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Blizzard Deletes 112,000 Diablo II Accounts 87

Posted by simoniker from the lack-of-prospering-hits-cheats dept.
pixelblur writes "An update over at fan site DiabloII.Net points out that Blizzard has deleted 112,000 Battle.net accounts for Diablo II." The official post from the Battle.net team in part reads: "Numerous.. ..accounts were tied to the use of a hack or cheat program while playing Diablo II on Battle.net. In keeping with our aggressive stance against cheating, we have permanently closed over 112,000 of these accounts and documented the CD keys with which they were used." This clean-up comes ahead of the forthcoming 1.10 patch for the seminal title.
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Blizzard Deletes 112,000 Diablo II Accounts More

Blizzard Deletes 112,000 Diablo II Accounts

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  • are these the so called 'mule' accounts, where people make a new character just to hold all their loot?

    • Re:mules? (Score:2, Informative)

      by thumperward ( 553422 )
      Nope. Muling's both legal and harmless (okay, it harms the economy in that it reduces scarceness over time, but it doesn't result directly in the death of other characters like cloning greatswords does). ...but you'd know that, had you read the article instead of frostpissing.

      - Chris
    • A mule account is a character or account a person creates just to hold their loot. However most Diablo 2 players do play their mule characters through the different missions just to get the loot from them.

  • 112,000 ??!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by water-and-sewer ( 612923 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @12:00PM (#6162148) Homepage
    That is one *hell* of a lot of cheaters. Way to go guys.

    • Re:112,000 ??!! (Score:5, Informative)

      by KDan ( 90353 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @12:53PM (#6162774) Homepage
      You're assuming a 1-1 mapping between accounts and people. Many people have a lot of accounts - especially if they use cheats or tradehacks and such. So divide that by at least 10, probably more. Still a large number, but not so huge.

      Daniel

      • Re:112,000 ??!! (Score:2, Interesting)

        by NeB_Zero ( 645301 )
        but banning the keys makes those 112,000 accounts not so ready to return
        • They didn't ban the keys, they just deleted the accounts. They're just threatening to ban keys of repeat offenders.

          Daniel

          • permanently closed over 112,000 of these accounts and documented the CD keys with which they were used.

            Way to go Blizzard!! Now all those cheaters can just create another character and continue cheating!!

            But honestly, no where before signing up does it ever say that a player will be permanently banned for cheating (e.g. make them buy a new game by not letting their cd key play)

            I would raise hell and want a $50 check in the mail if Blizzard canned me from the site,

            consumer laws apply to everyone, not
            • I'd bet the game works just fine with the keys banned - in single player mode. I haven't seen an agreement for online play that did not allow banning for hacking...

  • My account has been frozen!!!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by engineerdude ( 680288 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @12:01PM (#6162170)
    OHHHH MANNNNN! What am I going to do with those virtual Bracelets of Arganoth I bought off ebay for $500?????? Farewell my NPC love.....til we meet again on a 1.10 patched server....

  • Good (Score:2, Funny)

    by Zelet ( 515452 )
    Good because cheaters ruin games.

    • Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)

      by malakai ( 136531 ) * on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @01:22PM (#6163091) Journal
      What's even more funny about this reply is his signature:
      ...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.? - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)

      So, who's speaking up for the 112k accounts that just got terminated? You think Blizzard was 100% accurate in numbers that massive? Some poor little kid just lost 4 months of hard earned levels/items.

      mmmm... smell that hypocrisy...

      -malakai
      • I think they would be careful considering those are 112,000 PAYING customers. I doublt they would sacrafice that much revenue without being pretty damn sure.

  • Why just infrequent account purges? (Score:5, Informative)

    by HalfFlat ( 121672 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @12:03PM (#6162202)
    I still can't see why they couldn't have gone through and deleted duplicated or 'bugged' items on the servers automatically. Give each item a unique id; every night check to see if the unique id turns up in more than one inventory; delete all but one.

    The fact that they haven't conjures up various conspiracy theories, or (in my opinion the more likely option) demonstrates that they really don't care that much about the problem despite their press releases.

    Further, the two years without a patch, despite the myriad insecurities brought to light, gives further evidence of a lack of caring. Again, despite their PR face. While this new 1.10 patch which will rejuvenate the game and all will be most welcome (presuming it ever comes), this in no way precluded security fix patches in the interim.

    Patching and server-side item clean-ups would have been much more effective and much more welcome than the rare and irregular account purging that they seem to engage in instead.

    • Re:Why just infrequent account purges? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Nagatzhul ( 158676 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @12:26PM (#6162471)
      I think the last major patch was in December. That hardly qualifies as two years. Also, a patch came out with the expansion.

