The new MMORPG Lost Ark has been incredibly successful in recent weeks. Unfortunately, this also brings along problems. One of the biggest is the number of bots that just doesn’t seem to stop. We at MeinMMO summarize.
What is the situation in Lost Ark? The game had an extremely strong launch and was able to attract over 1.3 million fans concurrently into the MMORPG. Even weeks later, Lost Ark still makes a good impression, but is facing problems.
- The March update came too early and sparked a major Pay2Win discussion, for which Amazon had to publicly apologize.
- Moreover, there have been repeated complaints about server outages and cash shops, as well as queues that no longer exist.
- Another problem was the bots, to which Amazon quickly responded and banned over a million of them.
However, following the one million banned bots, if some players on reddit are to be believed, more than two million new ones appeared. The exact numbers are mere speculation, but it is certain that Lost Ark is currently being overrun by bots.
The situation is getting worse: Initially, only the starting areas were massively affected by the bot problem, which led to it not being properly acknowledged in the community. Many forum users and subreddit members are already in the endgame and thus have not noticed bots for a long time.
Now, however, more and more bots are also reaching level 50 and farming there in the Chaos Dungeons, where valuable upgrade materials can be obtained, which you need to improve your equipment.
This is already reflected in the price of the materials, as the upgrade materials for the first tier have significantly decreased in price. This is not only due to the bots, as more and more real players are reaching T1 and higher, but it is still quite possible that the bots are affecting these prices as well.
Scenes like this are not uncommon but everyday life in Lost Ark:
Bots are a problem for all players
Why are they so annoying? It has several reasons. On the one hand, the area chat is practically unusable due to a multitude of bots. The automated chat logs spam the areas completely with dubious gold offers. A normal exchange between players often becomes difficult.
On the other hand, the sheer number of bots has made it harder and more annoying to play new characters up to level 50. This is especially discouraging for completely new players. Often, one has to duel with bots over specific monsters needed for quest completions.
These duels are usually lost, as the bots often also use some sort of speed or teleport hack. The experience for new players suffers tremendously due to the bots.
What is annoying in the endgame? As many of the automated characters have now also reached the endgame, the farce does not stop as soon as you reach Vern. On the contrary, it gets even worse. Because in the endgame of Lost Ark, group content is relevant.
Many players report on the subreddit that they have been automatically matched with bots who turn out to be useless allies in raids. Even in chaos dungeons, you often get bots in your team when you play them through automatic matchmaking.
Bots have thus been a problem in Lost Ark since release, but since they have reached the endgame, the situation has completely escalated and makes life difficult for many fans in Arkesia.
“Every new player will immediately quit”
How does the community react? It varies greatly and ranges from one extreme to another. While many fans are very upset about the bots, some try to just take it with humor. Some even look for creative ways to trap these bots.
But even if jokes are made and a lot of sarcasm is present, the situation is difficult for all players who want to spend time in this MMORPG regularly. Many are also bothered by Amazon’s response, which, besides the massive ban wave, seems to have done little against the bots so far (via reddit).
- The user rigsta writes: “I can’t even imagine how the experience feels for new players. […] In the starting areas, there are now undoubtedly more bots than real players.”
- Also TheKingsDM is disappointed: “I’m currently leveling a new character with my son, and we have to constantly contend with teleporting berserkers over quests. It’s so stupid, every new player will immediately quit.”
- KingCPB writes: “The bot situation is getting worse. Some are already appearing in raids and PvP matches. Once bots reach ranked PvP matches, the game will lose the entire PvP community.”
How does Amazon react? There are always smaller and larger ban waves from Amazon. Furthermore, they have already removed some gold sources from the early game in an update in the hope of taking away the incentive for bots to bot at all.
They promise to continue working on the problem, to combat the bots, and to develop further tactics.
What do you think about the whole situation? Are you still playing Lost Ark, and if so, what do you say about the bots in the endgame? Feel free to write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO.
