Why Ban People Now?

[Bad Ash]

Why Ban People Now?

Not sure if there is a thread on this or not, but I got into a heated discussion while HC tristing last night about why the ban wave happened like it did.

The sides. My opinion was that soon the be released SC2 (Jan/Feb tenatively) will use B.Net 2.0 so they are setting the standards and actually starting to care about cheating so people dont think they can do this kind of t hing in 2.0. It makes it easier if people dont cheat at all because then you have no one to stop.

The two other sides.

First was that they did this because they are going to stop D2 all together (bull spit)

second was that they banned people to try and get the sales of WoW higher. And this one got me thinking because that is kind of ridiculous if that is the reason why, but for some reason it just feels very blizzardy.

What do you guys think? Why NOW ban 300.000+ accounts 10+ years after the game is out. If it was solely to drive the sales of their new game, that is seriously dispicable

 

[JustAPlayer]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

I don't get why people can't see the obvious. Let put it this way:

1) Blizzard like almost every big U.S. based company is suffering from the financial crisis.
2) Then the WoW expansion will be out very soon.
3) Blizzard are aware of d2loader since 1.09 and they have never been banning for it though they have been detecting it. They also know that more than 50% of all diablo players use it at least to xfer between characters.

Then we go from 3 to 1, banning half of the diablo players, will make at least 10% of them move to new WoW (I already know 5 of my friends who will start playing wow again). This means at least 0.5-1mil dollars more income for blizzard from the wow p2p, thus some relief from the crisis.

Everything happens for a reason.

Not my words but they sound realistic to me.

 

[krischan]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

Blizzard won't tell us their motives, not even if you start with ugly speculations. They might as well have done it because they are finally fed up with all the cheaters, perhaps they want to reduce bnet costs, by throwing out those which they don't want on bnet anyway, or they want people to buy new game copies. Perhaps you believe in the conspiracy theory that they are cooperating with the item shops, so they can sell all their stuff yet again.

Regarding D2Loader usage: Your own fault. See the other threads about the issue.

 

[Bad Ash]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

not saying that was acuusatory, but need to clear my name that i was in no way banned by blizzard and was online playing last night, hence this thread haha. I just find it curious that after 10 years of cheating (more ifyou count duping in D1) blizzard finally does this now and the only reason is probably trying to gain from screwing people out of their games. but yea, I was not banned just thought it was peculiar

 

[Uncle_Mike]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

not saying that was acuusatory, but need to clear my name that i was in no way banned by blizzard and was online playing last night, hence this thread haha. I just find it curious that after 10 years of cheating (more ifyou count duping in D1) blizzard finally does this now and the only reason is probably trying to gain from screwing people out of their games. but yea, I was not banned just thought it was peculiar

It's obviously a speculation, but my guess is that the only way for them to deal with various hacks and cheats was to ban the use of d2loader since they couldn't fight those hacks/cheats alone. Banning d2 loader resulted in such a huge banning spree.

 

[DayDream]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

It isn't actually 10 years.. they've done a warden sweep which banned another 300k about 2? 3? years back.

The timing was good on their part with the release of the game and all. I see nothing wrong with it. Ban hackers to get a good chance of them to switch over onto the expansion, wise choice on their part.

I remember back then they were all, "Wow,d2 is now dead with all these people gone." ...

 

[Robobaby]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

It's obviously a speculation, but my guess is that the only way for them to deal with various hacks and cheats was to ban the use of d2loader since they couldn't fight those hacks/cheats alone. Banning d2 loader resulted in such a huge banning spree.

I wont speculate on motives either but the idea that banwaves deter cheating is something of a falsehood. It works up to a point but to truly eliminate cheating, you have to return to the reasons why people cheat in the first place. If you never address this issue you will always have cheating. You can reduce it but that simply consolidates wealth amongst an even smaller minority that know how to cheat and get away with it. And giving that sort of power to such a small minority is never a good thing.

