Developer removes players found to be using botting programs; future patch to allow users to report bad behavior in-game.

Blizzard Entertainment has banned "several thousand" Diablo III players founding to be using botting hacks, the company said in the game's official forums.

"In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play, botting, hacking, and other forms of cheating can also cause technical problems with the game as well as contribute to performance issues with the Battle.net service," a Blizzard community manager said.

The Blizzard representative reiterated that it is the studio's goal to foster a stable, safe, and enjoyable online environment for legitimate players. Blizzard will continue to monitor play and will "take action as needed."

For now, Blizzard said players who witness such botting hacks should report the malfeasance by emailing the company at hacks@Blizzard.com. In the future, however, this will be easier. An upcoming Diablo III patch will add the ability for players to report this behavior directly through the game client, Blizzard said.

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