With the failure of the GDKP ban in SoD and Anniversery/fresh Pug culture dying it’s clear: Blizzard needs to stop banning what works and start refining it.
Instead of leaving loot systems in the hands of spreadsheets, whispers, and unregulated carry culture, Blizzard could and really should create a built-in GDKP-style raid framework one that maintains fairness, rewards participation, and eliminates abuse.
Proposed System: Structured GDKP Raids
A Blizzard-hosted raid format designed for transparency, integrity, and accessibility:
Key Features
Bidding Interface: Players bid on loot using in-game gold through a secure Blizzard UI. All bids and winners are logged automatically.
Gold Distribution Breakdown:
Total Gold Pot: 100%
→ Blizzard Cut: 2% (Gold sink; disappears from economy)
→ Raid Leader Bonus: 3% (Choice: Direct payout OR Guild Bank deposit)
→ Participant Share: 95% (Evenly split among all players)
Benefits of a Blizzard-Integrated GDKP System
Value
Traditional Pug
GDKP
Blizzard GDKP
Guaranteed Clear
Time-Value Compensation
Loot Fairness
(Roll-based)
RMT & Abuse Risk
Log Transparency
Alt Accessibility
Why This Works
GDKPs didn’t break the system they filled the gap Blizzard left. Players want raids that respect their time, reward their performance, and provide consistent gearing opportunities. MS/OS and SR runs offer none of that.
A Blizzard-integrated GDKP:
Eliminates whisper scams
Deters laundering
Enables pug scheduling at all hours
Rewards effort even without loot drops
If Blizzard truly cares about sustainability in MoP Classic, this is how they keep pug culture alive without letting chaos creep back in.
Opened the thread expecting more complaints from those who dislike the loot system, closed it thinking this is a good suggestion for GDKPS: an ingame automated GDKP loot system.
MS>OS +1 is a good loot system. I think GDKP could be better than it.
If there’s something I’d like to see improved upon for loot systems in general that +1 doesn’t address, it would be factoring in if someone has done a raid a ton more this season and rewarding that, especially if they’ve had bad RNG. For Blizzard GDKP, I could see this in a form of currency, getting more or less of it depending on your luck getting loot from each raid boss, then being able to use said currency to artificially increase your gold bid. At the end of each season, the currency would be reset.
I also think if Blizzard did it’s own ingame GDKP system, it’d also be best to set a cap on how high you could bid an item to.
You fix GDKPS by not having them in the first place.
That said, Blizzard literally sells tokens in this version of the game, and anyone who thinks Blizz will ban GDKPS when they’re the ones with a vested financial interest in them sticking around is off their meds. GDKPs won’t be going anywhere for MoP… At absolute worst, they’ll move to some personall loot system, and GDKPS will just turn into “ticket runs” where a group carries someone through a full raid clear for whatever they happen to get in that run.
I mean, -I- get it, I’m a notorious GDKP hater and think the game would be infinitely better off if all forms of paid carry where banned (boosting for example)… I’m just pointing out the reality that blizzard literally sells the gold people would use in the gdkps in this version of the game, and the odds of them nuking that aren’t good.
Appreciate that you actually read it. I’m not here to stir the usual loot drama I’m just tired of the constant back and forth. GDKP isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the outrage about it. That’s why I wanted to find a middle ground: a system that Blizzard could build in-game to address concerns while preserving what makes GDKPs work for organized pugs. We don’t need another ban; we need better structure. Hopefully blizzard actually reads this and can utilize it in Classic +.
I understood the thread, but the underlying issue isn’t a systems one for GDKP, nor would that system stop RMT gold being used in GDKP.
If anything a dungeon marks/token system should be enabled to use in GDKP mode with currency exchange at vendors to ensure the gold was legitimately farmed, this way its legit gold and time spent playing in the game, as well as a cap on pricing.
However doesn’t solve the issue with bots farming.
is peak oversimplification. The MS>OS +1 crowd conveniently ignores one key fact: their preferred system still suffers from loot disputes, inconsistent effort compensation, and zero scalability for pug environments. GDKPs fill those gaps like it or not—with structure and time-value integrity.
For those shouting that GDKPs are the problem: you’re missing the forest for the bots. GDKPs didn’t create RMT or boosting; lack of enforcement did. Blaming the format is lazy when the real issue is Blizzard’s weak stance on regional VPN traffic and gold laundering. You want a fix? Start by region-locking servers and shutting down offshore bot farms that fuel this economy with $2/hr labor.
And to the mobile game comparison you’re not wrong about the monetization creep, but throwing every player-driven system under that label just nukes agency for legitimate players. The shop exists. Tokens exist. Your beef is with Blizzard’s monetization strategy, not with players organizing content in a fair and trackable way.
As for vendor tokens and dungeon marks, sure great idea, but that’s a loot solution. It doesn’t invalidate GDKPs, it complements them. Structured systems like the one I proposed actually pair well with currency sinks and raid participation rewards.
The bottom line: anti-GDKP posts keep regurgitating “ban it” like that’ll magically restore some mythic loot utopia. Instead of tantrum policies, let’s push Blizzard to invest in anti-VPN tech, region-locking, and paid GMs to monitor abuse. GDKPs aren’t the enemy the neglect around enforcement is.
THE GDKP BAN IN SOD/FRESH DID NOT STOP OR CURB RMT/BOTTING IT ONLY GOT WORSE
I have an idea for this I will post it in anther thread.
