Important takeaways
- WoW buffs event currency gains are due to the fact that it is easier to increase the number than to decrease it.
- World of Warcraft is careful with event rewards, but ultimately adjusts them based on player feedback, with one example being the increased currency gains for the 20th anniversary event.
World of Warcraft recently revealed the reason many of the limited time events in 2024 received buffs to the currency gains later is that it is easier to increase these numbers than to decrease them. While it can be frustrating for players hoping to finish events as quickly as possible, World of Warcraft tends to be cautious, as it cannot reduce these numbers without significant community backlash.
This year, World of Warcraft has run several limited time events: Plunderstorm, WoW Remix: Mists of Pandariathe Radiant Echoes Pre-Patch event for The war withinand the ongoing 20th anniversary celebration. Despite their differences, these World of Warcraft event all received buffs to their currency collection rates at some point during that time.

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During a recent interview with GamesRadar+, World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas explained why this keeps happening. “We can always buff the rewards,” he said. “We're never going to lose the rewards, really, are we? If things go out too quickly and generously, we're never going to pull it back. And so, while we're playing a little bit of that guessing game of trying to pick the right values, we can have a tendency to err on the conservative side.” Hazzikostas stressed that the developers weren't intentionally stingy, but rather tried to find the balance between rewarding and engaging “Hopefully, players understand that we'll be quick and responsive if it feels like we've missed the mark. We hear the feedback from the community loud and clear.”
World of Warcraft wants to be careful with events
As for the latest example, Hazzikostas noted that the developers hadn't considered the impact of their own release cadence on the 20th anniversary event. It started just eight weeks after The war withinlaunch, meaning many players were still in the middle of the endgame loop. “Even though they really liked the 20th anniversary content, there was a sense of 'I've already spent a lot of time doing dungeons and digging and leveling these other alters. This feels like too much to ask on top of that.'” Adding to the content of the 20th anniversary event on top of their existing 11.0 “chores” became overwhelming, leading to World of Warcraft to increase Bronze Celebration Tokens earned from Season 1 activities.
“We can always buff the rewards. We'll never lose the rewards, really, will we? If things go out too fast and lavishly, we'll never pull it back. And so, while we play a little bit of that guessing game To try to choose right values, we may have a tendency to err on the conservative side.”
The ramifications of what would happen if it lowered the event currency acquisition rate can be seen in the hotfix response under World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria. There were a number of superspawn exploits that players discovered that trivialized the grind for bronze, reputation, and threads for their Cloaks of Infinite Potential, with the infamous Gulp frogs being the most infamous of the bunch. Fans were outraged when World of Warcraft reduced the effectiveness of those farming locations – and it's not a logical step to assume they'd have a similar reaction if Blizzard nerfed an event for being “too fast and generous.”
While players may not be happy with Hazzikosta's answer, the logic makes sense. From a development standpoint, it's better to buff an undertuned event than release an overtuned one and choose between losing engagement or causing outrage with a nerf. That said, setting a trend that encourages fans to wait for inevitable buffs before committing to an event isn't good either. Hopefully the lessons learned from these events will help the future World of Warcraft activities reach that balance on the first try.