This came from a UK on line newspaper article. Interesting. We can
empathize with the nerfs and hope to never see the hacks(excepts for Guides
and GM's on a rampage).

Snip:

Players of the online fantasy game Diablo II must wait almost a week for
their characters to be restored after a hack attack, developer Blizzard
Entertainment revealed this morning, Andrew Smith writes.
Hackers reportedly exploited a weakness in Blizzard's servers to gain access
to player accounts. By repeatedly attempting to login as another player,
they caused the authorisation process to fail, which then granted access.
They then took control of the player's character and stripped it of
equipment and bonus items. In some cases the characters were killed.
The hack seems to have been targeted at characters of a high skill level
with valuable items and experience points. Such characters will have been
built up over many months of playing, often for hours each day.
Blizzard announced this morning: "Monday, January 8, we will be reviving all
hardcore characters who died between December 19th and January 1st. The
restored hardcore characters will be revived with the experience, skills and
items possessed as of Tuesday, December 19th."
This is an embarrassing incident for Blizzard, and follows months of
petitions and protests about bugs and unbalanced gameplay in what is one of
the best-selling titles of recent years.
In August, changes to the skill system in Diablo II left some players with
severely weakened characters. Many complained that hundreds of hours
invested in the game had gone to waste.
Blizzard was also criticised for not notifying players of key changes made
to the game rules until after they had been exposed by fan sites.

End Snip

Piemur