Blizzard has recently banned “thousands” of Diablo III players that have been using bots on their way to auction house riches. The developers cite an “undermining of the spirit of fair play and technical problems” as the reasons for the rash of bans.
“We’ve recently issued account bans to several thousand Diablo III players who were found to be using botting programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play, botting, hacking, and other forms of cheating can also cause technical problems with the game as well as contribute to performance issues with the Battle.net service,” said Blizzard on the game’s forum.
And while Diablo fans believe botting to be one of the reasons that the economy and auction house have been a letdown for the game since launch, Blizzard feels otherwise.
“This isn’t our first rodeo,” said the Diablo III Community Manager “Lylirra”. We have been actively monitoring for exploitative behavior since the game launched and taking action as needed. We haven’t been very vocal about that process (though we have made a few announcements for larger ban waves in the past), but that’s something we’ll be working to change and improve upon going forward.”
You can find the full massive thread over on the Diablo III forums.
