Fans and MMOARPG veterans felt that the developers were forcing them to donate.
On March 3, the first major update for the Lost Ark was released, in which the developers added an additional story episode and a boss, the third Guardian of the Abyss raid – Argos. In order to fight him, players must have tier three equipment with a total item level of 1370.
Such high demands caused criticism from Lost Ark fans, most of whom are still mastering the starting bosses. Some have speculated that Amazon Games deliberately decided to release a major update this early in order to force players to spend real money to level up their characters.
The problem was exacerbated by bots that flooded the servers of Lost Ark. With their help, players buy items to improve equipment. Because of this, the cost of consumables, including tempering weapons, has increased significantly in the in-game currency.
Representatives from Amazon Games and Smilegate have admitted they made a mistake by releasing the March update less than a month after the game’s release. Based on the experience of launching updates in South Korea and Russia, the authors of Lost Ark assumed that by this time the players would already be pumped enough to start quests from the DLC.
However, it turned out that many still do not have the necessary equipment. This happened due to the increase in prices for materials for improving items, as well as due to the fact that some players pay a lot of attention to side quests, Amazon Games wrote.
The creators of Lost Ark assured that they had no intention of deliberately releasing earlier so that players would buy more star crystals. The update came out according to the originally planned plan. Amazon Games will not be rolling back the March update. Instead, the developers will add additional events to the game, for the passage of which players will be able to receive rewards in order to improve equipment faster. In addition, fans of Lost Ark will receive several rewards, including a cat, cow, or penguin skin.
This is not the first claim of Western players to Lost Ark. Previously, they criticized the “too revealing” female armor in the MMO.