Blizzard Bans Diablo 3 Players Using WINE On The Linux Operating System

Written by: Mike Schaffnit (@MikeSchaffnit) | July 3, 2012 12:45 pm

69 Comments

It seems Diablo 3 players have one more thing to whine about!

Specifically, we’re referring to those players who are using WINE to play Diablo 3 on a Linux operating system. For those that maybe don’t know, WINE is a program that allows Linux users to open and play Windows based games.

But it seems that Blizzard has decided to step in and issue bans to accounts that are accessing the game through WINE, stating it is an “Unapproved Third Party Software”. According to an official forum thread, Blizzard states that all bans will not be lifted and were issued to Linux users who were found cheating!

While to some WINE is seen as a simple emulating program, Blizzard is classifying it as a program designed to give players advantages now allowed in the game. Blizzard’s stance on this now means that any Linux user who is using WINE to emulate Diablo 3 is currently running the risk of triggering Blizzard’s security system and being permanently banned with no option of being refunded or ever reactivated.

It seems like all the news coming out about Diablo 3 lately is a never ending spiral of strange decisions and changes being made to a game that was supposedly only going to be release “when ready”. But, with the removal of PvP at launch and the delay of the Real Money Auction House, as well as various bans and error messages that have plagued the Diablo servers, it truly begs the question: Was it ready?

Leave us your comment and let us know what you think.

Blizzard Bans Diablo 3 Players Using WINE On The Linux Operating System

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7BitBrian

Slow motion train wreck. Blizzard is not the company it used to be. RIP Blizzard, Actiblizz has replaced you.
http://www.facebook.com/john.stokes.583 John Stokes

Meanwhile in China… http://thegreengeeks.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/pirates-of-the-caribbean-johnny-depp-orlando-bloom.jpg
David Alcon

D3 is the embodiment of the abusive spouse. And its really sad to see some people agree that all of this is BS, but continue to play. Gamers have got to start taking a stand against the BS that big companies are shoving down our throats.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_INBXCM4CZFVSPC2ZYINQJAK77Y Methadose

I am so glad I didn’t buy this game. Lulz Wine is just an emulator, adds no advantages to anything. If anything it gives you a disadvantage.
- http://twitter.com/Rurik1547 John
  
  Another person reacting to just the title of the video, smh. Blizzard isn’t banning people for just using WINE, they are banning people who are cheating through WINE.
- ArsenicSundae
  
  Even if it CAN confer some sort of advantage, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that advantage is being used by the player. Blizzard however, doesn’t seem all that interested in determining who is actually cheating and who isn’t. They’re just lopping off everyone’s heads. They couldn’t be more heavy handed if they were wearing lead gauntlets. And why not? They’ve got their money.
  
  I just wonder how much more of this garbage from Blizzard people are going to accept before they finally get fed up with it.
German Lopez

Why did you guys not address Bashiok’s post, which clarified these people were cheaters, not just Linux users? And why didn’t you address the dozens of people chiming in as long-time Linux users that didn’t get banned? So bizarre.
- http://www.facebook.com/michael.lauria.35 Michael Lauria
  
  They actually did.
  - http://twitter.com/MikeSchaffnit Mike Schaffnit
    
    ^ This
- TacoBaal
  
  Way to not watch the entire video.
- Jay
  
  Whoever liked your comment needs to go back and watch the video too… Kinda ironic that you’re mentioning them not mentioning something that they actually mentioned.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1123972011 Curtis Dalton

That’s like banning people who play PC games by running windows on a mac.
- http://twitter.com/Rurik1547 John
  
  No, it’s like banning people who us a different software to cheat…which is what you would know if you actually watched the video
Brimstar

Oh Mike B, I love your tin foil hat XD
Johan Andersson

Wooow! So they are banning people for playing the game if they are not playing it in Ms Windows? Is Microsoft paying them for this or are there any agreement between these companies?
Lucky me not logged in to the game the last week, dont want to get banned.
Have to install VirtualBox and grab myself a pirate copy of Windows and get it to run 3D-games then to be able to continue playing… Why Blizzard? WHY? Why not patch the gameservers to keep track of things like this and put less “intelligence” into the gameclient, then you would avoid this.
- http://twitter.com/Rurik1547 John
  
  You clearly did not listen to the entire video
  - Johan Andersson
    
    I did watch the entire video, and yes, I know they are banning “cheaters”. BUT, to get the game running in anything else then Windows, you basicly have to use Wine… and how is using Wine considered cheating? Not all of us using wine are modifing the code of it to cheat in games…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathon-Neff/100000415972248 Jonathon Neff

the GOH is so bad now with prices.. and it totally makes sense that people would rather drop few bucks to get that item they need to move on thru and be able to clear all of inferno. Make no mistake Blizzard is a company out to make money just like everyone else and they will do what they need to make it happen. This game has been on fire going to hell in a hand basket since launch day so sad to see but Its the J wilson effect…
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

Even if they would not be allowing Gold farming.. They have zero chance of controlling the inflation since they have no RPG systems to really counter it.

