Update (7/21/12): A little while ago Blizzard responded to my ticket and let me know that I wouldn’t be banned for using Linux. So, I’m “seeing how the situation evolves” for now.

Some Diablo 3 players have recently reported being banned for using Wine on Linux to play Diablo 3. I was so excited to play Diablo 3 on Linux, considering it had been a full 12 years waiting for the next part of the game. With Steam’s recent pledge to get a native Linux client working (here, here, and here), I’m shifting all of my money that way.

Quote from the official Diablo 3 forum, here:

Account Action: Account Closure
Offense: Unapproved Third Party Software
A third party program is any file or program that is used in addition to the game to gain an unfair advantage. These programs may increase movement speed or teleport heroes from one place to another beyond what is allowed by game design. It also includes any programs that obtain information from the game that is not normally available to the regular player or that transmit or modify any of the game files.

My ticket content:

I couldn’t find a topic that matched this specific question, but I’d like to express my disgust with the fact that your company is banning users who are using Wine to play on Linux. I waited a solid 12 years for Diablo 3, and couldn’t wait to get it going under my newly Windows-free computer, like I have been doing with World of Warcraft for three years on and off, 1 year solid now. I’ve been an avid supporter of Blizzard since the first World of Warcraft game, and I’m seriously concerned that you have taken such a stance on the use of a free, open source operating system. While I understand that it interferes with you collecting system hardware statistics, I would never expect to go so far as to ban players for using Linux.

So, considering my original intention when I signed up for the one year contract to pay for WoW and receive Diablo 3 for free, I would like to request a full cancellation of my account effective July 9th, 2012. I’d like to gracefully bow out of my guild in WoW and give away whatever items/gold I had stored.

I never did have the extra time to get Wine patched and Diablo 3 running, but now I am too disappointed with your company to even try.