      If you play on Battlenet much, it downloads them automatically before you connect (Yeah, a "duh" I know, but this is someone who thinks it has been two years since the last patch.).
      • The last major patch, 1.09 was released on the 20th of August. So, there is some small exaggeration in my statement, but close enough, surely. Perhaps I should have said 'nearly 2 years'.

        On the 9th of December, the very much minor patch to the patch, 1.09d, was released, and this was the last patch of any sort for Diablo II from Blizzard.

        Source: Blizzard Timeline [blizzardnews.net].
    • Umm........ v1.07, the expansion release version, is only about 2 years old RIGHT NOW. There have been 2 major revisions since, and a larger number of minor revisions.

    • Re:Why just infrequent account purges? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Babbster ( 107076 ) <aaronbabb@gm a i l . com> on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @01:00PM (#6162836) Homepage
      The fact that they haven't conjures up various conspiracy theories, or (in my opinion the more likely option) demonstrates that they really don't care that much about the problem despite their press releases.

      Further, the two years without a patch, despite the myriad insecurities brought to light, gives further evidence of a lack of caring.

      Forgive me for asking, but why SHOULD they care? Diablo 2 has been out for three years and the expansion has been out for two.

      Now, I'll examine whether or not they do indeed care:

      Since the game's release, people have been able to play through the entire game easily offline (in other words, no significant bugs that prevent such), they've been able to do matchmaking on battle.net AND they've even been able to play games hosted on battle.net servers. During that time, they've also been provided with new special items, enhancement and correction of unbalanced skills and repair of the serious playability bugs that existed. Even more relevant, Blizzard is STILL trying to address the problem of cheaters as is clearly evidenced by THIS STORY.

      In short, Blizzard cares more about Diablo 2, a product over two years old that is now being sold at discounted prices, than most companies care about games in their first month of release. More importantly, they're demonstrating that they care about the people who are still playing by getting rid of cheaters and providing better customer care than some of the companies running MMORPGs which you actually have to pay monthly fees to play.

      Even shorter: You're wrong.

      • Re:Why just infrequent account purges? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by HalfFlat ( 121672 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @01:21PM (#6163084)

        Forgive me for asking, but why SHOULD they care? Diablo 2 has been out for three years and the expansion has been out for two.
        Nothing to forgive ... of course they're not obliged to care (though it'd be nice of course.) If they don't care, but claim that they do in press releases, then it is a bit hypocritical, which is generally regarded as a bad thing.

        Regarding the rest of your comment though, Blizzard really haven't done much at all for the game since since 2001. While they claim to be addressing the problem of cheaters, this claim is belied by their actions. To reiterate: very occasional account purges are not a very effective way of dealing with the problems of Battle Net.

        With the exception of the new features in the 1.10 patch, Blizzard do seem to have done the bare minimum possible to keep Diablo II running on Battle Net. Given they're still selling the game, making a profit on it etc. while touting the secure on-line play as a feature, it really does seem reasonable that they should be obliged to do exactly that. Again, while it would be nice if they did more, this is all we can really expect. Oh, save they they did promise regular new runewords, craft recipes and the like that never did eventuate.

        The 1.10 patch stuff though, I concede, has been taking resources that Blizzard didn't have to commit. Until the recent round of QA testing, it seems they've had one employee working on it for the last 18 months. In absolute terms this is a non-trivial amount of money, but it does sort of pale in comparision to the ongoing profits Blizzard are making in new sales. No judgement from me here on this issue.

        In short: if they cared as much as they claimed to, there would be regular patching of security problems with the game, and the cloned and bugged wreckage of the online economy would never have been an issue. They would have also followed through on their promises of game maintenance (eg, runewords etc.) Conclusion: they're less committed than they claim.

        • Battle.net is still a free service.

          Why hasn't Diablo 2 gotten a lot of attention/bugfixes/patches by Blizzard over the last year or so? Not many people are buying Diablo 2. So how does Blizzard pay an army of developers to fix the problems in Diablo 2? Well, either from the company coffers or the profits of some other game. If I were Blizzard, would I commit more than a few developers to these issues? No.

          Would I claim I was battling cheaters when I deleted over a hundred thousand cheater accounts from my
        • "Regarding the rest of your comment though, Blizzard really haven't done much at all for the game since since 2001."

