World of Warcraft: Forever hasn't come without its controversies, with the most notable of all perhaps surrounding the new Skyborne race – but the Beta proves it's not that unpopular.

The WoW: Forever Beta has been underway for nearly a month now, giving fan-led projects like Classic.io, which collects player data from the game, a chance to bloom.

So, what do the numbers on the site tell us so far, then? Well, perhaps most interestingly, the Skyborne aren't even the least popular race. In fact, the Alliance-aligned Skyborne are the fourth most popular race, with their Horde-aligned counterpart following close behind.

They've got the Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Tauren, and Trolls beat, too. The only races ahead of them are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Undead, Humans, and Orcs, with the Skyborne making up nearly 20% of all World of Warcraft: Forever players.

Heck, Skyborne Druids also make up the fourth most chosen race and class combination in the game, and folks have had some less than positive thoughts about that combo to say the least.

Blizzard actually had to step in recently and promise to make World of Warcraft: Forever's Skyborne less "jarring" to look at, specifically mentioning Druid animations in its statement. So, yeah – the stats are a bit mind-boggling, as they don't line up with all the controversy.

I suppose it's not too surprising, though, when you consider the fact that the same $30 that grants you access to the WoW: Forever Beta comes with the Skyborne included.

I'm happy with the periwinkle-skinned elf race myself (the pink hair goes hard, y'all), and I doubt Blizzard regrets its introduction, either.

Senior game designer Josh Greenfield said the team always "knew we wanted to add some sort of elves" and the Skyborne had apparently stemmed from veteran Chris Metzen himself – so, there you go. They're here to stay and it doesn't seem the community is all that broken up about it, honestly.

I am, however, disappointed to see Night Elves so low down. If it were up to me, we'd all be donning some sort of elf character – lore be damned.

World of Warcraft: Forever aims to "aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold" – but Blizzard warns there "may be false positives" at first

On the journey to the big World of Warcraft: Forever release next month, Blizzard has been working hard on social media advertisements for the new MMO – advertisements it assures fans do not contain any generative AI content.

The company's digital marketing manager confirms as much on X, explaining that they've seen some of the controversy the WoW: Forever ads have sparked online, with allegations of gen AI use – but it's all unfounded.

"Not seeing much discourse here on X, but there have been comments on whether or not we use AI in these videos," they write. "That's a big hell nah." Why would they, when they have real creatives at hand?

As they put it, "We have real team members writing scripts, getting and editing footage, and I've been in recording booths with our VO actors every week."

They're not alone in assuring the community of it, either. World of Warcraft's social media manager chimes in with his own post, stating, "To add, we don't use AI on ANY social content we make. Big hell nah indeed." And, honestly, that's great news, to say the least.

It's a bit of a strange time right now in the game development scene and elsewhere, with many suddenly announcing their support of gen AI amid widespread layoffs.

Epic Games immediately springs to mind, having unveiled a new "vibe coded" version of its launcher just yesterday while company CEO Tim Sweeney spoke on a "huge pivot" at the studio toward "maximum AI acceleration" – so, yeah.

I, for one, am pleased to learn that other developers and publishers – like Blizzard here – are shying away from the controversial tech and opting to support their own creative staff, even if it's for something as simple as social media advertisements.

World of Warcraft: Forever aims to "aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold" – but Blizzard warns there "may be false positives" at first

Although World of Warcraft: Forever is still only available to play via its Beta – a Beta which won't see any player progress carry over to Blizzard's full release, mind you – it's not enough to deter folks from purchasing in-game gold with real money.

You know, real money trading. If you've played any MMO at all, whether that be retail World of Warcraft or something like Final Fantasy 14, you know it's a problem. And even though it doesn't really make sense financially, the WoW: Forever Beta offers no exception.

A little while ago, Blizzard took $200 in gold from a streamer after suspicions of real-money trading. Shortly after, an add-on targeting gold purchases made rounds.

In other words, it's an ongoing issue, "Beta" be damned – and the community has looked to Blizzard for a harsher crackdown against it… Something the developers are evidently aware of.

A new update from the studio proves as much, with Blizzard outlining measures it's currently implementing to counter real-money trading before it really takes off in-game, as part of its "latest weapon" against illicit gold purchases.

"If your account is suspected of being involved in RMT, either the selling or receiving of illicit gains, you may find your account subject to a Temporary Economy Hold," the post reads. "You will have restricted use of trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House while this economic hold is in place."

It sounds just like the tough crackdown the doctor ordered, honestly – and Blizzard doesn't seem to be playing around.

"Our aim with this new system is to aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold before it has been transferred or put into circulation into the economy, while providing us the time needed to investigate more thoroughly," the dev explains. "If you are just playing the game normally, it is unlikely you will ever see this restriction applied to your account."

And, if you do see it, things will progress in one of two ways.

"If this restriction is applied to your account, it will be either automatically removed when the actions that triggered it have been investigated and found false, or you will receive account actions if found to have been involved in RMT," as Blizzard says… but it might not be 100% clean at first.

"This system is new. There may be false positives while things are fine-tuned," the studio admits – but you don't need to worry too much.

That's because "merely having a Temporary Economy Hold will leave no permanent strikes against your account unless also later proven to be RMT motivated."

It's not such a bad deal, in my opinion – but I'd also never engage in real money trading, especially during a beta, so my take makes sense, I suppose. I'm just happy to see Blizzard taking further action against those who are, even if it'll include wrinkles that need ironing out.

Blizzard is "committed to ensure that WoW: Forever is not marred by the Real Money Trade" – and that's not all, either. "All of these systems will also be deployed to all versions of World of Warcraft if proven successful" – Forever, retail, Classic, you name it.

As Blizzard launches yet another version of World of Warcraft, lead says "our hope is to grow the audience, not to fracture it"

World of Warcraft: Forever is the third mainline World of Warcraft MMO Blizzard's bringing to the table to stand alongside retail and Classic – but the developers aren't trying to cause a rift in their community with yet another version of the game.

In fact, they actually want to draw more players into Azeroth's welcoming hands, as game director Ion Hazzikostas tells PC Gamer in a new magazine interview.

"Our belief is that Forever will offer something that appeals to a lot of folks who maybe aren't currently well-served by what they see from WoW," he explains – and that lines up nicely with what Blizzard's been saying, honestly. World of Warcraft: Forever is for fresh faces and old fans.

"Maybe modern Wow isn't quite their speed, and when they look at Classic, they played that game already, or it's a little bit too janky and too 2004," he continues. World builder Matthew Armstrong said similar before, that WoW: Forever is "for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse" in Classic – that plus newcomers, of course.

Blizzard wants to reach more fans across the board, and Hazzikostas assures the community of this. "Our hope is to grow the audience, not to fracture it," he states. And "it's not something we take lightly."

This isn't the devs' first go at revamping World of Warcraft, after all, considering Classic. "For years now we've had two distinct flavors of the game, with different paces to them, and they've appealed to large but distinct audiences," as the lead puts it.

We've got retail and, of course, Classic. Soon, we'll have three.

Much like with Classic, WoW: Forever will hopefully bring people who've never touched a WoW game in their life to the MMO universe, Hazzikostas says – and, you know what, I'd argue it already has.

I'd never been willing to dive into World of Warcraft prior to the new Beta myself, having suffered from some serious FOMO. Now, I'm all in, and I doubt I'll be any sort of exception to the standard.

Here's hoping World of Warcraft: Forever indeed doesn't "fracture" the community. Senior game designer Josh Greenfield said he's witnessing "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" however, so I've got a good feeling.

World of Warcraft: Forever may take us to Northrend and Pandaria one day as "Azeroth is a big place," Blizzard teases, even if it's all about the first year of the MMO for now

Now that the World of Warcraft: Forever beta is in full swing and Blizzard's public release is quickly approaching, it comes as no surprise that fans are wondering where the MMO might take us in Azeroth – and the possibilities sound endless.

Speaking to Holly Longdale, executive producer and vice president for World of Warcraft, and associate production director Clay Stone, content creator JackedIQ learns more about what Blizzard has in store for us regarding zones and the like – you know, whether we'll ever see Northrend or Pandaria – and the developers' answers are exciting, to say the least.

"I mean," Longdale says first, "broadly speaking, nothing is off the table." And, yes, she means nothing.

"It's more what the team decides to do, where they want the narrative to grow." Much of this will come from what Blizzard gathers from us as players, but "another piece of this is the original continents too can change in and of themselves."

As the lead puts it, "You could spend a lifetime in the two continents as they evolve." However, once again, she reiterates that "everything is on the table at this point."

As it stands, Blizzard is simply focused on "the best story to tell," which does mean "there's plenty of opportunity." Longdale jokingly concludes, "We just wanted to see if anyone was going to play it first."

Considering how well the beta is going – so well, in fact, that senior game designer Josh Greenfield said he's witnessing "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" – I'd argue we can hold our breath.

Stone echoes Longdale's teases, too, adding, "Azeroth is a big place – and this time period that we get to play with is a really cool time period, basically staying in that first year of World of Warcraft…"

And, with all of the available lore, "there's some really cool creative ideas that the team has for how we can play in that space." Stone repeats that "Azeroth is a big place," perhaps filling me with too much hope now.

All in all, though, I'd wager we'll see a lot more of Azeroth than we may have initially gone into Forever thinking we'd see, and I'm thrilled to hear it. How will Blizzard pull it off while remaining faithful to its 2004 MMO? Well, that's for time to tell… not us.

World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes leave fans asking Blizzard "why" and hoping for more class adjustments.

A new patch for the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is upon us, bringing everything from the new City of Dalaran dungeon to various class changes – but it's not exactly landing well with all of the MMO's early players, it seems.

The World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes outline a lot, and that's a bit of an understatement – we're entering the fourth week of the Beta, after all.

You'll find them over on Blizzard's official forums, beginning with bug fixes and leading into a plethora of class changes which are, unsurprisingly, stirring quite the storm in the community. The first point of contention has to do with looting, however.

As the WoW: Forever patch notes read, "This build reintroduces Classic looting behavior, where creatures that dropped no loot can still be interacted with." In other words, enemies are now professional time wasters as you can interact with them whether or not they have loot.

To say the least, it's pretty annoying – and I'm not alone in thinking so. Over on a Reddit thread on Patch 5.01, one person simply asks, "Why?"

They continue: "I mean, what purpose does this have beyond 'it's how it was?' Is it just masochism from thinking you got a quest item?"

Honestly, I get it. It's already confusing folks, too, with another commenter saying, "I found it mildly annoying/confusing at first when I killed a mob and I couldn't loot it. Took me a bit to realize what was going on." Perhaps this is one thing they should've axed from the original game.

Players are also unhappy with the new World of Warcraft: Forever class changes – and lack thereof. It's looking especially rough for Rogue fans specifically, with one reply joking, "Sick Rogue changes" (spoiler alert: there are none).

Caster classes like the Druid, Priest, and Shaman do see tweaks – but they're apparently, uh, not the greatest. "They're committed to making casters feel bad at low levels," as one fan amusingly puts it.

For example, Blizzard has adjusted the Shaman's Lightning Bolt and its "base points and points per level of ranks 1-5" so as "to make the growth rate of ranks 1-6 more consistent, and new ranks always an upgrade" – but it feels like a non-change.

As one fan writes, there are "0 meaningful changes" in reality. All in all, it feels like the developers opted to nerf lower, currently preferable ranked skills than "making the higher ranks better."

It's worth a browse through the full World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes to see it all for yourself if you're interested, but something tells me Blizzard might be delivering even more changes following fan feedback soon.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "simplifying" Blizzard's usual PvP but also adding a controversial weekly grind as MMO fans beg "please don't do the weeklies thing."

Now that the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is entering its fourth week, Blizzard's got some new content in store for us – like the exciting new City of Dalaran dungeon.

Yes, that's right… we're finally heading to Dalaran, and we'll get to test a new dungeon, too – one that's already managing to stir up some chaos, it appears.

If you're familiar with World of Warcraft, then you likely know that Dalaran belongs to the Alliance and not the Horde. Well, it seems that the latter is somehow able to enter the city regardless after the dungeon's introduction to WoW: Forever, as per Wowhead.

Apparently, Horde players just need to complete the City of Dalaran, accompanying dungeon quest "Heart of Disruption," and get the Dalaran Sewer Key – the item that grants us entry to Dalaran. It's at that point that folks are then tasked with bringing the loot they got from the dungeon into Dalaran, in fact, through a new quest titled "Shrewd Negotiations."

Whether you're Alliance or Horde, you'll be safe in the city following this sequence.

All of the guards that should be hostile will act neutral toward you, should you be a Horde player, and offer safe passage (as long as you defeat the Archmage in the City of Dalaran and so on, so forth).

What's more, you can freely explore the city after completing everything, much like an Alliance player – but although you can stock up on supplies, you won't be able to access every NPC's services, apparently.

