There's nothing more irritating in World of Warcraft than to try to finish a quest than another PC suspiciously instantly killing mobs before you can even get a shot off, or someone mining rocks with an efficiency that's almost superhuman. Chances are, they're bots, and Blizzard has broken out a new banhammer against those employing them.
Tough, but fair. In a post on Battle.net, community manager Lore announced, "We’ve recently taken 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.' As a part of this action, we have removed various currencies and inventory from these accounts including, but not limited to, gold, PvP currencies, and gear. The penalty for those identified as repeat offenders has also been increased."
He went on to explain that Blizzard remains committed to providing an equal and fair playing field for everyone in the game, and that they're committed to due diligence when it comes to people exploiting the game unfairly. The studio also urges players to report cheatings by writing to hacks@blizzard.com.
It's particularly important for Blizzard to keep players happy these days, as the subscribership has dropped from a peak of 14M users to just 5.5 currently. With the Legion expansion coming in late 2016, the studio wants to make sure more people don't bolt the game out of frustration before then.
