Battle.net service.

As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and fun online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we'll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed.

[dlevere]

Diablo 3 Banhammer Dropped Just Before RMAH Goes Live

One thing Diablo 3 has that many other games do not is a 'Real Money Auction House' (RMAH), which went live today for players with two factor authentication. Of course, mere hours before that, Blizzard publicly announced they would follow through on their promises. Accounts they have identified as cheaters and botters have been banned 'by the thousands.'

No official number is out, but the news is indicating that as people get off of work and return home to their bot-wives and bot-kids they may find themselves without a valid Battle.net account (possibly tied to other games like SCII and WoW). Blizzard has also included many fixes to remove/dissuade many other exploits but if their past arcane attitude toward the 'gamers of the game' is any indication, thousands will be unhappy.

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