George In The Meta
Can you get banned for buying gold in WoW Forever?
By George In The Meta ·
Short answer: yes. Blizzard has banned over 2,100 gold-buying accounts in the WoW Forever beta already, and says it will keep taking action. I bought gold back in original World of Warcraft. I wouldn't now.
Can you get banned for buying gold in WoW Forever?
Yes. Buying gold, items or accounts for real money breaks Blizzard's rules for World of Warcraft, and always has. Accounts caught doing it can have the gold removed, be suspended, or be closed for good.
What's new with Forever is how hard Blizzard says it will come down. Senior game designer Josh Greenfield said the team will be "very actively monitoring the economy" and will "very aggressively punish gold buyers", and admitted they'd "been probably too lenient" in the past. Wowhead reported the 2,100 banned accounts on 8 October, before the game has even launched.
Would I buy gold in WoW Forever?
No. Back in original WoW I did buy gold. I was in the army from 16, so I didn't have a lot of time, but I had a lot of money for someone who was basically a kid: no rent, no food, nothing to cover. Buying gold felt like the shortcut.
I wouldn't buy it now. I actually enjoy the grind, and I enjoy the add-on I built that counts how much money I'm making from it. Twenty-odd years later, that's changed a lot.
Are there gold sellers in WoW Forever?
I haven't seen any, and I'm very surprised about it. Back in the day, the thing I used to see in Warcraft was people spamming sites where you could buy gold. In WARDOGS, the shooter I play, I still see someone spamming a site at least once a game.
In the Forever beta, nothing so far: no whispers, no spam in chat. Either Blizzard is stamping on it hard, or I've become oblivious to it.
How do you make gold in WoW Forever without buying it?
This time around I've gone full gathering, with Mining and Skinning on my Paladin. I find gathering relaxing while I'm doing other work: I run about killing animals and skinning them, or looking for ore nodes, then stop and carry on with whatever I'm doing.
So most of my money hasn't come from gathering along my normal route. It's come from gathering when I needed something to distract my brain while I worked. My auction add-on has me at 22 gold, 6 silver and 64 copper from 132 auction house sales at level 21, with the most recent a Bright Mantle for 48 silver.
Is buying gold the same as exploiting?
It's the same destination, just a different road. In WARDOGS this week, a group was banned for farming money with an exploit. Buying gold gets you to the same place: one uses your own time to exploit your way there, the other pays for someone else's time to do it.
And the destination is being a loser, like I was when I bought gold.
Can you get banned for buying gold in WoW Forever?
Yes, and Blizzard is proving it in the beta. Gather and sell instead: it's slower, but it's yours, and it won't put your account at risk.