          That's a little thing we all like to call "crunch time for War3," and then a few months later, its expansion. You may say, "Yeah, well, that was Blizzard Irvine; Blizzard North developed Diablo II," but... they don't round up the entire development team of a certain game to work on a patch. I'm pretty sure noone does. They gather a handful of people from either company who work bit by bit, a

      • Re:Why just infrequent account purges? (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        It's all about public relation...
        Blizzard is known in the online gamers community to "allow" cheating and to not really care about it, in a couple of months ( years ? ) they will sell World of warcraft, a MMORPG where cheating is forbidden, so they have to show "hey look we are taking care of cheating, we are banning them !".

        I used to play diablo2 pre extension ( mind you it has been 2years now ) and they were already cheats/hacks around, I have reported one bug / hack ( I am not the only one, basically ev
      • Offtopic question, but I have to ask...

        I strip sigs so that I can't see them. You should too!

        Why should I do something like that? I'm seriously curious to know why you believe that everyone should strip sigs.
        • Actually, it's one part that I find signature lines silly on a site where you display not only your user ID but also potentially your e-mail address and website; one part the fact that sometimes while reading a comment I'll get to the sig, find it annoying and consider the comment more unfavorably because of that; and eight parts that I found it amusing that it would be there but that I would never see it again after the initial entry. :)
    • Items do have unique IDs. This was introduced in 1.09 I believe, maybe 1.08. That's one of the big problems, how late this solution was. All the Stone of Jordans (the currency in D2 because in classic you could basically buy them and they are extremely rare.) The other is that the dupers have found ways around this. Especially items that the dupers create, although I have no idea how they create completely new items.

      Unfortuantely, I don't think they could server-side item clean. This task would be beyond d

      • This task would be beyond daunting. They don't even seem to have or want to devote teh resources to cleaning up inactive accounts. To sweep through the ?millions? of accounts and cross-check the 20-30 items average each has would be insane.

        No it wouldn't. There are several algorithms that would make this a simple thing to code. The actual running of the program (or query, as it's probably a database on the back end) would take some time, but it's not like they're under any deadline except one they set f

    • Great, they delete hacks and dupes only, then those players just hack and dupe more stuff, no lesson learned. Deleting the account sends a STRONG message, especially if Blizzard makes good on threats of banning keys. If you steal something, and they just take the item that you stole, you'll just do it it again, if they stick you in jail, you MIGHT learn a lesson. (or a more apt example for bnet, if you're the towns drunken jerk, taking off your pants in public and offering crack to school children, if th
    • This way it'll hurt. The purging will in no way provide a real punishment for cheating.

      This way it at leat costs them their game license. Next time don't cheat!

  • Ebay (Score:4, Interesting)

    by moc.tfosorcimgllib ( 602636 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @12:51PM (#6162751) Journal
    What ever happens to locked out copies sold on e-bay?
    • Oh, don't worry about them. They can just download "1337 k3y c0dez generator"s off of Kazaa or the peer-to-peer program of your choice. Then Blizzard's support staff will begin to get emails like this: "your key generator doesn't work right, i can't play online. i will never buy a game from blizzard again".

    • Re:Ebay (Score:2)

      by Frac ( 27516 )
      What ever happens to locked out copies sold on e-bay?

      Caveat Emptor. Don't buy them on ebay then.
      • >> What ever happens to locked out copies sold on e-bay?

        > Caveat Emptor. Don't buy them on ebay then.

        So I should buy them from the Yahoo! Stores then? :-)

  • Map-Hack (Score:3, Insightful)

    by KDan ( 90353 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @12:59PM (#6162825) Homepage
    They're being a bit silly there. From playing occasionally, I can vouch that about 1/2 of the people who still play Diablo 2 (so much time after it was first released) use maphack as a convenience. And I think that most of these will simply stop playing if maphack is disabled. So one of two things. Either:

    1) They're trying to scare people, cause they can't really do shit to detect maphack actually, or
    2) They don't want to support D2 anymore and are trying to chase away all those people who still play to decrease the load on their servers (and hence how much it costs to maintain them)

    But if 2) is correct, then why are they bothering to release so many new features in 1.10? Which leaves possibility 1), or even possibility 3) (they're just stupid).

    Daniel
    • After the way Bungie snuffed out Myth 2, I can see your second point being much more concievable. I don't think that they care much, they have the money already and at this point, it's maintenence which every developer knows is not much fun. Adding all the new features might just be a way to get some of the minimal stuff out the door or to bring people back to the game, or perhaps to run out their last print of the game. Who knows, but I do not put much stock in the need to prevent cheaters in D2. I think i

    • Re:Map-Hack (Score:3, Interesting)

      by thumperward ( 553422 )
      I've never used Maphack. Then again, I don't play until I reach level 99 or rely on trading for duplicated Uniques, like "1/2 of the people who still play Diablo 2".

