Blizzard Removes 400,000 More Battle.Net Accounts

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the Battle.net announcement that Blizzard has removed over 400,000 more accounts from their online gaming service, due to cheating. This comes after earlier similar action in June closed over 112,000 Diablo II accounts - this time, it's been announced: "In keeping with our aggressive stance against cheating, we have permanently closed 276,000 StarCraft accounts, 86,000 Diablo II accounts, and 41,000 Warcraft III accounts." It's also mentioned that Battle.net has "identified the Diablo II accounts with which a 'map-hack' program is being used", and banning is threatened if players don't stop, another sign of Blizzard's continuing, active anti-cheating stance.

Comments

400,000 Scum Bag Subsidy

[!the!bad!fish!]

400,000 is a lot of scum bags to ban.
What more, it takes a serious degree of selfishness and dedication to cheat, these scum are often heavy users.
Guess who's going to end up paying more?

Ah ha!

[heldlikesound]

This explains my dismal 0 - 41,000 WarCraft record!

I knew I wasn't THAT bad.

from the do-we-really-need-subjects? dept.

[InsaneCreator]

Blizzard Removes 400,000 More Battle.Net Accounts

Now that's what I call bad weather!

Re:Going after the wrong people..

[rhuntley12]

Cheating is cheating, it's too bad a small time cheat instead of a big time cheat got busted, but you were still cheating. ANYBODY cheating ruins the game for others.

Re:Going after the wrong people..

[OldMiner]

I play Diablo 2 and I lost an account for 'botting.'

So you cheat, as defined by the game's creators.

a dupe/hack problem that has been rampant in d2 for *years*

But you don't cheat in that way? What gives? Doesn't seem like you have an issue with playing the game on your own terms. Why don't you dupe if it's such a long standing issue that's simply not punished?

Good to See

[vjmurphy]

Always good to see Blizzard close the old barn door after the cows have gotten out, killed the local population, ran back to the barn to party, and left the barn again to poop.

Really, though, Blizzard really needs to tighten security on Battle.Net: I know I won't be buying their online game, knowing their record on security.

Re:Diablo 2 and cheating

[akiaki007]

Personally, I've ran the maphack while playing Diablo2 and I don't exactly feel bad about it. I don't do PVP at all, so no players are being cheated; just PVM, and we all know how mindless D2 monsters are. Quite frankly, I'd be hard pressed to classify the maphack as a cheat

Just because you don't call it cheating doesn't mean it's not cheating. By the rules, IT IS CHEATING. You can't decide what the rules of the game are. If you create it, then you get to decide. Since you didn't you either do what they say, or you're a cheater. There is NO grey area here.

Since D2 is a game that involves very little skill just a lot of mouse clicking, there is little lost; you are playing in the same 4 (or 5) areas over and over again, fighting the same exact monsters.

Then don't play.

Maphack actually increased my enjoyment because I didn't have to spend as much time playing the areas I do not like since I could navigate out of them quicker.

So because you cheated and got to the final goal quicker, it made the game more fun. Well, because someone else cheated and got the coolest items in the game, they had more fun. What's the difference? It's still *cheating.* Stop pretending you're better than all the other cheaters. Just because you do it at a lower level doesn't make you any better.

A thief that robs a bank or steals from a grocery store is still a thief.