As you are probably aware, there are still baal bots out there. There are still floodbots and item shops are still around (despite an initial hit to many of their inventories). What the banwave has done is get rid of alot of small timers and raised the trade value of desirable items in the possession of cheaters that escaped the banwave.

I personally felt like I benefitted from alot of the cheating in this game during this ladder season - perhaps a strange thing to say but I could level my characters quickly by following a baal bot. If there werent any baalbots around or I couldn't get into a good run, I could always find an enchant bot and then my entire party and quickly get through some slogfests like the whole of act III.

I benefited from duped runes and indeed managed to put together more than 1 runeword this ladder because duping massively deflated the trade value of high runes - items which have such an astronomically low chance to drop I would not have a realistic chance of finding one in months or even years or moderate play. Because the trade value was so low, I could actually afford them by trading for mid runes that I could realistically find myself by running countess.

In the wake of the nov 11th banwave, I found it difficult to find a baal run. I noticed that the trade value of many items I wanted had gone up - to a point where I feel some of it is now inaccessible to me for the foreseable future. I don't know. I have all my accounts and all my high level characters but I feel the final push is now something I can no longer achieve.

Does this make any sense? It doesn't really bother me that other people cheat so long as it is not something like TPPK which is a seriously nasty peice of work that lays waste to the idea of ever playing public hardcore games. But cheats like that are easily fixable and have been for a long time (make all projectiles and damaging effects disappear when you TP instead of only some of them).

I have long maintained that I wished Blizzard would entertain the idea of a legitimate form of botting if not for diablo ii then for diablo iii - rather like Eve Online where you continue to make progress even when you are not playing. It takes the sting out of many long term goals (ie. the acquisition of extremely high end/pvp gear or levelling up past 95) and it gives you a shot of seeing and experiencing that part of the game which you would never realistically have a chance of experiencing because you cannot make the absurdly demanding time requirement.

This ladder was the first time I really got to pvp and not completely suck. My pvp bowa has a long long way to go since I cannot afford the charms but now I am paradoxically finding it hard to find many people at my level who can duel. It looks like they all got banned.

Hell I dont even mind duelling farcasters and tmc hdins right about now. I figure if you have to use FC or tmc to beat a scrub like me, even if I lose its a bit of a victory for me.

 

[boogyman19946]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

In the wake of the nov 11th banwave, I found it difficult to find a baal run.

11/11, that's a date we shall all remember.

 

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

i have long maintained that i wished blizzard would entertain the idea of a legitimate form of botting if not for diablo ii then for diablo iii - rather like eve online where you continue to make progress even when you are not playing. It takes the sting out of many long term goals (ie. The acquisition of extremely high end/pvp gear or levelling up past 95) and it gives you a shot of seeing and experiencing that part of the game which you would never realistically have a chance of experiencing because you cannot make the absurdly demanding time requirement.

. . .

 

[GoldenBird]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

AGree with the thing about how bots/dupers did definitely help out to level/actually get somewhere item-wise, but

i have long maintained that i wished blizzard would entertain the idea of a legitimate form of botting if not for diablo ii then for diablo iii - rather like eve online where you continue to make progress even when you are not playing. It takes the sting out of many long term goals (ie. The acquisition of extremely high end/pvp gear or levelling up past 95) and it gives you a shot of seeing and experiencing that part of the game which you would never realistically have a chance of experiencing because you cannot make the absurdly demanding time requirement.

No.

 

[snickersnack]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

OP:

I played another online game that had a "training room." You leave your character in there to gain skill levels and character levels slowly. The game also allowed you to have two instances running at once so that you could have one character training (or maybe at a stall in the marketplace) while you played another character. And you know what, people still power-leveled, fought each other's summoned pets for xp, and used a multiclient hack. The fact that measures were taken to make it easier to do some of the monotonous things didn't stop people from cheating.

So I'd say that I don't think your idea about an approved bot-type thing would make the game any more fun, and some people will find a way to cheat in other ways. No matter what you do, somebody will want to cheat.

