It’s been a few years since I’ve played, and litterally everyone of my characters has been flagged for rename. I’ve tried using my old name and it says it’s still being used. Did I just lose my characters name permanently?
if youve been inactive for more then 2 expansions the names were freed up u may get lucky on some.
7 Likes
If you were offline for over a couple expansions, the names were probably released to be used by other players. This means that if other players took those names, you can’t use them… though if they’re inactive for that long, or delete the characters, you’d eventually be able to use those names again. Best to try and see if you can get the names again, or use new names for those you can’t.
7 Likes
Starting since Legion, all inactive names get freed up on prepatch day.
Sorry about your names, mate, but you’ll have to pick up some new ones.
3 Likes
It actually started even before that! Before they started releasing names, people were able to put in a ticket to ask if a name could be released. That was a lot of manual work for something that really didn’t need to be manual since there were some specific criteria involved.
Later came the Release of the names! This was, as far as I’m aware, the first time that Blizz did a mass-release of the inactive names in WoW.
Since then, they’ve made some changes to the system that automatically releases the names. It’s now more of an active system watching accounts for names that can be released as they’ve been dormant for 2 expansions.
There have been a couple of mass releases since the first, but the system is now more proactive and there really aren’t mass releases anymore that I’m aware of.
Unfortunately Wearelegion, if your released names have since been taken by other players, your only option is to pick a new name.
4 Likes
As the others noted, if the names were taken after they were released than yes. Unless the characters who currently have those names also go inactive for a period of time to qualify them being released again.
Definitely check the ones that were flagged to see if you can recover them. I’m sorry that some of the names you had were lost.
4 Likes
Names appear to be released periodically in waves. I read on the forum a while back that names had been released, and I found a server where this name was available.
2 Likes
Isn’t there a free rename, though, if you are
Johnny-35678934, because someone else got Johnny in your absence? I thought I remembered something like that, but not sure.
If some other guy got the name, you will only get it back if he does the same thing (disappears for two expansions/whatever.)
Hahah “George the Tauren.” I find “normal” names, in this game, really funny. I always think, "How the heck did that guy get “Bill?”
Yes, that is how it works. If your name is released the name will often be flagged for a rename and get some random characters, so Johnny would turn into John53kjds3.
The name may not have been taken when it was originally released though, so definitely try and enter Johnny again to see if you can take it. If not, you’ll be able to select something else.
2 Likes