One point that was not mentioned in this video. We are no longer just talking about 60$. Maybe some of these players banned for using WINE had some money in their Battlenet account or had bought items for real money. SInce items are going for stupid amount of money… Thats something that every person needs to consider. Obviously Blizzard considers they have no obligation to even check if ppl with REAL MONEY spend or owned on their account has actually be cheating or not.
Shann Atkinson

I think the problem is that some ppl are having to use a modified ver. wine to spoof the authentication server in order for them to not get the error 3007.
http://twitter.com/HallusH HallusH

well if by cheating they mean “auto scripts/bots/duplicate” yea ban these suckers.
but some times blizzard ban players for thier own mistakes. which then falls under the “creative use of game mechanics”
anyway that AH game is already dead so g_g.
Tosada

Well, ive been playing D2 for about 7 years with breaks and im still happy about it.
But Diablo 3 is really nice piece of S.H.I.T. ! For what have we been waiting severals years for ? eh ? Bans ? Errors ? Crashes ?
Well, its waste of time and money.
1/10 just because of title. ^^
http://twitter.com/Hoigwai Hoigwai

http://bit.ly/N75xhL
sionvolt

Article translation:It seems that I like misrepresenting things!
WINE allows people to play Windows games on Linux machines. Blizzard recently banned some people that are using WINE to play D3.
This is probably unimportant, but they are ONLY banning people exploiting the game through WINE. Let’s ignore that though.
WINE is am emulation program. However, and I’m totally misreading things here, Blizzard is classifying it as a program designed to give players advantages not allowed in the game. Blizzard’s stance on this now means that any Linux user who is using WINE to emulate Diablo 3 is currently running the risk of triggering Blizzard’s security system and being permanently banned with no option of being refunded or ever reactivated. Actually, come to think of it, they really are just stating that people using WINE run the risk of intentionally exploiting it and cheating in D3 which may cause them to get banned. Let’s ignore that though.
It seems like all the news coming out about Diablo 3 lately is pretty much standard in terms of any released game nowadays, especially ones that involve multiplayer aspects. How dare they patch and edit a game after release. 100% perfect from launch or bust. How dare they fail to foresee and test everything so far beyond the scope of any other game developer ever.I also have no idea what the term “begs the question” actually means.
http://twitter.com/Hoigwai Hoigwai

http://bit.ly/N75xhL Blizzard has already commented that using wine isn’t the issue, it’s that they are cheating, period.
http://twitter.com/inkogni Alex

sounds like i was kinda right, BLIZZARD is killing itself. got bored or just retardos as ever?
http://twitter.com/QuietNine Quiet

if you cant see the seller on the D3 AH, theres really no way to know thats its not Blizz selling items to you for real money and taking 100% of the cut anyway.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  If they did that, probably would be jail time.
- ArsenicSundae
  
  Even if you could see the seller, what’s to stop Blizzard from creating and using dummy accounts? Wish I had as funky a tin foil hat as Mike B. I could really use it these days.
  - Jado Cast
    
    and, they can manipulate the economy by changing loot drops. Maybe I’m just a cynic as I get older, but I just don’t trust the RLM transactions in a gaming AH. Too much exposure to shenanigans.
    - http://twitter.com/thekkadvance The KK Advance
      
      Shenanigans indeed. Agreed and agreed.
Jay

Always Online was a GREAT idea… Oh wait, no it wasn’t. Blizzard is dead to me… Taking this long to put out Diablo III, just because they can, basically milking WoW profits and releasing DIII when WoW got stale.

Sales =/= better product. Sales = popularity or lack of competition. I speak with my wallet.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Willi-Enderle/1668850948 Willi Enderle

thats the way i see “ActiBlizz”

“You paid for the game? Yes? Thx for your money. Now get the f&”/§ out!
Kodachikuno

Banning for a a loophole you may be able to exploit due to poor design. *sigh*
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joao-Vicente/100000881627920 João Vicente

D3 is getting so much bad press that im actually happy that i didnt get the anual pass.. and im definitely not gonna buy it.

