WoW players fear ‘Crafting Cartels’ are taking over Dragonflight and getting players banned

Before anything else, World of Warcraft is just a game. But more often than not, players take the game all too seriously, forming communities like the Devilsaur Mafia with strict schedules and shifts to fully control one aspect of the game. In Dragonflight, we’re seeing history repeat itself as Crafting Cartels are taking over the game and getting players banned.

With the release of Dragonflight on Nov. 28, Blizzard Entertainment revamped the profession system, making it more interactive, rewarding, and important in the end game. As some players are taking it slow and maybe still leveling their professions up, others saw this as an opportunity to earn money. Completely taking over the market, Crafting Cartels are a community that sells high-value items like gear and weapons to players, but at a previously set price. 

For most Crafting Cartels, this means a price of 20,000 gold, not including the materials that you have to provide on your own. If a member of a cartel learns the name of a regular Joe crafting gear for less gold, it’s not uncommon to share that name with other members of the cartel to have the regular player banned. This is possible due to Blizzard’s reporting system that is triggered only by the number of reports and not the actual reason behind them. 

Related: Here are the early 10.0.5 WoW Dragonflight patch notes

One solution to this problem would be to have more GMs and people in general involved in the banning process. But the other solution would shake up how WoW works, making it anonymous and reducing harassment to a minimum.

“Crafting contracts really need to be a reverse auction system,” one WoW player suggested. “You put in what you want, with materials, and the crafter’s can bid on the contract. No trade chat spamming, no bs, make it anonymous to cut out harassment.”