Since its official announcement at BlizzCon 2026, World of Warcraft has remained a major focus for players. Essentially, it is an advanced version of the Classic server that players have been calling for years. But how exactly does it differ from other versions of World of Warcraft?
Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield stated that there is one significant difference: Eternal servers will not include the GDKP mechanism.
Some players may not be familiar with GDKP, which stands for Gold Dragon Kill Points. It is a loot distribution mechanism based on auctions: dropped gear in raid instances goes to the highest bidder, and the gold earned from the auction is evenly distributed among all participating raid members. This system is quite controversial, as many players believe it encourages real-money trading.
So what did Greenfield have to say about this? In the latest Q&A session held on YouTube, he first made it clear that World of Warcraft will not allow GDKP to exist.
"Simply put, no, we will not enable GDKP," he stated. "For us, the most core consideration behind this is our primary mission—to cultivate and protect the social experience of players. I believe many of the controversies surrounding GDKP are essentially tied to this mission."
Did Blizzard make this decision solely because of real-money trading? Not entirely.
Greenfield stated, "The core reason we don't allow GDKP in World of Warcraft is that we've noticed in regions where GDKP has long been popular, the mechanism becomes ubiquitous and may even replace traditional guild structures. As game designers running a game of this scale, we always have to make tough choices like these."
Greenfield admitted this isn't easy. "Often, you have to make difficult choices. We never want to dictate how players should play"—but mechanisms like GDKP ruin the MMO experience for other players.
He mentioned that such mechanisms "create a high barrier to entry for new players or those with limited in-game resources." Veteran players can easily earn gold, while newcomers might be forced into the path of "buying gold."
This situation is undesirable, Greenfield explained, and it is "an issue we take very seriously in World of Warcraft." Furthermore, it disrupts the overall game economy and leads to chaotic offline trading.
"GDKP is an excellent channel for bad actors to launder large amounts of gold," he said. This causes trouble for both players and developers, making it harder to combat issues like botting. In World of Warcraft, Blizzard will "very, very actively monitor the state of the game economy."
Honestly, I'm relieved to hear that Blizzard has confirmed GDKP raids won't be available on Eternal servers—hopefully, this will help maintain a healthy game economy, and I hope the studio continues to restrict this auction-based raid loot distribution system (and it seems combat-related addons will also be restricted).