After coming back to the game I’ve noticed that almost all of the short character names have been taken, but I never see any of those players in any of my dungeons, raids, keys, PvP, or open world content. After around a year I ran into someone with the name Cc, and inquired about how he came across the name, to which he responded and said it cost him 50 million gold to buy it from someone that hoards close to 1000 names, and that there are a few other people doing the exact same thing, sometimes sitting on these names for 10+ years at this point. I was wondering why this is allowed, as it seems very obstructive to gameplay and borders somewhere between opportunistic and exploitive.
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Sounds like the guy was feeding you a line of garbage. There would be no easy way for anyone person to take that many names. Plus what would be the point unless they are advertising them forsale!
Remember how many characters you can have on a realm per account! Thousands would cost someone a whole lot to get that many accounts.
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I’m inclined to believe him though, as he would have no reason to lie to me about how he got his name or who he purchased it from. Just his name alone could keep a whole account active for over 20 years based on the current price of wow tokens (50M/200k)
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Assuming what they told you was 100% accurate (it’s likely not even close to that severe), there is nothing wrong with this. In-game gold for an in-game service such as this is unsupported (meaning Blizzard will not assist with gold recovery if it goes awry, though they will investigate them for a possible scam), but allowed. If it moved into real life money, then it would be 100% against the rules.
How so? You pick a name before even entering the world for gameplay. There are millions, maybe even billions of names you can choose. You aren’t required to have a short, two- or three-letter name, nor are you required to see these names in a dungeon run to validate anything.
If a name is not available, pick another one.
Which is a good indicator that he is blowing smoke about how much he paid.
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I don’t see this as in in-game service at all, just a hinderance to other players, both new and returning by putting a price tag on something that should by no means have a price tag. It would be one thing to ask someone for their name on a character that is actively being played, but these names are essentially being held hostage for ransom at this point
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Use high acsii letters for some of the spelling.
They cant have them all
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I’ll preface this with the fact that I don’t believe that they spent 50 million for a name…not even a little.
That said, selling names is perfectly fine but completely unsupported. Each of those names, all 1000+ would have to be on characters level 29 or lower in order for their name to be freed up upon deletion (which is what the seller would need to be able to do to sell the name). That’s a stretch to begin with.
Additionally, I wouldn’t pay 2 copper for a name let alone a single gold piece. Not when names are free.
Lastly, these sorts of transactions are almost always scams. They take your gold and log off. If you obtain or use stolen/illicit gold, both accounts can be actioned too.
Don’t fall for these sorts of scams. Instead, use one of the many free name generators online to help you pick a name that’s not currently in use 
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Unless you see someone advertising names for sale i would not believe it
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He also has no particular reason to be honest. I’m inclined to believe he gave a smartass answer to an inquisitive stranger.
Yes, 50 million gold at the current rate is ~255 tokens. Do you honestly believe he spent the equivalent of $5000 for a character name? Or is it more likely he was winding you up for being nosy?
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To be frank, it doesn’t really matter how you see it, or how I see it. The only thing that matters is how Blizzard sees it, and it’s something in-game that can be exchanged for in-game currency.
How so? Pick another name. If a name is taken, then they got to it first, regardless of their intentions with the name.
Even if Blizzard outlawed the practice today, you still would not get any taken name. Names are first come, first serve.
That’s their choice. They got the name first. It’s not up to you what they do with it, nor are they required to answer to you for any reason.
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In order to hoard that many characters in the first place, the person would need 17 WoW licenses. Sorry, but anyone who claims this sort of thing would more or less be lying.
And I wouldn’t even use any gold to purchase any names.
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It’s just a name in a game.
Person you spoke to should get troll of the year award
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They could all just be F2P accounts. Being unsubscribed does not risk the loss of a name. All he would need to do is log into the account once every expansion.
It’s definitely sketchy. And a bit immoral. But I think it’s extremely unlikely that it’s a violation of the terms of use.
That’s what I usually do.
WoW Licenses are free. You can have as many as you want.
I agree. And while it may be more important to some people than to you or me, there are ways to work within the system, like using å or ô or ì or some combination. The name Pi is likely taken on every realm. But maybe Pî or Pï is available. Look at my name.
Pooh is obviously going to be a very popular name choice (especially after the Panda expansion came out). So I made it work with ascii codes.
If you wanted the name Cc that you saw, maybe try to see if Çc is available. Or Cç. Or Çç. I kinda like that last one.
#dfmb
Right on the Moon Guard and Wyrmrest Accord community forums there are threads to sell and trade names. Now, of course these being roleplay servers, we do tend to take our names pretty seriously. These threads have been up and active since 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Opportunic, yes. Exploitive? Not in the slightest. It’s not harming gameplay or hindering it. I don’t even play Classic or Progressive Classic so much, only when the whim takes me, but I was there when the realms opened to hold names and I absolutely grabbed the names for my Retail RP characters who I had planned to eventually level at the time. I still hold those names to this day, without too much leveling have been done. There may come a time when I really decide to go in and actually do something with those characters or I may not. But they’re my characters and my names I’m clinging to. That may not sit well with some folks, but I was there first and I beat everyone to them. It may be that it ticks some folks off immensely, but I was there when they weren’t to take the names before they could.
I’m sorry you’re just coming back to find that some name you’d like isn’t available - but c’est la vie. Check the realm’s forums for a similar name list. Reach out to the owner if there is such a thing. You’re welcome to try and barter with that person - but I’d highly suggest you not go in ready to argue that what they’re doing isn’t “legal” or fair. They’ll block you and that’ll be that.
Good luck to you.
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I have a flawless reputation on Moon Guard for selling names. So do most of the people in our thread.
I even list the names I sold so people are welcome to message and ask if I scammed them.
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If they did try to argue with someone over a name and accuse them of doing something illegal or immoral I’d imagine their account could be actioned for harassment.
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He is a guildy and a raider. He has legit no reason to lie to me about something like that, and he’s not the only person I’ve talked to that has bought a name. He’s on Illidan which is why the price tag is likely high, but still doesn’t make sense and I dont think this is a healthy practice for the game in general. It hurts the majority of people to benefit a small small few
Do you know that people are allowed to hoard a name and never use it as long as they keep an active sub?
As many as their account can hold.
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If you wish to suggest they change this policy, then you want to post constructively in General Discussion, or use the in-game Suggestion feature.
But if you want to be taken seriously, you’re going to need to lay out a more compelling reason than “I don’t like it”.
For example:
You still haven’t given any kind of reasoning to this thought. Who is it hurting? If someone got to a name first, then it is theirs. No amount of complaining about their intentions will get you that name.
It’s first come, first serve. They got to it first. Choose a new name and move on.
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