Blizzard Deletes 112,000 Diablo II Accounts
pixelblur writes "An update over at fan site DiabloII.Net points out that Blizzard has deleted 112,000 Battle.net accounts for Diablo II." The official post from the Battle.net team in part reads: "Numerous.. ..accounts were tied to the use of a hack or cheat program while playing Diablo II on Battle.net. In keeping with our aggressive stance against cheating, we have permanently closed over 112,000 of these accounts and documented the CD keys with which they were used." This clean-up comes ahead of the forthcoming 1.10 patch for the seminal title.
OHHHH MANNNNN! What am I going to do with those virtual Bracelets of Arganoth I bought off ebay for $500?????? Farewell my NPC love.....til we meet again on a 1.10 patched server....
I think the last major patch was in December. That hardly qualifies as two years. Also, a patch came out with the expansion.
If you play on Battlenet much, it downloads them automatically before you connect (Yeah, a "duh" I know, but this is someone who thinks it has been two years since the last patch.).
"All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." - Ashleigh Brilliant
You're assuming a 1-1 mapping between accounts and people. Many people have a lot of accounts - especially if they use cheats or tradehacks and such. So divide that by at least 10, probably more. Still a large number, but not so huge.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
Further, the two years without a patch, despite the myriad insecurities brought to light, gives further evidence of a lack of caring.
Forgive me for asking, but why SHOULD they care? Diablo 2 has been out for three years and the expansion has been out for two.
Now, I'll examine whether or not they do indeed care:
Since the game's release, people have been able to play through the entire game easily offline (in other words, no significant bugs that prevent such), they've been able to do matchmaking on battle.net AND they've even been able to play games hosted on battle.net servers. During that time, they've also been provided with new special items, enhancement and correction of unbalanced skills and repair of the serious playability bugs that existed. Even more relevant, Blizzard is STILL trying to address the problem of cheaters as is clearly evidenced by THIS STORY.
In short, Blizzard cares more about Diablo 2, a product over two years old that is now being sold at discounted prices, than most companies care about games in their first month of release. More importantly, they're demonstrating that they care about the people who are still playing by getting rid of cheaters and providing better customer care than some of the companies running MMORPGs which you actually have to pay monthly fees to play.
Even shorter: You're wrong.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if 112,000 voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.