Blizzard to Ban and Suspend StarCraft 2 Hackers in the "Near Future"

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If you've been hacking in StarCraft II or are considering the hacking-lifestyle, consider yourself--and your Battle.net account--on the clock. Blizzard has announced that it will begin "suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future."

Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in Blizzard games very seriously, and that's no different for StarCraft II. If a StarCraft II player is found to be cheating or using hacks or modifications in any form, then as outlined in our 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 StarCraft II with his or her account.

As is usually the case with mass banning, companies tend to wait before enforcing bans in an attempt to catch as many hackers as possible in one fell swoop. The company might lull them into a false sense of security, if you will, by seemingly not taking action. Since StarCraft II ownership is linked to specific Battle.net accounts, a ban will require the purchase of a new copy of the game along with creation of a new account.

There have been claims of map and drop hacking since the game launched. Hopefully, this should remove these rule-breaking players from the ladder environment and also render the hacks useless. I sincerely hope none of our readers have been engaging in any hacking. That would make me sad.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 14, 2010 12:16 PM

    I've never played anyone that was hacking, and if they have they were really bad hackers.

    If the account gets banned then do all of their other games on that account get banned too? That would be a nice kick in the sac.

    • reply
      September 14, 2010 12:33 PM

      That would be interesting if they banned their whole B.net account, since now all Blizzard games are tied to that one account. I think they should, if you play unfair there are consequences. Losing your 80 Shaman because you hacked in Starcraft 2 would be harsh, but I think Blizzard would be justified in doing that.

    • reply
      September 14, 2010 12:46 PM

      Wondered that too. From a legal perspective, that better be covered as a possibility in the bnet T&C statements. That's not a common practice so I'd be willing to bet a court would throw that out if Blizz did it without additional warning behind being buried in legalese.

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