Blizzard Lays Down the Law (PC)
World of WarCraft uses Hammer of Banning on misbehaving players.
By Li C. Kuo | April 13, 2006

Today was a day of reckoning for cheaters, exploiters, and gold farmers alike as Blizzard suspended more than 10,000 World of WarCraft user accounts and banned 5,400 others. Blizzard announced that most of the offending accounts were disciplined for abusing in-game mechanics, automated programs, gold farming, and violating the terms of use policy.

A post on the Blizzard forums regarding the recent action says "Such actions can severely impact the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players. We will continue to aggressively monitor all World of Warcraft realms in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful effects of cheating."

This is just another chapter in Blizzard's continuing battle against cheaters and like-minded players with bad intentions. It's good to see that the developer isn't afraid to play a little hardball.