As Wowhead amusingly points out though, you can fish for coins in the Dalaran fountain – heck yeah. Not everyone is pleased with the Horde being in Dalaran, however.

Over on Reddit, players find it so mind-boggling they say it's "probably just a bug." Others argue that, as it's tied to a quest, it "doesn't sound like a bug." Nonetheless, it's stirring up some lore-related discussions, which aren't exactly new to World of Warcraft: Forever.

There's the whole controversy surrounding the new Skyborne race, from its $30 price tag to its lore implications, and the fact that Blizzard has just revealed it's changing the elves to better fit the rest of the MMO, for example.

It's never easy dealing with source material that's this old and beloved, I suppose, but I do think Blizzard's well aware of this and how fans feel about the legendary 2004 game that started it all.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "simplifying" Blizzard's usual PvP but also adding a controversial weekly grind as MMO fans beg "please don't do the weeklies thing."

World of Warcraft: Forever won't be emulating the retail or Classic versions of Blizzard's beloved MMO when it comes to PvP – it's got its own way of approaching it.

The studio outlines as much in a new post about how PvP works in WoW: Forever over on its official website, and it's somehow easier than it was back in the early 2000s but also… a tad grindy?

Blizzard first describes it bringing "a refreshed sense of purpose to every match-up" with an approach that "gives players more reasons to take part throughout the season while preserving the spirit of competition that defined PvP in the original World of Warcraft."

The developers explain that they "wanted to keep the design pillar of 'Approachable and Familiar' firmly in view: simplifying the original Honor System while staying true to its roots" – so, how does it work?

Well, there are two parts to World of Warcraft: Forever PvP: Honor and Rank Points. Honor is a form of currency you earn by taking part in PvP content, with Blizzard promising to ensure that "acquisition rates are more consistent across the board."

You gain Rank Points from specific PvP activities, like battlegrounds and certain quests. This system is similar to the original World of Warcraft's own, as you'll be working toward titles like Grand Marshal or High Warlord (depending on which faction you've chosen, of course).

There's a catch, however: "Ranks have a weekly cap, retaining the foundation of the original system while making the journey more accessible." That makes it easier, sure, but it also feeds into a weekly grind – and as a Final Fantasy 14 player myself, I'm all too familiar with (and not really a fan of) weekly grinds.

There are more layers to this, too, with Blizzard going on to detail how seasons function: "During a PvP season, players can progress through the ranks and earn Honor. Each season also includes a journey with weekly tasks to complete." Sigh. Yes, weekly.

"Successfully completing those tasks grants Honor and Rank Points, and three tasks each season also grant a Legacy Point," the devs continue. "Completing these tasks is part of the seasonal journey, and because they are tied to the Legacy System, they remain available to complete in future seasons."

In other words, it's definitely a bit simpler to get where you want in PvP rank-wise, but I'll feel more inclined to be consistent. You know, whether I want to be or not – and I'm evidently not alone.

A comment sees a fan saying, "Please don't do the weeklies thing." Another adds, "One of the things I'm trying to avoid is weekly checkboxes I feel I need to hit. Just having X item cost Y Honor and Z rank is enough." A separate response reads, "Please don't do that system. It's unhealthy at all. Having to farm every freaking week without taking any break is not fun."

Overall, though, it's admittedly certainly an accessible PvP system. Blizzard seems to know it as well, concluding, "With more ways to make progress each week and meaningful goals to pursue throughout the season, PvP in World of Warcraft: Forever gives players a clear path to jump in, compete, and keep building toward what comes next."

Fingers crossed it all plays out smoothly come the MMO's November 4 release.

To make World of Warcraft: Forever's controversial Skyborne less "jarring" to look at, Blizzard is going back to 2004

Since Blizzard first unveiled World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026 last month, one thing has been weighing particularly heavily on fans' minds about the revamped MMO: the Skyborne race.

It's hard to deny the controversy surrounding the new Skyborne race, from its $30 price tag to its lore implications, but Blizzard doesn't seem to necessarily agree with fans critical of the blue-skinned elves.

In fact, senior game designer Josh Greenfield said the team always "knew we wanted to add some sort of elves" and the Skyborne had apparently stemmed from veteran Chris Metzen himself.

That doesn't mean Blizzard isn't open to any change at all, however.

As it stands, folks can opt for HD or SD player models in WoW: Forever. Put simply, HD is a "newer" style, while SD provides that old beloved 2004 look. The Skyborne don't have that option in the Beta right now, though – but that'll change.

Blizzard reveals as much in a new update on its official website, explaining that the developers "focused on the pre-existing races from original World of Warcraft" first, regarding the SD and HD toggle.

That's because, you know, "many people have an attachment to those models." The studio is aware that it leaves the Skyborne looking a bit… different.

"We have heard feedback that the HD Skyborne can be jarring by contrast when placed in the same world as the SD models and world, and we agree."

The solution? "Skyborne player characters (and yes SD Druid forms) are in development and arriving early 2027." Attached is an in-progress image of models.

So, the SD Skyborne won't be available when World of Warcraft: Forever fully releases on November 4, but they're coming.

Is it enough for disgruntled fans, though? Well… is it ever? Comments show that plenty of players are still, erm, displeased, to say the least, with some asking Blizzard to just "please remove Skyborne druid" altogether – which is a tad extreme, if you ask me. There is some positivity among the replies, thankfully, however.

I'm of the (evidently unpopular) belief that the Skyborne are stunning, and have their place in WoW: Forever, so I'm thrilled. And, you know what? A huge chunk of the Beta players I see myself are playing as the race, so take that as you will.

WoW Forever player beats Blizzard to the punch, builds add-on that catches real-money trading on the spot

The potential for real-money trading in World of Warcraft: Forever has been a concern since the new MMO's reveal at BlizzCon 2026 – and despite Blizzard already taking action against alleged rule-breakers, fans are coming up with their own ways to deal with it.

In case you missed it, Blizzard took $200 in gold from a streamer last week after players flagged it as having been accumulated through real-money trading. Many fans thought the developer's punishment should be stricter, with some calling for "permabans" and the like.

One of the most pressing issues here, regardless of punishment, is how to actually tell which way somebody's gold was made.

Sure, when a lot of money is made in a short period of time – like during the Beta – it can feel a bit obvious… but it isn't always. Fans have figured out a workaround, however: an add-on that can tell whether or not gold was legitimately accrued.

It came up during a stream on Twitch (hosted by Ziqo, the very same content creator whose $200 worth of gold was nabbed back by Blizzard), in which a viewer said they've created just that.

They dub it IRS, amusingly enough, which is short for "Illicit Riches Scanner." Although it hasn't yet gone live for public downloads, its creator apparently sent Ziqo a beta file directly.

He commented on the add-on himself, saying it ensures "all gold that we receive in the future is fully natty" while calling it "a fucking add-on that compares their gold income to see if it looks sus" – with "their" meaning different players here, of course.

Ziqo describes the add-on as "bugged," but it's pretty interesting. It essentially scans through an account's historical gold against income statistics to flag any money that can't be spoken for legitimately.

The add-on looks at in-game trades in action, too, so I can see how it'd catch real-money trading, honestly – and, yes, it does indeed flag the majority of Ziqo's gold as illegitimate, so, uh, take that as you will, I suppose.

I do wonder what Blizzard's next move will be, and whether or not it'll deem the add-on all right, come its full release. The studio has been targeting inappropriate names recently and more, so it's clearly paying close attention.

Blizzard warns WoW Forever players that its stance on real-money trading is "crystal clear" following beta ban spree: "We will continue to take action"

World of Warcraft: Forever is all about preserving the original, vanilla WoW experience as it was back in 2004, but there's one quest from 2007 that the MMO's community has been asking Blizzard to make an exception for, and now their wishes have been granted.

For the uninitiated, the Kyle's Gone Missing quest was originally added to WoW during its Burning Crusade era from 2007. It was a Make-A-Wish request from a young player named Ezra 'Ephoenix' Chatterton, who had been battling brain cancer at the time. Blizzard did the right thing and let Chatteron design and perform the voice lines for the quest, which tasks you with helping Chatteron's NPC, Ahab Wheathoof, find his dog. It's an absolutely adorable and extremely heartwarming quest, but as WoW Forever only includes content from the original 2004 release, Kyle's Gone Missing has been, well, missing from Blizzard's new MMO until now.

Chatterton sadly lost his battle with cancer in 2008, but almost 20 years later, his memory is being honored in WoW Forever. Users on Blizzard's forum have been requesting that the quest to be added, and earlier this week a community manager indicated it was happening. Now, WoW Forever principal game designer Johnny Cash has confirmed in a tweet that Kyle's Gone Missing and Ahab Wheathoof have been added to the game in an emotional moment for the developer and anyone else who's familiar with Chatterton's story.

"I had the honor and privilege of bringing 'Kyle's Gone Missing!' into WoW: Forever," says Cash. "Ezra Chatterton was an enormous WoW fan, the creator and voice actor behind Ahab Wheathoof, and the creator of Kyle.

"A tear was shed during this one, my friends. Rest in peace, Ezra."

If you want to take on Ezra's quest and help find his dog, you'll find the character in Bloodhoof Village in the Mulgore region, which is actually the starting zone if you're playing as a Tauren. I won't spoil anything about the quest itself if you've yet to experience it, but you'll need to hit level 5 before you can start it.

I'm a lifelong MMO fan since the early days of Ultima Online and EverQuest, but WoW has always been a massive blind spot for me. I'm being sincere when I say I'm more compelled to dive in now than ever after researching and writing this story. It being the biggest MMO in the world, I'm no stranger to issues like player toxicity, but it's hard not to be just a little bit won over by gestures like this.

After 20 hours with World of Warcraft: Forever, I'm convinced it gives old school fans nearly everything they could want

Blizzard has issued a statement on real-money transactions in World of Warcraft: Forever as the new MMO continues its journey through beta, and it's clear the devs want to stamp out the issue before it gets more commonplace.

Over on the official forums, community lead Randy "Kaivax" Jordan confirms that developers have been taking action against accounts "found to be botting to amass gold in the WoW Forever beta, as well as the accounts of those who were found to have purchased or knowingly received illicit gold."

Moving forward, Jordan confirms that Blizzard will continue to do so and will also add a warning to the MMO that'll appear whenever you trade with strangers.

"Our stance on RMT in World of Warcraft is crystal clear: any account belonging to any player that is found to have participated in generating, selling, buying, or receiving illicit gold is subject to the gold being removed, account suspensions, or permanent account closures," Jordan says.

Blizzard stance on RMT in WoW: Forever is something it's tried to be firm on since the fresh take on the classic MMO was announced at BlizzCon 2026. Touching on why something like GDKP – Gold Dragon Kill Points – isn't allowed, senior game designer Josh Greenfield said it's largely because it can encourage RMT, and that devs are taking the economy in WoW: Forever "very seriously."

Did that stop WoW Forever beta players from engaging with RMT? Absolutely not. As we previously reported, one WoW streamer who really caught the attention of the wider community found themselves losing $200 worth of gold for allegedly breaking the rules. They aren't the only one, and others have cried foul and maintain they didn't knowingly do so.

Regardless, if you find yourself with ill-gotten gold in WoW: Forever, it would appear that Blizzard will come down on it sooner rather than later.

WoW: Forever isn't about the MMO's many expansions, but Blizzard is making an exception for a Make-a-Wish quest from Burning Crusade in response to fan feedback: "Stay tuned."

World of Warcraft: Forever fans have worried about the potential of real-money trading since Blizzard first unveiled the new MMO during BlizzCon 2026 – but, thankfully, it appears that the studio is cracking down on it prior to the full release.

Now that the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is out in full force, some players have begun to suspect certain content creators for engaging in, well, real-money trading for in-game gold.

The suspicions have risen to an all-time high after fans spotted the gold that Twitch streamer Ziqo ("ziqoftw" on the platform) supposedly accumulated naturally – or at least not via any illicit means – as he somehow boasted some 380 gold or so.

That's a lot… so much so, in fact, that it comes in at $200 or so in real-life money, as one user points out over on X (that is, if you use shady websites to purchase it – websites I will not be linking to here).

Players immediately called for Ziqo and others they suspect like him to face in-game bans or some other form of punishment from Blizzard. In the words of the linked fan above, "I call for a 12 months ban, including the tournament."

They add that the developers "promised us even 20 year old accounts would get banned," referencing how Blizzard previously stated that World of Warcraft: Forever's economy is "something we're taking very seriously" – which, honestly, it seems it is.

That's because the studio did indeed take action against Ziqo, as a separate thread with a clip of the streamer attached points out. It actually took back his gold.

In it, Ziqo confirms as much, saying, "Blizzard did sweep up all my gold." He goes on to describe how "they cleansed it; they left me with nine silver," showing his inventory – and, yep, he's no longer rich… that's for sure.

So, there you have it, Blizzard is cracking down on fans likely engaging in real-money trading, and it's a welcome sight. Some players think the devs should be even more strict, though.