 

[krischan]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

not saying that was acuusatory, but need to clear my name that i was in no way banned by blizzard and was online playing last night, hence this thread haha. I just find it curious that after 10 years of cheating (more ifyou count duping in D1) blizzard finally does this now and the only reason is probably trying to gain from screwing people out of their games. but yea, I was not banned just thought it was peculiar

Sorry for having been a bit harsh, but I'm fed up with all the complaints about bnet doing what they are announcing for years now. No matter how much time might have passed before doing it, it would always have come at an unfavourable for the cheaters. Instead they should be grateful that Blizzard let them get away with it for that long while they said all the time that using third party software can lead to a ban.

They can probably distinguish between d2loader and other hacks, but since Windows XP, you can start the game several times in parallel on one computer and since 1.12, with no CDs as well, so there's no need for hacked DLLs or d2loader anymore and the only remaining reason to use it is to launch other hacks.

 

[DANIEL3RD]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

I wont speculate on motives either but the idea that banwaves deter cheating is something of a falsehood. It works up to a point but to truly eliminate cheating, you have to return to the reasons why people cheat in the first place. If you never address this issue you will always have cheating. You can reduce it but that simply consolidates wealth amongst an even smaller minority that know how to cheat and get away with it. And giving that sort of power to such a small minority is never a good thing.

As you are probably aware, there are still baal bots out there. There are still floodbots and item shops are still around (despite an initial hit to many of their inventories). What the banwave has done is get rid of alot of small timers and raised the trade value of desirable items in the possession of cheaters that escaped the banwave.

I personally felt like I benefitted from alot of the cheating in this game during this ladder season - perhaps a strange thing to say but I could level my characters quickly by following a baal bot. If there werent any baalbots around or I couldn't get into a good run, I could always find an enchant bot and then my entire party and quickly get through some slogfests like the whole of act III.

I benefited from duped runes and indeed managed to put together more than 1 runeword this ladder because duping massively deflated the trade value of high runes - items which have such an astronomically low chance to drop I would not have a realistic chance of finding one in months or even years or moderate play. Because the trade value was so low, I could actually afford them by trading for mid runes that I could realistically find myself by running countess.

In the wake of the nov 11th banwave, I found it difficult to find a baal run. I noticed that the trade value of many items I wanted had gone up - to a point where I feel some of it is now inaccessible to me for the foreseable future. I don't know. I have all my accounts and all my high level characters but I feel the final push is now something I can no longer achieve.

Does this make any sense? It doesn't really bother me that other people cheat so long as it is not something like TPPK which is a seriously nasty peice of work that lays waste to the idea of ever playing public hardcore games. But cheats like that are easily fixable and have been for a long time (make all projectiles and damaging effects disappear when you TP instead of only some of them).

I have long maintained that I wished Blizzard would entertain the idea of a legitimate form of botting if not for diablo ii then for diablo iii - rather like Eve Online where you continue to make progress even when you are not playing. It takes the sting out of many long term goals (ie. the acquisition of extremely high end/pvp gear or levelling up past 95) and it gives you a shot of seeing and experiencing that part of the game which you would never realistically have a chance of experiencing because you cannot make the absurdly demanding time requirement.

This ladder was the first time I really got to pvp and not completely suck. My pvp bowa has a long long way to go since I cannot afford the charms but now I am paradoxically finding it hard to find many people at my level who can duel. It looks like they all got banned.

Hell I dont even mind duelling farcasters and tmc hdins right about now. I figure if you have to use FC or tmc to beat a scrub like me, even if I lose its a bit of a victory for me.

No offense here but whats the point of playing a game where you just let your toon stand in a room and level on its own? If your going to do that why not start out with lvl 99 characters decked in all the top equipment to begin with and the option to tick all quests as completed. Would take only 60 seconds to complete the game.

