Blizzard have once again showed no mercy when it comes to protecting the integrity of their massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. In June they banned 59,000 players for cheating, making it the biggest mass banning of players ever.

As a result the World of Warcraft econonmy is said to have lost 22 million in gold.

"While we regret having to take such extreme action, these accounts were participating in activities that directly violated World of Warcraft's Terms of Use, including the use of third-party programs to farm gold and items," said WoW's Eyonix. "Such behaviour not only negatively impacts the economy of a realm, it diminishes the achievements of those who play legitimately. We will continue to aggressively monitor all World of Warcraft realms in order to protect the service and our players from the harmful effects of cheating."

As with all MMO games,World of Warcraft has its fair share of players keen to exploit the world of Azeroth, with cheating ranging from selling accounts on Ebay to gold farming, a technique used to maximise income.

Source : World of Warcraft