During the latest WoW Forever podcast, Senior Game Designer Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield revealed that Blizzard has already closed more than 2,100 accounts for buying gold during the beta, alongside almost 1,600 accounts involved in selling gold or botting. That puts the current total at close to 4,000 accounts removed for real-money-trading activity before Forever has even reached release.
For a beta, that is an extraordinary number. More importantly, it confirms that Blizzard was quite serious when it recently warned that Forever would target gold buyers as well as sellers.
More Than 2,100 Gold Buyers Have Already Lost Accounts
The interesting number is not necessarily the botters.
Everyone expects Blizzard to ban obvious gold-selling and automated farming accounts. What stands out is the 2,100-plus buyers. Blizzard is deliberately attacking the demand side of the market rather than concentrating entirely on removing whichever level-12 Mage is currently running into the same herb node for seventeen consecutive hours.
That matters because Forever is being built around an economy where gold is supposed to retain real weight. There are currently no announced WoW Tokens or paid character boosts, professions are being pushed deeply into leveling and progression, and expensive systems such as the Black Market Auction House already provide enormous gold sinks.
If players can simply purchase illicit gold cheaply enough, much of that design falls apart rather quickly.
The GDKP Ban Makes More Sense in That Context
Blizzard has also already confirmed that GDKP runs will not be allowed in WoW Forever. The developers have said the reason is not only real-money trading, but the connection is difficult to ignore.
Purchased gold becomes much harder to trace once it has passed through dozens of legitimate players via raid payouts. Removing buyers before that gold enters the wider economy is considerably cleaner than trying to work out six weeks later why an innocent healer suddenly received 800 gold from a raid leader who received it from somebody who received it from a stranger with a suspiciously efficient mining route.
Forever appears determined to prevent that pipeline from becoming normal in the first place.
Blizzard Is Even Adding a Warning Before Suspicious Trades
There is also a new interface change coming to the beta. Greenfield says Blizzard plans to add a warning encouraging players to think carefully before accepting suspicious trades or unexpected gold through the mail.
That may sound almost comically obvious, but it addresses one of the awkward edges of aggressive RMT enforcement. If Blizzard is going to remove purchased gold and potentially punish receiving accounts, players need to understand that accepting several thousand gold from a stranger called Golddeliveryxx may have consequences beyond suddenly being able to afford everything.
The warning does not make innocent mistakes impossible. It does make the rules considerably harder to misunderstand.
Forever Is Trying to Protect Its Economy Before Launch
No MMO has ever solved gold selling. Bots get banned, new ones appear, sellers change methods and the entire process continues with the depressing persistence of Murlocs respawning around a quest objective.
But nearly 4,000 beta account closures show that Blizzard is not waiting until Forever launches before deciding how seriously it wants to treat the problem.
Gold is supposed to matter again.
Apparently Blizzard would also quite like players to earn it.
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