Disclaimer: this issue concerns Classic and the way Blizzard handled free transfers and later server merges and may not be relevant to Retail.
Background
I’ve been wrestling with a sense of discontent since I was forced to move from my home server, the RP-pvp server Zandalar Tribe. We were given free transfers to the RP-pve server Hydraxian Waterlords. Hydraxian Waterlords was originally on the chopping block as well, but Blizzard changed their minds on that because it would mean there would be no RP-server for Classic WoW in Europe.
This thread is not going to be about how Blizzard managed the server transfers, but the background is important because of the accusation I make; that their naming policy is unfair. Zandalar Tribe and Hydraxian were both “dead” servers. Zandalar Tribe had seen a small increase in activity since late spring. When we were forced off of Zandalar Tribe it’s not like we arrived to a new place that was bustling with activity. In fact, from the perspective of someone who had played on Zandalar Tribe, Hydraxian Waterlords appeared even more desolate. For reference, Zandalarian Tribe was 3% off completing the entirety of Isle of Quel’danas and Hydraxian Waterlords had not even gotten the badge vendor up.
My point is: I believe that Zandalar Tribe was killed off instead of Hydraxian Waterlords simply because it would be easier to move RP-pvpers to an RP-pve server than the other way around. This is the first item of what I consider to be “unfair”; many of the players from Zandalar Tribe were forced to change name, but had the fates been reversed it would have been the Hydraxian Waterlords population that would have been forced to change names. In neither case would it have been fair.
For regular and free transfers I would say that Blizzard’s name policy isn’t unfair. Because if you purchase a transfer or take a free transfer off of your server then you are actively making that choice. Most of us who stayed on Zandalar Tribe had no desire to leave Zandalar Tribe, i.e. we did not take the transfer by choice.
The Problem:
So why does this matter? Because people were tagging names en masse before Classic was even launched. The name of my main character is taken by a currently inactive character. I have no information about this character. They could be a level 1 character that’s never been touched since launch, or they could be a level 50 or something character who got tired of the game. Or maybe they are level 70 with hundreds of hours in the game who simply burned out in TBC – we don’t know. What I know is that my character is level 70 and I have 67 days of play time on said character. Seeing as I had no choice in my transfer it does not seem right – that if the holder of my name is below 70 and have fewer than my hours of playtime, that they should have priority over the name. Especially not if they are low level and if they’ve been inactive since Classic.
Another issue is that Blizzard offer zero help in this regard because of their naming policy (evidence posted below). If you go into the support window and browse until you find your issue you won’t be able to open a ticket. They’ll just say “Blizzard Customer Support cannot help you” and you can’t open a ticket about it. That policy may have been fine, but it ceased to be fine when they began with server merges.
Also, it is not like there’s no previously set precedent for handling things like this. One example is Star Wars: The Old Republic who when they performed server merges in 2012 invented a very simple rule: in the event of a name conflict, the character with the most played time got to keep the name – regardless whether they were from the original server or if they transferred to the server. This meant that people who had spent many hours on their characters had a higher chance to keep their name. This, in my view, is a much fairer system as far as server merges are concerned. And “consolidate” is a synonym of just that.
Now, another issue pertaining to classic…!
Vague Information about Name Releases:
I did manage to open a ticket by simply picking another category (appeal name change) and I spoke to three different GMs and they all gave rather vague information (ticket number: EU82822011, if a Blizzard employe actually were to read this). First piece of information I got:
For this issue, if the character is inactive for longer enough, the system will automatically release the name, so I’m afraid that Customer Support cannot free the name earlier before that.
So there’s a system in place that releases names but I didn’t really receive any information on how this system works. So I continued and was later greeted by another GM who expressed this:
In the past, Game Masters would assist with freeing up names, but as you know, we’ve since moved to an automated system. The automated system works by going through and releasing names from characters that have been inactive for a certain period of time, at the beginning of each expansion.
So I got one new piece of information here. The system executes at the start of an expansion. When I wrote this ticket I had not yet transferred off Zandalar Tribe and so I tried to argue that I could not wait until then, and asked if they could look into it like they used to in the past. I was then met by a third GM who simply stated that they couldn’t do anything and that the system handled all name releases.
But now the information provided on the customer support on their website state this:
Blizzard Customer Support will not release names at all for WoW Classic or Burning Crusade Classic, regardless of how long the account or character has been inactive.
So Blizzard decided that the best way to deal with this is by not dealing with it at all. This is really sad to see as a paying customer, and I’m not the only one that feels this way.
Here are some things that I’ve tried to do on my own:
I’ve reached out on three different server discords. I’ve attempted to contact the player who holds my name in game but they’ve been 100% inactive for as long as I’ve checked. I even sent a mail with an item included just in case they were logged in at odd hours, but the item returned to me along with the message. From where I stand there’s not much else I can do. I already felt very uncomfortable having to do all this, but I do it because I care.
The charm of Classic is that our characters become unique, and I imagine people on roleplay servers grow especially attached to their characters as they develop a story together with other players. Having to retcon important pieces of this experience is, well, devastating. So I implore Blizzard to review this policy and perhaps do something about the name-situation we have in Classic. It is too late to try a solution like SWTOR’s, but having some form of name release upon WLK would be very appreciated.
