News - 5,000 Starcraft 2 cheats banned, now Blizzard go after the big boys

[jim]

Well, they do if you wake up at night wondering whether you're still the only one with the "2500 wins in a row" badge.

[pauldarkside]

Then Blizzard needs to be less hands-on with gamer's epeens

[spoon_]

Definitely agree with Blizzard, their game and their rules.

EULA plays the key part here, if you agree to something you haven't read that doesn't make you innocent in case of breaking the rules.

[.havoc]

The initial reports from Blizzard, a week or two back, said very clearly that both single player and multiplayer gamers would be banned for hacking/cheating.

Whether they changed that or not, I don't know.

http://kotaku.com/5661492/is-blizzar...n-singleplayer

Scroll down to the updated section...

"Blizzard has issued the following statement to Kotaku on the matter:

Blizzard Entertainment is not banning StarCraft II players just for using single-player cheats. There's been some confusion in the last couple of days about the suspensions and bans meted out to players caught cheating in StarCraft II. It's important to point out first, that many of the 3rd-party hacks and cheats developed for StarCraft II contain both single- and multiplayer functionality. In order to protect the integrity of multiplayer competition, we are actively detecting cheat programs used in multiplayer modes whether there are human opponents or not.

That said, players who opt to use any type of 3rd party hacks do so at their own risk — there are already built-in cheat codes for StarCraft II single-player that can be used safely. Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating seriously and will continue to aggressively crackdown on players who cheat in our games."

Like i said i do find it quite a heavy handed tactic but I do agree that they have every right to defend their IP and everyone else's gaming experience. End of the day they are banning a few for the good of the many. Each to their own I guess...all ultimately boils back to that age old argument of "owning" the software, which isn't the case. Still, good to see action being taken against the online cheats.

[jim]

To be honest, that says exactly the same thing.

To summarise - many cheats have single and multiplayer portions, so even if you use one in singleplayer we'll still ban you

[kalniel]

To be honest, that says exactly the same thing.

To summarise - many cheats have single and multiplayer portions, so even if you use one in singleplayer we'll still ban you

I would summarise further:
If you alter the game in a way that breaks the EULA even in singleplayer we'll still ban you.

Using cheats that don't break EULA is fine.

[jim]

Thing is, it's not as if that restriction in the EULA is a new thing. And it certainly wasn't introduced in reference to hacking/cheating.

However they might back it up technically/legally, it's fairly clear that they're being a bunch of self-absorbed arses. Blizzard are basically the Apple of the gaming world.

[kalniel]

However they might back it up technically/legally, it's fairly clear that they're being a bunch of self-absorbed arses. Blizzard are basically the Apple of the gaming world.

Quite an apt comparison in some ways. Both have an idea (backed up by $$$ research) that they have created the best way for you and the wider community to enjoy a product, and therefore act to restrict changes to that that might lessen your own or someone else's enjoyment, because there is a direct harm to the company from people attributing behaviours and poor experience to a product that are the result of something out of the company's hands.