Amazon Apologizes for Developing Lost Ark Too Quickly, Promises to Keep Fighting Bots
Amazon Games has responded to criticism from Lost Ark players. The company apologized for releasing endgame content too early. It also promised to provide more gold and upgrade materials in the mid-game. The battle against bots, on the other hand, will be continued.
It's been over a month since Lost Ark's launch on Steam. In short, Amazon Games has hit a bullseye by releasing this MMORPG in the West. However, it was not without some problems - huge queues on the servers, the plague of bots and finally the early release of the endgame Argos Raid, which led players to believe that the company wanted to encourage them to use microtransactions (with most people still completing early and mid-level quests).
Microtransactions in Lost Ark
Amazon Games had to respond. And it has done so - with an extensive announcement, in which it explained its stance. The community was assured that no one wanted to force the players to pay. It's just the data collected by Smilegate - South Korean developer and publisher of Lost Ark - was supposed to indicate that a large portion of people were ready to take on the Argos Raid challenge after about a month of play.
"Thirty days is indeed enough time to reach the required 1370th Gear Score. All you have to do is play for several hours a day..."
Lest a similar mistake be made in the future, the developers from Smilegate are to visit Amazon Games headquarters. Together with its employees they will analyze the data from the game's version available on Steam and determine the next stages of the game's development.
Matt Buckley wrote a review of Lost Ark. If you wonder whether it's worth playing, I encourage you to read it.
Changes coming soon
The first effects of these activities will be seen next Thursday, when the weekly update will be released. Along with it Lost Ark will gain be a new event - Event Guardian Raid - providing rewards in the form of materials to "honing" (upgrading) equipment. The shortage of these in the mid-game has been one of the most frequently reported problems - along with not getting enough gold - by the community.
"Along with the upcoming update the first season of PvP (Competitive Proving Ground) ranking games will also begin, in which you can also get additional materials and gold."
Fight against bots
Admittedly shortage is not the best word, because these items can also be purchased from other players. Only that the price they sometimes demand inadequate to their real value, which - at least according to Amazon Games, is a result of the activity of bots, with which the company is trying hard to resolve. According to the publisher's observations, their number is said to have decreased noticeably. And while there is no reason to doubt this, the community reports that bots are increasingly common in the later stages of the game.
Gift for players
Nevertheless, Amazon Games does not intend to be idle and wants to continue bettling the bot scourge. The company also wants to reward players with a small gift - the gift pack consists of nine virtual items, including an item to change the character's appearance and a crate with a pet companion. More details on the gift and the aforementioned Thursday update after which it will be delivered, can be found here.
