"World of Warcraft", Blizzard Entertainment's flagship massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), takes on in-game cheats with an iron fist as it recently banned more than 10,000 players. With the rising number of bot players becoming a nuisance, Blizzard felt it their obligation to shut down offender accounts.

Like Us on Facebook

According to a post in Blizzard's Battle.net forum, the company has decided to "take action against a large number of World of Warcraft accounts that were found to be using third-party programs that automate gameplay, known as "bots." Blizzard solidified their dedication to fair gameplay by further stating thus: "We're committed to providing an equal and fair playing field for everyone in World of Warcraft, and will continue to take action against those found in violation of our Terms of Use. Cheating of any form will not be tolerated."

"Botting" has been used for a wide array of tasks, from taking care of minor, mundane quests like gathering resources and crafting items to what's known as "hardcore botting". A Kotaku reporter has this to say about the recurring problem: "It's not just about the gold famers spamming the Trade Channel, but a huge number of bots farming PvP Honor Points and ruining the game for everyone else."

While this isn't exactly news in a major MMO like "World of Warcraft", it has become such a bothersome problem within the game's 7.1 million gamers that Blizzard felt it had to do something about it. A report by Kotaku states that each and every one of these bots will be punished and banned.

Even to this day, when faced with hundreds of other MMO games based on a fantasy landscape, "World of Warcraft" remains one of the most popular among gamers worldwide. It also has one of the most active communities, as evidenced by the thousands of forum threads shared among fans. These latest developments just might curb the act of exploiting game mechanics for a few levels or new items.

TagsWorld of Warcraft, blizzard, bot, gamer bans, game cheats