With Overwatch releasing on May 24th, Blizzard is not wasting any time warning off potential cheaters.
A battle.net forum post addresses how Blizzard will handle those found cheating. According to a Blizzard community manager, “If a player is found to be cheating — or using hacks, bots, or third-party software that provides any sort of unfair advantage — that player will be permanently banned from the game. Full stop. Not only does cheating undermine the spirit of fair play that all of our products are based on, but it works to diminish the fun and enjoyment of others.”
Blizzard has a long history with cheaters in their games. I personally remember cheating being rampant in Diablo II, as well as the farming bots in World of Warcraft. Blizzard took a real hardline stance a month into Diablo III’s release, permabanning cheaters and hackers there as well.
This is, I believe, something Blizzard needs to do. Cheaters ruin the game for everyone, and putting them into cheating pools to cannibalize each other isn’t enough.
