NCsoft drops a Bot and RMT ban nuke across all servers! 16,000 thought dead!

[Knite]

Oh, the joyous sounds of automated screams.

You've heard it right, that little downtime that Aion just received as for a fantastic purpose. ~16,000 (that's over 9000) accounts have been removed from the game- and there was much rejoicing.

From www.AionOnline.com

Good morning Daevas!

As you probably noticed, we've completed a server wide reboot without much notice on a day that we typically don't perform maintenance. It's only fair that we keep you in the loop and make sure you know what's going on. Over the last week we've been working on a list, we've been checking it twice, and today we found out who was naughty or nice. Ban Hammer Claus just came to town. When the servers come back online, nearly 16,000 accounts will have been removed from the game. If your account was banned, please read the following FAQ.

***

1. Why was I banned?

There could be many reasons your account was closed. If you did not receive notification of your violation via e-mail please create a support ticket and the violation will be explained to you. Please note that if your account was closed for the use of 3rd party software (botting) or participating in RMT (gold buying/selling) the evidence for the account closure was gathered over several weeks. It may be completely unrelated to what your character was doing right when your account was closed.

2. … but I wasn't botting, buying Kinah or spamming advertisements! I'm innocent!

Any action that modifies the client or automates the same way a bot does could potentially flag an account as a violator. We do not use one specific instance to "flag" an account for botting or RMT. We use many instances to strengthen our conclusions. Please understand that it is not what "you" have done on your account, but what the account has done. If your account is shared, purchased, borrowed, or power leveled, it could be the actions of anyone who's ever used the account.

3. I'm aware of all of the above, but I have never done any of it. Who do I contact?
To request a review, please create a support ticket.

We are taking a very hard stance on this issue and do have sophisticated processes and procedures in place that help us keep unwarranted banning to a minimum. If you believe you've been wrongfully banned, you can email us at support@ncsoft.com, and we will review your account. Our goal is to ensure our legitimate players are having the best game experience possible. Please note that you don't need to submit multiple tickets, as we will review a specific case only once. We obviously take these violations seriously, but also want to make sure that legitimate players aren’t banned unnecessarily.

***

We'd like to reiterate that we've been listening to your concerns. We've been constantly adding to our Customer Service and Game Surveillance Unit. As we continue to move forward, you'll see more and more of these efforts. Thanks for your patience everyone, and have fun playing Aion!

But the real question is, how noticeable is this change? Are there still ads everywhere? Are there still bots in all your best grinding spots? The only way we can continue to improve the game is to help Tamat and the GSU find these spots and clean them out. Please post below where you are still seeing what.

Also, as stated in the FAQ above, if you feel your account has been wrongfully targeted, please submit a ticket to have it reviewed. 16,000 accounts is a LOT of people and the methods are pretty solid, but any massive strike can have mistakes. Please don't take it personally and know it's for the good of the game and community. If your account was wrongfully flagged, they can find the error and restore the removal.

Thanks and happy bot banning day!

[Tamat]

*Posts a picture of the Ban Hammer*

[spumvis]

We are taking a very hard stance on this issue and do have sophisticated processes and procedures...

I had to smile when I read that.


Anyway, glad that they're gone.

[wrajjt]

And still, despite this, there are goldsellers advertising their sites via private shop messages in the middle of Pandemonium right this very moment, on Perento.

[fuzzyyoji]

i hope this works! cause i love you guys!

[SirKad]

Originally Posted by Tamat

*Posts a picture of the Ban Hammer*

Hell yes! About time.

[.violence]

Probably banned mostly innocent accounts, LOL.

[Auchiz0r]

Because a GM popping in Pandemonium/Sanctum for 5min beats any automated flagging

[Ryuzaki]

Good job :>

[Araella]

Originally Posted by wrajjt

And still, despite this, there are goldsellers advertising their sites via private shop messages in the middle of Pandemonium right this very moment, on Perento.

Shop ads are usually from level 10s, so it's possible the account was created more recently. They mentioned data was collected over a period of a few weeks, so the ban probably doesn't include accounts less than a few weeks old. This said - a botted character could be 35+ in a few weeks easily, so the absence of higher level bots it more likely to be noticeable than lower level ones. I finally got around to checking the 45+ section of Brusthonin anyway, and while there are a few that I recognize (that have for sure been around longer than 3 weeks), there are far fewer there than there were previously.

[Apoth1]

waits for the "OMG WTF WHY was i bannz0red, im sweet and innocent! LOL this game suck im going back to WoW!" influx.

[Omalina]

Awesome, sounds like the game may have a chance.

[AfterTheDusk]

Bwahahahahahahahahaaha >D
Oh happy days.

[Ville]

Lois Griffin: [drunkenly] When I heard... when I heard... that NCSoft were going to be banning 16,000 accounts, I was like, "**** yeah!"

[Sardoni]

Looks like people who couldn't count to potato are no longer in the game now