      Maphack may be benign but it's still a lame cheat. I've been PKed exactly once outside of a duel in several hundred hours of Realm play, so I don't buy that it's necessary. Good riddance to several hundred thousand maphacking Burizons if they leave because they actually have to guess what their companions are wearing.

      - Chris
      • 1) Maphack has nothing to do with PKing (not in my experience anyway), everything to do with getting maps (duh).

        2) No one is forcing you to play until lvl 99. Some people enjoy it. What kind of spoilsport are you to tell them they're wrong? Are they harming you? No.

        If Blizzard goes after cheats who use tradehacks and other evil things to rob people blind of their hard-earned equipment, GOOD. These people get their enjoyment out of hurting other people.

        If Blizzard goes after people who use D2hackit to
        • 1) Maphack has nothing to do with PKing (not in my experience anyway), everything to do with getting maps (duh).

          What a lot of drivel. Maphack's primary use is inventory-sniffing, that's why people get so attached to it. Rare are the BNet players who bother venturing into areas such as the Spider Forests where one actually NEEDS a map after they've gotten to the other side of them. The vast majority of players simply hang around open areas like Act 5 or do boss runs, and the only reason they use Maphack i
          • What a lot of drivel. Maphack's primary use is inventory-sniffing, that's why people get so attached to it. Rare are the BNet players who bother venturing into areas such as the Spider Forests where one actually NEEDS a map after they've gotten to the other side of them. The vast majority of players simply hang around open areas like Act 5 or do boss runs, and the only reason they use Maphack is so they can immediately quit if anyone with hacked / super equipment hostiles them.

            While I can't argue about i
            • Because I actually talk to people in-game, in the chat rooms and on the forums. And if you don't find it fun, go play another game: That excuse is abut as legitimate as using duped super-jewellry because you don't think [i]dying[/i] is very fun.

              - Chris
              • When will you get it through your thick little skull that I don't use duped items or shit like that? Do you have enough grey matter inside that skull to understand that there can be maphack users that don't fit into your personal definition of what maphack users should look and act like?

                Grow some brains, dude.

                Daniel
                • nah man, you are wrong. it's just as bad as duping items yourself. you're using a third party program to cheat, end of story. hope you get banned.
              • I always love how people complain about all the cheats that they don't use. If they use a cheat/hack, then that particular one becomes OK for whatever reason they've created to justify it.

                You'll never win an argument with these people or convert them. I find it best to ignore them and play with non 'power-gamers.'

                --Jeremy

    • Re:Map-Hack (Score:3, Interesting)

      by brettw ( 27391 )

      And I think that most of these will simply stop playing if maphack is disabled.

      You're kidding, right? I can't believe anybody who is still playing D2 after all this time would quit over maphack. There are two big reasons I can think of that people use maphack:

      1. Trying to see what other's equipment is. Come on, is this really that important?
      2. Speeding up Mephisto/Baal Runs. Assuming anybody really does this that much anymore, it will be nerfed during the next patch anyway, as they've stated they
      • You're missing out on the main uses. I've actually never used it to look at other people's equipment - I don't give a shit about this use. However, after doing all the damn acts so many times, I'm not interested in blindly finding my way around the act having to kill every one of the pesky little buggers in every corner. I happen to hate doing the Arcane Sanctuary in A2, it's my least favourite map. With maphack, good news, I don't have to anymore - I can find the right tomb without it.

        Maphack basically m
        • Um... Don't you have to go through the Arcane Sanctuary to GET to the right tomb? You need the porthole to GET there, you need to kill the Summoner to get the porthole, you have to go through the AS to GET TO the Summoner.
          • It's not very hard to go into a game and ask someone to get you the waypoints you need. Hell, in rushes you go through the entire game, in all three difficulty modes, without getting a single waypoint.

            See, you and me have a completely different way of playing the game. I used to do the same as you, but then I got bored of it. Now I got a bit quicker, skipping the parts which I know I don't like to spend more of my precious time on the parts which I know I like. I obviously am not hurting you since you wer
            • Because people like you (i.e. rushers who've never even *seen* large chunks of each tileset) are the ones who eventually get bored / lucky with their lot of endless runs for equipment and experience and then start selling things on eBay, spoiling the economy by maintaining dozens of mules worth of equipment for bartering and player-killing. You aren't even playing in the spirit of the game as-is. Blizzard rebalanced skills with each patch to make the game competitive for *everyone*, and cutting off avenues
              • Mate, I saw every chunk of each tileset when Diablo 2 came out and I played it plenty for several months first in single and then in multi-player, until I had seen so much of each tileset that I could still see it when I blinked. I've probably seen more of each tileset than you have.

