September 21, 2026: the GDKP ban from the Q&A now has teeth attached. In a livestream (FRVR, Lewis White, today, via PCGamesN), community manager Randy Jordan and senior designer Josh Greenfield escalated from policy to punishment.
- Permanent account bans are on the table. Greenfield, invoking his own 22-year-old account: "It's not worth losing it permanently. I promise."
- "Too lenient" admission. "Being frank, we've probably been too lenient on gold buyers," with a hint the harder stance could extend to other WoW versions.
- Tunable economy. Behind-the-scenes knobs let developers push resources directionally if the balance feels wrong, plus replayability levers.
- Already happening. A forum thread documents gold buying inside the wiped beta: buyers paying real money for currency that dies October 21.
The throughline with the Q&A position: GDKP laundering, buyer/seller/bot actioning, SoD as the clean experiment. This is the enforcement chapter of the same policy.
SOURCES: FRVR (Sep 21, first-party livestream quotes); Blizzard forum gold-buying thread.