UPDATE: The banhammer has come down, with Blizzard posting early Tuesday morning that “several thousand” accounts have been banned or suspended.
That sound you hear is Blizzard his mighty heave Diablo III banhammer and get ready to knock him down with a mighty swing. Yesterday, out of the blue, the publisher posted a stern warning that it will begin suspending and banning Diablo III players “cheating or using hacks, bots, or modifications in any form…for the foreseeable future.”
It’s a bit strange that the company is issuing such a public warning to cheaters as a precaution; in the past, the company simply banned cheaters by the thousands before announcing its actions. The increased focus on cheating may have something to do with the imminent launch of Diablo III‘s auction house for real money, which has already led to Blizzard requiring two-factor authentication for those using the service.
Most commentators are already praising Blizzard’s announcement, hoping the ban will curtail commercial spam in the public chat channel and raise suspicions about auction house sales. But some players worry that the bans will wipe out legitimate players who inadvertently exploit in-game bugs without any explicit hacking.