Lost Ark is the largest MMORPG on Steam and as a result, it has to deal with some scammers. In a blog post, the developers announced that they will take stricter action against bots and RMT. They even mention specific mechanisms.
Lost Ark is not only the current largest MMORPG on Steam (via SteamDB), but also a candidate on our list of the best MMORPGs 2024. With this size, the game also has a problem with scammers. A major issue is RMT.
- RMT stands for Real Money Trading.
- With RMT, people attempt to make real money through in-game items.
- This can refer to characters, currencies, or items.
In Lost Ark, it seems that RMT around gold is a significant problem. In a recent blog post, they announced that they will take stricter action against bots and RMT traders. Initial measures have already been implemented.
We will take it away
On February 16, 2024, the Lost Ark team released a new Team Update. The update announces the fight against RMT and bots. It explicitly addresses gold trading. Early last week, a large ban wave was said to have dealt with accounts that were involved in a lot of trading of RMT gold.
In this context, the team states that while they cannot disclose all measures, some will be mentioned.
- Violations involving RMT will be punished, and the severity and number of violations will influence the penalty. This can lead to permanent bans.
- If a player buys RMT gold, it will be taken away. If they have spent it, that increases the severity of the offense.
- If multiple accounts are involved in RMT trading (the post explicitly calls it
money laundering
), all accounts involved in the fraud will be punished. - Even users who have invested money in Lost Ark will be punished for violations.
At the end of the post, it is mentioned that the team takes the problems of RMT seriously, as it negatively affects the game’s economy. Beyond that, it is additionally noted that there are more plans against bots and RMT that cannot be disclosed.
In the summer of last year, Lost Ark was struggling with declining player numbers. However, due to the recent updates, the game has seen a significant increase in players once again. This is primarily due to the quality-of-life improvements and the alignment with the Korean version of the game: One of the largest MMORPGs on Steam is finally getting the improvements we’ve been waiting for for several months
