Blizzard Punishes WoW Gold Paid Via Middlemen. Raid Carries Paid With Gold Routed Through a Third Player Now Risk Wiped Gold and Suspensions, a Week Before WoW Forever Opens.

What Happened

Blizzard now treats carry payments routed through another player as likely real-money gold, and says it has already actioned accounts.

Pay for a raid carry in WoW Forever, the rebuilt original World of Warcraft, with gold that reached the seller through a third player, and Blizzard, the studio behind it, now treats that gold as bought with real money. The game launches November 4 at 3:00 p.m. PST, and Blizzard has already actioned accounts.

The October 27 post

• Posted October 27. Kaivax, a Blizzard community manager, posted "Gold Transactions Must Be Direct" on the official World of Warcraft forums.
• Accounts already actioned. Blizzard says it acted against accounts that bought RMT gold, gold sold for real money by third-party sellers, and had it delivered through another player.
• Paid for services. That gold was payment for services such as raid carries, where a group takes a paying player through a raid for its loot.
• Middleman gold flagged. Blizzard says gold received from an intermediate player "has an extremely high likelihood of being illicit gold".
• Pay directly. Blizzard tells players to always transfer gold directly from the player buying the carry to whoever provides it.
• Guilds at risk. Guilds that sell carries risk having gold that arrived through a middleman removed.

The September warning

• Buyers, not just sellers. In a September 28 forum post, Blizzard said it would increasingly act against gold buyers in WoW Forever.
• Penalties listed. Gold removal, suspension or a permanent ban, as reported by MMOHuts, Warcraft Tavern and GameSpot.
• Already enforced. Blizzard wiped the gold of the streamer Ziqo after two level-one characters handed him 380 and then 175 gold; he kept his account.

The carry market has a date to grow into: WoW Forever's first three raids open December 9 at 10, 20 and 40 players.

What This Means for the Riot MMO

Riot has not said whether its MMO lets players trade currency, and that one choice decides whether it inherits this fight.

• Tradeable gold breeds carries. Any MMO that lets players hand each other gold grows a carry market, and real-money gold launders through it.
• Policing the route. Blizzard now judges how gold arrived, not only who sold it, which is a heavier enforcement and support load than banning bot farms.
• The account-bound trade-off. Bind-on-pickup rewards, items that lock to whoever loots them, and account-bound currency shrink the RMT surface and the trading economy with it.
• Riot's record elsewhere. Riot bans boosters and account sellers in League and runs Vanguard, its anti-cheat.
• Nothing announced. Riot has not said whether its MMO lets players trade currency at all, and nothing about the economy is revealed.

Our read. Tradeability is a launch decision. Settle it later and Riot fights the market Blizzard is fighting now, with players already paying through middlemen. Riot's record in its other games points to a strict line, but whether it reaches an in-world economy is unknown.

Your Take

Reported from Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft forums) and corroborating coverage. The MMO read is ours and clearly speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.