Nexon has revealed the results of its first crackdown on cheaters and other “abusive” players in The First Descendant, which resulted in permanent game bans for over 1,700 users.
Days after announcing plans to combat “inappropriate behavior” in The First Descendant, the developers said they banned well over a thousand users between Friday, July 12 and Thursday, July 18.
In a notice posted on The First Descendant’s website, Nexon said “We’re inspecting abusive gaming behavior to ensure that all Descendants can enjoy the game in a pleasant environment.”
They also asked any players who notice “abnormal or abusive behavior” to report it.
The post went on to reveal that 1,305 users received permanent bans for “Creation, distribution, or use of unauthorized programs.”
An additional 428 were also permabanned for “Exploitation of all processes related to the Open Store,” which Nexon clarified as “unfair gains by exploitation on store payment process.” That brought the total number of players banned in this crackdown to 1,733.
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The developer also said anyone who believes they have been falsely banned for Open Store violations can appeal by contacting Support or whichever platform they used to make the purchase.
There were no mentions of lesser punishments for general toxicity or steps taken to address AFK players. AFKing is an issue the community has been quite vocal about and that Nexon discussed in its Hotfix 1.0.3 patch notes.
In those patch notes, Nexon said it will be “keeping a close eye on recent trends regarding AFK” and is “considering ways to resolve the AFK issue” while acknowledging that a “cautious approach” is necessary.
The First Descendant is far from the first game to announce a massive permaban wave like this. Once Human took similar action on July 16.
