Millions of players started upLost Arksince its western release this past Friday. That’s millions of players learning how to playLost Ark, experiencing its story for the first time, and finding their place in the MMO’s community. It also means thatLost Arkplayers are being introduced to the oversight of publisher Amazon for the first time, and what that means. One harsh example comes from aLost Arkplayer who claims they were temporarily banned and forced to change their name, which was the relatively innocuous name of “Hellgate.”
Reddit user maplecaca posted on the main subreddit forLost Arksharing their experience with the game’s seemingly heavy-handed moderation practices. They say that they created their character Hellgate as part ofLost Ark’s early access period, as they had purchased a Founder’s Pack. Now, well over a week later, they logged in to discover a temporary, 24-hour ban for the reason of “Naming Policy Code of Contact.”
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Maplecaca, confused over the situation, at first thought they might have accidentally put a bad word in one of their two character names. But they only had two characters at the time, one named Scarce and the other being Hellgate. They figured it would be ridiculous to be banned for the name Hellgate, but after their 24-hour ban was up they were forced to change theLost Arkcharacter’s name. It was effectively confirmed that Amazon didn’t like the name Hellgate.
The word “Hell” has, obviously, been allowed inMMOsand online games for decades. While it may have traditionally been a curse word, in the era of video games it’s more likely to be part of a game’s story than considered something unacceptable. That’s why maplecaca, and all the players who responded in the Reddit thread, are confused on the matter.
One other Reddit user did offer up a theory, however. They say that Amazon used a third-party partner for its other MMO,New World, that had similar problems. The idea was that players could be reported for basically anything and Amazon’s partner would ban them, force name changes, or provide sterner punishments without actually checking if it was true. Maplecaca could have been unfairly punished by this lazy moderation, if Amazon really is using the same partner.
There are certainly other possibilities for theLost Arkmoderation of the name Hellgate.Hellgateis, for example, a licensed video game franchise from 2007, as well as the name of several movies. It’s also possible that South Korea, whereLost Arkwas made, would impose stricter language restrictions on players. But, more than likely, the Hellgate name got caught up in a mistake or malicious report and Amazon’s moderation failed to protect them.Lost Arkplayers should be aware.