Comments show calls for "permabans" and the like – but Blizzard itself hasn't done so, as far as I can tell. Will they? Perhaps. They've been targeting inappropriate names recently as well, so it's not outside the realm of possibilities.

WoW: Forever dev says quest drops aren't changing in the MMO, but Blizzard has added " a bit of under-the-hood functionality" that makes them fairer

There's another version of Azeroth on the way in World of Warcraft: Forever. This iteration goes back to the first year of the MMORPG's timeline, but with extra flourishes and contemporary design elements, in contrast to how WoW: Classic brings back the old school gameplay. As a result, a fan-favorite quest from an old expansion isn't available, but Blizzard's remedying the situation.

Almost 20 years ago, a special mission was added in The Burning Crusade, known as Kyle's Gone Missing. You're tasked with helping Ahab Wheathoof find his dog. That's cute and sweet as is, and it only becomes more so when you know that it was the result of a Make-A-Wish request from one Ezra 'Ephoenix' Chatterton.

He designed this questline for Blizzard, and provided the voice work for Ahab, cementing himself as part of World of Warcraft eternally. It's been a rite of passage for players ever since. The Burning Crusade isn't in Forever, but there have been enough requests to include Chatterton's work that the devs are going to anachronistically make it happen.

"We're working on it," reads a response from community manager Randy 'Kaivax' Jordan to a comment thread on the official forums asking for the mission. "Stay tuned."

The thread was started by one player who was asking on behalf of their partner, who managed to get some beta time. Forever is currently in a closed preview for members of the community, before going fully public on November 4. The area containing Kyle's Gone Missing, Mulgore, is accessible, making this a smaller leap than you might think.

I find it distinctly heartening to see so many rallying behind maintaining this commemoration. Even after 19 years, they're keeping Chatterton's memory alive. May we all enjoy such a legacy.

WoW: Forever dev says quest drops aren't changing in the MMO, but Blizzard has added " a bit of under-the-hood functionality" that makes them fairer.

World of Warcraft: Forever has made rounds online for seemingly standing as Blizzard's own take on Classic+ – but how faithful does the new MMO truly stay to its 2004 predecessor?

Well, as showcased during BlizzCon 2026, it does feature some quality-of-life improvements alongside its cozy revamped visuals. One of these, according to senior game designer Josh Greenfield, has to do with the way that quest-related items drop for players in groups.

He explains as much in a new post over on X, first stating that drops aren't totally changing – but that doesn't mean they're not improving at all, per se.

"Someone asked me something earlier about how quest drops work in WoW: Forever and if we are changing that," writes Greenfield. "The short answer is no; however we did do something cool that we haven't really had a good opportunity to talk about yet. In the interest of our Pro-social approach, we added a bit of under-the-hood functionality to quests to more predictably round-robin quest items to people who are grouped."

Thank the Light – if there's one thing I think we all hate, it's feeling left behind while every other player in your group is getting drops left, right, and center… and Greenfield gets it.

"There's nothing worse than killing a million furbolgs and having one guy in your group have 8/10 furbolg butts, and the other guy has 1/10. In WoW: Forever we've got something in place that makes it a bit more consistent that everyone in the group will get drops evenly."

The World of Warcraft: Forever Beta's ever-changing, though. As Greenfield puts it, "We are still dialing in this system" – but folks should still give it a go.

"If you are afraid to group on drop quests, I'd encourage you to give it a try. It's still going to take time, just like vanilla WoW, but it'll be less feast or famine, and you'll definitely kill things much faster." And, again, the developers aren't completely overhauling the old in favor of the new.

"A bit of grind on these drop quests are part of the vanilla magic we are maintaining, but we can do small things to help it feel more natural and encourage grouping while still maintaining that original design, and that's our goal," as Greenfield concludes.

He expands on this in the comments, too: "There's still some randomness, but it's more like a bad luck protection if you haven't seen a drop in a while and others are pulling ahead."

Honestly, I'm fairly pleased with group play in the Beta myself so far. Drops do feel even enough, and if one person does get a lot more of something than another, they can trade.

Here's why we think World of Warcraft: Forever gives old school fans nearly everything they could want after spending just 20 hours in the stunning MMO.

Following Blizzard's big reveal of World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026, the MMO's official Beta release went live – and it's almost too popular.

So much so, that senior game designer Josh Greenfield said he was witnessing "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" as the studio's servers kept breaking thanks to the WoW: Forever Beta.

The developers remedied the issue by, you know, simply increasing the MMO's population cap – something they've just had to do again over the weekend, because folks apparently can't get enough of it.

World of Warcraft executive producer and vice president Holly Longdale reveals as much in a new post over on X, writing, "So… we had to increase the WoW: Forever Beta population cap again. The wild ride continues." It continues, indeed.

Although Longdale doesn't specify whether Blizzard lifted the population cap for EU or US players, I'd wager it's for both. Despite costing at least $59.99 to access, the Beta boasts plenty of fans worldwide from what I've seen.

Heck, the initial launch was a bit of a debacle itself, as senior game producer Tom Ellis dubbed it "a bit excessive" as countless fans struggled to get into the game.

Although the devs figured the release out eventually, it seems as though the World of Warcraft beta is just as popular as before – or even more so, seeing as Blizzard is actively raising the population cap over time. It spells a good future for the MMO, honestly.

Its popularity makes sense, too. Devs previously described World of Warcraft: Forever as an edition of Blizzard's decades-old MMO that's "for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse" in Classic – and I'd say that resonates.

Not only that, but it's managing to reach entirely new audiences as well, like myself… and after spending all weekend playing the Beta, I can safely say that it's also succeeding there.

Here's why we think World of Warcraft: Forever gives old school fans nearly everything they could want after spending just 20 hours in the stunning MMO.

I've been playing World of Warcraft since its 2004 launch, so I've somehow been playing it for half my life. There's a familiarity there which is pivotal to why I enjoy it so much, but I also don't want things going stale. It's a tricky line to tread, but I think World of Warcraft: Forever has nailed it, reviving the original spirit of World of Warcraft that captured the hearts and minds of myself and millions, while simultaneously feeling like a new step forward.

Cliches exist for a reason, and I can't lie when I say that playing World of Warcraft: Forever genuinely feels like a homecoming – if that home had just been redecorated and tidied up a little. Home really is where the heart is, and between live, laugh, loving, and slaughtering through Azeroth from low-level upward once again, it feels like playing spot the difference between it and other incarnations of World of Warcraft. Ultimately though, it's just a lot of fun! Who says you can never go home again? The good old days are forever.

Classic, again

World of Warcraft: Forever has already been affectionately called Classic Plus by fans, and that sums up the new, third WoW pillar well. It has the slightly harder original difficulty level of World of Warcraft Classic, but with a bundle of quality of life improvements that come from the 'other', core WoW experience (AKA: Retail) with its most recent expansion pack, Midnight. If you haven't played in a long while, think of Forever (and its Classic cousin) as recreating the version you're most likely to remember. It's an approach that bridges the gap between modern and old school, and effectively gives Blizzard a second chance at improving upon the Classic formula.

Forever revives WoW as it was many years ago, like Classic did. However, it does so with a new race (Skyborne), improved visuals, some quality of life additions, and a hard level cap of 60 so you won't see any expansion packs like with Classic and Retail. Instead, progression will eventually be horizontal with new gear and new max level zones and dungeons. Think Classic but more, and without any expansion packs in the future. Confused yet? I don't blame you. The message could be a little clearer. Regardless, an MMO that stubbornly promises to never go past level 60 is a bold move, especially for a game called Forever.

This particular beta only allows you to level up to 20 but that's a strong start. Particularly bearing in mind that when the game officially launches on November 4, the servers are wiped and you're starting all over again. At some point, the level cap will increase to 30 before the beta ends in late October, but even with the lower cap there's plenty to get stuck into already.

Right now, the beta is incredibly busy. Instead of using traditional server realms, Blizzard has opted for realms based on how you want to play. There's a PvE, PvP, and Roleplay realm (Permadeath Hardcore mode is to follow) and in theory, you'll always have someone to play with because each one is packed with players rather than being spread across multiple servers.

After a long time of feeling like I was alone on my previous WoW server, the population brings back memories of when the game launched. There are players everywhere! From small towns like Auberdine to the sprawling city of Stormwind, I've witnessed people working together, buffing each other, and yes, still throwing out trash talk because it is WoW after all. But, good-spirited ribbing can still give me a fuzzy feeling. World of Warcraft feels like an MMO again.

A couple of times when I die, someone even resurrects me just because they can. There are glimmers of kindness and so many signs of virtual life. Blizzard has tapped into that further with its camping system. A form of crafting, you can place a campsite down and others can share special buffs while gathering around the fire. It's surprisingly heartwarming to see and feels so community spirited.

World of wishlists

Adding to the 'let's do what we've been meaning to do for years' attitude that Blizzard seems to be demonstrating, there are so many more quests in starting zones and beyond than before. WoW veteran, Rob Pardo, once told me that during playtesting of the original game, the team quickly realized there needed to be a lot more quests added to the game. Well, now there's even more than that.

Better still, they tend to link together better, leading you to new zones or teaching you new and valuable skills. For instance, one quest in Darkshore gives me water breathing potions which previously felt like gold dust to acquire. Many additions feel so natural that veteran players will find themselves racking their brains to remember which quests are new and which were always there. Also, you can keep 40 quests in your log instead of the very paltry 20 of before. One of the many subtle quality of life improvements you'll soon end up adoring. I liked stockpiling myself with quests from different zones so I could wander freely and always have something new to do.

There are things that don't entirely impress me though. The lighting and water effects are much improved, bringing vibrancy to the visuals, but other graphical improvements feel much more subtle rather than revolutionary. This isn't the WoW 2.0 we all hoped for. The only new zone in this beta is the starting zone for the Skyborne race, Zephras Isle, and that's very pleasant and more modern to look at. It's also a sprawling zone that is potentially a little too vast for starting out in. The Skyborne race itself is best described as elven smurfs but as a night elf main, I feel at home.

Another thing to tick off the 'I always wanted this' list is gamepad support. It's in alpha right now and I wasn't entirely sold but I can see the promise. It's a lot like Final Fantasy 14's gamepad support so the potential is there, but undoing 20 years of using mouse and keyboard is going to take some time. I'm hopeful it means you'll be able to play on a ROG Ally or Steam Deck more effectively one day.

So early on into its beta, it's hard to tell what the future holds for World of Warcraft: Forever. It's clearly very popular right now with certain imbalances compensating for that such as super fast respawns of even 'rare' mobs. There are still many new items to find with some cool rumors floating around, from weapons that open up brand new class strategies, to a series of strange books. Just this week, an item that allows you to mine without possessing the mining skill has been found, along with an experience boosting sleeping bag.

There are new zones for higher levels too, yet to be explored. I'm intrigued to see what the account-wide Legacy system will look like too which unlocks at level 25 and presumably the next stage of the beta. It promises to be kind of like the current achievement system but with rewards such as buffs or new pets and mounts. I'm hopeful it extends longevity once you hit level 60.

What I do know is that I'm really enjoying my time with World of Warcraft: Forever. As a big Classic fan, it still scratches the itch from being a veteran player but offers quality of life fixes that save me from needing to install add-ons, all while giving me a genuinely active community again.

A little like World of Warcraft: Midnight did for Retail, World of Warcraft: Forever feels like exactly what old school players need to revitalize and re-excite. Forever, Classic, and Retail will all co-exist as separate branches of WoW – and Forever feels like it's eating Classic's lunch a bit after playing – but I'm beginning to suspect a lot of players after a traditional MMO experience will flock to Forever unless they're true purists. As a veteran player, it feels like the obvious option. Whichever you favor, 2026 is shaping up to be a very good year for World of Warcraft fans.

Room for more in your world? Check out our best MMOs and best RPGs rankings for further adventures!

Although it feels like Blizzard only just unveiled World of Warcraft: Forever during BlizzCon 2026, some time has passed now and the beta is out in full force – and, unsurprisingly, folks are already catching bans for inappropriate behavior.

What inappropriate behavior so early on, you might ask – and it all boils down to character names. People are choosing, erm, less than respectful titles for their avatars, and it's caught Blizzard's attention.

As the studio writes in an online post, "Reminder to keep your character names in the Forever Beta respectful and within policy. Forced name changes are going into effect and users with the most extreme violations have been removed from the Beta."

While that all sounds valid enough, some fans aren't having it. There are various threads circulating the web with claims of overaction from Blizzard, as players say they're mildly crude or silly names have been targeted wrongfully.

The developers disagree, though – as per a statement over on Twitter from senior game producer Tom Ellis, the team is not just taking accounts down willy-nilly. Not at all, in fact.

Ellis explains, "Anyone saying they were removed from beta for naming their character 'Billy Mcsuckmahballz' is telling little white lies. That character likely just received a forced name change. Multiple unfortunate humans read through every name that was removed from beta today. If you're genuinely confused, remember that it's our database, we can see every character you've created, not just the one you're playing."

