Blizzard Bans Thousands from Diablo III

Video games have one thing over most other forms of entertainment: the Ban Hammer. And Activision/Blizzard has followed through on is threat to use this on people who cheat at Diablo III.

Yes, imagine if Penguin could ban you from its books if you skipped to the end? Or if Paramount could ban you from looking at its Blu-rays if you posted spoilers? Well, this is the power of video games.

Yesterday, ActiBlizz said, "If a Diablo III player is found to be cheating or using hacks, bots, or modifications in any form, then as outlined in the Diablo III end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play Diablo III with his or her account."

And boy did it mean it. Today we're told:

"We recently issued a round of account suspensions and bans to several thousand Diablo III players who were in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use for cheating and/or using botting or hacking programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play that’s essential to everyone’s enjoyment of the game, botting, hacking, and other such exploitive behavior can contribute to stability and performance issues with the Battle.net service.

"As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and fun online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we'll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed."

Banned. How does that feel?