Context

Introduction

World of Warcraft released in 2004 and quickly became basically the video game as it reached unparalleled acclaim not only in its own genre but even hitting mainstream numbers. As many more expansions followed which either (i) ruined the game by making it too hard or (ii) ruined the game by making it too easy ("baby mode"), Blizzard eventually realized after seeing the success of a plethora of private servers, many of which ran by third world scammers offering pay-to-win services, that an official server running the initial version of the game - hence named World of Warcraft Classic - would not only make them a massive amount of money, but also quell the purgatorial fire the latest expansions and recent scandals have ignited. They have later also added the first expansion and the second expansion to the classic era cycle with Cataclysm (the fourth expansion) being added later this year. However, most people usually agree that Cataclysm (which released in 2010. irreversibly ruined the original game and that it isn't part of the original triology.

The next logical step, of course, was using the basic version of a game as a foundational element and add new content on top of it, essentially having multiple versions of the game active at the same time. So instead of only having;

• WoW -> The Burning Crusade -> Wrath of the Lich King -> Cataclysm -> ?

and

• WoW -> The Burning Crusade -> ... -> Dragonflight (the current Retail expansion)

they now use Classic as a base and add content on top of it and checking out what actually sticks, calling it fittingly Season of Discovery:

• WoW -> WoW Classic Season of Discovery (I'll keep calling it Classic from now on I think )

What does Season of Discovery do differently?

There is tons of new content that wasn't in the original game and the goal is to gradually progress through the original game and provide small but meaningful alterations. This process is divided into multiple phases with each phase selecting a certain part of the game's core features and changing them in some way. The first phase, for example, had the game's level capped at 25 (instead of the original 60. and transformed a somewhat unpopular dungeon (5-Men-Content) into a 10-Men-Raid making it essentially end game content. It also introduced runes (basically key abilities for each class) that change the core aspect of some classes and some other features that aren't relevant here. Furthermore, phase 2 was announced a couple of days ago with the objective to increase the level cap and make Gnomeregan (another 5-men-dungeon) into a new raid amongst other stuff.

Alright that's fetch and all but where is the drama?

As announced by Blizzard in its Season of Discovery Phase 2 post, gold dragon kill points (GDKP) raids in World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery are going the way of the dodo on February 8:

We are experimenting with a new policy which will no longer allow GDKP runs in Season of Discovery. While we understand that there are some benefits for those who find this a convenient way to gain gear, we also recognize that there are concerns surrounding the erosion of traditional guild and social structures that are a part of the spirit of Season of Discovery. Given the experimental nature of Season of Discovery, we want to try things without this type of transaction taking place in this game mode. With the launch on February 8, we will be restricting this activity. We will have more information to share on our official channels and will be monitoring feedback closely.

https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/1141970.jpg

I'm not a turbovirgin so what the frick does GDKP mean?

GDKP, or Gold Dragon Kill Points, is a loot system in World of Warcraft where players bid in-game gold on loot drops during raids. The highest bid wins the item. It's a twist on the traditional DKP (Dragon Kill Points) system, which uses points earned through raids. Usually at the end of the run you add up all the gold then split it evenly so people that don't need anything make gold and people who need gear get the items they want. There are some variations to this that include factors such as bidding, performance and attendance, but you get the gist of it by understanding the aforementioned sentence.

Alright so people use gold to bid on items they want, what's the big deal?

There are some blatant issues with this and I'll only mention a couple of points here because this topic has always been quite controversial and before you can somewhat form your opinion on this you need to understand a couple of things:

• Bots: Classic WoW has so many bots it is simply unbelievable. There are thousands upon thousands on them with Blizzard seemingly being incapable of spotting them. They ruin the economy by making farming for materials useless and by introducing a shit ton of gold into the game, which of course is sold for real money called RMT (= Real Money Transaction).

