Amazon Games Bans Lost Ark Players from Using VPNs
Lost Ark has taken another drastic measure to fight the botting issue in the game. Unfortunately, a lot of players are going to be affected again.
Bots have been causing problems for the popular MMO ARPG game as thousands of non-legitimate Lost Ark accounts swarm the servers. Despite the developers’ best efforts, the botting issue has only gotten worse. From causing long queues to crashing the in-game economy, the bots forced Amazon to take more drastic measures to fight them off. Unfortunately, the latest move from the gaming studio has targeted gamers using VPNs. However, users don’t understand that there are some critical reasons to avoid using VPNs for gaming.
Use of VPNs in Lost Ark
Lost Ark has only been released for North American, South American, and European players. Aside from the original KR and Japan data centers, other gamers in Asia and Africa have resorted to using VPNs to access the game. These applications allow access to the popular MMO ARPG, but the Virtual Private Networks also enable gamers to experience farming Lost Ark gold with lower ping and latency.
There are several benefits of using VPNs like, these third-party internet applications have been a solid solution to bypass the region-locked game. However, many gamers will lose all their progression due to a recent update; Amazon has just started to ban VPNs barring players from using them.
Why are VPNs Being Banned?
In a recent update, the developers revealed that they have placed blockers to stop external services from being used to access the game. Players using legitimate third-party apps were the first to find out about the restriction placed on VPNs, as they met an error code while logging in to the game. The official announcement came after reports of the login issue were submitted.
In the official statement, community manager Roxx revealed that VPN barring was implemented to combat the rampant botting in the game. While the move to proactively ban the use of external services was made to combat the bot issue, Amazon has stated that choosing a VPN for gaming was also against the game’s Terms of Services. The gaming studio reported that the restriction has somewhat helped keep illegitimate players out of The Lost Ark.
Developers have stated that gamers who previously used external services will not lose access to their accounts or get banned. However, the studio has made it clear that continuous use of VPNs or any attempt to connect to the game with these apps will potentially result in a ban. This decision was made to avoid any further abuse of their system.
This isn’t the first time Amazon Gaming Studios has done something so drastic to combat botting. Previously, the gaming studio carried out a large-scale banning spree to permanently ban bots from the game. Unfortunately, these actions have affected many legitimate players in the game.
Community Reaction to the VPN Block
While the move to ban the usage of VPNs was well-intentioned, many people from the Lost Ark community were against the decision. The majority of the aggrieved players are outside the NA, South America, and EU regions and use external services to access the game. They stated that the VPN ban has made their accounts inaccessible, essentially the same as losing all their progress. This situation has caused many players to call it quits on Lost Ark.
Several players have also voiced their opinions against the move since the action will impact their quality of gameplay. Some gamers in the West, use VPNs to reduce their ping and latency to experience a higher-quality game. Unfortunately, the ban on these programs essentially means that they will have to deal with their internet and ISP issues once again.
Many have also expressed their disappointment over the move. These people state that the ban does not make sense and will ultimately impact actual players rather than bots. Since the game can be accessed in many regions without a VPN, many have assumed that botters would not need to use external services to input AI-controlled characters in the game. The move is allegedly almost useless in the fight against these issues. However, not all players are against these changes. Some gamers think that the move should have been implemented from the very start of the game. Though they do sympathize with affected gamers, the use of VPNs is against ToS. It is unclear how long the ban will be in effect since the developers have stated it is not permanent for the time being. At the same time, it is doubtful that the use of 3rd party services will make a return in the game due to its ToS. Hopefully, the botting issue will get resolved soon so that those players who farm Lost Ark gold legitimately won’t be caught in the crossfire again.
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