Runes of Magic suspends users for exploit

By Robert Purchese Published 21 July, 2009

Users get upset at lack of communication.

German publisher Frogster has suspended a number of Runes of Magic players for seven days pending investigations into "exploiting".

Frogster, however, will not say what the investigations are for specifically, nor how many people have been locked out of the free-to-play, micro-transaction-powered MMO. Those caught in the net have been similarly left in the dark.

"We had to suspend accounts for an investigation because we had a case of exploiting," a spokesperson for Frogster told Eurogamer. "Since the investigation is an ongoing process I cannot give out too many information at the moment. We will release a more detailed statement during the next days.

"At the moment we are checking thoroughly how far every user is involved in this case of exploiting," the spokesperson added, assuring us users haven't been banned "randomly".

Interestingly, while suspended users cannot enter the world of Runes of Magic, they can continue to spend real money on diamonds - an in-game Item Shop currency.

The result of these bans is unrest among the Runes of Magic populace, illustrated by a 72-page to-and-fro between customer and company on the official forums.

The disquiet revolves around lack of communication, which the vocal members of the community feel is harming the reputation of Frogster and game.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (5) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kwesleyb #1 3 years ago

    "Interestingly, while suspended users cannot enter the world of Runes of Magic, they can continue to spend real money on diamonds - an in-game Item Shop currency."

    Isnt that them basically saying "hey we're gonna ban you from using the game for a while but please keep on spending your money on diamonds which are worthless to you cause you cant play the game..."
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/09 @ 22:21

  • mooseuk #2 3 years ago

    "Isnt that them basically saying "hey we're gonna ban you from using the game for a while but please keep on spending your money on diamonds which are worthless to you cause you cant play the game...""

    Problem is they notified suspensions by email, so many people were not aware they had been suspended. But were still allowed to purchase diamonds which were on special offer at the time.

    The company representaive on the forum says they have no intention of refunding any payments.

    To me that sounds pretty fraudulent taking peoples money and the refusing to provide the service.

  • stulo0 #3 3 years ago

    The company managing the situation seem like complete dicks to be honest.

    I have no idea what the game is about so I was just reading some posts in the thread that was linked and the moderators are basically operating on the principle "Guilty until proven Innocent", I got that vibe from reading one of the mods posts about how they are handling it.

    I don't really care much but it would be nice to think that the mods on that forum would give some form of compensation to those people who are innocent and also make a public apology for the manner in which they have handled the situation.

    I don't play the game and thus I haven't been following the whole situation or felt any interest in doing so but this is just what I felt after reading for around 15 minutes.

    Though most of the users on that forum appear to be underage from what I can guess from their spelling and grammar so that probably affected how well the company has been able to handle this situation.

  • optimusprym8 #4 3 years ago

    MMO players get upset and whine on forum shocker

  • niffty #5 3 years ago

    Well seems they are doing fine.
    Look at this: http://fo rum.runesofmagic.com/showthread... I used to play but after this lack of communication and the instability of the game i quit this game forever and all future exploits of frogster.
    Further more they have other inventive ways of luring people of spending money. They introduced items with the same name in cashshops which works differently.