Fail Lost Ark's Random Captcha Test 3 Times and Get Auto-Banned
Update Aug 26: Amazon Game Studios has removed this captcha system. The game's community manager claimed that it was 'unintended'.
The Captcha system is now turned off, and players will no longer see it in the live game. We apologize for any inconvenience that this feature may have caused. As we continue to develop the system, we will be sure to share more details about its possible implementation with players in the future.
Original Article:
In its effort to combat bots Lost Ark introduced a Captcha test which appears randomly throughout play. Fail this captcha 3 times and your account is automatically banned. Players can file for appeals, but this isn't a timed lockout or temporary suspension. It's a full on ban that plays can appeal, but success isn't guaranteed. The captcha is also timed, meaning players must fill it out within 60s, otherwise they fail the check and will get banned, so if you're afk and get hit by one of these Captchas, you're in trouble.
Never in the history of playing MMOs have I seen such a harsh anti-botting system. It's remarkable that Amazon Game Studios can't devise a better system for detecting and banning bots than this crudely designed captcha system which will surely ban many innocent players. Still, it's worth mentioning that this change has been pretty effective so far, as Lost Ark's concurrent figures are down 50% since this update went live on August 24th, which means half of the active users were bots.
Since its launch in the West, Lost Ark has had a huge botting issue. While trying to tackle the issue is important, there has to be a better way than this.
Further Reading: Reddit /r/mmorpg discussion
