First, I get the idea behind the megaservers and mostly like it. But getting a character name you like is a bad situation here.
Second, some numbers: according to ironforge.pro these are the logged characters on PVP realms: 71k Cata, 15k Era, and 27k SoD; the player count is higher than this logged characters are typically raiders only on ironforge.pro. A vanilla realm back in the day held ~3k players. So the new 20th anniversary pvp realm is going to be looking at anywhere from 5 - 14 (or more probably) times more players than an original vanilla realm.
Now, the point. How are we expected to find any meaningful name that we are happy with when there are this many more players in the same server. @Blizzard, @Aggrend: this has to be something you thought of and discussed. Is there something you can do to alleviate this? Or is “tough deal with it” really your attitude towards this situation?
Character names matter to a lot of people. Not getting the name you want is a bummer. But in this situation not getting your first 10 choices is likely, and then at that point you are probably just typing in whatever comes to your head first to get past the name unavailable message.
You could make characters names non-unique and add a #xxxx (in smaller gray font after character name), for example. First suggestion that comes to mind, hopefully you have others too.
1 Like
I agree with this, I loose a lot of interest on a MMO when unable to find a decent name; I mean, I get I’m very unlikely to get a super popular name again like Rend or Wrath for my Warr, but once you start adding three vowels to a name it starts getting ridiculous… at least let us use special characters for Classic names or use the Diablo naming system.
1 Like
you ran out of ideas for names?
All I could find on this is that names are not unique. Not sure of other specifics but yes that needs to happen here ASAP.
As population on a single server grows so large, unique names aren’t going to work anymore. IMO 2019 Classic populations were large enough this should have been considered then, especially so now since it’s one megaserver.
I’m not advocating for non-megaservers, that will lead to dead realms and not being able to get groups etc. I only want to be able to play with the names I want.
Imagine having a baby and the nurse says “sorry boss that name’s taken.”
1 Like
my name is an anagram of names that are special to me. 
We are adding constructive criticism here sire like the 35 year old+ that most of us are, not everyone is ok with random names (like I assume you are based on your name) is not world breaking for some, granted, but in 2024 this should be an easy fix for Blizzard, add family names (like FFIX), let use the Diablo naming system, so many solutions available…
1 Like
Just make your names unique and you’ll get them. I have 4 names that I’ve had for years. I ended getting them all yesterday because they’re uniquely spelled and pronounced. If you care this much about names then you’ll put in the effort to try and find ones that are so unique that you can get them every time. That’s been my case since classic 2019. I’ve gotten my names every time.
2 Likes
I prefer not having people named the same thing, especially in Classic where names actually matter.
1 Like
Not necessarly,
four names I had since 20 years on many different realms, were already taken. I had the same happen to me on Lost Ark, it just happens if tens of thousand chars are made, you will run into someone with the same name.
There are only x number of names available on our planet and unless you resort to gibberish, you will either miss out, or make someone else miss out.
It is quite possible that you were just faster than someone else, I doubt your names are unique to the WOW community.
1 Like
The naming situation is fine. I had work and couldnt get my names until 7 hrs after launch. Still got one of my favorite decades-used names, and several new ones I like.
Its the policy on name retention that’s off. You’ve got these people that reserve names with no itention of ever using them. Many try to sell them (big problem with 2 letter names) and others reserve them and never log into the toon.
They need to set a timeframe where if, say you havent made it to level 15 or 20 in 6 months on that character… that name becomes available. Allow name changes for Classic with massive cooldowns. Maybe even list old alias’ in our tooltips so we cant ninja loot and name change.
But its people hoarding them with no intention of actual use that is the problem. Greed.
I feel for you, man. Im happy with my names this go around, but I totally get how it can throw off the experience.
They definitely are and I’ve never had 1 person take them. I looked up a wow name data base a couple years ago and I think maybe 2 or 3 players on different servers had one of my names but thats it. And that was out of the millions of retail toons that have been created. If you think of something unique and spell it uniquely then you can always get your name. You just have to slog through the process of finding one, which sucks. I really wish I could tell you my names but I obviously can’t.
This is the sort of thing that keeps blizzard from fixing simple things like these, some of you guys keep defending archaic systems that can clearly be fixed with minimum effort. Not everyone had the ability to be in front of the computer waiting for the servers to come online and choose names (I did).
The fact that you got your prefer names doesn’t mean the system isn’t flawed. For the record, I don’t think names should be taken away from players, even if they decide not level that particular character, I think allowing something as simple as spaces or special characters would go a long, long way, sometimes more is more.
1 Like
The first and last name system would work really well imo. Its awesome in FF14.
People just said I was too attached and in too deep when I said I’m pretty upset about not getting my 1 chosen name. Out of 5 I had planned I got 2. The other 3 were gone in 30 seconds… quite literally. I had my names ready to go via copy paste and I still wasn’t fast enough.
The name system needs an overhaul, give me #1234 I don’t care I think limited to specific character names is garbage.
3 Likes