Blizzard Says World of Warcraft: Forever Won’t Allow GDKP Runs, Warns Gold Buyers of Permanent Bans

Blizzard is drawing a hard line on two long-running World of Warcraft pain points in World of Warcraft: Forever: GDKP raiding and real-money gold buying. During the Forever developer Q&A tied to the beta opening on September 17, 2026, Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield said GDKP runs won’t be allowed in the new version of the game.

GDKP, short for Gold Dragon Kill Points, is the loot system where raid drops are auctioned off for in-game gold, then the total pot is split among the group. Greenfield said Blizzard’s concern is that, in regions where GDKP has been common for a long time, it can grow large enough to crowd out more traditional guild raiding. That creates a steeper barrier for newer players or anyone without piles of gold, and can push players toward buying gold with real money.

Greenfield also said GDKP can be used by bad actors to move and “launder” large amounts of gold, making it harder for Blizzard to police bots and real-money trading. For Forever, the team plans to keep a close watch on the economy and make adjustments behind the scenes if auction house prices, consumables, or progression-related materials get out of balance.

The stronger warning was aimed at gold buyers. Greenfield said Blizzard has probably been too lenient with buyers in the past, and that some previous penalties were too easy to work around. In Forever, players caught buying gold could face permanent account bans, including on long-running World of Warcraft accounts.

Community Manager Randy “Kaivax” Jordan joined Greenfield for the beta-launch Q&A. Blizzard hasn’t published a separate written policy post for these comments, so the details currently come from the official livestream itself.