• The player base: Classic World of Warcraft is an old game. In fact, it's a very old game that still is popular. Yeah, yeah some actual boomers might disagree with this but World of Warcraft is old and quite dated - especially in its original form. Sure, there are some major patches that set it up to ca. 2006 standards but it lacks many quality-of-life features, actual content and more imporatntly a younger audience. I'm not implying that Retail WoW is a better version of the game, I'm just saying that Classic is obviously catered towards a different audience - and it shows. The average Classic player is in his 40s, balding with a nagging wife and twenty children and five jobs and is actually incapable of playing the game. Also, people can cope however they want but video game skill decreases significantly and players in the 2000s were never good to begin with. The amount of Classic players that are borderline r-slurred is mindblowing, especially considering my second point:

• The difficulty: Let's face it. Classic World of Warcraft is not hard. Sure, its leveling is time consuming, its world is immersive, it is fun to play but it is definitely not hard, not during leveling, not during the dungeons and especially not during raiding. In fact, compared to current Retail WoW, its endgame content is a joke - and everyone knows this. However given the aforementioned point (people suck at the game), people can overcome a lot of the annoying things such as fighting for loot, or doing the raids yourself by actually paying other players (with gold) to carry them through the content. Boosts exist in every version of every MMO ever but in WoW they are everywhere and especially in Classic it is hard to NOT see them. What's the point of doing all of that if you can just try to clear the content on your own? Well, people usually log stuff which essentially means that your performance on the bosses is uploaded to an external site - and other people actually care enough to check your logs before they invite you to their groups. Bad logs equals bad players which means no invite.

=> So you add (1) + (1) together and you'll realize that people just use gold to clear the content and get the items they want so they can wait until the next patch and do it all over again. It doesn't take two paragraphs to figure out where this gold comes from, right? RMT. As a result, GDKPs motivate people to buy gold through RMT—but they're also a great cover for these operations, too. As this player on the classic subreddit points out, "one person breaking the ToS by buying gold for RMT can come into a raid and spend it among people who are not breaking the ToS … now all that gold is clean and gets used to buy raid consumes which are farmed by bots, who use that gold to sell back to the gold buyers." The snake eats its own tail. GDKPs also create a culture of exclusivity, locking players who might otherwise do fine in a pick-up group out of a game's casual raiding scene. Plenty of GDKPs have buy-ins, with one player in November alleging that a Wrath of the Lich King group was asking for 144,000 gold for a lifetime spot which is roughly 5000 dollars.

This is made worse by the fact that GDKP runs hamstring player motivation to get out into the world (of Warcraft) and farm. Nobody likes to grind, and the GDKP payout means you can just go buy your materials and consumables for the next raid from the auction house. But this can create a sort of symbiotic relationship between gold farmers and actual players—the only people giving a supply for the demand inevitably become the ToS-violating organisations that nonetheless make this sort of thing their day job.

At the end of day even Blizzard realized enough is enough and made GDKPs a bannable thingy (warning blogpost):

GDKP in Season of Discovery

Why is that such a big deal. Shouldn't it be great?

It is but I'll let you decide.

Reactions

Official Forum

(Just a selection there are SOOOOO many threads about this):

Banning GDKPs is enforcing communism

GDKP is ban, help me find a new loot system

Revert the GDKP change

GDKP people deserve to all be banned. In fact it took way too long. Good move

GDKP Alternative

Blizzard ban GDKP in SOD but not in WOTLK or Cataclysm or Era

r/Classicwow

No more GDKP [3000 FRICKING COMMENTS LMAO ]

Some examples:

https://old.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/1aed4y0/no_more_gdkp/kk7b4ht/?context=8

Man I'll miss GDKPs. It's actually a great community for all the flack it gets on Reddit. Raiders are incentivized to clear quickly and stay for the entire run.

One of the issues I had with SR runs was people would SR a bis item off an early boss then dip if it doesn't drop. That NEVER happens in GDKPs.

Now people will get to enjoy the authentic wow classic experience of corrupt loot councils and pug raid leads hard reserving the bis items for themselves.

Easy solution is to check logs and dont join groups with HR. Sorry you cant swipe your credit card through the game anymore.

gdkps in classic were my favorite and I never have bought gold once. honestly i evaded most gold checks just by being a healer. as a holy priest I was ALWAYS broke with no good way to farm so gdkps were how I earned anything for consumes.

I don't even run them in SOD but it's the only loot system that works for pug 20 and 40 mans. No other system incentivizes people to perform well or not AFK after the boss who's loot they wanted dies.

https://old.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/1aed4y0/no_more_gdkp/kk7b2ib/?context=8

People complaining about GDKPs they never attend. We have big communities of people who run lots of raids together and the way we like to do it is GDKP because its objectively a great loot system. Anyone can hop into a random raid and it's worth their time. Why would I join a LC or DKP guild's run? It will take me 1-3 months to start getting good items. Enjoy losing the roll on the epic staff for the 4th time to the fresh alt who just hit 25 that day.