He then concludes, "I read the list. No sympathy. Be a better human next time." That checks out, honestly – and it's hard to counter the devs when they've got an active database of the bans they've issued.

A handful of fans are still upset, judging by the comments, but I see plenty more celebrating Blizzard's crackdown on its initial announcement. As one reply puts it, "Based. Thank you." It can't be easy keeping things SFW, after all.

Especially not within such a massive MMO community. There are responses noting that the devs have missed some inappropriate names, for example – but they are only getting started here. World of Warcraft: Forever's full release is on November 4.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse" in Classic, dev says.

When Blizzard first unveiled World of Warcraft: Forever during BlizzCon 2026, many fans saw it as the MMO developer's answer to their Classic+ prayers – and, according to world builder Matthew Armstrong, it sounds like it basically is just that.

The dev goes into detail on who Forever is truly "for" in a lengthy new thread on Twitter, saying that he had a very particular type of player in mind while helping design Blizzard's revamped take on its 2004 gem: the hardened Classic fan who didn't feel satisfied with the non-retail version and how it deviated from the original game.

"I'm seeing a lot of discourse about who WoW: Forever is being made for," he writes. "While I cannot speak for anyone else on the team I can speak for myself. I am making WoW: Forever for the Classic gamer and for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse over the years because they were not satisfied with changes that were made to the game. Whether those changes were to the art style, the story, social aspects, game design, or changes to their favorite class."

World of Warcraft: Forever is no retail, that's for sure. "I did not spend the last year of my life relearning and mastering how to do things like we did it 20+ years ago for retail players," as the world builder puts it.

"I could have taken it easy and just kept doing things like I had done for the past eight years on retail… because I was much more familiar with it and it actually takes a lot less time to do (height maps on textures do a ton of heavy lifting)."

And, as Armstrong points out, "because the reality is that the majority of retail players wouldn't care and would probably actually prefer it." That's not what he did, though.

"I felt I had a duty to uphold an artistic vision and integrity that millions of people expect from us" – both players and fellow devs "past and present who worked on it over 20 years ago." He wanted to "create something that resembled their work.

That's what Forever is – an Old School RuneScape-style upgrade to the original World of Warcraft MMO many folks know inside out and love. And, Armstrong clarifies that it's not a diss aimed at fans of the retail version.

He simply "wanted to make Forever as authentic of a vanilla experience as possible," which is "wildly different" than retail, obviously. There are three "sayings" he says he's followed throughout development, too.

"Convenience is the death of the journey" is the first – which checks out. Then, "If you're making a game for everyone then you're making it for no one." Again, that aligns well with what Armstrong says regarding Classic and retail fans. Finally, "Every change we make incurs a debt to the authenticity of the game and sooner or later that debt will be paid." I suppose Classic (and all the Classic+ requests) proves this point.

"These are my core beliefs and I had a specific group of people I was targeting with my work," he concludes. "These beliefs cannot be shaken and I will try to hold the line against anything that goes against them and will continue to pester the team about things that feel out of place."

Armstrong does still hope World of Warcraft: Forever "will pull in as many people as possible," Classic, retail, or otherwise.

"I hope you can all remember what made this game so special in the first place and that starts with understanding why we are so passionate about keeping it authentic."

I certainly do, and judging by the comments, it's safe to say the majority of players do.

"You can't tell me this isn't WoW 2": Blizzard says World of Warcraft doesn't need a sequel thanks to Forever, but MMO fans say it already made one.

Following the big reveal of World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026, many fans dubbed it Blizzard's answer to their Classic+ prayers – but others see it as such a strong revival of the original MMO, it might as well be a sequel in its own right.

World of Warcraft: Forever is many things: a revamped take on Blizzard's beloved 2004 gem, an MMO with new content that nobody has previously experienced, and an all-around cozy game to pour hundreds of hours into between school or work.

What it technically isn't, however, is an official sequel – but fans enjoying its paid beta period feel it's got enough bang for its buck that might as well be World of Warcraft 2, apparently.

One fan taken aback by Forever's stunning nighttime visuals declares as much, writing in a post on Twitter, "You can't tell me this isn't WoW 2." Over on Reddit, commenters discuss how the new game "opens up so much potential," with a response calling it "a pretty smart way to develop WoW 2."

Threads on the official World of Warcraft forums echo this sentiment, as folks write that "WoW Forever feels like WoW 2.0 and it makes sense."

It's certainly an interesting take to read, especially seeing as Blizzard itself essentially said that World of Warcraft 2 isn't happening because the developers aren't sure what a sequel to the old MMO would "give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you" – so, yeah.

It's undeniably a downright huge project for the studio, and it seems that even they liken it to a successor of sorts… even if it'll coexist with Classic and retail.

Honestly, I'm personally thrilled with the beta so far myself. Blizzard has nailed everything from the ambience to the quest design, placing me in the shoes of a giddy child booting up their new game for the first time ever once again – and, yes, I even happen to like the controversial Skyborne race, regardless of its hefty $30 price tag, and its opening story.

The devs have something very good cooking here, y'all.

That, plus the fact that Blizzard is waving goodbye to combat add-ons (much like it did in retail before) and GDKP – thank the Light. I just can't wait until everyone gets to hop into World of Warcraft: Forever on November 4.

World of Warcraft: Forever dev tells fans concerned by datamines and screenshots to "reserve judgment" until they play Blizzard's new MMO.

World of Warcraft has been running for 22 years, and even now Blizzard sometimes struggles to keep up with demand. Yesterday, the WoW: Forever beta launched and immediately broke under the weight of everyone trying to get in at once. How is this still happening when Blizzard has decades of experience with launching new MMO content? The devs themselves say they were genuinely taken aback by just how popular the Forever beta has been.

"Man, it was hard to sleep last night, I was so excited," senior game designer Josh Greenfield says on Twitter. "Beta has been... crazy. The craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard and almost 8 years on classic. We've got something really special here."

Maybe that sounds hyperbolic, but senior game producer Tom Ellis has posted a more exhaustive technical breakdown of what went wrong for the opening hours of the Forever beta. "It's not a Production stack by a long, long, long, long, long, long shot," Ellis explains on Twitter. "Betas for WoW aren't usually huge meter movers so this environment just isn't that powerful."

Because "our little BETA environment only uses one REGIONAL realm," Ellis says, math on the servers started getting screwy as this one little connection point was suddenly having to funnel in so many players. This is why people kept getting disconnected after sitting through the lengthy login queues.

It took the devs "around half an hour" to figure out that this was the bottleneck, because the game and Battle.net services both showed very little load. "We all recognized we need more logging and notifications when this system is kicking in, but this is the first time anyone's seen it kick in when [there] wasn't an obvious CPU issue to go along with it," Ellis explains. "20 years, always something new."

Ellis also addresses the long times players were experiencing while looting, accepting quests, and performing similar server-bound actions. "Our intrepid Oracle Database Engineers had to perform a manual analyze on all the tables and setup some automated jobs to periodically keep doing it," but because the servers were being hit so frequently, the typical rate wasn't sufficient. As soon as the devs addressed that, the database performance "cleared up instantly."

There were the restarts. "A few hours in, we noticed our WORLD pools that run, well, the game simulation you play on, were running crazy hot on CPU and almost out of memory," Ellis explains. Empty maps were not being correctly shut down, and those were slowly – or, actually, "not that slowly" – clogging up CPU and memory on the servers. The devs figured out a fix, but that fix needed restarts "to pick it up." Blizzard also took the opportunity to add additional worlds and expand the regional service for further stability.

Back in 2019, we interviewed numerous devs about why big online games always seem to break at launch, and it seems that all the same problems inevitably crop up. We heard one dev say "it's just impossible" to fully solve these kinds of launches, and WoW: Forever demonstrates how new issues crop up every single time. But hey, at least the fixes are coming faster. I'm old enough to remember when people were struggling to play Diablo 3 for weeks after launch…

WoW: Forever doesn't allow GDKP, Blizzard says the new MMO's economy is "something we're taking very seriously."

World of Warcraft: Forever has been on many a fan's mind since Blizzard's big reveal during BlizzCon 2026, especially as it's essentially a take on the long-requested Classic+. But how exactly will it differ from the other branches of WoW?

Well, according to senior game designer Josh Greenfield, there's one glaring difference: GDKP will not be a part of Forever.

In case you're out of the loop, GDKP stands for Gold Dragon Kill Points – an auction-based loot distribution system that sees a raid party's treasure go to the highest bidder, only for all of the accumulated gold to then be split across the players. It's controversial because lots of folks feel it encourages real-money trading.

So, what does Greenfield have to say about it? In a new Q&A session over on YouTube, the lead first explains that World of Warcraft: Forever won't allow GDKP.

"The short answer is no, we are not going to allow GDKP," he says. "I think the most important aspect of that to us is our first pillar – to nurture and protect social experiences. I think a lot of the concerns around GDKP start to get bundled up into that conversation, around things like that."

Is Blizzard making this choice because of real-money trades? Not entirely.

"The actual main reason that we are not going to allow it in WoW: Forever is that it has that sort of tendency we've noticed in the regions where [GDKP] has been popular for longer to reach a level of ubiquity," Greenfield says. "That can kinda overtake the traditional guild structure, and that's one of the really difficult decisions about being a game designer, managing this game at this scale."

It's not an easy decision, as Greenfield states. "Sometimes, you have to make difficult choices. We never really want to tell people how to play" – but systems like GDKP can get in the way of others' experience with the MMO.

They can act as a "big barrier to entry for new players, or players that do not have that many resources," he says. Longtime fans can quickly make some gold, while newcomers end up feeling forced to "buy gold."

That's no bueno, and "something we're taking very seriously in WoW: Forever," Greenfield explains. Plus, it feeds into the whole economy and real-money transaction debacle.

"GDKP is an excellent way for bad actors to launder large sums of gold," as he says. This complicates everything for both players and the developers alike, as they struggle to target bots and such. In World of Warcraft: Forever, Blizzard will "be very, very actively monitoring the economy."

Honestly, I'm happy to hear that Blizzard's settled on no GDKP runs in Forever – here's hoping the economy remains healthy, and the studio stays strong in its decision to restrict the auction-based raid loot system (and, it seems, combat add-ons, too).

World of Warcraft: Forever beta struggles to launch as devs say "the number of people hammering at the door of the Beta is... insane"

World of Warcraft: Forever is here in beta form, and the true WoW experience is intact, right down to the infinite queues and disconnects as players start banging on the door to get in. Even the devs seem a bit taken aback by the number of players lining up to participate, but they promise eager fans that everybody will be in soon.

"Thank you to everyone waiting to get into the WoW: Forever Beta," the official Warcraft account begins. "We're working through some final issues, and we expect the doors to open soon. Thank you for your patience!"

"Yeah, ok that’s a bit excessive for a beta," senior game producer Tom Ellis adds in a separate post. "Calm down now… give us a minute, this environment is taking a beating and we’re scaling various services up."

"Wow, the number of people hammering at the door of the Beta is... insane," associate production director Clayton Stone says in another tweet. "Thanks for showing up, everyone! We're scaling up and up and up (and up). You will all be in soon."

You can probably guess at the state of WoW discussion forums right now, and the WoW subreddit is predictably filled with memes about the queue times, early reactions from those lucky enough to get in, and big ol' threads for people to commiserate while they wait. And yes, everyone has already made the joke about it taking "forever" to get in.

World of Warcraft: Forever's controversial Skyborne race came from Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen himself - "We knew we wanted to add some sort of elves."

Although World of Warcraft: Forever impressed many Classic+ hopefuls last weekend during BlizzCon 2026, some fans left Blizzard's big reveal wondering why the new MMO looked so much like its retail counterpart.

That is, anyway, in terms of its art style and models. Conversations soared on the likes of Reddit as folks pondered why World of Warcraft: Forever feels "too retail" and more like a "retail minus" than a "Classic plus."

It's an amusing but reasonable concern, I suppose, as the community is understandably attached to the 21-year-old world Blizzard first invited them into way back in 2004. Is it truly something fans should worry about, though?

According to Classic developer Josh Greenfield, the answer is no – or, at least, they should give World of Warcraft: Forever a chance come its November release.

In response to a fan on Twitter asking why the art direction follows retail's aesthetic rather than Classic's, Greenfield says players should wait to experience the MMO in person to fully judge it, as it's not the same as viewing screenshots or datamined models.

"I'd encourage you to reserve judgement on any model you see datamined or in screenshots until you can see it in-game and in context with the rest of the world," writes the dev. "I can't get too deep into it… but what you see in datamining might not be fully representative of how things appear in-engine."

Honestly, that's valid enough, I suppose – trailers, screencaps, and model highlights can't match the vibe of the full game itself.

