Blizzard says it has been closing WoW Forever accounts over gold, and a trade warning is coming

The gold argument that filled the WoW Forever forums last week now has an official answer. On October 1, community manager Kaivax posted Actions Taken Against Botting and RMT, and it is more specific than the previous statements.

What Blizzard says it has done

According to the post, since the earlier note on the subject the team has been continuously actioning accounts found to be botting to amass gold in the beta, as well as the accounts of players who bought or knowingly received illicit gold. It adds that action will continue in the beta and in the live game after launch.

The stance is repeated in one sentence: any account found to have participated in generating, selling, buying or receiving illicit gold is subject to gold removal, suspensions, or permanent account closures.

The new in-game warning

Blizzard also says a warning will soon appear in the game whenever you trade with strangers. The text it published reads:

Be wary of accepting gold from unknown or suspicious sources. If the provider is engaged in Real Money Transactions, you could put your account at risk of closure.

That is aimed squarely at the pattern players described last week: large sums handed over by level 1 characters to people who then said they had not bought anything. “Knowingly received” is doing the work in that sentence, and the warning makes it harder to claim you did not know.

How it connects to the week’s drama

We covered the row that led here: a $50,000 duel tournament gave beta gold a real prize behind it, players accused streamers of taking gifted gold, and one case ended with the gold being removed rather than a ban. The thread arguing that this was “the streamer treatment” ran for days.

Blizzard still does not name anyone, and this post does not say how many accounts were actioned. What it does do is confirm that removals and closures are both in use, and that receiving counts, not just buying. The forum thread under the post has passed 240 replies.

The subject is big enough that Sodapoppin, who also appeared on Blizzard’s own Forever podcast this week, covered it for his audience the same day in Blizzard Is Cracking Down HARD on WoW Forever Gold Buyers & Sellers.

What to do about it

• Do not accept gold from characters you do not know, however it is framed. The policy covers receiving.
• Keep your own gold-making legitimate. Our gold guide collects the methods that work in Forever, and a tester recently showed 50 gold in an evening at level 20 from crafting alone.
• Remember it carries over in policy, not in gold. Beta characters are wiped on October 21; the enforcement record is attached to your account.