Lost Arkdeveloper Smilegate has had a rough couple of days following its bot ban wave, and the studio has issued an official statement after substantial community outrage. Released in Western territories under Amazon’s game production umbrella, this MMORPG had a fairly strong launch, followed by a series of updates that kept its player base content up until now.
Just a few days back, Smilegate startedbanning players for supposed botting inLost Ark, which almost immediately resulted in a massive backlash from players who found themselves banned after simply not logging into the game for prolonged periods of time. Worse yet, the ban marked the affected players' Steam profiles, leading to a potential loss in credibility for some, as well as permanently flagging accounts that hadn’t actually participated in malicious activity.
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Thankfully, it didn’t take long forLost Ark’s developers to reverse course and comment on the issue. Specifically, it’s stated that all the false bans that had been issued as part of this latest bot ban wave have already been reversed and all affected players should have the cheating mark removed from their Steam accounts. Should these issues still persist in some cases, Smilegate has asked players to reach out to its customer support so that a more thorough cleanup can be performed.
Lost Arkhas had a bot problemfor a long time now, with Smilegate attempting to alleviate these issues in a variety of ways. Even in mid-2022, some players had concerns that the developer would eventually become a tad too draconic and strict as to what would constitute botting behavior, which has now sadly proven to be rather prescient.
WhileLost Ark’s 2023 content roadmapmight’ve been enough to entice some players to join the game even after it left the mainstream limelight, Smilegate may now need to deal with bigger issues than it’s previously had. Specifically, newcomers may now be concerned over potential unwarranted bans coming up in the future, too. As admirable as the developer’s fast reaction might be, the situation is bound to keep getting brought up in community discussions.
Regardless,Lost Arkwas one of 2022’s best RPGsand introduced some much-needed variety to the MMORPG genre. If Smilegate continues to handle the situation with care and due diligence, it’s almost certain that the studio will regain the community’s trust eventually, especially considering just how slim the pickings are when it comes to classic MMOs.