That said about the bans.. if you are using ways to play that violate
the terms you accepted, i dont think they should refund. why should
they? you should be more careful. If you cheat or not, there’s still
ways to do it using the program, so its only natural they dont like
people that use it.

Still, would be nice if they warn players, since they have been playing for a while without problems… It sucks, but to me makes sense the ban hammer.
Kagitaar

While people lying about bans is nothing new, I do believe that Blizzard needs to go over each and every ban with a fine-tooth comb just to make sure. If it’s a Warden issue, they can either fix it or warn players what not to do, but more investigation, if just for the sake of calming the community, would be valuable.
http://twitter.com/videobuzzard David Manchester

The game supports Windows and Mac and is clearly stated, if somebody buys it for linux and it doesnt work I cant see how they could possibly be entitled to a refund. Plus anyone who uses wine is just making life hard for themselves for the sake of it anyway, its not really difficult to have to dual boot.
Theyrealone

“Diablo 3 Using the Windows 7 Clock machine to reward player with achievements”
Dear Developers: Are you ****ing kidding me? this is no flash game you made it an online server game and you still enable the game to work as it is a offline single player game.

Great use of tech… Great use!
Karizee

Give me my money back you bitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVk_e31dnlE
http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP

I tried to watch this video but I was just horrified by how bad that barb was at Diablo.
Nicolás Zuasti

Blizz is evil
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz

Yeah, let’s also ignore the fact that they didn’t hand out warnings of any kind. Let’s also ignore that WINE has been used to play their other games which also are online (like WoW) and let’s also ignore the fact that not every person that was banned was actually cheating. Yeah, let’s also ignore the fact that the game launch was a bust (yeah, that whole thing with it being OK because MMOs are doing it isn’t OK mainly due to the fact that Diablo 3 is a coop experience and not an MMO) and let’s also ignore that they haven’t been communicating with players properly. I’ll also ignore the fact that you don’t know what “begs the question” means, I’ll chuck that off to your clear aggravation with people reporting on the news. When Diablo 3 does something good, it’s also reported on. There’s no bias, there’s just news. It’s no one’s fault that everything coming from D3 is bad. Well, no one but Blizzard.
Bryan Reis

Game developers should start choosing to accommodate people who choose to use a Linux-based distribution. Linux has come a very long way towards being a great all around OS for average computer users, with plenty of benefits over Windows and Mac. I suspect the reasons game developers have for failing to include Linux users are monetary rather than technical. Until OpenGL becomes as robust an API as DirectX, gamers will still have to “choose” Windows. It’s unfortunate that that kind of development won’t happen without commercial support.

Granted, I don’t really want time hackers and other cheaters in my Diablo 3, but I wish Blizz would develop a native Linux client rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
http://gameldar.posterous.com Gameldar

To be technically correct WINE Is Not an Emulator (which is what WINE actually stands for).
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1094283426 Connor Grogan

Its good I stopped paying my sub then, I wont support a company that does not accommodate our Linux brothers.
Xample

Diablo 3 is dragging Blizzard down to hell. They got more bad press from this game in the last few months than from all their other games in the last few decades.
Rodrigo Gomez

wow, what a jerks O.o
http://profile.yahoo.com/BWYJSXZK5UFS4OPJS67ZM3W4AU John

this seems pretty simple to me, people got caught cheating, AND you are using software on an unsupported platform (which if you are on said platform, you really can’t make the excuse that you didn’t think that buying the game was a risk). Blizz has always had a harsh stance on cheaters, so kudos to them for sticking to their guns. LOL@refund, its pretty common return policy that once you’ve opened and USED the product you can’t get a full refund, don’t see how software is any different, especially if you broke a term of use. You ‘break’ your game, well then don’t expect to get a freebie.
- Bryan Reis
  
  “which if you are on said platform, you really can’t make the excuse that you didn’t think that buying the game was a risk”
  
  People have played WoW on Linux with WINE for years. Blue posts have said that, while it isn’t supported, they’re fine with it. People tested the D3 beta on WINE for a while, publicly, and Blizz said nothing (http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=25588&iTestingId=68803). I understand the bans are the only real way to stomp out the exploiting possible through Linux/WINE, but the blame does not fall on the non-cheating people who choose Linux as their OS but who still want to game.
  
