BAN GDKP: Grave or the Rebirth of WoW?

With the blazing popularity of WoW Season of Discovery, various gold-making studios have surged into the game. Despite Blizzard permanently banning millions of accounts within six months, they have still been unable to stop studios from unscrupulously occupying server resources and driving rampant inflation in the game. This dramatically affects the gaming experience of ordinary players. In response to this situation, Blizzard finally took decisive action.

As Blizzard released a preview article and video introduction of the World of Warcraft Season of Discovery Phase 2, a flood of news began yesterday!

There was so much information that it was overwhelming, making it difficult to keep up, let alone fully comprehend. However, one thing stood out the most: Blizzard officially announced the prohibition of GDKP activities at the start of Season of Discovery Phase 2.

Please follow in the footsteps of MMOJUGG to witness this step that could potentially be recorded in the annals of WoW of Warcraft history.

First, let's start from 29 minutes and 10 seconds in the video below to review the part about Gold bid Raids (GDKP) in the SoD Phase 2 preview video.

From the video, we can see that Blizzard is attempting a new policy that will no longer allow GDKP activities to operate during the Season of Discovery.A careful analysis of the video leads to several conclusions:

1.The identification of GDKP has specific parameters, namely, during the distribution of items in raid dungeons.

2.The determination of GDKP has triggering conditions, specifically the exchange between gold and items.

3.The detection of GDKP is likely to involve automatic mechanisms such as AI.

Due to significant feedback within the player community, Blizzard was compelled to release a new post to address players' concerns earlier today.

Blizzard has made it clear that while they acknowledge GDKP can indeed help some people quickly acquire gear, they are concerned that traditional guilds and social structures may be eroded, which are precisely the core values ​​emphasized in the Season of Discovery. Therefore, they hope to prohibit such transactions in the game mode. Starting from the Season of Discovery Phase 2 on February 8th, Blizzard will restrict this behavior.The core considerations behind Blizzard's move can be summarized as follows:

1.Many players prefer the traditional MMO, focusing on social interaction in gaming, and GDKP disrupts this gaming style.

2.Blizzard will eliminate GDKP in WoW SoD servers. This was evident a week ago with the epic-level bans imposed on GDKP organizers. If anyone continues to organize GDKP in the future, they will also be targeted by Blizzard, possibly facing permanent bans.

3.Season of Discovery is an experimental server. If this approach proves successful, it will be implemented across all nostalgic servers, including those for Cataclysm Classic, Classic Hardcore servers, and Classic Era servers.

Since its release, the prohibition of GDKP could be considered the most significant change in World of Warcraft Season of Discovery. While not a change in-game content, it will likely be the most far-reaching rule change affecting gameplay. Currently, the Season of Discovery is still in the leveling phase, and all content is phased, so even if GDKP isn't used for raids, most people might accept it.

However, once the game reaches level 60 and 40-player raids like MC, BWL, and even Naxx come into play, if GDKP is not an option, organizing these raids will likely become very challenging. At least for players accustomed to GDKP on WoW Classic servers, it's hard to imagine.

Nevertheless, everything has two sides. GDKP has indeed fostered RMT behavior and script bots, but it has also played a positive role in maintaining interest in WoW Classic servers. MMOJUGG initially played in DKP guilds during the WoW Classic, but my alts could only participate in GDKP runs outside of that.

Now, the question arises: with Blizzard prohibiting GDKP, but DKP raids are outdated, what allocation mechanism will players choose in the future?

Blizzard has proposed its solution, suggesting players adopt a "roll" system for loot distribution. However, the challenge with roll-based systems is addressing the issue of players having "bad luck." Blizzard's solution to this is the introduction of a new in-game currency. This currency will drop in new raids directly to players' inventory, bypassing the rolling process. Players can then use these currency to exchange for the items they desire from NPCs.

This approach effectively addresses the issue of players with bad luck. Most items can be obtained through rolling, while exceptionally unlucky players can use shards to acquire specific items. While this new solution may please ordinary players, MMOJUGG predicts two groups will be unhappy.

1. The first group comprises individuals who exchange gold for real money, such as GDKP raid leaders. They painstakingly organize raids to earn more gold. With Blizzard directly banning GDKP activities, there's no real-world profit in organizing raids, leading many raid leaders who used to organize over 10 GDKP raid runs per week to quit. This will likely reduce the number of raid leaders willing to organize raid runs.

2. The second group includes gold farming studios. MMOJUGG knows that many studios made a fortune during Season of Discovery Phase 1 and were preparing for Phase 2. However, Blizzard's policy directly ruined their plans, leaving them nothing.

From these perspectives, Blizzard's limitations are due to technical or resource constraints. They cannot wholly eliminate RMT at the source and only restrict gold production by reducing demand. GDKP transactions are a primary way many players participate in RMT, so targeting them is a significant move.

Some players believe Blizzard's ultimate result of banning gold raids may encourage players to engage in real-money transactions with each other. Especially considering the endgame raids at level 60, where DKP rules may not suit everyone, using roll-based allocation for particularly rare or powerful items may be unfair.

In fact, while Blizzard sees banning GDKP as a move against RMT, some consider it a hasty and aggressive solution. Ultimately, it's hoped that Blizzard can truly crack down on Bots, as they are the real culprits behind game disruption.

Additionally, Blizzard has announced that they will be implementing a "new tech" in the season of discovery Phase 2. The aim of this technology is to solve wilderness Bot issues as much as possible. It may even eliminate Bots from World of Warcraft altogether.If Blizzard's statement holds true, then the gold studios can now pack up and leave.

Alright, Blizzard's new policy regarding Banning GDKP of Season of Discovery has been introduced to everyone here. So, do you approve of Blizzard's policy? What kind of team allocation method would you participate in the future?

Due to the significant response from players regarding Ban GDKP, Blizzard has had to address player concerns multiple times. In today's interview with the game community regarding the Season of Discovery developers, the GDKP topic was again mentioned. It was reiterated: "Even in a "Not Technically" of GDKP, there will still be penalties."

Previously, MMOJUGG assumed that Blizzard might only target AI control over gold and equipment transactions. However, this interview shows that token raids, real money raids, and other "non-strict GDKP" transactions will also be targeted. Moreover, the so-called "conventional enforcement methods" are likely to involve GMs actively participating in cracking down on GDKP activities. Therefore, players accustomed to RMT will have to change their gaming approach. Of course, the outcome depends on how much manpower and effort Blizzard is willing to invest in enforcement.

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