Land Grab Hacks Add to ArcheAge Woes

In the latest of the great land debates in the free-to-play title ArcheAge, hacking steps up to take its turn at the front of the line. Some players are claiming that certain third party programs are making it physically impossible for actual players to grab up much sought after plots of land when the current land holder fails to pay their taxes. To explain it clearly, if I fail to pay the in-game taxes on my previously claimed land, then you can come by and claim my land...provided you're the first one to do so once the land is made available.

And there's the issue. Since this essentially boils down to "he or she who clicks first, wins," outside hacks are making it difficult for players to actually grab the land. By way of basic explanation, the accusation claims that some people are using 3rd party software to scan in game claims all day, everyday, and are then injecting packets into the game to make it seem like they were there and clicked when in reality they never even logged into the game.

In response, Trion Worlds' CEO, Scott Hartsman took to reddit to update players.

I do appreciate that people are pointing this out. Seriously. The amount of effort going into finding a way to deduce when/if/what outside of the game is being used is rather extreme. What's legit vs what isn't is frequently extremely challenging to tell, even when you have total control of the code.
Unlike in the case where its our own game, where we can (and do) add new instrumentation/logging/detection daily until problems get stomped with prejudice, we're limited here in only being able to act on what the game throws off as outputs to us. We can't add new ones.
That said, this one is the next biggest priority. New theory being worked on right now, will holler if it pans out and we can act on it with confidence.

This isn't the first time we've heard the "we just publish the game, we don't develop it" mantra and while it is certainly true (and no doubt frustrating to Trion Worlds, I'm sure) using it too many times is sure to leave your player base feeling like nothing will ever be done.

ArcheAge players, have you noticed this happening in game? Let us know below!