It looks like more people have recently gotten Blizzard's ban hammer for playing Diablo III on Linux, through Wine. Wine is a compatibility layer that enables you to run Windows executables on Linux, some with better results than others. Diablo III works perfectly through Wine, but the evidence is mounting that playing it this way results in Blizzards anti-botting measures thinking you're doing something more nefarious.
What's worse is that they won't engage in discussion about it. You pay $60 for a game that you're required to play online, and you can get banned for doing something that they say is fine. Unfortunately the US doesn't have any potent consumer protection, so they can pretty much do whatever they want with your account.
It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, honestly.
Full story here: http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Lots-Linux-Users-Perma-Banned-Diablo-3-Again-49121.html
What's worse is that they won't engage in discussion about it. You pay $60 for a game that you're required to play online, and you can get banned for doing something that they say is fine. Unfortunately the US doesn't have any potent consumer protection, so they can pretty much do whatever they want with your account.
It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, honestly.
Full story here: http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Lots-Linux-Users-Perma-Banned-Diablo-3-Again-49121.html
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I agree this is pretty bad and seems to be getting worse. I am hoping with enough community appeal, Blizzard takes this up and does something about it soon!
It's quite possible that the bans are legit, I suppose, but "we checked into it and the ban sticks, you have no recourse, case closed" is not a good way to do business. They need to communicate more.
I think more communication would be good. I mean, is there some benefit Wine gets you for cheating? There may very well be and Blizzard would know if there was.
Bashiok, a community manager, said there was no problem with running in Wine, and specifically said Wine wasn't the problem. People have also been doing it in WoW for years with no problems.
That said, the community managers seem to contradict each other from time to time, and the lack of communication only adds to us not knowing what the heck is going on.
Whoa: http://m.cinemablend.com/games/Blizzard-Admits-Linux-User-Was-Wrongly-Banned-Offers-Refund-49339.html
Whoa! That's awesome.
Yup. Wonder how many more people ill get to play again now.
This is the sort of thing that worried me about the required online aspect, it even caused a friend to decide to pass on D3. It's good that Blizzard is on this, but the response seems a bit slow.
I agree, the response was slow.