Amazon blocks millions of Lost Ark accounts

The Amazon-run MMORPG Lost Ark here got off to a really sensational start in early February, with queues lasting days and even weeks. These are now history, but not all problems. Millions of accounts are now banned. Lost Ark is a free-to-play title that initially attracted many gamers with its rather unusual mix of MMORPG and isometric action role-playing game. While the hustle and bustle of the first few days are long gone, those who have remained loyal to Lost Ark face very different problems.

Amazon fights bots

Since the servers are literally overrun with bots, normal players have huge problems asserting themselves against them, especially in the starting area. As is so often the case, the goal is gold farming and both Amazon and the developers Tripod Studio and Smilegate know that. But so far, all attempts to get rid of this pest have failed.

Amazon banned about a million accounts in March, with more to follow. This time speaks of a “permanent ban of several million accounts that participated in using bots, hacking or selling gold”. Other measures will also be taken against the gold sellers, including a minimum level for zone chat, an adjustment to automatic chat moderation, and the reward structure of quests and events to make it more challenging to use bots to grow gold.

Also, Easy Anti-Cheat detection has been updated and improved, and more. Suggestions from the player community cannot and will not be implemented yet: “Tools such as Captcha or two-factor authentication have also been brought into play in the community. However, implementing these tools would bring significant changes to the Lost Ark platform and architecture.”