Recently we at TechSmart reported that StarCraft II developer Blizzard had banned a number of players who had been using illegal cheats and hack programs within the multiplayer end of the game. The company had also executed legal action against three developers which are believed to be behind the development of these programs. 

 

StarCraft II lead producer Chris Sigaty recently gave more insight into the intentions behind the bans during an interview with ShackNews, revealing that it may not be as much hellfire and brimstone as players may think.

 

In fact, Sigaty revealed that Blizzard are exclusively looking for players using these programs to their advantage in the multiplayer arena. 

 

“It's not that we have a zero tolerance policy. The excuse I've heard from people is that if they are using these trainers in singleplayer, they should have a right to do so. What is singleplayer in the game is a perception thing. If you play the campaign, we're not really looking for you.”

 

“However, I will warn you that, while we haven't started down this path, it is possible that we can identify people that use some cheat to get 100 achievements in a matter of seconds. We have the ability to go and look at that data and say that person is going to be banned or we'll take away all of their achievements.”

 

Sigaty noted however, that Blizzard is keeping a watchful eye on the multiplayer facet of StarCraft II. 

 

“If you play multiplayer, even if there's not a human opponent, even against the AI in a multiplayer mode, we will look for that, find it, and could potentially hand out bans or suspensions.”

 

Overall however, Blizzard appears to have good intentions behind this hard handed action, adding that it benefits the player base. 

 

“We're not being completely draconian, but at the same time, be wary of these trainers and hacks because it's not just protecting the game, though we are adamant about that. We do whatever we can to get cheating players out of the ladders. It's also to protect players. The people releasing these hacks might be including keyloggers and other sorts of hacks on your system.”