'World of Warcraft' bans raise players' ire examines recent bans issued by Blizzard for their MMORPG. They find that there are many banned players proclaiming their innocence, but unlike the commonplace protestations of prisoners, they find there are some cases where players accused of illicit "power leveling" were actually just, well, leveling. There are players suggesting capricious bans be reported to the Better Business Bureau, but for their part, Blizzard states that they have not been banning any more players than usual, and many players agree there's no problem here:

"For any account that is suspected of breaking the (terms of service) and/or the (end-user license agreement), we conduct a very thorough investigation before the actual ban takes place," Shon Damron, a Blizzard spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "In order to ensure that no ban is made without good reason, this system has been extensively refined and contains numerous safeguards."

Blizzard keeps "thorough records of any account-related actions, and we don't show any unusual recent banning-related activity," Damon added.

Not all WoW players think the company is being heavy-handed. In fact, they think most of the people getting caught in the dragnet are guilty as charged.

"It's quite possible that the people who have complained about 'heavy-handedness' have not taken the time to read the terms of use," a WoW player named Mike wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. He also asked that his last name not be used. "Ignorance is not an excuse. It's just ignorance."