Nearly 16,000 users have been banned from the Western version of the MMORPG Aion. Most of the users have been banned for using third-party software (botting) and taking part in gold farming. Community manager Andrew Beegle made a post in the game's official forums saying that the bannings were part of a server-wide reboot.
"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," Beegle said. "Any action that modifies the client or automates the same way a bot does could potentially flag an account as a violator. 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-levelled, it could be the actions of anyone who’s ever used the account."
Mass bannings in MMORPG's is not something unusual. Gold farming has plagued such games as World of Warcraft, RuneScape and Final Fantasy Online.
[via GamesIndustry.biz]
