Update: here's Amazon's official comment on removing the items/benefits and what exactly happened.
It seems there's been some more duping in an Amazon game, and this time it isn't New World! While the Lost Ark version of this is much more benign and not as exploity/intentional, players have still been able to open up many Founder's Packs and twitch drops, some reportedly doing it as much as 10 times or more! For reference, the Platinum packs offer over $100 in in-game store credit and benefits combined.
Yesterday Amazon replied that the bug had been fixed and that the players having used the bug will not be punished, but are also checking if it may have returned today:
Founder's Pack "Dupe" (Source)
No worries – this issue is fixed and players are no longer receiving duplicate packs
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Good morning. First and foremost, can any players please report if they have seen this happen further this morning?
Though the issue was fixed yesterday, if it has returned, that is important information for me to have. In the meantime, I will try to collect more information from the team on plans for addressing this further
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Thanks, this is being worked on now. For those that are fearing action taken against their accounts, we are aware that this is a bug and will not be punishing those who who were affected
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I understand that, and will work to get information on this plan as stated. But if the bug is occuring again, then that means the fix did not work so I need to let the team know.
However, since many players seem to have used/are using the bug to receive multiple packs and a fairly large advantage/extra in-game shop currency (the Royal Crystals alone from the Platinum Pack are worth around $75), some in the Lost Ark community aren't quite so lenient and are asking to have the extra packs removed:
The petition was just posted around an hour ago but it's already gaining traction on reddit and has several hundred signatures (which is a solid amount considering how relatively small the Lost Ark reddit still is). There's also a much larger thread where the community is talking about the issues if you want to check that out.
That's 2 for 2 when it comes to Amazon Games and dupe-like behavior, as New World was plagued by several duping exploits, where players were purposefully abusing mechanics to create large amounts of gold. And while the effects of this are much smaller for the Lost Ark economy (and we don't really know if that many players used the bug at all), some did still very much purposefully open many packs after finding out they were reusable. Whether action should be taken against these players is an interesting question, but the benefits/resources themselves should probably be removed if possible, as it is an unfair advantage and sets a bad precedent for the game (the always popular exploit early, exploit often mindset looms). Hopefully Amazon can address this sooner rather than later, but at least the auction house are trading didn't/won't have to be suspended like it was in New World.
What do you think should be done?
Source: News Latest Topics https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/64154-players-receiving-up-to-10x-lost-ark-platinum-founders-packs-amazon-response-so-far-petition-and-more/