World of Warcraft: Forever is a little more than a week away from launch, and early name reservation is now live. That's right, the chance to reserve character names early — just three per account — has been monetized by Blizzard as a pre-order bonus. I present this without comment.
But it's worth noting, for context, that name reservation is a thing in the World of Warcraft community. In the original game, every character is identified not by the player account it belongs to, but simply by its one-word name, which must be unique to the server the character sits on. Naturally, there is a lot of competition for the coolest/funniest/most edgelordy names on any fresh server, and you need to be quick off the mark.
On long-running servers, new characters' names tend to be either incomprehensible gobbldegook, or spéllêd wïth å lõt òf fünný âccënts. In MMOs, bragging rights are everything, and that extends to sniping the best names. If you want to be called Doomlord or something, you better not be caught napping.
However, World of Warcraft: Forever works differently. It's even worse: It doesn't have servers. This is a great thing for the game itself, because it means you'll always be able to play with anyone that shares your region and your ruleset (Normal, PvP, or Roleplay).
But it's a nightmare for nabbing character names. To make things a little easier, Blizzard has increased the options available by implementing a radical departure in WoW naming convention. Character names are now composed of two words.
They have a forename and a surname. It's a real plus for roleplay enthusiasts. And, for me, it's a nightmare.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
