Most players should have realized by now that bots and the trading of real money in Lost Ark is a massive problem. However, Amazon is bringing out the ban hammer once again, and this time effectively. We at MeinMMO summarize.
What is the situation? In Lost Ark, bots have increasingly become a problem. They farm massive amounts of gold, which they then sell for real money to other players. This process is called RMT (Real Money Trading) and is prohibited in the MMORPG. For a long time, Amazon seemed powerless against it, as a botter on reddit even showed how he operates over 100 accounts simultaneously.
Due to the rising prices in the game, as more gold was in circulation and due to the lack of consequences, more and more players resorted to RMT and bought gold from the bots. And where there is demand, there must be more supply, which led to even more bots. Some areas of Lost Ark were hardly playable normally.
From the outside, the MMORPG did not show the problematic situation. Even on June 13, the game had 865,000 simultaneous active players on Steam, making it one of the largest genre representatives on the platform. However, how many of those were bots could only be speculated.
It is known that situations like in this video were common:
How did Amazon react? For a long time, not at all, which is why the bot plague in the game continued to grow into the biggest problem of the game. On June 15, community manager Roxx announced massive consequences in the forum. She promised the players that Amazon would address the problem in the course of the next week and ban numerous accounts.
Those affected include not only bots but also players who participated in RMT. They receive a temporary ban in some cases, but must then work off their debts.
The week of the ban wave is now coming to an end and recording huge successes. The MMORPG had to lose over half a million simultaneous active players on Steam, and as wrong as it sounds, this is the best thing that could happen to Lost Ark.
Why Lost Ark is so successful at all, you can see in our video:
“Strange, suddenly everyone wants to get rid of their accounts”
How is the ban wave affecting? Currently, the player numbers of Lost Ark show that the problem with bots and RMT was even more widespread than even pessimistic estimates suggested. In the 7-day comparison, Lost Ark fell from 865,709 simultaneous active players at peak to 268,854. Therefore, at least 600,000 accounts were temporarily banned. There is currently no overview of how many bots and accounts are generally affected from Amazon’s side.
The economy has also already seen its first minor effects. A glance at the websites of gold sellers quickly reveals that the price for gold in Lost Ark has skyrocketed. Even in the RMT forums, fear is currently reigning over the valuable accounts. This, in turn, pleases the “real” players on reddit and gives them hope.
The community breathes a sigh of relief: For a long time, many fans thought that Amazon was simply powerless against the bots and RMT. However, the massive ban wave of the past week significantly improved the mood on reddit, in the forum, and on Twitter. Many are still skeptical whether this success can be maintained and whether the bots will not simply return with new accounts, but currently, things look very good for Lost Ark.
Numerous threads on reddit are currently dealing with the topic and are celebrating that the RMT users are probably panicking to sell their accounts before they get banned. We would also like to let you read a few quotes:
- Nightwolf writes (via reddit): “Reading all the screenshots from the RMT forums gives me a warm feeling of schadenfreude.”
- JnazGr writes (via reddit): “Suddenly, all RMT people want to get rid of their accounts, with supposedly family reasons, strange.”
- Breloren writes (via reddit): “Oh sweet, sweet justice. More fear for the RMTers.”
- KevinGFX writes (via Twitter): “Not a single bot in Rethramis on the UNA server. Good job, Lost Ark, it works. Hopefully, it stays that way, even if the fight continues.”
What do you think about the current ban wave in Lost Ark? Have you also noticed that the servers are getting emptier or that the economy on your server is slowly improving? Feel free to let us know in the comments here on MeinMMO, we look forward to discussing with you.
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