I mean I can make up random nonsense too… GDKPS NOT ONLY KILL PUPPIES AND BABIES FOR FUN, BUT THEY ALSO ARE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EXCTINCTION OF THE DINOSAURS, TWO OF THE LAST 3 WORLD WARS, AND ALANIS MORRISETTE
Lack of enforcement allows the problem to grow… but basic economics man, DEMAND + entrepreneurial instinct CREATES SUPPLY… GDKPS create -significant- demand to swipe for buyers. The bots are a symptom of player demand to “pay to win” to buy gold… That demand is exacerbated by gdkps… and has systemic rammifications on the rest of the in game economy.
For example, for a raider willing to carry buyers, What is the best method of farming gold in the game? Carrying buyers via gdkp (or selling boosts) Literally 5x more profitable than any profession in vanilla wow. Which means players stop engaging in professions because it’s a waste of their damn time, which means bots get a market monopoly on farming because no player can be bothered.
Ah yes, nothing says “I’m out of actual counterpoints” like sarcastic hyperbole. If you need a
go look at the player behavior data or just observe the bot activity post-ban in SoD and Fresh. Blizzard’s decision to ban GDKPs didn’t slow down RMT it just made it harder for legit players to engage in structured pug raids, while bots quietly kept cashing out.
You don’t need to make up satire about dinosaurs and Alanis Morissette to discredit a system just point to facts. The reality is that enforcement not format is the bottleneck. GDKPs aren’t perfect, but then again, no loot system is and removing GDKPs clearly didn’t solve the actual problem. Let’s keep the conversation above meme-tier arguments and focus on policies that actually curb botting and RMT.
The idea that banning GDKPs reduces RMT isn’t just flawed it’s demonstrably false. Let’s talk facts, not freshman econ slogans. After Blizzard banned GDKPs in Season of Discovery and Fresh, RMT didn’t decline it shifted. Boosts, funnel carries, and shadow gold laundering surged. Bots adapted overnight, pivoting to farming and selling runs. It wasn’t a clean-up it was a cover-up of the problem.
Multiple community threads have documented this:
Reddit and official WoW forums confirmed increased bot activity post-ban.
Players observed inflated auction house prices and unchanged bot presence despite GDKP removals.
Freshman economics tells you demand creates supply but in this case, enforcement failure allows supply to mutate. Removing one outlet doesn’t erase demand; it just reroutes it through less transparent systems.
If GDKPs are such a clear vector for RMT, then why did gold buying persist after they were banned? Because gold buyers don’t care about format they care about function. And right now, bots are exploiting whatever cracks Blizzard leaves open.
So stop pretending spreadsheets were the problem. The real issue is the lack of tools, filters, and accountability. Instead of banning a loot system that at least logs transactions, we should be pushing for anti-VPN tech, region locking, and paid GMs to actually enforce the rules.
You are being as intentionally obtuse and intellectually bankrupt as a big tobacco lobbyist arguing that smoking didn’t cause cancer because cancer still exists in non smokers.
It was never the sole reason people bought gold… but it was the biggest reason a person would “need” to purchase large quantities of gold and at potentially higher (even weekly) rates. Speaking of purely vanilla wow, I’d wager one of the other biggest ones was the combination of Edgemaster’s Gloves and Lionheart Helm for warrior dps mains.
As vapid and empty a response as when Trump makes up some nonsense and then plays it off as “well PEOPLE ARE SAYING”… WHO? NAME NAMES. LINK DATA.
This is the announcement that they where going to be trying removing gdkps in vanilla… The fact that they never reversed that decision since that point should probably indicate something to you regarding the perceived success of that policy, internally.
Now MoP, on the other hand, has tokens for sale, and as such Blizzard now has direct financial interest in the whales buying piles of gold, and go figure, GDKPs are still allowed here, and will undoubtedly remain still allowed here.
while dodging basic causality is rich. Gold buying persisted and in many cases increased after the GDKP bans in SoD and Fresh. Why? Because bot farms don’t depend on a single format. They shift. And the moment GDKPs vanished, boosting, funneling, and shady laundered carries flooded in to fill the vacuum. That’s not conjecture it’s the observable behavior documented across Reddit and WoW forums.
And yes, Blizzard’s policy update confirms this was an experimental ban, not a cure-all. (See Wowhead) They didn’t reverse it yet, but that doesn’t imply success it signals a lack of meaningful follow-up, especially when bot presence didn’t drop.
You say GDKPs create “significant demand,” but fail to acknowledge they also provide transparency. Loggable gold flows. Repeat participation tracking. Real-time bidding structures. Remove that, and you’re left with unregulated Discord trades and whisper deals the worst-case scenario for laundering.
This isn’t defending GDKPs blindly it’s calling out the reality that banning them didn’t solve anything. If the system you’re defending collapses under scrutiny, maybe it’s not the system people should be defending.
And before this post gets buried, let’s call out the obvious: weaponizing the report button because you don’t like that it’s based on facts is just weak. If you’ve got counter data, post it. If not, maybe stop trying to flag what you can’t rebuttal!
Actually, the sources have already been supplied you just chose not to read them. Try checking IronForge.pro for player activity trends, then look through the same WoW forums you’re posting on and Reddit threads like this one that catalog bot surges post-ban. The increase in boosting services, funnel carries, and gold laundering isn’t speculation it’s been actively reported and discussed by the community for months.
So yes, gold buying persisted after the GDKP bans in SoD and Fresh. And if you need a “source,” start by logging into the game and watching trade chat, AH trends, or checking the number of bot guilds still operating untouched. Ignoring evidence doesn’t make it disappear.
Proposed System: Structured GDKP Raids
Bidding Interface: Players bid on loot using in-game gold through a secure Blizzard UI. All bids and winners are logged automatically.
Gold Distribution Breakdown:
Benefits of a Blizzard-Integrated GDKP System
(Roll-based)
Why This Works