Today, CremaGames, developer of the Pokemon-esque MMO Temtem, showed the world that it was not afraid to drop the ban hammer. Over 900 players who are accused of cheating have been permanently banned from the game.
For those that don't know, Temtem is an open world MMO that borrows heavily from the Pokemon series. In the game players can join together with friends or other online players to hunt, capture, train, trade, and battle various monsters. Players battle by choosing from a set of moves their Temtem’s possess, and there's a type advantage system reminiscent of the one in Pokemon. One difference many fans have noted that Temtem is much harder than Pokemon.
Temtem's developer initially announced the bans on the games official Twitter account. It stated that the bans would be permanent and that there would be no way for the bans to be appealed. This statement sparked outrage from some fans, many of whom were concerned that innocent players who accidentally stumbled upon a bug or exploit could be swept up by an overly stringent ban policy.
This hasn't been the first time that bans have been controversial in recent memory. Responding to the outcry, CremaGames has walked back their policy, although kept their defiant tone. It stated that every single cheater it has checked is "legit" and that people "just want to know more info about the ban in order to avoid it next time they're using cheats." But it has conceded that a policy of no appeals is "not good," and will now allow banned players to appeal their bans.
Players who have been banned from Temtem can now appeal their ban by emailing CremaGames at support@cremagames.com. They'll have to put "Ban appeal" as the subject of the email and include their in-game ID or username. It's unclear as of now if any players have successfully appealed their bans. Hopefully unbanned players will go back to earning in-game money in Temtem through legitimate means.Â
Temtem is available now on PC in Early Access.