Hello Lumia Island Survivors,

We’re back with the third entry of the Lumia Dev Journal. In this edition, we want to talk about issues directly tied to the core play experience and a constant topic in the community: abnormal gameplay and smurfing.

Abnormal Gameplay – Current Sanction Rate Improvements

We’ve been working continuously on system improvements and strengthened monitoring to curb abnormal play, especially trolling. As a result, the number of sanctions, which had remained fairly steady since last December, increased by about 40% in July compared to June.

We’ve also made progress with enforcement on western servers. In August, enforcement actions increased by 240% compared to the combined total of June and July, as we continue to strengthen our monitoring efforts.

Of course, improvements in numbers don’t immediately translate into what players feel in-game. The line between simply “playing poorly” and “trolling” is often hard to define, and we can’t guarantee that human error in judgment will ever completely disappear.

Even so, we believe that if we maintain our current efforts consistently, the player experience will continue to improve.

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To improve the environment more effectively, we’d like to hear your thoughts on areas that can’t be identified through numbers alone. In your opinion, which of the following issues is currently most damaging to the play environment and should be prioritized for resolution going forward

Question 1. What type of cases do you feel are not getting sanctioned enough?

① Verbal Abuse & Harassment ② Trolling ③ Use of Unauthorized Programs or Hacks ④ Proxy Accounts and Smurfing ⑤ Sniping ⑥ Others (Short Answer)

Approach and Challenges in Addressing Smurfing

Current Policy

Our current policy on smurfs in Eternal Return is: “Smurfing (malicious use of alternate accounts) is prohibited.” In other words, simply having an alternate account is not bannable. Up until last season, there was no clear rule, but starting this season, we introduced a clause specifically prohibiting malicious smurfing.

This rule allows us to issue much stronger sanctions when abnormal play is done on smurf accounts, including tracking and banning the main account as well. Sanctions have already been applied under this new rule.

Moving forward, there are two stages we must go through to tackle smurfing: Technical Limitations and Public Awareness.

Technical Limitations - Identity Verification

In July, we began discussions with our parent company Krafton on identity verification. Krafton currently uses mobile phone verification for its services and is preparing a more advanced authentication solution that we hope to implement.

This will not only improve basic identity verification but also help block repeat offenders who try to bypass sanctions and return with new accounts. While we aim to adopt Krafton’s high-level system in the long term, we also believe it’s urgent to implement our own solution in the meantime.

Therefore, we’ve decided to first build Eternal Return’s own identity verification system, which we previously annouced and are targeting to launch during Season 9.

Public Awareness – Perception of Smurfing

Raising public awareness of smurfing is important not only for internal policy-making but also in our discussions with government agencies.

Government authorities tend to take a conservative stance on game sanctions. For example, even for “proxy,” which is a crime under current law, we’ve received recommendations to apply temporary suspensions first, and only move to permanent bans for repeat offenders.

While some difference between regulatory perspective and player sentiment is unavoidable, especially in live games with payment systems, we will continue to present data to argue for stronger recognition of these issues.

Our step-by-step approach to solving the smurfing problem is as follows:

① Stop malicious smurfs (current status): Our priority is targeting malicious accounts that harm the game environment the most.

② Introduce identity verification for Ranked (next goal): Even if malicious smurfs are blocked, running multiple accounts in Ranked still causes issues such as invisible trolling and unfair ladder results. By requiring identity verification for Ranked, we aim to shut down this type of behavior and improve the competitive environment. The goal is to implement this as a trial in Asia 1 first, though this is subject to change.

After Ranked verification is introduced, we will carefully observe the environment and then decide whether to move toward a full ban on smurf accounts, as well as our next steps. At that time, we’ll conduct further internal research and gather player feedback through another Dev Journal.

Responses to Specific Abnormal Gameplay

Anti-Cheat

Technically, our goal is to strengthen our anti-cheat system with Krafton’s help as soon as possible.

The core of anti-cheat is blocking illegal programs. While the fight between cheats and anti-cheat will always be ongoing, building stronger defenses raises the barrier of entry and deters less sophisticated attackers. A more advanced system would also help block repeat offenders trying to bypass sanctions with alternate accounts.

Discussions with Krafton are still in the early stages, but this is a top priority, and we’ll share progress when we can. Beyond technical solutions, we are also considering legal action against cheat creators and distributors, to put direct pressure on offenders and achieve stronger deterrence.

Every report you submit about illegal programs is investigated thoroughly, and we take the strongest possible action.Your reports make a big difference in eradicating cheats. Thank you sincerely for taking the time to send them.

Stream Sniping

We are now monitoring into late-night and early morning hours. When sniping is detected, we separate the offender from the streamer in subsequent matches.

Recently, however, issues have arisen with sniping from new or returning accounts in their very first matches. For large streamers, the advertising effect of their broadcasts is significant, and regular players have little incentive to troll. Most sniping attempts in these cases come from newly created or returning accounts.

Once a sniper is identified, they are separated, but with huge streamers, the sheer number of new accounts attempting to snipe can be double or triple the player pool, leading to constant disruption. We underestimated how much “just one snipe” could repeat itself endlessly.

Our countermeasures are:

First, strengthening guidance on how to use Broadcast Mode, which already contains multiple anti-sniping features. We will help streamers make active use of these.

And then, more fundamentally, refining influencer queues, with additional logic to block sniping attempts from new and multi-accounts. And as always, we’d like to remain as transparent as possible but we can’t disclose too many details, as doing so would help abusers prepare workarounds.

Boosting (Proxy)

Boosting (Proxy) is one of the most harmful forms of abnormal play.

As we shared in our last dev stream, we’ve been cooperating with investigative authorities on boosting-related cases. After months of investigation, two cases have already been referred to prosecution, and additional cases are under active investigation.

Even if settlement requests arise later, we will maintain a strict one-strike permanent ban policy without exception. Through ongoing legal action and public awareness, we intend to make it clear that boosting is neither minor nor easy to get away with.

We also know that boosting services are still being offered through certain sites and channels. Our response team will continue to take swift measures to combat these practices.

We know there is frustration that despite repeated promises to “strengthen measures,” the community still sees little visible change. We also feel disheartened seeing abnormal play remain a hot topic in community discussions.

Just as crime cannot be eradicated entirely, abnormal gameplay cannot be solved in one stroke. But we believe it’s always possible to take one step further than before.

If the pace so far has not met your expectations, then we must find new ways to accelerate. We will explore as many approaches as possible, take simultaneous steps in multiple areas, and keep working harder to improve the game environment.

If you have ideas that could become that one “step forward,” please share them with us.

Question 2. Write down your honest thoughs in regards to different types of abnormal play such as smurfs, boosting and trolling accounts.

Lastly, we’d like to share the results from our recent survey on character improvements.

This has been the third edition of the Lumia Dev Journal, where we discussed abnormal gameplay. In the fourth entry, we will tackle one of the most difficult and weighty topics: Skill Haste, followed by Healing Reduction, Farming, and Multi-weapon Characters and other fundamental structural issues of the game.

Once again, thank you for always sticking with us.