StarCraft 2 developer Blizzard Entertainment issued a warning today to players who plan to cheat in the game: If caught, you will be banned.
Posting to the Battle.net blog, the developer said it combats cheaters in a number of ways. On the user end, players can report each other using the in-game reporting system or send Blizzard replays of the game that was played against the suspected cheat. On Blizzard's end, the studio uses software detection to discover hack program usage.
"While we can't go into much detail about these methods, we can say that players caught cheating in this way are generally banned in waves," the developer said. "This is done so as not to tip off program developers regarding our detection methods, as well as to maximize the return on our detection effects.
"Ban waves are issued in contrast to the other methods mentioned above, where bans are issued on an individual, account-by-account basis.
"Through these means, any player who is determined to be in violation of our terms and conditions by using hacks, cheats, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software will be banned."
According to Blizzard, bans will be permanent as outlined in its end user license agreement.