Buying gold in WoW Forever: Blizzard’s bans, holds and what you risk

Gold sellers showed up before the game even launched. Selling and buying gold for real money, known as RMT (real-money trading), started during the WoW Forever beta. Blizzard has answered with bans, new tools and unusually direct public warnings.

The numbers so far

On October 8, in the third episode of The WoW: Forever Podcast, Senior Game Designer Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield said Blizzard had closed more than 2,100 accounts that bought gold on the beta and almost 1,600 accounts that sold gold or used bots. That is roughly 3,700 accounts before launch, on a test server whose characters will not even carry over.

Greenfield said Blizzard’s stance “hasn’t really changed”: the team will be “very aggressive” and will keep improving its detection over time.

What Blizzard says the penalties are

In its forum post on botting and RMT, Blizzard lists the possible actions for anyone who generates, sells, buys or receives illicit gold:

• removal of the gold,
• account suspension,
• permanent account closure.

In an October 8 interview with TechRadar, Blizzard added that penalties for this behavior “progress much more rapidly” in Forever, including potential permanent bans. It did not detail the exact steps.

New: temporary economy holds

On October 13, Blizzard announced Temporary Economy Holds. When an account is suspected of selling gold or receiving illicit gold, Blizzard can temporarily block its:

• trading with other players,
• mail,
• guild bank,
• auction house.

According to the official post, the hold is lifted automatically if the investigation finds nothing, and it leaves no permanent strike on your account unless RMT is confirmed. Blizzard admits there can be false positives while the system is tuned.

A warning when strangers send you gold

In the same podcast, Greenfield said a future update will show a small confirmation whenever you trade: “Are you sure you want to trade with this person?”, plus the line “Be sure you know where your Gold is coming from.” The same warning will appear when you accept mail. He said it is coming “pretty soon”, without a date.

Blizzard had already announced a longer trade warning on its forums on October 1, starting with “Be wary of accepting gold from unknown or suspicious sources”. It is not yet known which text will ship in the game.

Greenfield also stressed that Blizzard does not want to create “an aura of fear”. The team says it can tell legitimate trades, like tipping someone for a portal or paying for a crafted item, apart from gold that comes from an RMT transaction.

What it means for you at launch

• Buying gold is not worth it. You risk losing the gold and your account, in a game that has no expansions to wipe progress: everything you lose is permanent.
• Be careful with “free” gold from strangers. Gold sellers sometimes send gold to random players to hide where it came from. If you do not know the person, decline the trade.
• Watch out for “boosts” and carries paid in gold. Paying real money for a service delivered in gold is RMT as well.
• Normal trades are fine. Tips, crafting fees, auction house sales and selling items to your guild are ordinary play.

How to get gold without risk

You do not need to buy gold to keep up while leveling. Our free gold guide explains what to sell, which gathering professions pay and what to do with Waylaid Crates, starting from zero.

About this article

Numbers and quotes come from Blizzard’s official forum posts and the October 8 developer podcast as reported by Wowhead, plus the linked press interviews. Ban figures are from the beta; Blizzard has not published launch figures yet. We’ll update this story if Blizzard shares new measures.