UPDATE:
Blizzard community manager Kaivax has posted a new policy on the WoW forums banning real money trading. Blizzard will also implement a warning that will appear in your trade window and warn you if you accept large amounts of gold from people you don’t know. The message clearly states that “our position on RMT in World of Warcraft is very clear: any account owned by a player who has participated in generating, selling, purchasing, or receiving illicit gold is subject to gold removal, account suspension, or permanent account termination.” Β» Original story continues below.
ORIGINAL STORY: World of Warcraft: Classic has had a problem with gold sales throughout its existence, but with Forever, Blizzard seems determined to reverse that trend, and some streamers are getting caught red-handed.
Before the Forever beta was released, Classic had big economic problems due to the popularity of GDKP. For the uninitiated, this was a system where, during raids, players would bid on gold in order to obtain items dropped by bosses. This, combined with Blizzard’s seemingly lax enforcement of real money trading, or RMT, resulted in millions of gold being dumped into mainstream economies.
But when Forever came out, Blizzard announced that it would ban GDKP, which was an important first step in making Classic+ mode much fairer for everyone. The other side of the coin, however, is the RMT. If Blizzard remained lax in enforcing its rules, then people with disposable income could find new ways to distort the economy in their favor.
Luckily, it looks like Blizzard is really cracking down on the Forever beta. Over the past few days, a few Classic streamers have been hit by Blizzard to varying degrees after RMT came under suspicion.
On Tuesday, WoW commentator N_Tys26 tweeted a clip of WoW streamer Ziqo after Blizzard allegedly collected a load of gold, leaving him with just 9 silver. This meant he had been abandoned in the Stonetalon Mountains β a Horde zone β without enough gold to be able to catch a flight back to Stormwind.
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There has been a lot of talk recently about WoW streamer @Ziqoftw receiving large sums of gold on the Forever beta.
As previously reported, Ziqo has maintained his innocence and even offered some⦠pic.twitter.com/Vzi5mDQjJO
β N_Tys (@N_Tys26) September 29, 2026
But it appears Ziqo was left behind, with his gold simply erased, rather than having his account banned. However, not all captured streamers were so lucky. N_Tys26 posted another clip of streamer Payo getting “banned from one of his accounts” after promoting the sale of gold on his stream, even though he claims to have “never bought gold” in his life.
However, just the day before this clip was released, N_Tys26 shared another clip of Payo begging his audience to buy gold from him. I’m pretty sure it matters. But, even though this account has been banned, Payo already has another account up and running and will be participating in a $100,000 duel tournament.
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One of Payo’s beta accounts was banned for promoting the purchase of gold. @payowow apologized for encouraging gold buying and believes it deserves the ban because it shows Blizzard is taking RMTβ¦ pic.twitter.com/kDDUXXDAVh
β N_Tys (@N_Tys26) October 1, 2026
It is possible that since the actions of these WoW streamers are more visible due to streaming, they face harsher measures than the average player. I’ve reached out to Blizzard for comment on this situation, and will update this story if and when I hear back. Regardless, taking action against streamers who engage in or promote RMT should at least discourage players from purchasing gold.
Either way, it’s a good sign that Blizzard is now cracking down on this behavior, while World of Warcraft Forever is still in beta. Hopefully when the game releases its final version on November 4, the economy won’t be distorted in the same way as Classic, or at least it will take longer. Blizzard also spent a lot of time making sure the game appealed to classic players and also cracked down on inappropriate names, but with mixed results.
Jackie Thomas is the senior technical editor at IGN and the queen of PC components. She’s been covering gaming hardware for over a decade for IGN, TechRadar, Gizmodo, PC Gamer and more. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
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