Dota 2 players who cheat, buy and sell accounts, or are abusive are now being banned from the game for up to two decades.

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I just love the wording @DOTA2 used to describe their recent ban wave. "Users that reach this low level of behavior in the game are too big of a tax on the rest of the community and are not wanted."



are not wanted

#dota2 They know what they're doing.



— Jussi Hirvonen (@VsKatshuma) September 17, 2019

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The bans are the result of an update to Dota 2's ranked matchmaking, which made clear that the game will now punish smurfing, role queue abuse, and those with low behaviour scores."In terms of our development focus moving forward, we are spending more of our time than usual focusing on matchmaking quality," reads a blog post introducing the update. "We believe that is the right call given how much opportunity there is to make the day-to-day experience better for all players."Dota 2 has an in-depth conduct system that awards points for sporting and sincere behaviour, while allowing others to report players that are disruptive or toxic. On the back of the update, those who've been regularly reported are now being banned - some until 2038, which is the maximum amount of time the developers can input as a penalty.Many have responded to the news positively. One thread on resetera read, "Finally a good decision. Dota 2 had become the most toxic playerbase of all games." Other forums have praised Valve for the decision, and laughed at banned players' "salty" responses.The bans are user-based, so if any person who's been booted attempts to trick the game by rejoining with a smurf, it won't work. The system blacklists phone numbers associated with their accounts."509 conduct score? It should be 30 years bro," one Reddit user replied to another complaining about their 19 year ban. Another said, "sorry but good riddance."Picked up a Dota 2 ban? You could always try these other PC games showcased in the above video.Many game developers are beginning to take responsibility for player behaviour. Last year Rainbox Six Siege began insta-banning those who use hate speech in the text chat, while Overwatch introduced an endorsement system to reward sporting behaviour.

Alysia Judge is a writer and presenter. Chat to her on Twitter @alysiajudge.