Recently Blizzard launched their first mass banning of Starcraft 2 players caught cheating in online games, but those h acking the single player portion of the game have also found themselves c aught up in the action. Those found to be using single player hacks such as trainers in the the campaign and in skirmish games against the AI have found themselves suspended from their Battlenet accounts for a couple of weeks, or even frozen out completely.
In an email response to a Starcraft 2 player appealing against the ban, Blizzard point out that success in the single player aspect of the game affects the achievement score of the player, which in turn affects their reputation in the online competitive world. Blizzard have been strict in the wording of p ast press releases, saying "if a StarCraft II player is found to be cheating or using hacks or modifications in any form, then as outlined in our end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play StarCraft II with his or her account."
CheatHappens reported yesterday that users were being banned for using one of their trainers, a program that allows players to activate cheats to give grant themselves invincibility, infinite resources and to reveal the map in campaign games and single player skirmishes. The CheatHappens Content Editor Chris O'Rorke has responded to the bans by saying "as long as these cheats don't affect anyone but the person using them, why does anyone care? It's not affecting any type of online ladders or standings or interrupting another person's game. Some people argue that “achievements” can easily be gained by using cheats and this is the reason for banning people. Again, achievements are meant to mark a certain individual's milestones within the game. They have no bearing on multiplayer standings, matches or games, regardless of what Blizzard might say."
What do you think? Should players be suspended or banned for modding their single player game?
