It seems like Diablo 3 just can’t stay out of the news at the moment and it’s rarely for good reasons. The latest issue is that a large swath of Diablo 3 players using Linux and WINE are being banned by the Blizzard Secret Service.
[Update] Blizzard has denied banning Linux players.
And by the look of the forum responses this isn’t going to change anytime soon and once again it’s that real life auction house that is to blame. You see while you are playing Diablo 3 the Blizzard SS will randomly scan your machine to see if you are using any cheating or automation software and if you then it’ll bring down that banhammer on you.
So if you are playing on Linux you have to use an emulator (that isn’t an emulator but does the same thing) and the BSS pick up that you are running the game through non-supported software and ban you. As Linux has never been a supported operating system it is unlikely that they are going to release an update to stop this happening so if you want to run Linux and play Diablo 3 then the safest way to go about it is to dual boot.
What I’d really like to know is why didn’t Blizzard just release a non-multiplayer version of the game and save themselves a truck load of issues like this?
You can read up about all the complaints and reasoning for this move on their official forums here
[Update]“We’ve extensively tested for false positive situations,” says Blizzard “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.”
Last Updated: July 3, 2012
