Datamined Veteran Accounts Explained

Earlier this week, it was revealed through datamining the latest PTR version of World of Warcraft that something called a Veteran Account would perhaps be introduced at a later time. Speculation ran rampant that this might mean that lapsed subscribers would be able to play their characters but with heavy restrictions, perhaps also leading to a F2P model of WoW. However, Community Manager Bashiok has explained its true meaning.

According to the post on the World of Warcraft forums, lapsed subscribers would have their accounts changed back to the 'Starter Edition' of WoW which allows players to play for free to level 20 with restrictions, including not being able to join a guild. The restriction on guild membership will be lifted in a future update which will allow former subscribers who have never been able to log in once the subscription was terminated  to access their accounts as a convenience for non-playing guild mates to continue to chat with friends, etc.

It remains unclear what, if any, access players would have to characters higher than level 20. We will keep an eye out for clarification.

Head the the World of Warcraft community site.