You would think that after nearly 2 months of release the main problems with Diablo 3 would have been rooted out.
Aside from the server crashes, the inability to log in for days, the locking out of people who tried to gear a companon and the hacking that Blizzard by now should have managed to settle down the game to more inane bugs.
They’re turning out to be not so lucky with this one however…
Today we present to you: The Banning of Linux Users!
On the 22nd of June reports started to come in on the Diablo 3 forums that people were finding themselves banned. Case in point;
by william on Friday June 22nd 2012, 8:48
Well I’ve had Diablo running on my FreeBSD machine now for a couple of weeks and have a level 53 Wizard. I just got notice while trying to log in last night that I was banned, and when I checked my email, I hadn’t received anything from Blizzard. After I opened a support ticket with them, a short while later, this is what I received in email:
Account Action: Account Closure
Offense: Unapproved Third Party Software A third party program is any file or program that is used in addition to the game to gain an unfair advantage. These programs may increase movement speed or teleport heroes from one place to another beyond what is allowed by game design. It also includes any programs that obtain information from the game that is not normally available to the regular player or that transmit or modify any of the game files. I don’t run any programs as described above. I kite, I die, and then I repair. But hey it’s fun. – Official Forums
Very quickly afterwards more and more people were replying to this thread with the realisation dawning that all the banned users were running Linux Wine; an open source program that allows Microsoft Windows specific programs to run on Linux. Basically a Windows emulator.
A lot of people use Wine, Macintosh users included, so it’s a bit of a misstep by Blizzard here.
Especially as they refuse to allow appeals…
by william on Saturday June 23rd 2012, 16:19 Salutations William!
Thank you for contacting us.
An additional review of the action taken against the Diablo III account on not_really_real@emailaddress.com has been completed. We have confirmed our initial findings, and the account action will not be reversed or changed.
Actions are based on the violation’s severity and take previous violations into consideration. This action was taken in accordance with the Terms of Use (us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/) and our Diablo III Policies (us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-policies), which all players acknowledge and agree to before logging into the game.
We understand that these policies may seem harsh, but they are in place to ensure that every player is able to enjoy their time in Diablo III. Thank you for respecting our position.
Oh well. So much for the years of gameplay with Blizzard and all the $$. -Official Forum
Wow.
Meanwhile there are still plenty of active ‘bot’ accounts that are still running around on automatic farming for saleable gear.
One has to wonder what’s happened over at Blizzard HQ that has cursed them so badly. Granted it’s not been the worst it could be yet, but we’re watching them ever more closely as these events crop up and I must admit, while I was very keen to get into their mysterious Titan project, I find that I’m already losing trust that they won’t crumple under their own titanic weight.
Do you play Diablo 3 on an emulator? Are you still going strong or will you be taking a break until this issue runs it’s course? Let us know in the comments!