All of the problems people have with GDKP (Gold buying, Botting, etc) are external to GDKPs themselves and will continue to exist with or without GDKPs.

You have people in your guild and raid teams right now who have bought gold to buy BOE items, raid consumables, and soon their mounts. They're the problem, not GDKPs.

Shame they're trying to break up our communities because of this.

It still affects me even if I don't join. GDKPs launder huge amounts of gold for swipers and drive prices way up for the rest of us.

..

I TOO LOVE TO SELL GOLD.

https://old.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/1aed4y0/no_more_gdkp/kk7bir0/?context=8

The biggest scourge of classic has taken its biggest hit. Lets hope blizzard can commit to keeping the scum out of SoD

So a month from now, when everything is exactly as it's always been despite the GDKP ban, will you come back here and admit that you grossly overestimated the effect that GDKPs have on the game?

Zzzzz. Cry more gold buyer.

He's right tho. Now with gdkps gone people will start just log checking pugs and you butt still won't get into runs

Then there's also this fantastic thread:

Price of gold drops more than 50% on GDKP ban announcement. I was wrong and am now starting to believe. [600+ comments]

Looked around this morning and found this graph (image below). For obvious reasons won't be listing the source, so unsure of how accurate it is. Regardless:

I was wrong and I'm shocked. I did not think the GDKP ban would have this type of an impact.

As an Auction House man, I never needed to buy gold to do GDKPs. I really was one of those people who believed that most others doing GDKPs also are earning their gold legimiately, and just a few bad eggs. Moreover I believed (and still do) that GDKPs, assuming no RMT, is arguably the best and most efficient form of loot distribution.

But seeing data like this... darn. There is NO WAY that the gold price can drop that much unless it is a PRIMARY demand driver for gold buying. I was mad about GDKP ban, and we still need to see how this shakes out in the long haul, but for now... I'm on board.

And another funny one:

GDKPs would be fine if we lived in a perfect world. But we live in the real world. [550+ comments]

And in the real world, Blizzard is either too incompetent/lazy to ban all bots/gold buyers, or it is simply impossible for them to do so. Whichever is true doesn't really matter.

Let's be honest with ourselves:

Swiping your credit card to buy gear is fricking stupid

The economy being massively inflated by bots is fricking stupid

GDKPs are the #1 incentive for botting/gold buying

Will banning GDKPs remove all instances of people swiping for gear? Of course not. People can still use other platforms to facilitate transactions. People will find workarounds in-game. Bots will always exist. People will still buy gold.

Banning GDKPs is a band aid solution to a greater problem. But that greater problem has been plaguing the game for years now. The vast majority of normal players have their experience lessened by bot inflation. Interacting with the economy is one of the most fun aspects of classic wow, because gold actually matters. It feels really bad as an honest player when you feel like you cant compete for certain items on the market because their price is jacked up so high to capitalize on the deep pockets of gold buyers (looking at you, Troll's Bane Leggings being 250g week 1).

Banning GDKPs won't completely fix the economy, but it will help. I'd much rather people use real money through venmo to buy gear than gold. And while I do sympathize with honest GDKP enjoyers, the harsh truth is that the average player's experience matters more. This really is a necessary evil.

EDIT: GDKP might not be the #1 incentive for botting/gold buying, but my point still stands. Cope harder swipers

And a bunch of other threads I won't bother going into detail:

GDKPers realizing they bought all that gold on a 32% APR Discover Card [250+ comments]

GDKP groomercord organizer quits P2 SOD [200+ comments]

[Next week be like[(https://old.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/1af4tm2/next_week_be_like) [100+ comments]

When you can't cheat in a 20 year old computer game [400+ comments]

How it feels with all this fuss over gdkp's [250+ comments]

Satire [400+ comments]

Suspension or Permaban for GDKP confirmed for SoD [650+ comments]

Asmongold

And of course, Asmongold already made a 30min video about all of this:

with ~2000 comments and 500k views and some comments here:

!g*mers get in here!

carp capy moon schizo geto pin please