Over 2,100 gold buyers lose their beta accounts
Blizzard has closed more than 2,100 accounts that bought gold on the beta of World of Warcraft: Forever. Almost 1,600 accounts that sold gold or used bots were closed as well. Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield said it on 8 October in the developer podcast.
Greenfield, known as Aggrend, talked about it in the third episode of The WoW: Forever Podcast. The episode appeared on the World of Warcraft channel and is mostly about dungeons. The stance of Blizzard on Real Money Transactions, or RMT, has not changed, he says:
Our stance hasn’t really changed on this and we’re going to be very aggressive and we are not going to tolerate this and we’ve already kind of already demonstrated that in the beta. […] We’ve actually closed over 2,100 gold buying accounts (accounts that have bought gold on the Beta) and we have closed almost 1,600 gold selling or botting accounts on the beta.
Blizzard keeps working on it and wants to get better at it over time, Greenfield adds.
A warning in the trade window
In a future update, every trade gets a small window that asks: “Are you sure you want to trade with this person?” It will also say: “Be sure you know where your Gold is coming from.” The same warning appears when you accept a mail, says Greenfield.
Blizzard already announced a warning for trades on the forums on 1 October, with a longer text. Which text ends up in the game, is not known. Greenfield speaks of “pretty soon”, without a date.
Tips and crafting stay allowed
Blizzard does not want to create “an aura of fear”, says Greenfield. The team can tell a normal trade apart, such as a tip for a portal or a payment for a crafted item. It also recognises gold from an RMT transaction better and better.
Earlier, Blizzard banned GDKP raids and gave Cultivation a level requirement against herb bots.
Source: Wowhead