I’ve lost a name - it sucks. As someone who has played the game on and off since 2004, to have to come back and relearn everything you missed AND be forced to rename a beloved character AFTER a zillion other people have joined the realm is not the best way to come back to the game after a hiatus.
That being said, I can see both sides. I have names that I LOVE & have used on quite a few MMO’s. If I had an opportunity to get a favorite from someone who hasn’t played in ages, I’d probably not hesitate. So, yeah, there are two sides to the issue.
Not really actually, it does get brought up on occasion though.
Names automatically become available if the Blizzard account that holds the name has remained inactive for the past two expansions.
I’d guess yes.
My question is what does inactive mean? Because it says “Blizzard account” which I am assuming means BNet account and not the individual WoW account, otherwise they would have said World of Warcraft account/license. Or I could be wrong
If names are released every 2 expansions that would mean they are released at the start of every expansion right? Because each expansion marks the 2nd expansion for another expansion.
After playing mostly on this server for a few expansions, I checked in on Bloodhoof and had to rename a couple characters because their names had been randomized. No one had taken the names, so I could rename them right back to what they’d been, but it happened.
Through a little bit of hunting I found an answer to your inquiry Kaurmine
The timing of events may be a little off. From what I can see you did add Mists of Pandaria to the account on 9/16/12, however, no game time was ever added so the account never considered “active”. I know it is a minor distinction but it is important here.
From this post
Maybe “inactive” simply means no game time? Though in the post he does go on to say
Until recently, there hasn’t been any activity on the account since May of 2012. At least the last amount of game time expired on May 21st or 2012.
At first it sounds like “had to play some” but he mentions game time again
They cut down some stuff from some articles, don’t know why. These are the character naming rules
The character name must be between 2-12 characters long.
Accented characters are supported.
Numbers and symbols are not supported.
Mixed capitals and spaces are not supported.
-Non-medieval or non-fantasy names (For example: Slipnslide, Robotman, Discoinferno)
-Names that reference well known people, characters, brands, places, or icons (For example: Britneyspears, Austinpowers, Mcdonalds, Georgewashington, Newyork)
-Names that consist of multiple words (For example: Inyourface, Welovebeef, Howareyou, Sixtyseventy)
Jokes aside I’m gonna be honest, that sounds like what I said. But it also could be releasing every x amount of time once a name reaches [abc] requirements. But
I interpret the clues provided in the CS posts to indicate that there is an algorithm employed to determine at what point a particular account has been inactive for two expansions, such that all accounts that hit that threshold today will have their character names released. Whether the system checks daily, or weekly, or quarterly, only Blizzard knows, and it isn’t something they’re likely to share with the general population…
It’s also worth noting that ‘active account’ doesn’t mean an account with game time or an active subscription. Blues in Customer Support have confirmed that playing on an account without game time (with all the attendant starter restrictions) still counts as activity.
I really would like to know what counts as activity Like the full list, not “yeah that counts” just out of curiosity because I play several alts daily so I have no worries of losing names but I really wanna know
The full list? Logging on to the account. That’s it. Even if you don’t have game time, you can log in to any character below level 20 and safeguard your character names.
Good luck getting any name you really want on Area52.
If that toon is level 50 it was played during BfA so the account was active last expansion, so even if the person has stopped playing (no SL) the name won’t be released anytime soon. You might as well pick another name.
Like the full list, not “yeah that counts” just out of curiosity because I play several alts daily so I have no worries of losing names but I really wanna know