Recent RMT, Staff Bans, Incorrect Player Bans & Trading in the Future

Full Explanation

Hi everyone,

As most know by now, on Thursday, January 3rd, our staff team and I found two of our staff members (KcMarcoX & Mediheal) selling ingame cards/items to players (RMT). We have officially banned both players from the servers and stripped all privileges from them. These players will not be unbanned and accounts will be permanently locked.

Following up, we banned all players (approx. 8 players) within the last 2-3 days conducting suspicious trades with Mediheal, KcMarco and Hekari (trades where the alleged RMT was happening, where one player would send items over to another without any items in return). Those players' accounts were promptly suspended from the servers for further investigation.

On January 4th, a security issue regarding unauthorized account access was brought to our attention, and an emergency fix was being conducted during that time. The player responsible for the unauthorized access was IP banned, triggering IP bans to other accounts he was accessing, thus banning an additional 10-15 more accounts than originally planned. We followed up with the player who found the security issue and promptly patched the issue. The security issue was related to the original game client and a malicious program, allowing them to access other accounts. I was not previously aware of this type of game-breaking hack. This player has agreed to assist us with any further penetration tests on our servers to ensure security breaches like that do not happen. Additionally, we take security very seriously and have regularly backups of all data incase something arises.

After dealing with the security issue, I personally decided to unban all players related to the RMTs as a grace unban, since we didn't get full details from Mediheal and KcMarco regarding which specific players were purchasing items from their accounts. If you haven't done so, you can email [email protected] to request an unban for this matter. We also unbanned all the accounts related to the security breach.

Apology and RMT discussion

I understand currently that part of the community is presumably (and fairly) upset at us and the SPGENS server management over these issues. For the players who are truly innocent and did not participate in any RMTs or breach of our Terms of Service, but were hit with bans regardless, I would like to extend an apology to you on my behalf, as this is the first time we had staff members doing money trades. I will also commit to doing a better job over 2019 to prevent such dramatic issues from happening and will act in the best interest of our community moving forward. I thank each and every one of your for your understanding.

For the players who have been banned fairly and justly for RMTs and have been unbanned (you know who you are), I would like to remind you and the rest of the community that these are the players who will undermine the integrity of the server in the long run. I truly do not wish to have to deal with players scamming others through RMT for the promise of cheaper items, and do not endorse the selling and buying of items outside of what we provide as it is inherently not safe, nor 100% guaranteed you will receive what is promised.

If you have fully read this, please give a "Aurelli" reaction to the announcement on Discord for 1,000 cash.

Finally, I would like to once again remind each person playing on our servers that selling and buying items is strictly prohibited and is against our Terms of Service. If found, the account and all alt/related accounts will be banned. Players found trading with people who breach our Terms of Service may also be caught in the crossfire of these bans while we investigate each transaction (this can take up to 2 weeks). As a suggestion to the community, I would suggest if you have information of a player who is selling or buying items, report it to an administrator immediately (or [email protected]). Doing so will not only be helpful to me, but also helpful to your community members as it will minimize the impact of the investigation and those who are found suspicious relating to their trade history.

Compensation

For those players who have been banned incorrectly, please directly email us at [email protected] with your account username. We will be providing compensation as follows:

• 2x Loot Crates
• 25 GEN Coins
• 1x Skill 2-2 & Skill 2-1 card

The rewards are only one per account holder.

Future Changes

Our future solution for this issue, in general context is this:

• Limit Trading
  • Trading will only allow up to a max of 24%, increasing to 28%-36% with level, game time, donations made, and VIP status. I have yet to determine how this algorithm will work.
  • Skill cards and elements will be allowed for trading. Low level players will only have access to elements & skill 1/2 cards, increasing to 2-1, 2-2, and 1-1.
  • We will enable free trading & gifting one last time to allow players to trade back their lent items from other players.
• Limit Gifting
  • Gifting will only be allowed towards alternate accounts with the same email address.
  • Gifting will also be allowed to GM accounts as a 'transfer', where we will organize a transfer system.
• User Shop Changes
  • User shop slots will increase, allowing players to possibly sell up to 30 items per week.
  • User shop fees (7%) will decrease accordingly, and further decrease for VIPs.

I do understand the concern regarding the economy with these changes, but it is deemed as necessary to prevent any more RMT activity and prevent further investigations or ban waves.