Blizzard bans streamer as it toughens gold rules for WoW: Forever
Blizzard has banned a World of Warcraft: Forever streamer days after he encouraged viewers to buy in-game gold for him.
The punishment is part of a tougher stance on real-money trading, where players pay real cash for gold or items, as the spin-off game sits in beta ahead of a planned full launch in November.
Streamer Payo told viewers on stream he was fine with them buying gold on his behalf. "I never hid the fact I want my chat to use their credit cards to fill my bags," he said, according to GameSpot.
His game account was banned days later. Payo said he never bought gold himself and said he was "happy" about the ban because it meant Blizzard was taking illicit trading seriously. He was not permanently barred and has been allowed to make a new account and keep streaming Forever.
A second high-profile case ended differently. Streamer Ziqo was seen on stream accepting large sums of gold from strangers in the run-up to a player-versus-player tournament with a $100,000 prize pool. Blizzard removed the disputed gold from his account but did not suspend or ban him.
Blizzard has acknowledged it was too "lenient" on gold buyers in the past and says it will now punish buyers as well as sellers. Accounts that take in large amounts of questionable gold face removal of that gold, suspension or permanent closure.
On 1 October, community manager Kaivax said the company had continued to act against botting accounts, software that farms the game automatically, and against players who bought or "knowingly received illicit gold." The statement was published on Blizzard's official World of Warcraft forums, according to Blizzard.
Blizzard said enforcement will continue in both the Forever beta and the live game after launch. Any account found to have generated, sold, bought or received illicit gold is subject to gold removal, suspension or permanent closure.
It also plans to add an in-game warning that appears whenever a player trades with strangers. The planned message tells players that taking gold from unknown or suspicious sources can put an account at risk of closure if that gold comes from real-money trading.
For fans, this means the usual free gifts from strangers carry a new risk. In a game built around trading and teamwork, even gold you did not pay for can get you punished if Blizzard decides you knew where it came from.
