The in-game economy is a cornerstone of any MMORPG, and disruptions can trigger widespread turmoil. That reality was starkly illustrated in Throne and Liberty when a support staff error escalated into a major crisis.
As with most MMOs, the game features guilds, raids, and an auction house — the latter became the focal point of the incident. It began when a guild contacted support about a missing siege reward. Attempting to rectify the issue, an employee manually compensated the players but misapplied the correction — 12 billion units of the premium currency, Lucent, were credited to the guild’s account.
Rather than report the mistake, the guild divided the windfall among its members and proceeded to buy up rare items on the auction house, later relisting them at inflated prices. The result was a severe distortion of the game’s economy.
Developers quickly detected the anomaly and temporarily took servers offline, reversing all suspicious transactions and banning those responsible. However, restoring balance took time — some items and funds are still being returned to their rightful owners.
To mitigate the fallout, the studio issued compensation in the form of currency and items to the player base. Still, some users complained of unfair losses: a number of accounts had funds removed despite not participating in the exploit.
Source: iXBT.games