14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard's decision to temporarily ban the accounts of players using Hearthstone bots seems to have put the company behind them out of business.
After many members of the collectible card game's community decried their woes facing automated programs while climbing the ranks of the Hearthstone ladder, developer Blizzard Entertainment has decided to put its foot down and put the offenders out of commission.
The company confirmed undertaking action against those using bots in its Warcraft-themed card game last week, blocking online access for accounts found to be in violation of the terms and conditions.
The developer went on a banning spree and made the ranks of its card slingers several thousand lighter, due to the fact that using third-party programs that enable the automation of play is strictly forbidden according to the end user license agreements that gamers adhere to before installing the game client.
Blizzard noted that the accounts would be banned until 2015, in order to promote fair play and an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Although the first wave of bot-related bans is only temporary, the company warned that repeat offenders could permanently lose their privileges, and that activities within Hearthstone would be closely monitored in the future, with the intention of taking appropriate action against cheating and bot use.
No more Hearthstone bots for a while
The unintended consequence of this is that the Crawlerbots website, the webpage of the creators of Hearthcrawler, the most popular such utility, as well as the World of Warcraft bot Warcrawler, is now out of order.
"This is our last official announcement. The recent ban wave in Hearthstone hit a lot of users. After discussing this with Blizzard, it's clear we have to take off our services/products now. Please note that we're not going to be commenting further on this," the announcement on the website reads.
"Thank you all for being part of our community. We are very sad about this but you also know botting is against the rules and we all knew that the day when our products doesn't work anymore would come. With tears in our eyes we have to say bye," the creators of the bot conclude.
A few thousand players less will be barely noticeable for Blizzard, as the developer has revealed that Hearthstone has over 20 million players worldwide. The game is available on PC and iPads, and the Android tablet version is expected out before the end of the year, presumably to be announced at BlizzCon next week.