Even as Battle.net expands to Macs and gets ready for the full launch of "StarCraft 2," moderators are keeping watchful eyes on players in older titles like "Warcraft 3" and "Diablo 2." In fact, 320,000 of those players just lost a lot of privileges thanks to a Battle.net crackdown on abuses and hacks.
"We've recently banned over 320,000 'Warcraft III' and 'Diablo II' accounts that were found to be violating the Battle.net Terms of Use," a representative posted on the Battle.net forums. "If this is a first offense, the CD key associated with the banned account will be suspended for 30 days, while repeat offenders will see their keys banned permanently. All account ban decisions are final."
Blizzard also encourages current players to report cheaters through its Hacks Report Form so that more ban hammer justice can be doled out.
"These types of activities can severely impact the stability of our servers, and we'll continue to aggressively monitor Battle.net in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful effects of cheating," Blizzard stated.
It would be interesting to see what the breakdown of offenses was across the board. People cheat at everything all the time, but 320,000 accounts is quite the small city of users.
Do you know anyone who got caught up in the ban net? Do you think Battle.net does a good job of policing itself? Sound off in the comment section below.