World of Warcraft Cleans House, Bans 100,000 Cheaters

Recently, we learned and reported that the #1 MMORPG of all time, World of Warcraft, lost 2.9 million subscribers over the past three months and was now sitting at 7.1 million—a gigantic pool of players, but five to six million short of World of Warcraft’s glory days.

Well, today, that number dropped down to 7 million; all thanks to the banhammer.

That’s right, in an unprecedented wave of six-month bans, Blizzard has suspended the accounts of 100,000 players.

The bans were mostly an effort to clean up Warcraft’s PvP, which has long suffered from the scrutiny of Bots—artificially controlled characters who grind for their owners, which would generally stomp on the faces of whoever they were up again. However, these server-wide bans also applied to people using DPS rotation scripts, crafting bots, gold farming bots… you know, the works.

We’ve recently taken action against a large number of World of Warcraft accounts that were found to be using third-party programs that automate gameplay, known as “bots.” We’re committed to providing an equal and fair playing field for everyone in World of Warcraft, and will continue to take action against those found in violation of our Terms of Use. Cheating of any form will not be tolerated.

Regardless, this is a pretty ballsy move from Blizzard. Yes, banning cheaters is one of those things we just kind of expect our MMORPG’s to do, but to do so many so many, all at once? That takes guts, because it’s both a hit to their bottom line AND It’s going to build resentment among the hundred-thousand people they banned. I don’t think it’s unfair to say, even, that most of those people won’t be coming back.

Unless they have multiple accounts or something, which seems likely enough, I suppose. Either way, Kudos for you, Blizzard!