Fans seem content with Greenfield's response, too, with the original post replying, "Sounds good, thank you for communicating, judgement reserved." Another chimes in that they'll also "reserve judgement for now" but are "still concerned that models like these are too different as to not fit into the Classic world and player models cohesively."
More commenters share this sentiment, expressing that they're still unsure about the aesthetic.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how it all meshes together come World of Warcraft: Forever's big launch in a couple of months. Fingers crossed it feels more like an Old School RuneScape take on Blizzard's original MMO than the retail one.

World of Warcraft: Forever takes page out of retail's book as Blizzard confirms access to add-ons will be restricted in the throwback MMO

World of Warcraft: Forever was unveiled this past weekend at BlizzCon 2026, giving us our first-ever look at Blizzard's official take on Classic+ (or, at least, the closest thing we'll get to it) – and much like the retail MMO, it won't be too supportive of add-ons, apparently.

Blizzard made waves in the World of Warcraft community after deciding to remove combat mods from the retail release, stating that it hoped to "level the playing field" with less outside help in raids and the like.

That decision wasn't too popular with folks at first, so it's not at all surprising that many of the discussions surrounding World of Warcraft: Forever online have pondered whether it too would cut add-ons out of the picture.

Well, as it turns out, the new version of Blizzard's 21-year-old MMO will indeed similarly restrict add-ons – even though they aren't in Classic.

World of Warcraft: Classic designer Tim Jones and lead encounter designer Mike Nuthals tell Kotaku as much in a recent interview, confirming that "computational add-ons" (think combat add-ons and those that automate communications and such) are something we won't have access to.

They tell the outlet, "the in-game or in-combat add-on disarmament where the programmatic, the calculations done to automate marking or communicating for players, we're going to bring that over so that players will not have access to those kind of computational add-ons."

In other words, Forever is taking a page out of retail's book here in restricting such add-ons – but it's not exactly a bad decision. Raiding in either isn't of the same caliber, after all.

Folks point as much out over on Twitter, with one person commenting, "Unless WoW: Forever combat is much harder and much more complex than I am expecting, this is not a big deal." Another adds, "The content isn't even hard enough to warrant it."

So, all in all, it's certainly not proving as unpopular a change as it did in retail – perhaps also because World of Warcraft: Forever is launching this way, rather than going on to remove a feature.

Here's hoping fans who want to use other sorts of add-ons are still able to, with all that said. Combat help is one thing, but quality-of-life is a whole other ball game – but I suppose we'll find out more when World of Warcraft: Forever releases in November.

World of Warcraft: Forever's controversial Skyborne race came from Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen himself – "We knew we wanted to add some sort of elves."

Following our first look at World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026 this past weekend, Blizzard's answer to everyone's Classic+ prayers, a lot of controversy surrounding the new Skyborne race has made the rounds online.

From the $30 price tag to the ill-fitting lore, fans have shared quite a few concerns about the Skybrone. So, what prompted Blizzard to implement the pretty blue elves in the first place?

Well, according to senior game designer Josh Greenfield, it all boils down to Chris Metzen – you know, one of the fathers of Warcraft in its entirety, basically. He explains as much in a new interview with GameSpot, saying it "started with a lot of questions."

Greenfield goes on: "We were talking about WoW Forever early on and we knew we wanted to add some sort of elves. Everyone on the team is a big fan of elves. We all love elves. They're very popular… and we knew we wanted to do something and came to him with a bunch of ideas and pitches and different variants of elves…"

Metzen's response? He "was really like, 'Yeah, we should do something; we should get a little crazy with it.'"

And, the rest is history. Blizzard "agreed and we had a lot of fun kind of concepting it with him." So, there you have it – a Warcraft legend himself approves of the Skyborne… but, it's not enough for many of the naysayers.

Over on Reddit, plenty of folks discussing Metzen's role in the new race's creation still believe it to be ill-fitting in World of Warcraft: Forever. As one comment reads, "They still look very out of place, they don't feel right…"

I wonder myself whether Blizzard will respond to all of the backlash the race has seen thus far – but I suppose only time will tell. As of now, access to the Skyborne is purchasable and will release with World of Warcraft: Forever in November.

World of Warcraft 2 isn't happening because Blizzard isn't sure what a sequel to the MMO would "give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you"

Blizzard gave WoW Classic+ hopefuls the news they were hoping for this past weekend during the BlizzCon 2026 reveals with a first look at World of Warcraft: Forever – a reimagining of the 21-year-old MMO's nostalgic beginnings.

In case you missed it, it ticks all the boxes and then some, with revamped visuals, a plethora of new quests, and much, much more… including a never-before-seen race, the Skyborne.

While that sounds incredibly exciting on paper, there's a bit of a catch: the Skyborne will cost you, and it's not cheap. In fact, it's at least $29.99, as per the official World of Warcraft website.

I say at least because it's DLC of sorts, and there are a few options. There's the Skyborne Epic Pack for some $20 more, and the Warcraft Forever Collection for a whopping $79.99, for example.

While these two come with more than just the Skyborne race – which is admittedly stunning, appearing as a soft periwinkle-skinned take on elves – the base $30 purchase is just to access the Skyborne come World of Warcraft: Forever's release in November… and, unsurprisingly, folks aren't thrilled.

Just have a search over on Reddit, and you'll find countless threads discussing the Skyborne race and its hefty price tag. Heck, there's even a huge "Skyborne feedback" post, given how hot a topic this is.

"I'm extremely positive about WoW: Forever and I'll be playing day one with high hopes," one comment reads. "That being said, not a fan of this race. They dropped the ball on that part."

It's not just the price, though. Others take issue with the fact that the Skyborne just… feel out of place.

As one person puts it, "From the aesthetic to the druid forms and mostly the blue variant has a weird retail vibe I just can't describe." Another dubs this a "mindbogglingly strange decision" on Blizzard's part, while many more consider it counter-creative. "They are just blue elves," after all – much like Night Elves.

"Should have been something else," one fan complains. "Something more interesting and new."

Honestly, there's a lot more to read through regarding the Skyborne controversy, from the race's price to its potential lore-breaking implications, but I do still have to admit I'm on the fence about it all myself.

I don't like the paywall or the lack of faction identity, but I find the design quite nice aesthetically.

I suppose the community will be split on this one as it is on just about everything, and that's that – 'tis the nature of MMOs, I fear. Blizzard also has yet to speak on the Skyborne debacle yet itself, but I'd advise keeping an eye on its channels.

World of Warcraft 2 isn't happening because Blizzard isn't sure what a sequel to the MMO would "give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you"

World of Warcraft: Forever has been making the rounds online after Blizzard's big reveal at BlizzCon 2026, standing as the closest official thing we'll get to the long-coveted Classic+, but it does also mean we probably won't see a retail sequel.

In other words, World of Warcraft 2 – which, honestly, feels a bit silly to even write. After all, World of Warcraft itself is an ongoing project as you know, standing as the biggest MMO to date… one that's over two decades in the making now.

With Forever underway, too, there's little reason for such a sequel to ever actually come to fruition, anyway, as principal designer Kris Zierhut tells IGN in a new interview.

"I think one of the things that's singularly great about WoW is we have this game and this world and this design that has been continuously developed for the last 25 years," he explains – and, yeah, that checks out.

As Zierhut puts it, "We keep making it better. We made the graphics better, we made the rendering better, we made the lighting better," you name it. It's all better in retail, and, yes, Forever. All of that, plus the way things work behind the scenes.

"We've also made the way the engine draws things move more efficiently," Zierhut continues. "The way the server runs, handling players and moving them around, and all the things that handle spells and combat, all of that's been made more efficient and better over the years. We have this incredible engine and server infrastructure driving the game that is second to none."

So, "Why would you throw that away and start over?"

Why would you, indeed… not to mention the decades-in-progress lore that World of Warcraft sits upon. "It's not like there's something wrong with the story," as the dev says. "We love the story. So, going back to the beginning [with World of Warcraft: Forever], there's a chance to explore that story in new and different ways."

Considering all of this, Blizzard doesn't really have any motivation to move away from it all to try and conjure up a sequel.

As Zierhut concludes, "It's really hard to say, 'Well, what would a WoW 2 give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you?'"

I get it – it's not just a nostalgic rework with plenty of new features to look forward to, it's a chance to attract both fresh faces and longtime fans, too… the same way a World of Warcraft 2 would, except perhaps a bit better at grabbing the attention of the former.

I, for one, can't wait to dive into World of Warcraft: Forever come its November release – and, much like I'm not inclined to wish for a Minecraft 2, I'm not bothered about potentially never seeing a World of Warcraft 2 arrive.

World of Warcraft: Forever devs have "no plans" to implement Tokens or level boosts, confirms Blizzard, as "the journey is so important."

Blizzard finally lifted the veil on World of Warcraft: Forever this past weekend at BlizzCon 2026, giving fans a taste of the official Classic+ (so to speak, anyway) that we're getting – one that apparently thankfully won't feature real-money currency like Tokens.

Clayton Stone, associate production director on WoW Classic, confirms as much in a recent interview on Forever with content creator Destin Legarie (below). The lead also says that there won't be any purchasable experience boosts, either.

He describes how Blizzard has "no plans for anything like a WoW token or a boost" in any online shop – and, even though I'm thankful myself, I do wonder why… but Stone says it's all about the "journey" to the top.

"The journey really is what the game is," he says. "I mean, the endgame is amazing… the endgame is epic. It's awesome. And, all the stuff we've done with the endgame is amazing, but the journey is so important and you play the game or you get better at the game by playing the game and it's all about that level 1 to 60 journey and the people you meet along the way."

That's why Blizzard is staying away from quick boosts.

"We've implemented these systems to really reinforce that because there's some players who just love that journey."

Honestly, I do get it, and while I'm thrilled at the prospect of less microtransactions (if you can call Tokens that, I guess), I am a bit worried that this decision won't, well, last forever.

I'm not alone in my concerns, either, as folks over on Twitter discuss World of Warcraft: Forever's lack of Tokens and what it might mean.

"'No plans' doesn't seem too convincing or permanent to me," reads one comment. "I'm still pretty sure they will be in the game sooner or later." Another speculates, "No plans is basically 'next year,'" while various replies similarly ponder whether Blizzard's choice of words here could pave the way for such real-money purchases later down the line.

There are also some worries about bots and the like, which are more than understandable.

So, how will this all play out? There's no way to really tell until World of Warcraft: Forever releases this November, but I've got my fingers crossed that Blizzard is indeed making the right move… and will stick with it, too.

World of Warcraft: The Last Titan launches 2027 and Blizzard says it's the "culmination of over two decades" of MMO storytelling.

For months, World of Warcraft fans have been speculating that something is about to happen to WoW Classic. Blizzard Entertainment has now put those theories to bed and announced World of Warcraft: Forever - an all-new version of the MMORPG that lives alongside Classic and Vanilla. The best part? It comes out in seven weeks, on November 4.

Executive producer Holly Longdale revealed the game at tonight's BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony presentation, describing it as "a new beginning that never ends" and is set around the same time as WoW's Year One. Longdale even called it Classic Plus casually, if that makes it easier to understand.

A World of Warcraft: Forever beta begins this Thursday, September 17. The game is apparently "friendly [and] familiar" for both newcomers and oldheads alike, and it's aiming to return to what made WoW so iconic two decades ago. "There's no rush here," according to Longdale. "It's the journey that counts."

The upcoming MMO sounds seriously huge, so let's quickly list off everything it's promising. Four new zones including Mount Hyjal and Zephras Isle, which is intended to be a starting area of sorts. Zones from the original game that have now been expanded. New dungeons and new raids that accommodate 10-players or 20-players. New skills and talents, a new playable race called the Skyborne, over 1,000 quests, toggles for SD and HD character models, updated visuals, and so much more. Phew!

World of Warcraft fans were eating good even before the company got around to announcing Forever. BlizzCon's Opening Ceremony also revealed that WoW: The Last Titan is coming out next year, with Midnight: Eclipse giving us enough to chew on until then.

Blizzard takes rare World of Warcraft mount from players as the MMO's latest crack down on real-money transactions continues

The Worldsoul Saga comes to an end with World of Warcraft: The Last Titan, the MMO's next expansion that's heading our way in 2027. Blizzard Entertainment finally pulled the curtain back on The Last Titan at tonight's BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony stream, unveiling both a release window and a short teaser.

Blizzard first announced World of Warcraft: The Last Titan three years ago, alongside the two other expansions that make up The Worldsoul Saga's overarching trilogy - The World Within (2024) and Midnight (2026).

Senior game director Ion Hazzikostas told the crowd next year's expansion not only concludes The Worldsoul Saga, but it serves as "the culmination of over two decades of World of Warcraft." Don't expect The Last Titan to wrap up every storyline in a neat bow, though - Hazzikostas also explains it'll be "laying the groundwork for what comes next."

Well before we get our hands on The Last Titan expansion, the team will also be closing out its current storyline with Midnight: Eclipse, also known as patch 12.2. Eclipse will supposedly lead right into The Last Titan and follows antagonist Xal'atath as she stands before "her ultimate objective." Very ominous. Eclipse is the last major story beat of the Midnight era, and will introduce a standalone game mode, too.

