Lost Ark Increasing RMT Punishments, And Sorry, Spending Money In The Cash Shop Won't Save You

Ahh, the sourge of MMORPGs...bots and real-money transactions (RMTs).

A sure-fire way to turn players off of your MMO is to let the bots take over. Lost Ark has always had a bit of a difficult time, as do many other games, controlling bots. When a game is F2P, it gets a bit harder. After all, F2P makes creating accounts very easy.

In a new blog post, the Lost Ark team decided to reveal some of the actions they've started taking against those that sell or buy gold in the title. Sure, Amazon Games has been banning bots, but the post specifically casts a light on RMTs and how the company deals with them. They don't divulge EVERY tool in their arsenal, obviously, as that would tip off those engaged in the transactions, but they do address a few common "rumors."

Punishments have started to roll out already. While the team didn't give numbers, they do say a "major" ban wave already went out this week.

Going forward, RMT interactions will be punished on an increasing scale taking into account the size of the transaction, the history of the accounts involved, and more.

In short, gold will be taken away from you if you bought it. No, spending it quickly won't help...that'll just increase the penalty you're given since the gold can't be reclaimed. Pushing the gold through secondary accounts won't launder your ill-gotten gains, either.

If you thought that spending some cash in the MMORPG's in-game shop might insulate you a little, you're wrong. The team says many of the accounts banned this week have spent money in Lost Ark...it didn't save them.

These procedures will continue, so if you've been buying gold, you may want to knock that off real quick!