Blizzard bans controversial GDKP raids ahead of Season of Discovery Phase 2

World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery enters its highly anticipated Phase 2 on February 8, bringing with it a trove of changes, as is the theme of Season of Discovery. While previewing what to expect from Phase 2, Blizzard included a small paragraph simply titled “No More GDKP Runs”. According to the post, Blizzard will be experimenting with a new policy for Phase 2 that will no longer allow GDKP runs specifically in Season of Discovery.

Wait, what is GDKP anyway?

To understand GDKP, we first need to discuss DKP. Grab some popcorn as I try to make this long story short. Back during the launch of Everquest in 1999, players became frustrated with how loot was distributed when defeating the toughest encounters in the game: dragons. Over time it would take hours and hours of learning the encounters, for the boss to only drop a couple of pieces of loot that would be randomly rolled on by the 25+ players who participated in the actual kill. At a glance, that sounds pretty reasonable. But if you were there for each attempt on the kill over days and days, and then someone joined last minute and was there for the kill and got the piece of loot, it could be quite frustrating.

So came the birth of DKP (Dragon Kill Points). Originally, guilds would give players who participated in guild activities DKP for their contributions. Then, once a boss was killed, players could spend their DKP to acquire items for their hard work. Over time variations of this system came into fruition: some would opt to bid their DKP while others would default to whichever player had the most and needed the item. This system would go on to be used in many MMORPG’s, including World of Warcraft.

The rise of GDKP

Eventually came GDKP (Gold DKP). This system was originally designed for random groups that got together to kill bosses. Instead of accruing DKP from past contributions, players would just bring gold they have acquired in-game. They would then bid that gold to acquire items, with the total gold collected being split amongst the participants at the end of the raid.

GDKP has become a huge part of raiding in World of Warcraft Classic. The retail version of World of Warcraft doesn’t quite support it in the traditional sense, but it’s still commonplace for players to pay gold for raid carries with dibs on certain loot for their character. Some argue GDKP is bad for the game. It doesn’t really reward players for completing content, but rather just amassing as much gold as possible.

Unfortunately, GDKP has a very commonplace side effect: RMT(Real Money Trading) or gold buying and selling. Players would often just buy gold from third-party websites for cheap, as opposed to spending the time actually accruing the gold in World of Warcraft. This is against the Terms of Service, but that’s a whole different story. To some, it made sense to go work a job for an hour and buy enough gold to buy the item they were looking for that would spend hours farming gold for. I personally feel at this point: why are you even playing the game? But once again, that’s a different story.

So what does no more GDKP mean?

According to Blizzard, they understand that GDKP can be a convenient way to gain gear. However, they feel that it erodes the traditional sense of guild and social structures that are a huge part of World of Warcraft Classic, and therefore Season of Discovery. Blizzard decided to utilize the experimental nature of Season of Discovery to try something new, which will be the restriction of GDKP runs. No details have been provided as of now on how they plan to prevent it, but they do plan to share more information soon and will monitor feedback about this change.

At a glance I’m not sure how they can fully restrict GDKP runs. But honestly, I’m hoping they have found a way and that it works. One of the things that makes World of Warcraft Classic so special is its community, and GDKP as a whole is bad for it all around. I’m excited to see how this shakes out and how it may affect the future of all versions of World of Warcraft including retail WoW moving forward, where the buying and selling of carries has become a major part of the game economy through the use of WoW Tokens.

World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery enters Phase 2 on February 8. Those wanting to catch up to the max level of 25 before it ups to 40 with Phase 2 can take advantage of a 50% experience buff leading up to its release.