Blizzard, in an attempt to foil cheating in Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty, decides to ban players. Again.
Yeah, you read that right, this is their second wave of bannings, as the first wave was in September. Affecting hackers and cheaters, Blizzard has taken it upon themselves to make the game enjoyable for those who actually play the game legitimately.
Blizzard Explains:
“We recently issued a new round of account suspensions and bans to StarCraft II players who were in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use for cheating and/or using hack programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair competition that’s essential to play on Battle.net, cheating and hacking can lead to stability and performance issues with the service. As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and secure 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.”
The SC2 gaming community’s reaction was quite angry, as some were banned mostly on the use of single-player trainers to play the single-player portion of the game. Many were adamant in their innocence as they claimed never to have used hacks and trainers in the online portion of the game.
Here is a quote from CheatHappens, a premier trainer and hack manufacturer website:
“One of the CheatHappens users, gm0ney, claimed to have never played a single multiplayer game, but was suspended for 14 days for using the trainer program provided by CheatHappens. The email he received from Blizzard listed the reason as: “Offense: Terms of Use Violation – Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized cheat programs (‘hacks’)”.”
While I’ve used trainers myself before (Yes, I’ll agree, it’s a stupid thing to do), I’ve never been too stupid enough to use them on online games, and never with games that have an account service like Steam or Battle.net. It’s too easy for the companies that manage those services to ban you. Honestly, I feel no sympathy for those who used single-player trainers on a game that requires you to log in to a service–it’s just common sense. Even more common sense is to not use trainers in the first place, as Starcraft II has in-game cheats.
But I can see why some would want to use them, as Starcraft II has achievements and trophies for the single-player portion of the game that translates into special perks or rewards for the multiplayer component.
So all you aspiring pro-gamers out there, stay smart and don’t cheat! Even on single-player! Just play the game legit, kick some nub butt, and get better the hard way, through practice!
More info from articles [via Cheat Happens, ShackNews Article 1 & Article 2]
