Diablo 4's file directory should be left alone, says Adam Fletcher, Blizzard's director of global community development, who warns that Diablo players attempting to alter copies of the game will face dire consequences, including permanent banning He warns.

In a post on Blizzard's forums, Fletcher writes, "Blizzard's EULA explicitly prohibits cheats, bots, hacks, and other unauthorized software that automates, modifies, or otherwise interferes with the game. In other words, "any game-modifying software" is "prohibited for use in Diablo IV," and disaster will befall anyone who tries to circumvent the rules: Fletcher says, "Players who install this type of software risk disciplinary action, including permanent suspension Fletcher states that "players who install this type of software are at risk of disciplinary action, up to and including permanent suspension.

Fletcher actually called out a specific banned mod by name: TurboHUD4 (or Thud4, as I will call it from now on). Curiously, Thud4 is a UI mod rather than a collection of cheat and exploit tricks, providing various overlays that track resources, missed items, etc. Not entirely innocent: Blizzard may not be keen on the ability to expose dungeon maps before they are explored, but even that seems like a relatively minor sin compared to the hacking that plagues other online games.

The banning of mods like Thud4, and apparently all mods, may be a bit counterintuitive, especially for Blizzard fans. For example, WoW players have long used UI mods to facilitate access to relevant information (we even have a guide to WoW add-ons on our site), and it was always perfectly legal.

Blizzard seems to have had a deliberately vague enforcement policy for their games in the past, turning a mostly blind eye to mods that were technically not allowed but did little harm. during the Diablo 3 era, even though this was also technically prohibited at the time It was not uncommon to see streamers using Thud4's predecessor all over the place. There are still threads in the forums from that time trying to clarify whether it was ok to use Thud4 or not.

Given that, it might be best for Blizzard to draw a clearer line against mods like Thud4 for Diablo 4. However, I am still concerned about how far the ban on "any game modding software" will go. Should players using reshade presets need to worry?

You would think there would be no problem, but these are technically "game modifying software." I have contacted Blizzard about this and will update when I hear back. Until then, please be patient with vanilla D4.