Game developer Blizzard Entertainment has maintained a hard line stance against players who cheat to cut corners and profit in the company’s immensely popular PC game, World of Warcraft. In keeping with this stance, Blizzard announced this week that just over 18,000 player accounts have been permanently closed over the course of past three months. These account closures are the direct result of player activities that violate WOW’s rules and regulations as they are detailed in the game’s Terms of Use. Account closure means that a player’s account is deleted in its entirety, wiping out all of the characters created and played in the account. Once a player’s account has been closed for violation of the game’s Terms of Use, he is banned from opening another account with Blizzard, effectively exiling the player from Azeroth permanently.

The overwhelming majority of the closed accounts were the result of the detection of automated third-party programs. Such programs are being used by some players to assist them in collecting massive amounts of gold and valuable in-game items. The individuals using these programs, often referred to as “farmers�, can greatly impact the economic stability of a WOW realm by artificially flooding the marketplace with farmed gold and valuable items. Farmed gold and items can be sold in offline marketplaces, such as at online auction sites and retail stores, for use in-game. This allows many users to profit from the cheating of other players. For this reason, farmers have also been accused to ruining overall game enjoyment for many players.

Blizzard has noted that, in light of the 5 million active World of Warcraft players, the 18,000 account suspensions represent only a miniscule percentage of the WOW community. Players have been reminded that the sale or trade of any World of Warcraft content, including in-game gold, items, and even whole players characters, constitutes cheating and is a violation of the game’s Terms of Use. If caught violating these terms, a player may be permanent banned from the game.

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