DiabloFans

We don't have plans to make Diablo 3 an esport. Diablo 3 was never really designed to be an esport, and not every game necessarily needs to be an esport. SC2, on the other hand, was designed from the beginning with esports in mind. Actually, WoW wasn't, but I think there are elements from WoW that we felt worked well in terms of esports environment, and actually we're getting a great response from the Chinese community at this event. I think that there are different ways, there are certainly competitive things that we'll be able to do with Diablo, and I think that at future Blizzcons we might set up different ways for people to compete at the game, but that's very different from creating a professional tournament structure around something like that. In order to do that, you really need to get everything right and you have to have the depth of strategy, you have to look at making sure that the strategies that are successful are balanced, and fun, and entertaining to watch, and all those things. So we're not so sure that that's where we should be focusing for Diablo. There are a lot of other elements of Diablo that are a lot more important. (Source)

Not scripted. Not from management. What I wrote is based on my own experiences working at this company for over 6 years. I know almost each and every member of our anti-hack team personally, and I can speak first-hand as to how seriously they treat their role. They work long hours, they invest themselves completely, and they rarely get any praise for what they do because their job is never done. Yesterday, I spoke with one of the guys on the team for over an hour about how difficult and frustrating it is to keep up with all the different ways that players want to exploit the game. You find a certain kind of automation program and get rid of it, another pops up in its place, and now it's even harder to detect. Or you know that some players are using a particular type of bot based on intuition and experience on the job, but you can't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Permanently banning a Diablo III license isn't something we take lightly, and there's a lot more that goes into actioning someone for botting than what meets the eye. (Yes, kind of like Transformers, but fortunately with less Shia LeBouf.)

But, to counter your point more specifically, we have done many things to deter botting and remove those who are botting from the game environment. From the development side -- just to name a few things -- we've implemented game limits and AH limits. We've painstakingly removed exploitable monsters, chests, events, and locations, or made adjustments to them so that they would not benefit botters. And we continue to add layers to our reporting systems (I'll pass on your feedback about adding more, though). On top of that, we have meetings each week with the development team to discuss what more we can do to help prevent this kind behavior (like I said previously, though, most solutions would negatively impact legitimate players...for example, CAPTCHA). From the anti-hack side, we monitor for bad behavior around the clock, and we routinely issue ban waves for verified cases of botting. We've also brought legal action against several companies who develop these types of programs.

But we agree with you: it's not enough. Of course, we're not sure that what we can do will ever be enough (we don't know if we can eliminate exploitative behavior completely), but we're willing to try. It's an ongoing battle, though, not something you win after a couple of quick matches.

Top 5 Gaming Moments
1 – Watching Sub Zero teach me what a Fatality is in Mortal Kombat

2 – Punching out Vivec in nothing but beggar clothes and a rusty dagger as my only back up in Morrowind

3 – Running into the flood for the first time in Halo

4- The panic I felt in the original Diablo when my health dropped to a sliver in one hit from the Butcher

5 – This one is a hard choice. Either Force Pulling whoever just Force Pushed me off a chasm so that we both fall to our doom in Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight or using Force Choke to hold someone in the charge up beam in the Death Star. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Community team will have a reduced presence on the forums while we are spending time with our loved ones for the Thanksgiving holiday. The forums will still be moderated while we are gone and it will be back to business as usual on Monday the 26th . We hope you enjoy your time in Sanctuary and we look forward to talking about Diablo III with you all when we return.