Blizzard warns that Diablo III bans “will begin in the near future”

Great woe and discord to the cheating cheaters of Sanctuary, for your hour has come. Almost. Soon. Aaaaaany moment now, because Blizzard has announced that they’re charging the banhammer for a righteous swinging.

“If a Diablo III player is found to be cheating or using hacks, bots, or modifications in any form, then as outlined in the Diablo III end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play Diablo III with his or her account,” the developer warned in a blog post that may or may not have anything to do with an Auction House exploit somebody told me about yesterday.

“Playing Diablo III legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net and Diablo III, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, bots, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future.”

It’s simple, people. Don’t cheat. And if you do, don’t come crying when there are serious consequences. All I’ve got for you is this raspberry.

Read more on MyGaming’s coverage on Diablo III.