Hearthstone: "several thousand" bots banned for the rest of the year

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has been given a tidy up, with bot accounts swept right out the door.

Hearthstone has attracted a busy botting culture, but Blizzard gave the guilty a bit of a smackdown recently.

"We've recently banned several thousand Hearthstone accounts that were associated with the use of third-party programs that automate gameplay, otherwise known as 'bots' or 'botting,'" the developer wrote on Battle.net.

"These accounts will be banned until 2015. As we’ve stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated."

I was a little confused by the date - why not just ban the bots forever? But Blizzard may be treating this round of bans a warning, as it won't be so lenient next time.

"From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning," Blizzard said.

The rest of the post is the usual promise to keep a sharp eye out for cheaters of any sort, plus an exhortation to report any such activities to hacks@blizzard.com.

Blizzard has come under fire for its sporadic moderation of bots in the past. One former botter claimed to have made €100,000 in a year from Diablo 3, and had harsh words for Blizzard's ability to fend off such questionable activities as botting or farming.

Thanks, PC Gamer.