AION 2 Restricts 10,326 More Accounts for Bots, Gold Farming and Real Money Trading

NC has restricted another 10,326 AION 2 accounts for breaking its Operation Policy. The AION 2 team says in its latest account restrictions notice that the accounts were caught botting, gold farming, using unauthorized programs or trading for real money. It is the largest single wave in the notices NC has posted on Steam so far.

When the restrictions were applied

NC applied the restrictions at 9:00 PM PDT on 16 October. That is the same moment as:

• 12:00 PM on 17 October in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei (GMT+8), and 1:00 PM in Seoul and Tokyo (GMT+9)

• 6:00 AM on 17 October in Central Europe (CEST), and 5:00 AM in London (BST)

• Midnight going into 17 October in New York (EDT), and 9:00 PM on 16 October in Los Angeles (PDT)

What NC acted on

The notice names two groups of offences. The first is botting and gold farming: macros, bots and other unauthorized tools, plus organized play that looks like gold farming or real money trading. The second is economy abuse, meaning unusual trading that disrupts the in-game market.

NC stresses that every restriction follows a review, and that ordinary play is safe. Long grinding sessions on their own are not treated as a violation, according to the team.

A growing pattern since launch

This is the fifth account restrictions notice NC has posted on Steam since 11 October. The earlier ones listed 4,996, then 10,000, then 9,422 and then 7,933 accounts. Added together with this latest round, that comes to 42,677 restricted accounts in about a week. Every notice gives the same reasons from the sanctions table.

Security locks are not bans

The same notice also explains a separate measure. A small number of accounts were locked for a while because NC saw a login from a device or connection that looked risky, such as a possible account takeover. NC says a security lock is protection, not a penalty, and that players should contact Customer Support to get access back.

How to appeal

Anyone who thinks their account was restricted or locked by mistake should send a ticket through NC's AION 2 Customer Support page as soon as possible. NC says each request is checked one by one. The notice does not say how long reviews take, or what length each restriction is.

NEXTARCA's take

Five waves in a week, with counts close to ten thousand each time, tell you two things. NC is taking the bot problem seriously and is open about the numbers. But the bots keep coming back almost as fast as they are removed, and that hurts the Kina economy and open world farming spots that honest players rely on.

The clear line between a security lock and a ban is welcome. If you are locked out, check which one you got before you panic. What we want to see next is fewer accounts per wave, because that would mean prevention is starting to work.