  A perma-ban is harsh. There should be a way for affected people to retain their account if they can switch to Windows. Perhaps some public pledge of allegiance to Microsoft after a few months in the Gulag?
Vernon Claxon

Way to post false info as facts. Yesterday Bashiok stated:

“We’ve extensively tested for false positive situations, including
replicating system setups for those who have posted claiming they were
banned unfairly. We’ve not found any situations that could produce a
false positive, have found that the circumstances for which they were
banned were clear and accurate, and we are extremely confident in our
findings.

Playing the game on Linux, although not officially supported, will not get you banned – cheating will.”

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5978861022?page=21#402
http://twitter.com/MrSunrock Sunrock

Better to ban a few innocent players then let some cheaters get a pass.
- Senatic
  
  If that’s how you feel why don’t you volunteer to take the hit.
Randall_Wolfcry

As long as they don’t fuck up Starcraft 2, Blizzard will stay alive. They’re getting pretty shitty at everything else though.

Don’t fuck up HotS, Blizzard! Keep the Diablo devs away from that shit!
Joshua Sant

They’ll ban people for using third party software to get the game running but have a relaxed stance on people using third party software to cheat the WoW BG grouping system and go in randoms as a pre-made?
http://twitter.com/CarlosM402 Carlos Martinez

that barb sucks in that vid
pc11

Wait the whole argument for Blizzard not to refund the players in Korea was they could not disable their keys and now they are perma-baning people?

HAHAHAHAHA I will say it again, only stupid people buy games from these big money whoring companies nowadays.

Torchlight 2 is everything D3 should have been and they wont try to rape you.
- Lycronis
  
  Except T2 isn’t even close nor is it very fun for more than 15-20 minutes at a time, if that.
http://www.facebook.com/jessica.wintermute Jessica Wintermute

Honestly i hear more and more horror storys every day on the forums and here on gamebreaker about Blizzard banning people who werent doing anything wrong or people who used the RMAH and got screwed out of money when either they didnt recieve their item or the money from something they sold didnt get deposited on thier balance, just straight up blizzard screwing people outta money and everything else
The more i hear this kind of stuff going down the more i lose faith in Blizz and it seems alot of people are
Honestly Cant wait for Guild Wars 2 to come out , D3 will prolly be my last Blizzard game i ever purchase, i used to wonder why my friends would say ” ill never buy a Blizzard game again” prior to d3 coming out , and now im starting to feel the same way
Skirk02

I’m thinking diablo 3 is digging a pretty big hole to fall in after a few more months.
http://gameldar.posterous.com Gameldar

Have a read of Tangedyn’s post here: http://theincbear.com/allegations-of-blizzard-banning-linux-players

This is really just the media being jerks and blowing things out of proportion. And really Gamebreaker you should know better. There were 4 confirmed players out tens of thousands of linux users playing Diablo 3.

Now if you want a real story… why have the Gamebreaker videos stopped working on chrome in linux for me (firefox is fine)… mind you google+ is broken in chrome on linux for me too.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000103012311 Zhenhe Zhu

And this is why I’m going to be playing Torchlight II.
http://twitter.com/lornetc Lorne TC

Wine is not an emulator, its an open source implementation of the windows API for linux.
http://twitter.com/cosmo_swag Randy

Really uninformed article. i’m using wine right now and playing D3. It only banned cheaters using linux, not linux users.
- http://www.facebook.com/justin.pfeifer.58 Justin Pfeifer
  
  Uninformed Reply from someone who didn’t watch the full article and jumps to a wrong conclusion.
DoctorOverlord

GBTV really should modify the article for the statements posted by the CM on Battlenet where they say playing on Linux will not get one banned.
http://twitter.com/ookamiwing Phillip Rushing

anything you can do in WINE you can do in Windows.
jayremy

The article is correct that they *can* ban you just for that, because their ToS makes you give your soul up. They are only false on assuming you will likely get banned without cheating.
Elusive Fox

Ok wasn’t the whole point of having diablo always only on the server, so they could code achievements to use server side code and prevent the type of exploits described here? I am kinda confused.
Elusive Fox

I like that the mount isn’t flying, it means I can use it in pvp, and in pve I know I will likely use whatever tier’s raid mount so yeah.

That being said i think the pup is underwhelming at best and the mount while better does have it’s flaws.

Blizzard Bans Diablo 3 Players Using WINE On The Linux Operating System

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