They don’t tend to mention it when it happens, but every now and again the great winged beast that makes up the upper floors of Blizzard’s Irvine headquarters likes to push off its perch in a scene resembling that bit from Fantasia, swooping down on players in violation of Diablo 3’s Terms of Service and rending them limb from limb.
In the wake of the fell creature’s latest bloodbath, its masters have issued a reminder about the folly of third-party software – hacks or otherwise.
Blizzard are steadfast in their stand against not only hacks and bots, but also any software that attempts to do one or more of the following:
- Obtain information about Diablo III that’s not normally available to the player
- Transmit or modify the Diablo III game files
- Provide access to features or abilities beyond what is allowed by the game’s design
- Change how Diablo III interacts with Battle.net
To my mind, it’s not entirely unfeasible that an enterprising third-party developer might stick feelers into Diablo 3’s game files for the unambiguous betterment of its players, or – god forbid – that those players might want to play a modded version of the game once in a while. But Blizzard refuse to discriminate, preferring to condemn all third-party fiddling.
“As we’ve noted before, using this type of software not only undermines the spirit of the game, but can result in a permanent ban – and no Nephalem wants to be remembered by their dishonorable deeds within Sanctuary,” say the developers. “Not only that, but third-party programs can cause nasty technical problems, game-related bugs, and stability and performance issues with Battle.net… all of which can greatly impact your gaming experience as well as the gaming experience of others.
“This is why it’s important for us to make sure that players battle the forces of the Burning Hells on their merits, with an unaltered game client.”
Are they right to place such stricture upon Diablo in the name of fairness? Or could they afford to be a little less draconian about it?