Players will have to pay gold to use their mailbox in Legion, Blizzard announced today.

Currently on the Legion Alpha servers, players must fork over 100 gold to open their mailbox, whether it's to send mails, receive items from the Auction House, or simply to send items to another character.

"The 100g is purely a placeholder at the moment. We are still working out what the cost will be!" said the Warcraft Devs twitter account, when asked to clarify if this access fee would continue when Legion goes live.

Response from the playerbase has been quite negative, but Blizzard remains firm that these service charges are a necessary evil, due to players having earned too much gold from the particularly lucrative treasure hunter garrison missions in Warlords of Draenor.

"We've thought long and hard about this, and we've decided that that best solution is to nickel-and-dime our playerbase for everyday conveniences that they've adored and been accustomed to for years!" explained new Lead Finance Manager Trade Prince Gallywix.

"It just made sense to start with the mailbox -- I mean, the Postmaster already works tirelessly to bring you those useless trash items you passed up, or by taking that excess Honor you earned that would have inconveniently put you over the Honor cap and throwing it in the garbage, then mailing you to tell you about it. It's only fair that they earn a working wage, in today's economy!"

Gallywix added that Blizzard was "listening carefully" to feedback, and that they would be considering alternate options for players.

"Oh, don't you worry! We only want what's best for you, which is why we're offering a special way for players to bypass these service charges! For the low, low cost of only $10, players can purchase the Elite Mailbox account option from the Blizzard Shop, and enjoy full, unrestricted use of their mailbox for an entire month! That's our gift to you, loyal subscribers!"

When asked if Blizzard had any plans to introduce similar gold charges for other existing in-game services, Gallywix shrugged.

"Hey, you never know. We're thinking about maybe toll booths at instance portals, with stamp cards so your 11th zone-in is free. Or maybe we'll make major cooldowns have a one-hour cooldown, which players can reduce for a small, teensy-tiny Shop fee. The possibilities are endless!"