WoW Forever's New Weekly Gold Quest Has Players Worried About FOMO

WoW Forever has introduced a new max-level quest that offers a potentially valuable gold reward, but the response from parts of the community has been far from celebratory. The quest, "In Demand - Ancient Elven Curiosities," is available in Booty Bay and asks players to venture into a high-level dungeon to collect three required items. Completing it grants a small reward bag with a randomized gold-value item inside.

That bag can contain one of four possible rewards worth 10 gold, 20 gold, 40 gold, or 100 gold. In a version of World of Warcraft where players are still acutely aware of how difficult it can be to build up money, a route to a 100-gold payout would normally sound attractive. The issue for critics is not simply that Blizzard is introducing another source of cash. It is the structure around that reward: a weekly activity with a random outcome, arriving shortly after adjustments to how gold is earned from max-level quests.

For some players, the design calls to mind the regular cycle of dailies, weeklies, scheduled progression tasks, and recurring reward loops more commonly associated with later versions of World of Warcraft. That has created a larger argument about what WoW Forever is meant to preserve, what it should modernize, and how Blizzard can address economic pressure without turning the game into a checklist.

A Booty Bay Quest With a Random Gold Bag

The newly discovered quest is offered in Booty Bay to players at the level cap. Thus far, it has directed adventurers toward Dire Maul, where they need to obtain three specific items. Information gathered by Wowhead indicates that the dungeon target may rotate among different high-level instances over time, although during WoW Forever's first two weeks it has continued to point to Dire Maul.

For useful background on this topic, read Skyrim's Former Lead Designer Reconsiders the RPG's Original Level Cap.

After turning in the collected curiosities, players receive a bag whose contents are determined at random. The potential prizes are not different pieces of gear or crafting supplies, but items with fixed vendor values: 10, 20, 40, or 100 gold.

That presentation has been a major point of contention. Players know there is a chance at a significant payout, but they cannot count on it every time they finish the objective. A player who earns 10 gold after running the dungeon may feel that the same weekly effort was substantially less rewarding than it was for someone who hit the 100-gold result.

Random rewards are hardly new to World of Warcraft. Loot tables have always been central to the MMO, whether a group is seeking equipment from a boss, rare materials, mounts, or cosmetic collectibles. But gold carries a different kind of utility. It affects repairs, consumables, trades, profession leveling, auction house purchases, and the ability to participate comfortably in many areas of the game. Putting a direct currency injection behind a weekly randomized bag has made the system feel more conspicuous to critics than a traditional drop chance.

The Main Complaint Is the Weekly Cadence

Community frustration has focused less on the fact that gold is being awarded and more on the pressure that can come with a recurring deadline. A weekly quest inherently creates a limited window. Players who want to keep pace financially may feel compelled to run it before the reset, even if they would rather spend their available time leveling an alt, farming a profession, raiding with friends, pursuing a rare item, or simply taking a break.

This is the fear-of-missing-out concern voiced repeatedly in community discussion. One Reddit user, ThatOldGuy7863, condensed the reaction into a blunt objection to the arrival of weeklies. Another player, drtakhs, argued that avoiding daily and weekly engagement requirements is part of what makes the classic style feel distinct, and questioned why a system like this was needed after being broadly supportive of earlier WoW Forever decisions.

Content creator Bellular also criticized the quest's direction. In comments shared on X, he argued that gold should primarily be generated through more organic play: crafting, gathering, and selling valuable items. His broader point was that players should feel as though they are prospering through the world's existing systems rather than being visibly directed through a recurring reward hoop.

"The way to generate gold is crafting, gathering, selling items," Bellular wrote, arguing that any effort to increase currency flow should be less overt and better integrated into ordinary gameplay.

That position reflects a longstanding appeal of older World of Warcraft design. Earning money traditionally involved time, knowledge, trade relationships, profession choices, market awareness, and a willingness to seek out efficient farms. For many players, that can be frustrating, especially when gold is scarce. Yet it also makes economic progress feel tied to the game's open-ended world instead of an appointment on a weekly calendar.

Why Blizzard May Have Added It Anyway

There is also a practical case for the quest, particularly when considering World of Warcraft's long-running bot problem. Automated accounts can gather herbs, mine ore, kill repeatable targets, and collect sellable materials for extraordinary amounts of time. When those materials are dumped into the auction house at industrial scale, regular players can struggle to compete through gathering alone.

One community member, EvadableMoxie, suggested that a repeatable weekly gold reward could be an aggressively anti-bot measure. The reasoning is straightforward: a bot's greatest advantage is its ability to operate around the clock. If part of a player's viable gold income is delivered through a limited, account-bound activity that requires actual dungeon participation, the advantage of endlessly running gathering routes may be reduced.

It would not make bots irrelevant. Automation can still affect resource prices, farming locations, and supply across the economy. But a predictable source of gold for players with limited time could give them a way to stay solvent without trying to match the output of accounts that can remain active all day and night.

That concern is especially relevant because Blizzard has repeatedly had to contend with botting and real-money gold trading throughout World of Warcraft's history. During the WoW Forever beta, the company took action against people buying and selling gold. Those markets exist because automated farming can create huge supplies of currency and materials, while other players may be tempted to spend real money to avoid a lengthy grind.

A weekly quest, then, may be Blizzard's attempt to provide a controlled gold faucet. Rather than increasing the profitability of always-available farms, the developer can set a ceiling on how often a character receives this particular payout. The random reward may further limit the amount entering the economy compared with a guaranteed 100 gold every week.

Classic Values Versus a Changing Game

The debate reveals the difficult position Blizzard faces with WoW Forever. The project is not simply trying to re-create an untouched snapshot of the original game. The developer has already been making active decisions about systems, including dungeon experience and gold rewards, while holding firm on some other principles such as group tagging.

That means WoW Forever's identity is still taking shape. Every adjustment is likely to be judged on two levels: whether it solves a real gameplay problem, and whether it feels compatible with the spirit players expect from a classic-oriented experience.

The weekly quest lands directly in the middle of that tension. It may help casual players obtain gold in an economy vulnerable to bot-driven disruption. It may provide a reason for max-level characters to revisit Dire Maul and potentially other endgame dungeons. It may even distribute currency in a way Blizzard can monitor and tune more easily than open-world farming.

At the same time, the quest's visible weekly timer, fixed dungeon task, and lottery-like bag evoke systems that many players associate with later MMO design. For those players, it does not matter that the reward might be useful. They worry that a single weekly becomes multiple weekly requirements, and that the freedom to decide how to spend time in Azeroth gradually gives way to a routine of mandatory resets.

What Happens Next

For now, "In Demand - Ancient Elven Curiosities" remains a notable early test of Blizzard's approach. The current evidence suggests the quest could eventually rotate players through different high-level dungeons, but Dire Maul has been the focus during the first two weeks. It is also unclear whether the reward values, the randomized format, or the frequency of the activity could be adjusted in response to feedback.

There is room for compromise if Blizzard decides the underlying goal is sound but the presentation is unpopular. A more organic profession-based bonus, a dungeon reward earned through a broader set of activities, or a less time-sensitive approach could all address concerns differently. None of those changes have been announced, however, and players should not assume they are planned.

What is certain is that a small bag worth anywhere from 10 to 100 gold has prompted a much bigger conversation. WoW Forever players are not merely debating the value of a Dire Maul run. They are debating whether the game's future should be built around carefully scheduled incentives, or around the less directed and more player-driven methods that defined much of classic World of Warcraft's appeal.