Heads up if you’re planning to play World of Warcraft: Forever and have a special character name in mind—today’s the day to start sitting on it in preparation for the game’s November 4 launch.
This isn’t for everyone: you can only reserve your character name if you pre-purchased one of the game bundles. If you’re just planning to use an existing WoW subscription to start playing on November 4, you can’t reserve names.
Reservations will start for North American servers at 4:00 p.m. ET today…or at least they theoretically should. European realm reservations were supposed to open earlier today, but there’s been some sort of technical issue that has yet to be resolved, and folks on EU realms haven’t been able to reserve yet. It’s possible that North America runs into a similar problem, but at least for now the 4:00 ET time is still scheduled.
To reserve your character name in WoW: Forever, you’ll need to open the Battle.net app and install the game. If you’ve already pre-installed, hit that update button if it appears. You’ll then want to launch the game, which should become available when reservations open.
Don’t get excited: we can’t play yet. But what we will be able to do is select a ruleset (PvP, RP, or Normal), and create up to three new characters, selecting their class, race, appearance, and yes, name. Remember, in WoW: Forever characters get a first and last name, so come prepared. Also remember that you can use the graphics settings to toggle whether you want new or old character models, so make sure you check what they look like in both versions if that’s something you care about.
Once you’re done, you’re done until the game launches. So start thinking of your clever, punny, or RP-appropriate character names now.
If you’re despairing because you don’t want to shell out $30 for a new elf race and are worried your favorite name is going to be taken, you probably don’t have to worry. With the introduction of last names, it’s going to be a lot easier to get something at least close to the name you want without having to add a bunch of random accent marks or several unnecessary syllables. Have a couple of slightly different backups ready, and you’re almost certainly going to be fine.
But none of you better take my name.
