Blizzard has terminated the accounts of thousands of suspected cheats on its BattleNet servers for Warcraft III and Diablo II, following the service being plagued by unfair play.
An amazing 12,000 Warcraft accounts were annulled, for either cheating or using hacked versions of the game.
The development team posted the following on its website:
“Numerous additional accounts and CD keys were tied to the use of a hack or cheat program while playing Warcraft III or Diablo II on Battle.net. In keeping with our aggressive stance against hacks and cheats, we have permanently closed over 12,000 Warcraft III accounts and over 131,000 Diablo II accounts. We have also banned over 7,000 CD keys from ladder play for one month and banned over 1,000 Warcraft III CD keys from ladder play permanently. Please note that repeat offenders risk having their CD keys disabled, which results in permanent removal from Battle.net for their copies of Warcraft III or Diablo II.
“We continue to monitor the Warcraft III and Diablo II realms for malicious players. We regret having to employ these extreme measures; however, certain unscrupulous players have impaired the game play of the Warcraft III and Diablo II communities as a whole, and severe action continues to be warranted and required. We would also like to reassure everyone that a false report filed by one player against another will not result in the actions described above.
“We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you would like to report additional instances of hacking or cheating, please contact us at hacks@blizzard.com. Thank you again for your continued support.”