HonorBuddy Users Get a Six-Month Ban

"Botting is defined as automation of any action, not just character movement. If a program is pressing keys for you, you've violated the ToU."

Blizzard has temporary banned a large number of World of Warcraft players who have been using bots.

In a post on the official World of Warcraft forums, community manager Josh Allen (AKA "Lore") confirmed the company had "recently taken action against a large number of accounts that were found to be using third-party programs that automate gameplay."

The most popular bot that has been cracked down on is HonorBuddy, which makes your character run around collecting honour in PvP without actually engaging anyone.

HonorBuddy claims to have over 200,000 registered users. On its forum, multiple users have said they received an e-mail from Blizzard specifying the ban will last six months.

"We’re committed to providing an equal and fair playing field for everyone in World of Warcraft," said Blizzard.

"[We] will continue to take action against those found in violation of our Terms of Use. Cheating of any form will not be tolerated."

Bashiok, another World of Warcraft community manager, wrote on twitter saying that any program that automates the playing of WoW is considered to be breaking Blizzard's terms of use.

"Botting is defined as automation of any action, not just character movement. If a program is pressing keys for you, you've violated the ToU."