The World of Warcraft: What's Next BlizzCon panel should dish out more info about next year's Remix later today, alongside whatever that standalone mode is. Big things happening across Azeroth, then.

Elsewhere during the ceremony, Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft: Forever, a new game that'll sit alongside both Vanilla and Classic. Diablo 5 is also coming in 2029.

WoW Classic players gang up to ban infamous PvP slayer on Twitch, immediately regret it after realizing they no longer know where in the MMO he's hiding

World of Warcraft players enjoying Blizzard's Classic edition have been plagued by one very infamous PvP legend for a good couple of years now – but it turns out that banning him on Twitch wasn't the way to go, frustrations be damned.

If you've not heard of Redridgeguy, he might just stand as the most notorious PvP player on World of Warcraft Classic in all of Europe.

Why, you might ask?

Well, he absolutely destroys other folks – we're talking hundreds per day – by reaching hard (near-impossible) to access spots and sending his pet in to tear through unsuspecting Alliance players. He's been discussed over on Reddit and other online forums time and time again.

Heck, just two weeks ago, a fan asked if he was "allowed" to play the way he does, saying it felt unfair. It's safe to say that "infamous" is a bit of an understatement – and now, players have retaliated… or so they thought.

As a new post over on X outlines, Redridgeguy actually got banned on Twitch following various reports from disgruntled WoW fans. This "backfired," though, as Redridgeguy's streams were the only reliable way to tell where he was in-game.

How come? Redridgeguy's streams were the only reliable way to tell where he was in-game, basically. "With his stream no longer up it became an all-out bloodbath and even other Horde members joined in on the fight to camp the Alliance even harder," as Jerome puts it – and it's quite amusing all around.

As it stands now, Redridgeguy appears to still be banned over on Twitch, too. His YouTube channel is up, however.

It appears that players want him gone gone, though, with one comment writing, "People that do unhinged stuff like this guy deserve to be banned from the game entirely." I'm not sure I agree myself – but then again, I'm not a PvP enjoyer regardless.

The capacity to be downright annihilated (as Redridgeguy evidently does to just about anyone who crosses his path) is far too big, and I've got grinding to do elsewhere without fearing constantly my death.

I do wonder if Redridgeguy will reappear on Twitch someday, although part of me wonders if it'd be more amusing if he doesn't… Considering how he's known for obliterating hundreds while streaming, how many will he take down while completely concealed?

Blizzard takes rare World of Warcraft mount from players as the MMO's latest crackdown on real-money transactions continues

World of Warcraft is unsurprisingly no stranger to account boosting and other no-no forms of real-money transactions, with Blizzard cracking down every now and then on guilty players.

This month is no exception, as the developer has sent out another wave of bans against folks it believes are responsible for engaging in real-money transactions – namely in the EU.

You can find countless streams (some mid-raid and all) of entire guilds being wiped out by game mods over on Twitch and the like, seeing players pulled from the game unexpectedly. It's not the first time that Blizzard has taken action, and it certainly won't be the last.

One of the biggest talking points with this round of bans, however, is the removal of players that supposedly weren't participating in real-money transactions but were in guilds that have other people who are – and, you know, reports that Blizzard is also ripping a very rare mount from fans' accounts in the process: the Mythic L'ura mount, to be precise.

You'll find such discussions over on Reddit, where players post the message they got from the dev.

"During a recent review, we found one or more rewards gained on this account were connected to activity that violates our in-game policies," the supposed prompt from Blizzard reads. "As a result, we have removed these rewards from your account."

Comments also mention other allegedly affected players, with some describing how they lost the Mythic mount even though they didn't violate the Terms of Service.

"A LOT of people in my guild (including myself) lost it because people were in our group who paid for a boost without any of us knowing," as one reply puts it. "Kind of fucking sucks."

There are various other threads on the forum (and elsewhere online) claiming the same scenario. It's a tough one, for sure, because Blizzard technically isn't doing anything wrong by cracking down on real-money transactions.

On the other hand, though, it'd be nice to see a better system of detection that snapshots individuals rather than entire guilds – and, evidently, I'm not alone in thinking so.

Blizzard fires World of Warcraft dev after using "development-only spells on a live realm" to help a friend breeze through bosses

A World of Warcraft game master has been fired from Blizzard Entertainment after the community caught them using "development-only spells" to help their friends breeze through a dungeon and instantly wipe two bosses. Essentially, they were caught helping some mates cheat.

The cheating scandal first came to light earlier this week when a couple of Reddit users shared evidence that a game master had used insta-kill abilities usually reserved for Blizzard employees to demolish at least two bosses. A player from the group all but spelled out the situation in a stream with Yumytv, too: "I go to my GM friend and I'm like bro please can you do me a solid? This thing has 20 million [health] bro, can you please just one-shot it?"

Things sort of escalated from there, with the community wondering how commonplace incidents like this were. "Now you know it exists, therefore the pandora's box is wide open," one Redditor writes. "Which make you question a lot of stuff." Were secret GMs all around, helping their pals achieve titles and record runs?

As PC Gamer reports, Blizzard has now investigated the incident, fired the employee responsible, and assured folks that GMs aren't regularly manipulating games in secret.

"As we mentioned, we internally monitored and confirmed a recent incident in which a World of Warcraft group gained an unfair advantage by abuse of access to development-only spells on a live realm," community manager Randy 'Kaivax' Jordan writes in a recent forum post. "Our tools confirmed what was also surfaced in community discussions, and we have investigated the incident carefully. We can confirm that this was the action of a single Blizzard employee, in violation of our Code of Conduct. This employee is no longer with the company effective immediately. We are also taking action against the player accounts that were complicit in this violation.

"It has always been the case that a small number of Blizzard employees can use developer tools and spells on live servers: this lets us test and make urgent fixes to the live game when they’re needed," Kaivax explains. "Every use of these internal spells and commands on live realms is logged and shared with our Platform Security team to help ensure that the occasional use of this access is warranted. The use of development tools for anything other than development work is against company policy. It's because of the process we have in place around use of these tools that we're confident this incident was isolated to one individual."

The community manager than thanks everyone who brought the information to light, alongside community-led sites. "When your findings line up with ours, it helps confirm that our own tools are catching what they should, and we're grateful for the way we work alongside you all to protect the game and each other."

"You'll never get another World of Warcraft or Morrowind in the current climate," id Software producer says as constant layoffs batter the industry.

A World of Warcraft game master has been accused of helping a Twitch streamer's Mythic group cheat a high-level dungeon by using their GM powers to insta-kill an enemy, and Blizzard says it's actively investigating the situation as evidence piles up.

This began with a July 21 Reddit post from user Acrobatic_Pianist688, who claimed to have seen a "Blizzard GM death touching mobs in M+23 for their favorite streamer." Of course, we don't actually know if anyone's "favorite" streamer was involved, but Acrobatic_Pianist did link to a Warcraft Log record showing an abrupt end to a Mythic+23 fight in the Nexus-Point Xenas dungeon, caused by an "instakill" and "Area Death (TEST)" effect from user Daijosai, believed to be the GM in question.

Game masters are Blizzard employees with World of Warcraft privileges and permissions that enable them to resolve in-game disputes and support requests.

The incident caught fire online, and chatter only intensified after this Warcraft log was highlighted in a stream from WoW content creator yumytv during a conversation with Yiesus, a small Twitch streamer and one of the apparent teammates in this dungeon run, who's described by yumy as "witness testimony."

The moment was clipped and shared, the Twitch chat filled with accusations of "cheater," after Yiesus openly said, "I go to my GM friend, I'm like, bro, please can you do me a solid? This thing has 20 mil bro, can you please just one-shot? One time for the one time. I meant no harm from it. If Blizzard wants to revoke that key or revoke my title, whatever they see fit, I don't care. Personally, I think it was harmless. I didn't expect him to do it. In hindsight he shouldn't have done it. He was just doing me a solid."

One of the other streamers in this dungeon run, YaraByte, shared the same clip on her Twitter.

This mess quickly reached the official Blizzard forums, with players calling for the GM to be punished and the clear to be revoked, prompting a response from Blizzard. Late Tuesday night, community manager Randy 'Kaivax' Jordan replied, both in the forum thread and to the original Reddit post.

"Thank you to those who flagged this," Jordan says. "We are reviewing and will take action as appropriate. A fair and competitive playing field is essential to our games, and we won’t tolerate cheating."

Blizzard continues taking action against World of Warcraft private servers as it pushes on with a lawsuit citing "large-scale, egregious, and ongoing infringement" of its MMO.

The past couple of weeks have been undeniably difficult for the video game industry, with Microsoft's plan to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox affecting various in-progress titles and studios – one of which is id Software, the team behind Doom.

In fact, id Software producer Andrew Willis has spoken at length about the layoffs and their impact across the board. A few days ago, he called them "incomprehensible," saying that small worker-owned studios are "the only path forward" from here.

Since then, he's continued to share his thoughts over on LinkedIn, writing, "The games industry must change if it is going to create art and franchises that have long-term sustainable value."

As the producer states, "Right now, it feels like the monopolies that control it are simply trying to extract as much goodwill and value (that took decades to build) as they can with little concern for the diminishing returns it's leading to. This is what happens when the people who control it (most Ivy League MBAs) do not play games, have never shipped a game, and fundamentally do not understand the industry they manage."

Willis then says, "You'll never get another WoW or Morrowind in the current climate" – a statement I can't help but feel rings especially true right now.

It's difficult to imagine such impactful games releasing when so many developers are struggling to mitigate the blow that widespread layoffs are leaving in their wake… and according to the producer, a lot of the issues stem from improper management.

"One thing that drives me nuts while watching the games industry be mismanaged is how everyone is looking for these massive 10x returns but is so focused on short-term growth that they essentially kill the goose before it can start laying eggs," as he explains.

"Disbanding and destroying a team after just one commercial letdown… makes it so you won't ever have a group that learns from their mistakes and perfects their next attempt (see Helldivers 2)."

With such quick trigger-pulling, Willis says studios will "never get that breakout success" they're after.

"These people would've turned down funding for George Lucas, Walt Disney, etc., and they wonder why they can't establish another colossal IP that pays dividends for decades. It's mind-boggling. There is lots wrong with the game industry, but I believe that one of the main things is that the people who manage it today have no idea how it actually works and refuse to learn or listen to the people that do."

The producer cites how wild it is to see spending on hardware and software go up, but layoffs never settling.

"It's really amazing how demand and consumer spending on video games continues to increase year over year, and yet the supply side continues to be extremely volatile for employees," he describes. "The failure to connect these two sides in a way that creates sustainable growth points to a direct failure of executive leadership – the consequences of which are only suffered by workers."

Willis signs off with one final thought: "The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that the executive management class that controls the video game industry is so severely inept that they have somehow failed everyone all at once in every aspect – the shareholders, the consumers, the employees, and anyone who cares about games. They tried to sacrifice quality for profit, and they didn't even manage to generate the latter. Abysmal choices."

I'm inclined to agree with Willis on his point about a "breakout success" in this climate – it feels near impossible. Here's hoping the industry is able to heal a bit over time, and that we see less news regarding mass layoffs, too.

Layoffs might offer "better short-term financial results," late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admitted in 2013, but "employees who fear that they may be laid off" will never produce the same results

World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 players can finally earn some cash by playing their beloved respective MMOs and put it towards a real-life degree – but it's not as easy as it may sound.

The University of Silicon Valley in California has quite an offer on the table for a few very lucky select students (10-15 annually, apparently) – the Max Achievement Scholarship, as the educational institution outlines on its official website.

If you've not heard of it before, it gives folks a chance to score up to $15,000 in scholarship money… but it's far simpler said than actually done. It isn't only a matter of playing games, you see.

As the university explains, "The Max Achievement Scholarship recognizes students who have demonstrated extraordinary mastery, persistence, and systems thinking through the completion of rare and demanding achievements in digital gaming environments."

Yes, that means that aspiring players need to get to grindin' in their game of choice. We're talking "ultra-rare accomplishments" for the "Legendary Tier" of awards.

Many of these, as the University of Silicon Valley describes, require "500+ hours of sustained mastery across complex systems (typically <1% global completion rate)." For example, World of Warcraft players need to have Loremaster unlocked, all 13 professions maxed, and 25+ Exalted reputations, plus the Keystone Master achievement.

As for Final Fantasy 14 players, the requirements are higher than the in-game requirements to become a Mentor.

I know, I know, those aren't exactly ridiculously high themselves – but the university's are. Players need all 20 combat jobs and eight crafter/gatherer jobs at level 100 (the game's max level), plus all role quests and "all 12 extreme trials cleared," although it's not specified which ones.

I'm assuming Dawntrail's trials… and then some? The bottom line is that this scholarship money isn't easily obtainable, regardless.

