Lost Ark dev Smilegate is working on bringing back all those real accounts it accidentally banned

Lost Ark developer Smilegate recently banned a wave of bots to prevent cheating, but a number of real players have found they were banned too.

Bot bans obviously aren't uncommon in any online game, particularly MMOs which can have huge playerbases. Smilegate recently put a ban wave into effect on Steam, getting rid of a large number of bots, but it also seems real players were caught up in the crossfire.

The ban appears to have mostly affected players that haven't logged in in a number of months, or those that have a small playtime. While a ban might not really matter to the player that isn't too invested in the game, bans do matter for your overall Steam account. Recent reviews on the game's Steam page are mostly negative at the time of writing as a result of the recent ban.

Those that haven't played the game in a while might not have noticed, but because some evidently did so for whatever reason, a number have discovered they've received a ban. This led to the moderators of the game's subreddit put out a post acknowledging the large number of posts being made about the issue.

Since the Reddit post was made yesterday, Smilegate has put out a statement on the game's forums, and is working towards undoing them. "We have determined the error that triggered these false bans, and are actively working on reversing them for all affected legitimate players regardless of whether a support ticket who has been filed," reads the post. Those that have been banned can still submit a ban appeal ticket to customer support to try and get free of the ban sooner.

In more positive news for the game, a crossover with CD Projket's The Witcher is on the way, set to go live on January 18. There's a whole quest to do with the main man himself Geralt, and there are a number of Witcher-themed items and cosmetics to earn too, like a wallpaper skin, weapon skins, and full character skins too.