Forced Name Change Question

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Howdy. I just had a character named “Booty” get a forced name change - I wasn’t auto logged out nor was I suspended, it popped up while I was just doing a dungeon run.

Anyhow, I was a little annoyed and baffled, so I jokingly entered the name back in and was very surprised to see it actually let me use that name again. I figured it would just tell me that I couldn’t do that, because that would’ve made sense.
Should I change my name to something else? What exactly is the best course of action for myself? I’ve never dealt with this before, and I wasn’t really expecting to run into this kind of problem because the word booty tends to refer to a pirate’s booty (went with the name because it’s a twink character and they do a lot of plundering, you get the picture).

I have 2 spare name changes I bought like a month ago or so, should I use one of them? Should I contact customer support to ask them to forcibly change my name again? Or should I just do nothing - is this even an actual problem?

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I would yes. You can use this link:
https://us.battle.net/support/en/help/product/wow/197/588/solution

Best to self-report it and they’ll likely flag it for you. Shouldn’t need to use the name changes you have purchased :wink:

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Awesome, thank you Perl! ^.^

For future reference, why exactly is “Booty” a reportable name? In some contexts it obviously can refer to a person’s buttocks, but it’s also frequently used within the game as pirate’s treasure or in children’s media (i.e. Spongebob). Is this just one of those situations where it’s only a problem if other players think it’s a problem?

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No, because what players think only controls what they report.

After that, it becomes a matter of what the GM receiving the reports thinks.

Yup, a real human being employee of Blizzard’s CS department looked at the reports and made the call, and they decided that the name was inappropriate.

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I personally would not report it but to address this part:

Content that is made for an audience is governed by PEGI/ESRB and curated to tell a story or other media.

Your own interactions with other people isn’t rated by the above but rather by the ingame conduct by the respective games. Now someone could think it is offensive, and as SniperOrc said then the GM will make the call thinking whether if it realy is or isn’t.

You may appeal the decision or just ask for a free rename since you made a “mistake” renaming it to the same actioned character name.

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I think you answered your own question here. There are several words that have multiple meanings. If one of those meanings is inappropriate, even in slang, it’s inappropriate for the game no matter what your intention was.

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I’m in the middle of writing up the appeal currently, should I say something along the lines of “I’d like to ask for either a new name change or to appeal the decision please” ?

I definitely think it’s wiser to ask for just a new name change, but I also can’t help but feel that it also wasn’t really worth a report?

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Since Blizzard GM issued a name change, Blizzard would disagree.

Now, had the name be reported again after you changed it back to the same name, you’d probably be facing a suspension as well as another forced name change.

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It’s just odd to me, because even considering the slang it’s not particularly vulgar? But I’m not gonna lose sleep over losing a name like this either, it’s pretty inconsequential at the end of the day.

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I asked this be flagged for you again, Borga.

Just please pick another on your next login.

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Oh wow you beat me to it :smiley: thank you so much! I really appreciate your time! ^.^

Really appreciate everyone’s input, I’ll be more mindful about names in the future - in particular if they have multiple meanings.

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It doesn’t need to be vulgar to be inappropriate for the game.

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Yee that’s fair

Decided to go with Vydarr as the new name, inspired by Vidarr from Norse mythology and Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal :>

Again, thank you all!

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Love that name… :slight_smile:

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FYI for future reference, renaming back to the same thing after a forced rename can have much more severe consequences like suspensions.

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also be aware that in relation to account actions whether for names or otherwise, blizz will never tell you on forums, specially this one. and that talking about actions generally is looked down on.

another point- in blizzards opinion they dont consider context of anything ever. they just look at a report from a player in the playerbase, compare it to their policies, and if the human gm deems it actionable, you get slapped with a rename or suspension or worse. even more so if you have multiple character names that -could- be risque. regardless of nature ie body anatomy, religion or something else entirely.

Blizzard used to have a naming policy years ago however i have no idea if this is enforced anymore, more so for case of RP servers than wow in general but still.

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Still do. That never changed.

That do - ugh, this thread is evidence of that.

Yes, RP naming policies is a lot more stringent.

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Both standard and RP realm naming policies are still intact and enforced, yes.

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They will tell you if rhe name is inapropriate the blues will deffinately be upfront tho the regulars often beat them to it.

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The “policies” still exist. Whether they’re “enforced” or not, is a different matter (because I’ve seen names synonymous to what the OP named themselves via “body anatomy” still wandering around despite my reports). As per the CoC, it’s up to “Blizz’s discretion”, and they may disagree with us and our reports, but I digress.

This “Naming Policy” article is two years old:

Blizz’s CoC (from 1 year ago) talks about how we should and/or shouldn’t name anything (whether it’s WoW characters, our B-Tags, Real ID, etc.). All of it needs to abide by the CoC:

Most recent “Naming Policy” is from 3 months ago about “Reporting a World of Warcraft Character Name”, and the ONLY article I can find regarding RP servers and their naming policies being a bit more “Restrictive” than “Normal” servers:

The only thing I can find talking about “body anatomy” is actually the Forum CoC (updated 3 years ago), dunno if it actually applies to names or not, but I digress:

Per the Blizzard In-Game Code of Conduct, this is where the naming policy is ultimately up to “Blizz’s discretion”

Take note that acceptable names are determined by player reports and Blizzard’s decision

Sure, “player reports” is in there, but it’s (also) pluralized. So, if I’m the only one with an issue of one’s name, Blizz may let that name slide. Unless, it’s absolutely egregious. Especially, on RP servers, and somebody name themselves “Tomato”. Unless, quite a bit of the RP server takes an issue with it, I can see that name getting a “free pass”. Unless, Blizz is in a bad mood.

There’s (also) this part:

Any name that violates our standards or disrupts the community

The part where it says “disrupts the community”, so like if a lot of members of an RP Server take issue with “Tomato”, Blizz may intervene and force a change, despite “Tomato” not being an “offensive” name. It’s disrupting enough members of a community to be deemed “inappropriate”.

At the end of the day, it’s up to Blizz.

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