 

[Voorhees]

No offense here but whats the point of playing a game where you just let your toon stand in a room and level on its own? If your going to do that why not start out with lvl 99 characters decked in all the top equipment to begin with ...

Starting characters at 99 to avoid grinding? Proposterous! Blizzard would never do it! 55, maybe:whistling:, but not 99!
Sorry, coudn't resist.

 

[DANIEL3RD]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

Starting characters at 99 to avoid grinding? Proposterous! Blizzard would never do it! 55, maybe:whistling:, but not 99!
Sorry, coudn't resist.

Voorhees no offense taken, I was being 100% sarcastic in my reply to Robobaby.

 

[Thyiad1]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

second was that they banned people to try and get the sales of WoW higher. And this one got me thinking because that is kind of ridiculous if that is the reason why, but for some reason it just feels very blizzardy.

People who think this is a genuine reason for the bannings, need a tinfoil hat. D2 players does not = WoW player. Or they think everyone who plays WoW cheats at D2. That isn't a good piece of reasoning, is it?

11/11, that's a date we shall all remember.

Why? People got banned from a computer game for breaking the terms which they agreed to when they purchased it. No one died. Good grief, way to over react.

 

[Bad Ash]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

Ok let me explain something about this thread. I am not complaining about b.net being less crowded. I agree that people who cheat should be banned.

What I dont get is WHY after 10 years is tehre a 2nd huge ban spree? (first i remember). If they cared then why not ban once a year, every 6 months, every month? Something is going on internally at blizzard where a lightbulb came on and they said lets ban people for X reason. They didnt do it because they were sick of it. they had a reason, so this thread is to discuss why NOW. WHAT is that reason? I am not whining about people getting banned and I did not get banned but they had to do it for a reason and I dont t hink to drive sales is ridiculous of a thought where I need to be wearing a tin foil hat.

Blizzard didnt wake up on 11/11 and say "!@#$ THIS LETS GET EM BAD I AM SICK OF THE CHEATERS"

to address some other peoples problems that i've read in this thread I do agree. people cheat because blizz's game has a problem. High runes are virtually impossible to find legitimately, gettin to 99 is extrodinarily hard since .09 and I guess thats it. fix those problems and cheaters decrease

 

[boogyman19946]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

Why? People got banned from a computer game for breaking the terms which they agreed to when they purchased it. No one died. Good grief, way to over react.

maybe your taking this too seriously, are you not? I'm not overreacting. Rather they banned me or not, I don't care much. Diablo occupies a minimal portion of my life. The reason why i said that is because it was the 11th day of the month just as 9/11 was. Your right, it's just a computer game while then, it was reality. I'm not in grrief over the items I had in-game or how much time i spend collecting them. I am in "grief" over how stupidly I lost my privilages to play with other people.

 

[UnAuthorizedx]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

I've seen many posts dating before 11/11 that have discussed banning/temporary disconnect in order to filter players to WoW for monthly payments. Personally I don't doubt it seeing as how blizzard ceased long ago to care about d2, the bot spamming, and illegally bought items.

 

[Thyiad1]

Re: Why Ban People Now?

11/11, that's a date we shall all remember.

Re read your own initial post.

By your own phrasing you are likening the ban incident to 11th September 2001 when over 3000 people, DIED. Do you honestly intend to liken a few bans to that amount of death, destruction and terror?

The reason why i said that is because it was the 11th day of the month just as 9/11 was.

Don't be preposterous. That date is never going to be just a date or just a day. It will always be associated with that atrocity. Perhaps you aren't old enough to either remember that day or aren't aware enough to realize the repurcussion that are still going on even now. If so then I hope you learn some history at school.

And "good grief" was not indicating you are in grief. It was an exclamation of how astounded I was at your initial post.

@ OP - I was trying to respond to your initial post and found it particularly difficult to cut it so I did not have to resort to quoting the whole thing. It was the single line that I was responding to and I did not for one moment think you were condoning the bannees. Hope that's cleared that up.