WoW players petition for bans as gold buying crisis deepens

World of Warcraft players have banded together to start a petition to ban those who buy or sell gold in the game, specifically as a response to issues in Season of Discovery.

Gold buying has existed in WoW in some form for almost as long as the game itself. Though the practice has always been prohibited under the terms and conditions, it essentially went unpunished for a significant part of the game’s history.

The addition of the other flavors of WoW further complicated this problem. At the time of writing, players can log on to servers for Vanilla WoW, Wrath of the Lich King, Hardcore WoW, Season of Discovery and Dragonflight.

Though there has been a crackdown in recent months, many feel as though Blizzard has not gone far enough in dealing with the problem. Now, a new petition aims to drive that point home.

Petition calls for significant bans for WoW gold sellers

In a post on Reddit, one user shared their petition, demanding Blizzard enforce severe bans for those guilty of buying and selling gold.

The issue has gathered momentum in recent weeks after popular streamer Sodapoppin was caught buying gold in Hardcore WoW. Instead of receiving a 14-day ban (as seems to be the current standard), he escaped with a relative slap on the wrist, confiscating everything he purchased instead of locking him out of the game.

In response to the petition, one user suggested that banning offenders to a “shadow realm” could be a good way of dealing with it. They said: “Why not just open a separate realm for GDKP/RMT and bots. Move anyone who GDKPs outside the swamp realm to the swamp realm and be done with it. I look forward to nerds paying 500 USD to buy BFD blues in the swamp.”

Whatever does happen with gold buying in the future, the noise surrounding the issue is growing. Blizzard has previously issued veiled responses, but they may be forced to proffer more explicit action if the conversation around gold buying/selling continues to grow at the current rate.