If you haven't played Hearthstone already, you've been missing out. The online-only collectible card game has taken the internet by storm, gathering a player base extremely fast and offering a truly unique experience. While some have tried to compare it to watered down Magic: The Gathering, there will be similarities between any game following the various tabletop gaming formulas. True, it may not be as complicated as Magic, but there are nuances to the game that require just as much precision and skill. Considering there's no use of the mana system, there's also a lot less chance in Hearthstone, so there's that to consider as well.
Blizzard Entertainment has a really long history of being intolerable of cheating prorgrams or devices. As anyone who has been caught by World of Warcraft's anti-cheating program can tell you, Blizzard can be ruthless. Blizzard has recently shut down what is arguably the most popular botting device in Hearthstone, Hearthcrawler. The program would play games for you, sometimes better than the player could themself. This has led to high-level tournaments having their legitimacy threatened. After a recent wave of bannings against players using the software, Hearthcrawler's management contacted Blizzard. After contacting them, it was made clear that Heartcrawler would but shutting down, as the program does not fall within acceptable legal bounds.
This was a message they wrote to fans of their service:
“Dear Community,” writes the Hearthcrawler developer. “This is our last official announcement. It’s
“Thank you all for being part of our community. We are very sad about this but you also know botting is against the rules and we all knew that the day when our products doesn’t work anymore would come. With tears in our eyes we have to say bye.
“In love, the whole team of Crawlerbots.”
To be fair, they knew from the start this kind of botting software wouldn't fly with Blizzard. I'm not quite sure I understand the tears, if I'm being honest.
