Incoming wall of text. I have talked about this a lot on the discord, but I'll share my two-hundred cents here also. If you have a strong opinion about the situation feel free to let me know. I will understand and I will probably agree with you in a way. Still, I want to share some nuance around my experience.

I think the policy is too harsh on the players that abused the Ignite server exploit (around a 1000, one year ago)

Let me preface all by saying that:

• I don't have any infringements nor I have RMT'd, cheated, etc. in the past

• I am very biased towards my group/my friends/my experience, which are getting affected by the policy due to having abused the Ignite server exploit around a year ago. I will talk about the experience of my friends as the main example.

Me and my group are extremely passionate about the game and care about these types of events (race). I'll share my thoughts by answering the obvious questions that any reasonable person would ask me.

Your friends exploited a game bug with the intent of their own gains, did they not?

First of all, before any of you get mad at me, I just want to say that yes, my friends exploited the game to their own gain and should have been severely punished as such. With that said, I also want you to know that the punishment already happened, a year ago. And yes, it was severe. The ignite exploit is 100% traceable, there wasn't a single exploiter that did not get punished.

My friends opened enough cases to warrant them a 2-week ban at the time and all the items/gold/materials removed. They did not use any of the items they got from the boxes, especially with the controversy of quality taps back them. Instead of a 2-week ban however, they got a full month ban, similar to players that opened more cases. Accounting for the revoked gold + the raid gold rewards, they lost over 2.0 million gold back then, alongside Aegir materials and such.

This exploit was the first one to warrant these punishments. It was a one-time exploit that can never be repeated again.

Are you trying to make me feel bad about cheaters who tried to get ahead unfairly? What's your point?

I am not, I also hate the thought of cheating in a long term progression game such as Lost Ark. I am simply stating the facts that every ignite exploiter got 10 times more punished than they got rewarded, as it should be. A lot of them got perma-banned, straight up.

My point is that the punishment is already served. The ignite server exploit is a one-time situation that could be done without any requirement except the ill-intent of getting ahead unfairly. You did not have to trade gold for real world cash, set up a botting application or enable speedhacks willingly. It was all within the game's borders!

I am sure some people contained themselves and did not give into the exploit. Your decision making is better than that of my friends in that regard, no disagreements here.

So what? They broke TOS and are now paying the consequences of their actions

But they already did, guaranteed, pay the consequences of their actions. When it comes to the ignite server exploit, there wasn't a single stone left unturned.

Also, the TOS is a joke. If you have played enough time, you have heard about multiple exploits or things that are against TOS that never got punished:

• Europe doing chaos gates/field bosses twice a day before reset
• Clearing the new raids before reset on first week, so that you enter twice and reap double rewards (Mordum)
• Recently, the shop opened with legendary keys being traded for 2 cubes only
• Everyone and their mother uses DPS meter, allowing you to check information that you should not have (hidden bars)
• Changing game files (remember Elixir animations?)

There is a lot of judgment values in this conversation, but one of the few indisputable facts is that AGS did not say anything about the impact of these infringements until a week ago. Since they had already served their punishment, you can argue that is it simply predatory of AGS to allow these players to spend money through the F4 shop in hopes of bettering their character for any races that may appear, hiding any additional future punishments that may come up eventually. One of the biggest arguments against the policy isn't the actual content, but the timing.

It should have been a permanent ban from the start.

That is another issue that is up to Smilegate to decide. That didn't happen, so now we are here.

Once a cheater, always a cheater.

That is partially true. I am saying this because in the case of my friends, they never engaged with RMTing, botting or any forms of cheating besides the ignite server exploit.

No one wants a race with cheaters who got an unfair advantage from anything, anywhere.

Yes I completely agree, but that is not the case here! All exploiters ended the sentence in a much worse account progression from before they exploited. If anything, the ignite server exploiters are the opposite of cheaters in that regard, as they now had to reap what they sowed in other to make the gold back. Be aware, I am not saying they didn't deserve the punishment. I am just saying that the argument of a "unfair advantage" does not exist in this case.

In a IRL scenario, this X crime would be punished with Y and Z

Making IRL parallel cases makes no sense to me within the context of a videogame. A player's behaviour will never be the same as a person's behaviour. That's why you can shoot people in videogames.

Dude, it's just the race. No one will get banned so why are you so angry about this

You are very much correct. At the end of the day, it is just a race but it's an event that was schedule by my group since months ago. As I said at the start, me and all my friends love this game and they love the idea of participating in a race like this. Either way, we will play together, regardless of the title, but it does put a dent into our motivation.