We all know that Blizzard is not afraid to use the ban hammer on gold farmers and all sort of cheaters, so in a continued effort to ensure a fair and fun online experience for all Battle.net players, it has expanded its efforts to remove cheaters from StarCraft and Diablo II. Blizzard has identified and closed (banned their CD keys for 30 days) over 350,000 StarCraft and Diablo II accounts which were found to be using third-party hacks.

In keeping with its aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, Blizzard banned over 114,000 accounts in Europe in the month of April. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

In keeping with its aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, Blizzard banned over 105,000 accounts were closed and 12 million gold was removed from the game economies in Europe, Korea, and the US in the month of November. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

In keeping with Blizzard's aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, it banned over 76,000 accounts were closed and 11 million gold was removed from the game economies in Europe, Korea, and the US in the month of September. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

In keeping with Blizzard's aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, it banned over 59,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 22 million gold from the economy across all realms. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

In keeping with Blizzard's aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, it banned over 30,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 30 million gold from the economy across all realms. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

In keeping with its aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, Blizzard have since patch 1.10 banned over 5400 accounts and suspended 10700 more for participating in activities that violate the game’s Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items. Such actions can severely impact the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

As part of Blizzard's continuing commitment to keep World of Warcraft free from abuse, it has permanently banned more than 2500 accounts during the last several weeks which were involved in the use of cheats and/or hacks using third-party software or were otherwise violating our Terms of Use. Blizzard will continue to take an aggressive stance to ensure that the gaming environment remains an enjoyable place for its customers by actively pursuing those who would seek to violate the principle of fair-play, as well as breach the Terms of Use and policies in this way.

"Over the recent weeks we have been investigating the activities of certain individuals who have been farming gold in order to sell it in exchange for real world currency. After researching the situation, we have issued permanent suspensions to over one thousand accounts that have been engaging in this practice. We do not condone such actions and will take decisive action as they are against our policy and damage the game economy as a whole. We will continue researching this matter. If you suspect someone of taking part in said gold farming, please eMail the report to wowgm@blizzard.com."

Blizzard keeps its users on a tight rope as over 300 accounts have been banned so far. "We have recently verified that certain individuals were using third party "bot" programs to automate their characters in World of Warcraft. A bot is used to play an account non-stop, allowing its user to accumulate money, items, and experience without actually requiring the user to be physically present to play the game. The use of bots is a violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and is absolutely prohibited. Therefore, the accounts identified as having used bots have been banned."