Since its release in February 2022, Lost Ark has had a problem with bots and cheaters. A recent statement from the developers now reveals a reason why Amazon Games is struggling to manage the situation.
What is this statement about? This week, there was a significant update from Amazon Games on X regarding the fight against bots, cheaters, and players engaging in real-money trading. The focus was on the recent ban waves, which have noticeably affected the current player numbers of Lost Ark.
A few weeks ago, during peak times, there were over 30,000 players online simultaneously on the MMORPG servers, but recently there have been fewer than 14,000 active Arkesia heroes at the same time (via steamdb.info). Such drastic drops have been observed in previous ban waves – for example, in January 2023, player numbers even fell by 200,000 in a single day due to a ban wave.
While the ban waves themselves are important and justified, a passage from the statement is currently being harshly criticized by a part of the community. MeinMMO has translated the lines for you below:
After reviewing the ban waves, our team found that some accounts that had no prior violations or bad behavior were using the automation program for daily tasks. Even though these accounts do not deserve a permanent ban, the use of the program still violates the code of conduct and constitutes a serious breach. Therefore, the permanent ban for these accounts has been reduced to a 30-day ban. The days already banned will count towards this 30-day ban.
Amazon Games via X
All important information about Lost Ark in 2 minutes:
Cheating, Vacation, Jackpot
How is the community reacting to this? Whether you look at the comments on X or in this Reddit discussion: Many players are showing their frustration and criticizing the communicated strategy for the fight against bots and cheaters.
- DanDaze summarizes it in his post on Reddit: “So the tactic is: Cheat as much as you can until you get caught. Take a vacation. You’ll still be much further ahead than you would be without cheating. Got it, thanks for clarifying, AGS. I’m getting a bot subscription and 50 million gold while we talk.”
- According to Maifu, there are even inconsistencies with the first-time offender point (via Reddit): “I know someone who was banned twice for RMT [real money trading, editor’s note] and now banned for chaos botting, and the ban was lifted because ‘No prior violations’. That makes me sick.”
- Doom complains on X about similar issues: “Unbanned cheaters simply come online to sell gemstones and accessories first, and then gold, just 3 in my guild. I really don’t understand why it has been and still is so difficult for you to ban rule breakers.”
A major problem is that the cheaters who are only temporarily banned often keep the items they obtained through botting or cheating. Depending on the yield, a 30-day ban can be easily manageable. Many players are still benefiting enormously from the so-called exploit surrounding the Ignite chests from last year.
Additionally, Lost Ark operates on a free-to-play model. It’s easy to create a new account after a ban and become a potential first-time offender again.
The measures implemented by the developers over the years only help to a limited extent as long as the auction house of the MMORPG is closely tied to real money currency. This is a problem that another MMORPG managed by Amazon Games is also struggling with: Throne and Liberty inherits a problem from Lost Ark, and is already battling hordes of bots
