Lost Ark, a popular free-to-play game, has recently caused confusion and frustration among gamers with its latest move of issuing permanent bans on inactive players. This has resulted in a review bomb on Steam as more and more players are notified of their bans.
The game has been experiencing a major bot problem and the developers have been taking measures to curb the growing bot population with increased security and restrictions on new accounts. However, in what appears to be a drastic measure to protect the game from bad actors, Lost Ark has gone even further with this latest move of banning inactive players.
Thousands of gamers who launched Steam over the weekend were shocked to learn that they had been permanently banned from Lost Ark, a game that they may not have played in close to a year. The ban wave is targeting inactive players but is using Steam’s anti-cheat system to do so. This has left a nasty mark on many Steam users’ profiles indicating that they have been banned from one or more games, which are supposed to be used to identify cheaters or unruly players. The record-setting launch of Lost Ark last year has led to a huge number of otherwise innocent gamers being marked as cheaters for briefly trying out the much-hyped free-to-play game.
The exact criteria for the inactivity ban are unclear as droves of Steam reviews reporting on the ban show a range of histories. Some players that have been banned have up to 40 hours of playtime, but not since the game launched last February. Others, meanwhile, have less than 10 hours of playtime but have been banned for not playing in the past six months or so. Some players have even been banned despite paying money for Lost Ark’s Founder’s Pack which gave players a few days of early access to the game.
This move by Lost Ark is strange, considering most games are trying to win back their inactive players rather than permanently ban them. It may have done irreparable damage to Lost Ark’s reputation moving forward. Understandably, many gamers would prefer to try other free-to-play MMORPGs that won’t mark them as cheaters later down the road. Lost Ark is available on PC.
Overall, this recent move by Lost Ark has left many gamers feeling confused, frustrated, and disappointed. Many have taken to steam reviews and social media to express their dissatisfaction. The game developers have yet to give any explanation or rationale behind this move, leaving many gamers wondering if they will ever be able to play the game again.