                As for ebay, I don't sell shit and, like you, I think people who do (and especially people who buy diablo 2 equipment on ebay) are cunts (the sellers) and idiots (the buyers). I have 4 characters in one account, and none of th
                • Hey, why get mad at Sammy Sosa for using a corked bat while you're at it? Or get mad at bodybuilders who use steroids? After all, they are just competing on their own terms - why get mad at them?
                  • And where have you seen Diablo 2 Competitions with cash prizes? Or people whose job it is to play Diablo 2?

                    The point of Diablo 2 is enjoyment by playing the game. Do you get mad at backyard body-builders who use steroids? The only thing to be mad at there is that the stupid buggers are destroying their bodies in the process. In the case of maphack, there's no permanent damage that I'm aware of :-)

                    Daniel
                    • I've played in videogame competitions with cash prizes, though not Diablo 2 (I've never played it). I've also played in games and enjoyed having a high score or ladder rank - things I assume Diablo 2 has.

                      The point is, any sport or game becomes unfun for those competing fairly when others compete unfairly.
                • "Rushes"? Hehe, sounds like fun! After playing the game through about six times in single player (Twice thru with the same necro, three and a half with the same barb, a few others once) I can see how this would be more what people would do.

                  It would make a site to see. I wonder what the Quake Done Quick guys are up to?
                  • Rushes"? Hehe, sounds like fun!

                    When you see a lvl 4 character in Nightmare Act V expecting you to do all of the work to get him to Hell mode, you might start to think differently about the matter.

                    Then again, I like watching them die, over and over and over again while the 2 or 3 people that actually play the game work on clearing the area.
            • Never claimed you were bothering me. I really don't care what people do, as long as it doesn't disrupt my game. I personally HATE rushing, to me it defeats the purpose of playing.

              But then again I almost completely gave up on bnet, and stick to single player, at least until 1.10
              • I don't like rushing either except under certain circumstances. Unless I'm making a character for a very specific purpose (for instance right now I'm making a nova-sorc for the specffic purpose of rushing other people because my other sorc just doesn't cut it), I try to at least play through the normal difficulty without rushing, because that's what's fun about diablo 2. So far, out of 4 characters in this latest round of diablo-2 playing (having lost the account I used a few months ago, as I can't remember
        • Fair enough. I'm not sure you're representative of those on battle-net now. Certainly maphack doesn't hurt me--I don't duel and don't care to compete with others for items.
          • I never said I was representative. What I'm implying is that the "bad" people who need to be controlled are not "the people who use maphack", but "the people who use other cheat programs". So banning people who use maphack is stupid.

            Daniel

            • I never said I was representative. What I'm implying is that the "bad" people who need to be controlled are not "the people who use maphack", but "the people who use other cheat programs". So banning people who use maphack is stupid.

              I thought your original point was that tons of people would stop playing if map-hack was disabled (in some way, via bans or whatever). That's what I was questioning (being a few months removed from playing much on bnet I am not even necessarily disagreeing, just questioning)

              • Oh, I believe those who use other hacks as well as maphack will likely stop playing too if maphack gets removed.

                Daniel
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)

    by BMonger ( 68213 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @01:05PM (#6162906)
    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if 112,000 voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

  • Awesome (Score:3, Interesting)

    by lh0628 ( 517993 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @01:28PM (#6163169)
    This is great news for any loyal legitimate D2 gamers. Being one myself, it's very frustrating dealing with all the dupe/hack/bot activities going on on BattleNet. After 4 or 5 yeras of release, DiabloII can still climb up to the top TEN game sale per week. That shows how good the game is. And Blizzard is still releasing patches after patches showing that they do still care about us gamers fans.

  • Bah! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ah, D2 who cares... All the real hardcore gamers I know still play Warcraft II BNE :)

    • Re:Bah! (Score:3, Funny)

      by crisco ( 4669 )
      Na, your friends are pansies. The real hard core gamers are playing WarcraftII over Kali.
      • Kali! Now that was fun. Best $20 I ever spent, I say.

        Kali has been revived, too. I don't know how worthwhile it is, but check out http://www.kali.net to find out.

  • Allofasudden, +X to light radius items mean something. Maphack gets rid of the "fogofwar" and that means a lot for characters that rely on avoiding enemies to survive.
  • From the bottom of Blizzards annoucement;

    As always, thank you for your continued support; with your help we have been able to keep Battle.net a fun and safe place to play Blizzard games.

    If they wanted it to be safe, they'd use some Raid on those monsters and confiscate all the nasty weapons that people carry around with them.

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