That’s intentional and is what I’m talking about. They keep it somewhat vague so that people can’t mark calendars for things with exact dates. But again, I’m pretty sure active game time, during that two expansion period, is required. Otherwise, the account will be labeled as inactive like mine currently is:
https://imgur.com/a/8cauCMC
Notice the last played time, but I haven’t been subbed for a while(I still test stuff out on PTR when I have the time and sometimes log into low level alts on retail to test things as well). It says 5/16/2023 in that was my last login, but that was the last time I logged into retail on a low level alt. I was on a PTR this morning and it doesn’t update that login metric. So this means you have to have active game time applied to that account and have to log into that account on retail. That is the active/inactive thing they are very likely talking about.
here we go… Vrak has just popped in now, seeking clarification.
Yeah apparently they thought they same thing I did at first until they double-checked. Well I’m sure they’ll update more on it all since that deadline will be coming up at some point and I’m sure more people will be out with torches and pitchforks over it.
i’m also not sure what your definition of “trial account” is… all accounts without game time have the same access.
So some clarity on the matter.
It looks like 1bnet account creating the max wow licenses and characters on it, take 480 names out of the pool at a single time.
Everything else is correct though. ANY bnet activity from any game on that bnet account resets the timer.
Remember: One Bnet account can have up to 8 WoW accounts attached to it. So I’m talking about a WoW account, one of the up to eight accounts per Bnet account, WITHOUT any purchased client. I’m not talking about an account where you own the game, played the game with active game time, unsub, and then can still log into alts level 20 and under. Talking about when you make the free trial accounts, that can be attached to your main bnet account, without spending a dime on them. Those types of WoW accounts should NOT be allowed to reserve names.
So what this means is people can have a single real current WoW account, with or without an active subscription, and attach up to seven other free trial accounts (that don’t cost anything) and this allows them to reserve 8x60=480 names if they want to. Not sure if you can do the free trial account stuff on a Bnet that doesn’t even own the base WoW though.
If the CS rep has it correct and worded it correctly, all you have to do is log into your Bnet account to keep those names alive; without even having to sub to WoW or buy new expansions. Super broken and will likely receive a lot of backlash at some point.
yeah i’m just thankful that i’ve got all the names i’ll probably ever need 
they’ll likely need to change something in the future, all names will end up perma-camped.
Now how many more years and reports until they might fix it, or who will start using the exploit to force them to fix it is the question.
Seems pretty messed up some troll can remove 480 names per account forever so long as they play arc light rumble from that same bnet account once every 3 years.
keeping a wow sub and actually logging into the game in some form i see as a good thing, Im not sure that it should be required to log into each alt 1 by 1 just to preserve them. What if a character you used to love just isnt that good anymore, or you’ve fallen out of that playstyle, say a healer.
Its not right to give up that characters history and meaning just because you dont want to play it actively in its current iteration - in my opinion
Yep, the rules should be changed so that at a minimum, you need to buy a base WoW client(doesn’t have to be up to date with expansions) and must have active game time applied to the account at least once during that two expansion grace period, to reset the timer.
But I agree, there’s no need to manually log into the alts and stuff, that’s just silly.