Hacker News Reader

The world's richest man was caught cheating at video games via hiring people to play for him for the sake of cred. I don't think I would give him anything.

View on HN

You're right that he cheated (in some sense), but I don't think "caught" is the right word since he admitted it when he was asked point-blank. He paid someone to level up his character before he played it, not to stream in his name and pretend to be him.

Paying someone to level your character is officially against Blizzard's rules in all of their games, but their lack of enforcement reveals that they don't care as long as the monthly payments clear. World of Warcraft is overrun with people selling gold and boosts-- given that they're openly advertising this in Stormwind, it wouldn't be a stretch to call it de-facto legal (or at least decriminalized). Heck, Blizzard is selling gold and level boosts on its own website! [1]

[1] https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/family/world-of-warcraft

He argued that he was top of the ladder and a top hardcore player in Path of Exile. The rest of your argument is just an excuse for someone lying directly to your face. The only reason why he didn't get banned from Path of Exile (as he should've been) is because he's rich and now tied with the US government.

I thought they didn’t ban him, because they are preoccupied with PoE2..

Reply on news.ycombinator.com