If you don't like the rules in Civilization V, you can change them. Or, if you're not hip to whatever an XML file is, you can download one of the many mods that changes the rules. Maybe you want a rebalanced (i.e. easier) economy. Maybe you want archers to do more damage. Maybe you can't stand that Gandhi guy and want to take away his advantages. Firaxis is happy to let you play Civilization V the way you want. It's your game. You bought it.
Then there's Starcraft II, a game built from the ground up as a competitive multiplayer e-sport. It also happens to have a pretty extensive single-player campaign and skirmish mode. When you're playing those single-player modes, Blizzard is happy to let you use the cheat codes they've included in the game. But they don't want you going any further than that. Their cheat codes are a line in the sand you shall not cross. If you do, your battle.net account may feel the wrath of Blizzard's penalty volcano (I didn't make that up! Check out the penalty volcano here).
Cheat Happens, a site that sells hacking programs called "trainers" for $30 a year, has posted a jeremiad about Blizzard temporarily suspending battle.net accounts that use their trainers. The article conveniently neglects to mention that Blizzard supports cheating during single-player games, so long as a third-party program isn't used to do it. And considering Starcraft II's integration with battle.net and the frequency of World of Warcraft account hijackings, Blizzard has the right idea. You may not agree with their online-only approach to Starcraft II, but you have to acknowledge that it takes a different level of security than something like Civilization V.
It's an important issue for how games approach modding. To what degree can you can roll up your sleeves and plunge your arms into a game's inner workings? How much is it your game? How much is it their game? How much is it the community's game? And how stupid are you to risk your battle.net account and pay a subscription fee for a trainer when the developers have already put cheat codes in the game that do the same thing? LINK
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