A much overdue mass banning

[Hammerskjold]

Agreed. I largely stopped playing except for ladder racing, and quit even that when people figured out team strategies would win, as I don't know anyone who would be willing to devote the time to stay in the race.

I could be wrong on the exact chronology, but as best as I could remember it, a team strategy was figured out fairly early (for that first ladder race to 99). Some folks and Bliz (though I kind of doubt that) may have originally thought of it as a single marathon race, but it turned out a relay race was what happened.

Not that it really mattered, because again IIRC, there was no clear set rules against a team relay strategy and the prize wasn't exactly a million dollars. Wasn't it a t-shirt, some collectors autographed edition of the game, and maybe innernet fame? (Was it RUSSBARB team that won or GER-BARB? I remember the 2 names, but not the specific one who won.)

(the realms were pretty clean in the early, pre-LoD days). It rivals Diablo original now, albeit in a vastly different manner.

Excuse my bluntness again, but how early is early? D2 classic online might have been 'clean' at the very early times, but IIRC there was dupes before LoD appeared. A Rare item called Carrion Wind or Carrion Song comes to mind. With LoD, the itamz changed (high runes) but the big cheat remains the same (duping). Edited: It was Carrion Song rare class gothic bow iirc.

Personally, I don't think Blizzard's actions were extreme enough. I'm not sure what I'd have done differently, or what could have been done differently (I'm not quite the codemonkey most of my friends are), but surely they could have used a little more force than the paltry amount of too-little, too-late bannings that did occur (those before the current batch were also too late).

My reference point comes from playing Magic: the Nerdening competitively on a local level.

And that's the kernel of the popcorn. Our reference point. Too close analogies to real life tournaments and events fails, because with real life there really could be a perma-ban. (I mentioned 'D2 as a casino' in a previous post, but I think it's still too clunky of an analogy. A real life casino has higher stakes and must have beefier security measures. )

Approaching online video game cheating solely from the perspective of a real life tournament, or that of a programmer, in my opinion does not work.

You say 'regardless of the medium', I'd say the medium is pretty far from regardless.

How extreme of a measure are you willing to go, in an on-line virtual game medium? Could bliz just do an IP ban as well as a CD key ban? What happens if a cheater switches ISP? Maybe Bliz should asks for a photo ID to be entered into a database when someone buys their game? Maybe DNA samples? And when someone is caught cheating, maybe it could go into court and the offender be issued monitored ankle bracelets that alerts the cops whenever the offender go within 5 ft of a computer?

Aside from legalities issues, the only thing louder that screams out is the practicality and the issue of cost. As in, who the hell will pay for all these things? I've read articles and essays on how the on-line world and the real world have grey areas and convergence, but pardon the pun. Let's get real.

The only time people pay real attention to these things is when there's real consequences like theft of real money\property, or real life abuse\injury and death. We could argue that time might be stolen, rules of fairness might be broken, but dollar to donuts most people's care level would drop when the medium happens to be 'virtual online video game'.

A revolving door policy is probably the only way bliz could choose, or anyone else in their shoes for that matter. At the end of the day D2 is not a casino, and B.net is not a real life tournament that happens in meatspace. It's a video game that can be played on-line, with virtual risks and rewards.

Bliz protects virtual risks and rewards with virtual security and threats of virtual punishment. It's make believe security for a make believe medium. They probably do perk up with real security the second they perceive someone or something threatens their real rewards, but otherwise it's all par for the course.

I'll sum up all my above rambling in one sentence. It's just business, and business is all about the Benjamins. If you don't factor that in, nothing bliz does D2 security wise makes sense. Once you do, the penny will drop and things be a lot clearer. Like say, Bliz probably does count cheaters as part of their customer base in D2. Or at least, count their money.