MMOs aren't the only games up for the cash, either – heck, there's everything from Minecraft to Dark Souls (good luck with that one). You can even apply as a general PC, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X|S gamer, but you'll need platinums and perfect games galore.

Put simply, there's no quick way to have a go at the Max Achievement Scholarship money. If you think you might qualify, though, the university is accepting submissions now.

Multiple achievements may be submitted, too – but "achievements earned via modded, private, or emulated servers are not eligible." So, if you're a World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14 (or insert another game name here) stan, shoot your shot.

Blizzard knows World of Warcraft's removal of raid add-ons is "controversial," but the MMO's lead says its new UI "has been successful so far"

Blizzard made waves in the World of Warcraft community after deciding to remove combat mods alongside the release of new expansion Midnight, but director Ion Hazzikostas remains certain that it was the right decision.

Speaking in a new interview with PCGamesN, Hazzikostas first reiterates that raid mechanics were never developed "with the intent that add-ons would be used to solve them." It's an issue that Final Fantasy 14 players will understand well, too – although Blizzard only recently took action against combat plug-ins.

Players were meant to overcome World of Warcraft's greater challenges more organically, hence the removal of such add-ons.

Even though fans themselves have offered a bit of a mixed bag of reactions to the entire debacle, Hazzikostas believes the UI changes accompanying the add-ons' departure have largely been a good thing.

"I know this may be a controversial statement, but I will say that, overall, [the new UI] has been successful so far," he says. "It's not done, it's not perfect; there's more work to go, and we are continuing to undertake that work."

But, Hazzikostas assures us, "By and large, the vast majority of people are completing the same level of content that they were before, and far more are doing it without feeling like they need to seek out external tools."

Blizzard isn't done yet – the devs are "continuing to improve our base interface" while also making things a bit easier for add-on authors. It's about striking a middle ground, not just scrapping everything players used to know.

And, as Blizzard has said time and time again, "All of this has been in service of a more approachable experience and a more level playing field."

Reactions didn't make that easy, as the whole "killing add-ons" rhetoric "led to a very understandable, very negative reaction around that idea because add-ons have been a part of WoW for 20 years." But, they still are – just not in the same way they used to be.

It's nothing like Square Enix's third-party tool policy that those of us invested in Eorzea know very well – and it's evolving.

"While it's certainly been a transition with its challenges, we're excited to have this new baseline and foundation, and things will only continue to get better from here, both as we continue to add functionality to the base UI, and we continue to empower addon authors to add customization options," as Hazzikostas states.

Ultimately, Blizzard wants "to open up new doors and possibilities for players in raids, dungeons, delves, and everything in between" – and that's what Midnight's changes (and future tweaks, too) aim to do.

Blizzard continues taking action against World of Warcraft private servers as it pushes on with a lawsuit citing "large-scale, egregious, and ongoing infringement" of its MMO

Blizzard is pursuing legal action against private World of Warcraft server Project Ascension – a server that isn't the first to face a lawsuit from the company.

In case you missed the news earlier this year, Blizzard cracked down on private server Turtle WoW with a cease-and-desist order – only to then do the same to Stormforge, another server run by the MMO's players. There was no clear connection at the time, but Blizzard didn't stop with just the two. Most recently, it's gone on to target Project Ascension, a separate private server, with a lengthy lawsuit (thanks, Wowhead).

Project Ascension boasts a classless, free-to-play take on the usual World of Warcraft formula, with various game modes, custom raiding, and much more. It's been around for a good few years, undeniably catching the eye of Blizzard.

The company hadn't taken action against the private server for using its intellectual property until now, dubbing it an "egregious" violation on June 12.

"The defendants … have built an entire business on large-scale, egregious, and ongoing infringement of Blizzard's intellectual property," its initial complaint from earlier this month reads, outlining how Project Ascension stands "among the largest private WoW servers available today" with its million or so players.

A few days ago, Blizzard followed up on this with a summons request – and now, the clock is ticking.

As per the new request, the creators behind Project Ascension have three weeks to respond. "A lawsuit has been filed against you. Within 21 days after service of this summons on you (not counting the day you received it)… you must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint or a motion…"

It concludes, "If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint."

That's not a lot of time, considering the private server's years of service – and, uh, also the fact that its developers are still adding to their project. Heck, 20 hours ago, the official YouTube channel announced a whopping 21 new classes.

All of this begs the question: What's next for Project Ascension, really? Will it face the same fate as Turtle WoW and Stormforge… or somehow dodge it?

Honestly, I can't see the server dodging Blizzard's legal wrath here, no matter how I spin it in my head – but I suppose only time will truly tell.

World of Warcraft Camelot discovery gives the MMO's community its most compelling evidence yet that Blizzard might actually turn a myth into a long-hoped-for reality.

A newly discovered version of World of Warcraft, called "World of Warcraft Camelot," once again has the MMO community hoping and theorizing that an enhanced version of WoW Classic is on the way.

This week, a dataminer over at Wowhead came across something called 'World of Warcraft Camelot.' Rather than a new expansion for the retail version of the MMO, though, things are pointing to something else. That's because the new discovery is attached to patch 1.60, which was initially released in July 2006.

And that's not all. The dataminer also uncovered Epic and Heroic versions of World of Warcraft Camelot, which does point to something substantial, but probably not something related to the current trilogy that the main version of World of Warcraft is going through.

That's about it for the latest discovery so far, though it's worth mentioning that it's the latest in a string of circumstances that everyone thinks lead to WoW Classic+. Plenty of eyebrows were raised in the community when several content creators revealed they visited Blizzard to see something, though other teases are even starker. One being executive producer Holly Longdale gearing up to announce what's next for WoW Classic before being comically cut off.

Regardless of what's happening, it's something Blizzard appears happy to tease. Just last year, in fact, the developers released a yearbook that mentioned developers "cooking on the long-term future of WoW Classic."

So what is WoW Classic+? It hasn't actually been confirmed by Blizzard yet, so there's no one way to explain it. Broadly, though, fans are hoping for a new version of World of Warcraft that branches off from the main MMO and resembles something like Old School RuneScape. Naturally, the original WoW Classic was Blizzard's initial take on something new based on something old, but we have been slowly catching up with retail WoW with the release of new expansions, so it's clearly time for something fresh in that space.

Out of everything we've seen so far, the datamine is certainly substantial. It remains to be seen if World of Warcraft Camelot is the WoW Classic+ fans have been hoping for, though it wouldn't be surprising if it is, as Blizzard's future plans for the MMO in its various forms have often been spied early thanks to the efforts of dataminers. With BlizzCon set to take place later this year, we should hopefully find out before too long.

"They will hopefully p*** off": As World of Warcraft players take on the Casino Bots themselves, lead confirms Blizzard has "a few folks looking into ideas" to get rid of them.

If you've been wandering around Azeroth of late, especially in any of the bigger cities, you've likely spotted casino bots – automated advertising for local gambling. They're meant to be against the rules in World of Warcraft, but real-money traders – RMTs – have been using them to get richer, quicker, and as players blow them up, Blizzard's looking into further preventative measures.

These nuisances can be found standing on wooden boxes, dancing away to pull you in for a gamble or give a winner a moment in the limelight. Users have gotten weary of the distraction, and in lieu of developers patching in more constraints for them, they've taken to taking them out.

A compilation on Reddit by user sozbro_ shows several being quite literally exploded. "I can't be online 24/7, and I certainly can't drop infernals on every casino bot myself," they say in the caption of the video. "Fortunately, this isn't a one-warlock problem."

As this is happening, Blizzard is on the case. "The casino thing that's vogue right now. Just to confirm we're aware, it's still against policy to advertise a casino so keep reporting them (or dropping infernals on them)," Tom Ellis, senior game producer on World of Warcraft, says on Twitter (thanks, Wowhead).

After some "digging in," he pins it on RMTs, because it's "an easy way to make gold quickly and cheaply." A blockade is being constructed, but don't expect much fanfare when it happens.

"We have a few folks looking into ideas on how we can make getting these people out of the game much faster so the activity is less lucrative and in turn, they will hopefully piss off," he explains. "Don't expect any sort of big fanfare 'Mission Accomplished!' banner for this one, this is one of the ones that you hopefully don't even notice stopped happening if we get it right."

As one Reddit commenter points out, gambling can be incredibly difficult and problematic for people. The allure of such activities could be triggering, especially if unexpected. Hopefully Blizzard's able to clamp down on this problem sooner rather than later.

"It has been an honor": World of Warcraft fans gather in popular private server Turtle WoW to say goodbye as it ends 8-year run following Blizzard lawsuit.

It's a sad day for the World of Warcraft community, as players say goodbye to a longstanding fan server, Turtle WoW. Following a legal battle against Blizzard itself, the lights are being totally switched off on the custom homestead, prompting players to host their own special goodbye as they await the end.

If you're unaware, Turtle WoW is a collection of custom servers for World of Warcraft that host an old-school version of the beloved MMORPG. The idea is, or was, to provide a way for people to continue playing WoW as if it never evolved much beyond its early years. That means less cosmic battles and grandiose ideas, more fantastical questing. The version is dubbed 'Vanilla+', and the whole platform is a hotbed for modified approaches to Azeroth.

A fan-made expansion eventually emerged, Mysteries of Azeroth, that delved deeper into the mythology through this lens. But after eight years, the whole venture is closing down after Blizzard managed to serve a cease-and-desist order to the group behind it.

"Working on Turtle WoW has been the highlight of our lives," Torta, a member of the Turtle WoW team, says in a forum post. "It has been an honor to build with you and for you. Whether you were exploring new stories, leveling, raiding, PvPing, roleplaying, or just enjoying a quiet moment in the world, seeing how much this game means to you has been our greatest privilege."

This spectre has been looming for some time. There was a legal tussle for the server's existence, and an open letter to Blizzard sits on the Turtle WoW homepage. "Unlike other studios, Blizzard does not yet have a framework that allows projects like ours to operate without risking legal conflict," the team wrote. "With that in mind, we respectfully ask that Blizzard consider establishing a formal ecosystem for licensing fan‑run community servers."

Several points are raised, including how popular games such as GTA 5 and Skyrim have vastly expanded their fanbase thanks to mods. Turtle WoW had a thriving fanbase, and many of them will probably hang around in the game, but this is the kind of thing that pushes players away. Never underestimate the damage resentment can do.

The YouTuber Pespline uploaded a clip of Turtle WoW diehards huddling together on a riverbank for the end of days. Honestly, it's enough to bring a lump to your throat. Godspeed, one and all - I hope you all find each other elsewhere.

World of Warcraft streamers attend top-secret Blizzard event, leaving fans hoping for the version of the MMO they've tried to manifest for years

The World of Warcraft community has always had Classic, a vanilla experience in which fans can enjoy the MMO as it was before all of its expansions, but what about Classic Plus?

If you've not heard of it yourself, World of Warcraft Classic Plus doesn't actually exist – yet, anyway – but has circulated the web for years now as players yearn for a cleaner, modern take on the base Classic release… a version with more modern updates and quality-of-life features, basically. Think Old School RuneScape and the like.

A quick search on Reddit alone shows all of the Classic Plus discussions that have unfolded over time. In other words, it's a very popular idea without any actual grounding in reality – until now, that is… or, well, we'd like to think, anyway.

As per Wowhead, Blizzard recently invited a bunch of WoW Classic content creators – like Xaryu, Esfand, Guzu, Savix, and sodapoppin – to a secret event. Unfortunately, they're all under an NDA, so we've got no idea what was actually happening over at the Blizzard campus in California, where they attended.

The fact that they're all specifically Classic streamers, however, has unsurprisingly left folks excited over a potential Plus release. Just have a peek at Xaryu's recent stream, in which he reveals he's visiting Blizzard's headquarters.

His chat goes wild with "Classic+ confirmed" messages and the like. And, amusingly, one person had to comment about a new mobile game. Here's hoping it's the former rather than the latter, though.

I'd say it's not too far outside of the realm of possibility. Xaryu's little smile feels like a hint in itself when fans start spamming their theories about Classic Plus, along with the fact that players have wanted it to come to fruition for literal years now. Heck, there's even a community-led project to make it happen – so it's evidently on the wishlist of many a hopeful WoW enjoyer. It does all beg the question, when will the NDA lift?

I suppose only time will tell, but I'm sure we'll find out what Blizzard has up its sleeve for Classic players soon enough – fingers crossed it's sooner rather than later.

World of Warcraft "will continue to decline" unless the MMO gets a "reset," says former Blizzard boss.

One of Blizzard's former leaders has some strong words for the team behind World of Warcraft following a bug-filled patch that led to the developers apologizing and promising to "do better."

Over on Twitter, former Blizzard Entertainment boss and Xbox corporate vice president at Microsoft, Mike Ybarra, weighs in on a story doing the rounds – one we covered ourselves, in fact – covering the buggy state of World of Warcraft following patch 12.0.5.

"Unfortunate," he says. "WoW has to reset and the commitment has to be clear and firm or it will continue to decline."

