Really they should change it so you have to have logged into WoW itself during the wait time to not lose your WoW names. If you’ve played other games over the course of 4-6 years but not logged into WoW once then clearly you’re no longer interested in WoW.
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I was working on this same exact post…
This is the way.
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The only legit argument I’ve seen so far to support it is that new players are being turned away from the game because they couldn’t get a particular name and if anyone can just say “after X amount of time you just aren’t interested in WoW anymore” then I’d say that if you’re turned away from the game because you couldn’t get a specific name then you weren’t that interested to begin with.
I don’t actually believe the name release policy is a major factor in attracting and keeping new players. At all.
Other than that it’s all personal stuff that basically amounts to “I have a name I want that I don’t think someone else deserves. Gibs me dat name Blizz.”
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I kept a good portion of my names for the better part of a decade while I was afk. I’m glad they were here when I returned. I’ve been Sumwun for more than 20 years now. I’d hate to return and see my name next to me at the bank or AH.
One day in the future,
if they never allow hyphens or new alpha characters and if the name policy isn’t reverted to fall off at WoW account level instead of Bnet account level,
new players will only be able to use the name “Æäääää”
because it will be some of the only few names left to choose from. Anything intelligible or remotely viable will have been long taken and never released by players who no longer log in or play Wow.
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I moved to A52 when it was already “full” in Legion, got all the names I wanted, no special characters. I’m still making new characters by coming up with my own names and have never used an alt-code for a character.
I’m afraid this doomsday scenario is a bit hysterical and something we don’t need to worry about.
Cause you’re not effected by it, so you don’t care. It’s not until a problem like this effects you in some way you will start to care. Until then you’re just here to comment on others trying to make things a bit more fair to everyone.
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I’m not effected by it because if a name is taken I move on to another idea and go from there. Something we can all do and there are a ton of names still out there. It’s not like I haven’t typed plenty of names in only to be told they are taken.
I’m as effected as anyone else is, I just work around it instead of wasting my time stalking a name that may never become available and my response is “oh, it’s taken, someone else got there first.”
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What works for you to “work around it” might not work for others, and that’s the part that you fail to grasp. Not everyone HAS to MOVE ON to another idea like you. Not everyone is the same. If they were we’d all have the same exact names.
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If a name is taken, yes, they do. They can use ascii codes if they want to replicate the name to some degree or they can come up with a new one. They can hope the name eventually gets released but what they can’t do is expect or demand it happen for them. I mean…they can, but it won’t.
Names are first come first serve. Always have been. If a person is maintaining their account to Blizz’s expectations then whether we here like it or not them’s are the rules.
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And if that first come first serve person with that name who will never play wow anymore, they switched to Diablo 4, then to CoD, now just plays arc rumble on their phone once every 4 years, why should they get to keep it when there is a finite number available?
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Another reason I don’t like sharing names or I name save on bigger servers.
Having a lot of raiding and dungeon history… You really don’t want your name going around with a bad rep.
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This doesn’t really happen much anymore anyway.
If the name is really cool, I wouldn’t care if it had a history or not.
Depends on the server and community.
When I was a ‘hardcore’ player. I was very well known on my old server.
Constantly hosted pug raids, pvp events and stuff. Got invited to stuff by name.
Granted I became way more casual over the years. But moral of that is your name CAN carry a lot of weight, even now. And that applies to good and bad.
If you brick peoples keys purposefully, it doesn’t take a lot of people blasting you in trade and get blacklisted by your server. Knew a few people that this happened to with raiding by either ninjaing or constantly fake dc’ing when runs weren’t going great.
But my personal experience, it’s better to just not name share and/or sully your name in general 
Honestly, it would be better with battle tags and just have any name you want.
Then your battle tag would take the heat and there is no hiding.
I hope we get that in WARTHIN!
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If they don’t want to ascii, new players will just have to get creative. It’s something they should understand when coming into a 20 yr old game with millions of players. The names they may initially want may not be available.
I’ve had no problems coming up with new names for new characters that don’t require ascii, and yes there have been times when the first name I’ve wanted to use wasn’t available. In some cases rearranging letters has worked other times I’ve used letter combinations to get the same result.
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That’s very unlikely, our names are tied to the database. Making such changes to a 20 yr old database with millions of names and items is no small task.
Btags are a mistake. I don’t want random people adding me or following me around.
A simple solution was already said. I think I said it earlier as well.
All you need. And it would open up limitless possibilities.