Lost Ark will soon require players to have a good standing with Steam for continued, full access to in-game social and economic features.
In an announcement made earlier today, developer Smilegate RPG revealed that the next weekly update (coming March 24) will make it important for players to have a “Trusted” status with Steam.
Those who fail to meet the requirement (have “Limited” status with Steam) will have “reduced access to a small number of social and economic systems” in Lost Ark. Such players will have “smaller daily Steam purchase limits” and will be unable to send in-game gifts, exchange Royal Crystals for Gold, and initiate trades but can still receive trading requests from other players.
Whenever a new Steam account is created, it is automatically classified as a limited account to prevent users from using social features, including the ability to purchase/sell Steam Trading Cards. The account becomes trusted only after it has made a purchase of at least $5 on the Steam Store.
Smilegate RPG will be utilizing that anti-fraud Steam feature in a bid to prevent bots from ruining the game. Much like most online games, Lost Ark has been trying to battle bots that are left behind by players to farm currencies or crafting materials. While having a good standing with Steam will not completely remove bots, the coming update will help in denting botting farms.
“Additional improvements to our anti-cheat programs have also been enabled in this update to help prevent cheaters and bots,” added Smilegate RPG, “alongside a few more changes we have developed behind the scenes.
“We can’t spill all our secrets, or those engaging in these activities would catch wind. We know this won’t solve everything, and we will continue cracking down on users engaging in fraudulent purchases and bots.”
Elsewhere, publisher Amazon Games’ franchise lead Soomin Park has stated that there is “an opportunity for Lost Ark to establish itself as a major player, as proven by the amount of success the game has seen so far” since landing on Steam.
Smilegate RPG may just “consider” releasing Lost Ark on consoles but only if there is significant demand from players.
