Updated 10/1/2026 at 3:26 p.m.: Blizzard appears to have suspended Payo from the WoW: Forever beta. Another streamer, Supatease, was apparently banned for RMTs, but his ban was overturned following an appeal.
Original story continues below:
I played and enjoyed the World of Warcraft: Forever beta, but I’m not too invested in it. After all, my character will be wiped when the game officially launches on November 4, and any cool items I’ve gotten or gold I’ve earned will disappear with it. I guess I can type of understand why some hardcore players are becoming more and more invested in their beta characters: it’s still a fantastic adventure you’re experiencing, and even if you play the same type of character again, what happens in the beta will be a unique adventure for you.
But what totally escapes me is why anyone would bother to break up Wowthe terms of service of buy in-game gold with real money, in beta, for a character who won’t even exist in a little over a month, all while broadcasting this violation to hundreds of viewers.
As confusing as it may seem, it is nevertheless the scandal of the day in the WoW: forever community. Yes, people pay real money to others in exchange for large amounts of gold in the world. WoW: forever beta. This is pretty weird and stupid in itself, and Blizzard has stated that it’s taking action now and will continue to do so in the full game:
Real money transactions (RMT) are not accepted in World of Warcraftand we are taking steps to combat RMT in the WoW: forever Beta, and of course, when WoW: Forever goes live and beyond.
It is important to know that while we have always processed RMT seller accounts as quickly as possible, we will increasingly take action against buyer accounts. This means that we will remove the illicit gold from the recipient and/or take other action, which may include closing accounts.
We once again ask all players to be very careful when it comes to accepting gifts from strangers or other one-sided transactions. If it is found that a recipient knew or should have known that the gold did not come from a legitimate source, they may also be subject to action on their account.
But there is another aspect that particularly bothers the community. A popular Wow Streamer has now become embroiled in this issue, not by purchasing gold himself (probably), but by receiving large amounts of gold from people in his chat that appear to have been purchased with real money. The streamer himself isn’t spending any money (again, probably), but he is profiting from the transaction, almost certainly by knowing where the gold comes from.
The main culprit right now is a streamer named Ziqoftw (Ziqo), who admitted to receiving around 520 gold from viewers in several different transactions (here’s one). This is, I would like to emphasize, a very large sum of gold in WoW: foreverwhose beta version has only been available for a few weeks and whose economics are very different from those of retail Wowwhere characters regularly accumulate and spend hundreds of thousands of gold. Although it is theoretically possible for someone to have amassed several hundred gold in WoW: foreverlow level characters generally don’t run around a few weeks old beta with hundreds of gold and just hand them out like candy.
Ziqo was not banned for this, but he was punished. The gold of the character who had received large sums of money from others was almost completely wiped away, leaving only a few silver coins, while the gold of his other characters remained intact. Now you might ask: what if Ziqo didn’t realize it was purchased gold? Well, as many point out, Ziqo isn’t just a new player who has no idea what’s going on. He understands how WowThe country’s economy is functioning and should be better informed. Such a quantity of gold in one place is extremely suspicious.
The most generous possible reading is that Ziqo did something incredibly This is stupid here, but what’s more likely is that he absolutely knew and happily took advantage of his viewers buying gold from him, whether or not he directly asked them to do so. Worst case scenario, he actually bought the gold himself, although there is no evidence that this is the case. Regardless of where this incident takes place, it certainly doesn’t contribute to his innocence with stuff like this clip, in which he mocks the idea of scrutinizing suspicious transactions by pretending to examine the legitimacy of an exchange of a single glass of milk. And if Ziqo knew what he was doing, he wouldn’t be the only streamer actively encouraging the cat to buy gold from him. For example, here is a recent clip (Warning: clip contains an ableist slur) from Wow Streamer Payo said: “I never buy gold. Ever. I told my cat to do it for me.”
All this is the reason why many, many Wow Community members are calling for tougher penalties, not only for gold sellers and buyers, but also for streamers who engage in this sort of thing, soliciting and accepting donations of all kinds from their viewers and using their notoriety to get ahead. Ziqo has regularly and recently partnered with Blizzard at many official events, which is why many suggest he hasn’t suffered worse consequences. And now the Wow subreddits are full of posts like these, with players feeling like the developer has massively backtracked on its very recent promise to crack down on a company that’s ruining the game’s economy.
Right now, the ball is in Blizzard’s court to explain itself and reassure players that RMTs will be taken seriously once WoW: forever launches, or to take further action against Ziqo, Payo and any other high-profile individuals benefiting from RMTs. We’ve reached out to Blizzard for comment on this and will update if and when we receive a response.
Gn tech
