Players of the popular Diablo III game using cheats and hacks had their accounts suspended —or banned— by the game’s maker, Blizzard Entertainment.

 

Blizzard said Tuesday the cheating —which involved not only hacking programs but also bots— violated the Battle.net Terms of Use.

 

“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,” it said.

 

While it gave no further details, it indicated the number of players whose accounts were suspended or banned numbered in the “several thousand(s).”

 

A separate article on PC Magazine said Blizzard is working on several security-related changes to Battle.net accounts, for the launch of the Diablo III real-money auction house.

 

It said players are now required to have a Battle.net authenticator or mobile authenticator attached to their account to add to the balance or send auction house proceeds to an account.

 

Blizzard also recently issued its first patch for Diablo III to address client issues and roll out bug fixes, it noted. — TJD, GMA News