Ouch.

The patch itself added a few activities to offer the MMO's many denizens something new to do – from fishing activities and a prop hunt mode to new PvE activities suited to gearing your main and alt accounts. Unfortunately, though, players haven't been able to enjoy much of the new content due to various bugs.

We've already reported on the buggy Prop Hunt mode that lets some players use their minimap to find anyone, though fans have logged other issues. As a result, the World of Warcraft team released a statement promising to work "around the clock" to fix the MMO and to take the moment as an opportunity to learn from.

It's not World of Warcraft's best moment, though I'm not sure I'd say the MMO is in decline. The Shadowlands expansion wasn't a highlight for many, sure, though the following Dragonflight and the Worldsoul saga we're currently in have largely gone over well. The content is flowing at a solid cadence, and folks mostly have something fun to do. There are challenges to face, sure, though it feels like a time to fine-tune the balance between content volume and frequency rather than hitting the big reset button.

World of Warcraft's current storyline is "like a Saturday morning cartoon," former Blizzard quest designer says: "Where are the stakes?"

Blizzard has apologized for the current state of World of Warcraft following a patch that introduced a range of bugs, from the amusing to the bizarre, leaving fans frustrated and concerned for the MMO's welfare.

In a post on Reddit, the World of Warcraft team offers a candid response to WoW's latest update. "The 12.0.5 patch launch was not up to our standards," the team says, "and we know this disrupted your time and caused justified frustration."

To remedy the situation, Blizzard promises that the WoW team has been "working around the clock" to fix the biggest issues facing the MMO since the patch's launch. If you're keen to see the hotfix notes as they roll out, you can do so here.

So, what's happened exactly? World of Warcraft's 12.0.5 patch includes a range of content to give people more and better ways to engage with the MMO – you've got a new mode that's effectively Prop Hunt, new fishing activities, and new PvE offerings to help you catch up on gearing your mains and any other alternate characters.

All good stuff – expect it introduced plenty of bugs. We've already reported that the new Prop Hunt mode isn't quite working, as Blizzard forgot to disable a player's ability to find someone else using a minimap. Rubbing salt in the wound, players are also reporting that those who are too good at hiding will be marked as not participating and, as such, won't get any rewards. Feels like Hide-and-Seek, but the rules have been aggressively rigged.

There are other loot-related issues, too. One activity known as The Voidforge started handing out duplicate items, which it isn't supposed to do. That has since been fixed, though you can see why it might irk fans when a big part of the MMO grind is sweet loot.

Those aren't the only issues, either. Player housing went down across multiple regions, some classes aren't working as they should, and Delves haven't escaped unscathed either. If you're curious to read more, one World of Warcraft player has been putting together a log of all the issues, though Blizzard is currently working through 'em, so hopefully that list will whittle swiftly.

"The team is taking lessons learned from this launch to help ensure this doesn't happen again," Blizzard says. "We will also work harder to communicate openly, early, and often when a launch doesn't go as expected: the known issues we're working on, fixes as they roll out, and any other information that would be useful to our community as problems are worked on and solved.

"We care deeply about this game, and we play it right alongside you. We will do better."

The bugs facing World of Warcraft seem like an unfortunate knock-on effect of trying to strike a balance of giving people plenty of stuff to do and making sure the MMO, you know, works. Blizzard has earned plenty of praise with WoW over the past year or two because fans are eating well, by and large. A big part of MMO gaming is feeling like your subscription is worth the cost, and a big contributor to that feeling is having stuff to do.

The other side, unfortunately, is keeping the game running smoothly. It's the sort of thing we've reported on in other games, such as Helldivers 2. You've got to keep the content flowing to keep players engaged, paying, and your studio running. Lean into the new content grind too hard, though, and the foundations start to crack.

It's an interesting moment for World of Warcraft, then. I'm sure anyone is happy to enjoy some new content – except when they can't because bugs are running rampant. As Blizzard alludes to, it looks like a learning moment for the developers, and we'll only need to wait and see how well they strike the balance moving forward.

Blizzard lawsuit kills huge private World of Warcraft server as a cease and desist ends another.

There's a fun new minigame in World of Warcraft that's essentially hide-and-seek, where you try and evade the seekers by hiding as a random object. The only problem is, Blizzard managed to leave on a mechanic that highlights other players on your map. Whoops.

The special mode is Decor Duels, a spin on Prop Hunt from Garry's Mod where the hiders transform themselves into furniture or other innocuous parts of the world, and those seeking them have to track them down using other magic. It's in Silvermoon City, and there are special rewards for competing.

That's all fine and dandy, but, as noticed by Wowhead, the devs accidentally forgot to lock out the Track Humanoids ability, putting other players on the minimap. Hunters have it inherently, and using a Blackened Worg Steak gives it to everyone else.

Decor Duels is now less about skulking about or trying to suss whether that candle over there is moving, and more a glorified game of tag. Still somewhat fun, on paper, just a very different kind of entertainment to what was intended, and a situation where there's definitely some embarrassment going around whatever team of devs allowed this to happen.

To be clear, it's an easy mistake, just a quite funny one that undermines the original intent. Meanwhile, players have also found out they can hide out of bounds relatively easily. This is less egregious, because it comes with the territory of pushing people to make use of their surroundings, and World of Warcraft has some famously dodgy seams.

At the very least, people seem to be having fun, and the patch has only been live for a short time. This can all be tightened up. That said, I think it'd be more fun if Blizzard embraced Decor Duel as more of a game of chase, but that might be just me.

Blizzard lawsuit kills huge private World of Warcraft server as a cease and desist ends another.

Last week, reports began to circulate that Blizzard had scored a legal victory against the popular World of Warcraft private server Turtle WoW, and the owners of the server have now confirmed that it will soon be shutting down. It seems Blizzard has been prolific with the cease and desist orders, too, as Stormforge is also scheduled to shut down next month.

"After almost 8 years online, Turtle WoW is heading towards shutdown," the devs say in their announcement. "The final day of operation will be May 14, 2026, and the servers will go offline at 12:00 AM on May 15th. Working on Turtle WoW has been the highlight of our lives. It has been an honor to build with you and for you. Whether you were exploring new stories, leveling, raiding, PvPing, roleplaying, or just enjoying a quiet moment in the world, seeing how much this game means to you has been our greatest privilege."

Stormforge's announcement is pretty similar in tone: "It is with a heavy heart we share the news of the project's shutdown. Following a Cease & Desist request and subsequent positive discussions with a legal entity representing Blizzard Entertainment, we have agreed to cease all operations, development and distribution of content related to World of Warcraft by May 14th, 2026. Our realms will remain online and fully accessible until that date, but it will no longer be possible to register a new account and no further content updates will be released. We will also shut down the Stormforge Discord server and website. We would like to thank Blizzard for being understanding in regards to our closure process and the transition period."

It's unclear whether the two server shutdowns are connected, but the timing can't be ignored. Blizzard sued the people behind Turtle WoW last year, and earlier this month court documents revealed that the two parties had reached a settlement. Clearly, the terms of that settlement have included Turtle WoW's shutdown, and Blizzard couldn't abide Stormforge's continued existence, either.

There are numerous private, fan-run servers for World of Warcraft, each of them offering some particular advantage over Blizzard's official servers. Often, that advantage is simply "play for free," but there are benefits beyond pure piracy. Some servers offer all-new content, and players often appreciate the fact that there are usually fewer bots and gold sellers on these platforms.

But judging by the comments I've seen around the respective shutdowns of Turtle WoW and Stormforge, the fandom always figured their days were numbered because of their real-money cash shops. Maybe – maybe – Blizzard is willing to turn a blind eye to the private server devs who are doing it for the pure love of the game, but once you're trying to turn a profit? That's a lot more difficult for an MMO's legal team to ignore.

Blizzard famously took action in 2016 against a private server called Nostlarius, which offered an experience hearkening back to WoW as it originally released in 2004. A year later, Blizzard announced World of Warcraft Classic, which offered the same sort of experience on official servers. At a minimum, it seems Blizzard is at least willing to learn which features from private servers are most worth stealing back for official WoW.

World of Warcraft is still one of the best MMORPGs out there.

Classic World of Warcraft got another dose of nostalgia this past February, as Burning Crusade was re-introduced into the experience. First released almost 20 years ago, players have been jumping right back into the old school slab of MMORPG, though with the caveat they can't powerlevel like they used to any more thanks to a post-release patch.

Back in the day, dungeon-boosting, whereby you'd benefit from a more experienced player doing all the hard work in a raid, allowed people to level up alt characters much more efficiently. Sadly, on the back of Burning Crusade Classic: Anniversary, Blizzard's picked up on these tricks being trotted out, and the devs have put a stop to them.

"We've observed a significant number of Burning Crusade players entering dungeons and then participating in no meaningful gameplay," Kaivax, a community manager, states on the official WoW forums, "often while only one party member plays through the instance. When this is prominent, it can lead to detrimental economic effects, among other concerns, so we're implementing a series of hotfixes to address it."

These changes come in two salient forms. "Players must participate in combat to receive experience from dungeons," says the first, and second: "The amount of loot dropped by non-boss enemies in high-level dungeons is now determined by how many players participate in the kill."

Combined, they put an end to dungeon-boosting and powerleveling, forcing people to grind out their numbers as they're meant to. Of course, beyond simply wanting players to play as intended, there are the simple facts that these resources and exploits are more widespread than ever, putting a real strain on World of Warcraft's infrastructure.

Conversely, it's also much less tedious to do things by the rulebook to begin with. As Kaivax points out, "The vast majority of players who participate in dungeon groups as usual should see no difference after these updates." Chances are, you won't notice anything, so long as you were being honest to start with.

World of Warcraft lead asks how players would feel about playing the MMO on controller with a dedicated UI, but fans "fear that the PC experience will get worse"

The Worldsoul Saga in World of Warcraft just had its second act in Midnight. One person who definitely isn't a fan is Eric Covington, a former associate quest designer on Blizzard's mammoth MMO.

In an impassioned tweet, he tore down the conclusion of Midnight, snidely comparing the whole thing to an animated show for kids. "Is this what happens without certain voices on the team constantly fighting for plot and pacing?" he starts.

"Where are the stakes?" he adds. "Sunwell and elven unity wrapped up like a Saturday morning cartoon and the villain runs away to cause mischief another day/patch." Included is a picture of Harbinger, a major antagonist, literally saying, "We'll finish this another time, perhaps."

He finishes by saying, "This is Carmen Sandiego," since the central location will now change for The Last Titan, where the real final fight against Harbinger is likely to take place. Though flippant, I can see where he's coming from, since the narrative is remarkably neat for the second part of a trilogy.

The elven armies do indeed come together to defeat the Devouring Host, and the void elves are given special access to Silvermoon after. You can easily imagine this being a big season finale of some cartoon back in the day, building toward what might be the last season (but probably not).

Commenters on Reddit agree with Covington, to a point. "I do wonder where they're going next. It was wrapped up pretty quickly," says one. "I have conceded the fact that Warcraft's story is garbage but they make a hell of an end game that is perpetually fun for me," another adds.

World of Warcraft lead asks how players would feel about playing the MMO on a controller with a dedicated UI, but fans "fear that the PC experience will get worse."

It looks like Blizzard is testing the waters for World of Warcraft to become playable on controller. One of the longstanding MMORPG's producers is currently doing some research on whether players would enjoy as much, letting users have their say.

In a questions-and-answers session with Azeroth-centric outlet Wowhead, Holly Longdale, executive producer and vice president on World of Warcraft, proposes the question to the live Discord chat. "How many players would be interested in experiencing the game on a controller with a fully dedicated UI?" she asks, prompting a variety of responses and concerns.

For her, she sees the value in catering to as many players as possible, since her taste in games is broad. But there are a lot of considerations here, because World of Warcraft is built very specifically for mouse and keyboard and PC architecture. The consensus in the immediate aftermath skews negative on Reddit.

"We fear that the PC experience will get worse because they are trying to accommodate console users," one player comments. "For example removing add-on functionality, customizability, dumbing down classes, removing gameplay depth and complexity, etc."

This is the underlying anxiety, and as I'm sure you know, the fans often tend to be pretty critical of Blizzard's decision-making without other platforms being on the docket. "No game has become better when a PC game has to cater to a console game," another Redditor states.

There's a feeling that it might become reality sooner rather than later, though, especially in light of Microsoft now owning Activision Blizzard. Pushing towards whatever the next generation of Xbox devices is is a sound plan for goading people into dropping their hard earned cash.

"WoW port for the new Xbox/PC hybrid console thingy seems fairly inevitable," the top comment reads. "WoW will come to consoles at some point, won't it? It's just too much for MS to pass on," says another. Whatever the future holds, a joypad will probably be involved, for good or ill.

Blizzard is finally giving World of Warcraft fans an official Pride event in a new Midnight update, after 12 years of a community-led run: "Sounds gay, I'm in."