Artale isn't worth playing

TL;DR: Long-time player with a lot of time and money invested was permanently trade-banned after doing what they believed was a normal, market-value item sale to a buyer who was later flagged as an RMT/“abnormal” account. Detailed explanations and chat logs were provided, but appeals were denied with “system detection” and “abnormal transaction” as the main reasons. If you trade with the wrong person, you can be treated as guilty with no real recourse.

I played on this server for a long time and put a lot into my main character. Recently my account was permanently trade-banned because I received a large amount of in-game currency from another player who the ops team later described as a “violating user suspected of using improper payment methods.”

From my side, this was a straightforward item-for-currency deal at what I understood to be normal market prices. I had farmed the items through regular gameplay (bossing, etc.) and sold them after discussing the price with the buyer.

In my appeals I:

Explained each trade in detail (what kind of items, how the deal was structured)

Described where the items came from (normal drops/farming over time)

Provided chat logs with timestamps showing we only discussed in-game items and in-game currency — no real-money trade

Made it clear I was willing to give up all benefit from the deal and have the trade fully rolled back if needed

The responses I received from the operations team stated that:

Their system had flagged the transaction as highly “abnormal”

According to their review standards, there was “no equivalent return” and the record showed a high level of abnormality

Even if a player has no malicious intent, large or one-sided transactions with accounts marked abnormal are treated as serious violations

The final decision is that the penalty will not be changed

My takeaway is:

Once their detection system flags the other account, any large trade with that account can be treated as a major violation by default, regardless of intent or detailed evidence.

There doesn’t seem to be any realistic way for an ordinary player to clear their name if they unknowingly trade with someone the system later labels as abnormal.

I understand that private servers need to fight RMT and abuse. But in my case, the system and policy were applied in a way that punished a long-term, good-faith player who was just selling farmed items in what they believed was a normal trade.

I’m sharing this so that anyone thinking about investing serious time, effort, or money into this server is aware of the risk: if the wrong buyer turns out to be flagged by their system, you may lose your account’s functionality with no meaningful recourse, even if you never touched RMT yourself.