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Kotaku
CNet has an interesting story up about the difficulty in striking a fair balance between banning too many people and not banning enough in a massively multiplayer online game.
In this case, they're talking World of Warcraft.
On the one had you have gamers like 14-year-old "Zak" who claims he was banned for being too good. Blizzard suspected him of power leveling with cheats and banned him, but he claims he's just good at the game.
Then you have other players who tell CNet they think Blizzard is doing a fine job. In between you have Blizzard who says they are very careful about their use of the ban stick.
"For any account that is suspected of breaking the (terms of service) and/or the (end-user license agreement), we conduct a very thorough investigation before the actual ban takes place," Shon Damron, a Blizzard spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "In order to ensure that no ban is made without good reason, this system has been extensively refined and contains numerous safeguards."Blizzard keeps "thorough records of any account-related actions, and we don't show any unusual recent banning-related activity," Damon added.
It points to what I would think is one of the most difficult problems developers must face when creating and maintaining an MMO: The players.
