I have recently used the free transfer from Firemaw to Shek’zeer and encountered a serious issue with name reservations.
On two separate transfers across two accounts, my characters were flagged for rename despite the promise that Firemaw names would be protected for at least one week. This was a key part of the arrangement when the new cluster system was announced. In order to log in, I had to choose new names, effectively taking those of other players. This is completely against what was promised.
The whole point of the decision to create a new cluster, rather than moving us onto an existing realm, was to guarantee name protection for Firemaw characters for a minimum of one week. Character creation on the destination realm was meant to be disabled during that window. This was stated clearly in response to the community outcry. Blue posts even confirmed that if anyone attempted to block established names, action would be taken.
This needs to be addressed. Specifically:
The original names of my transferred characters should be restored.
Any names I was forced to take should be returned to their rightful Firemaw owners.
An investigation should clarify why the promised safeguards were not applied.
I have already received a response from a GM who kindly acknowledged my concerns but explained that only the forums are being actively monitored by developers who have the tools to investigate and resolve this. That is why I am raising it here publicly.
I ask that this situation be properly reviewed and that the promised protections are honored for all Firemaw players who transferred in good faith.
I have also noticed that Shek’zeer is open for new character creation. Several friends that have not had the opportunity to transfer yet (but are still within the protected window) have lost the majority of their names. I’ve reserved as many as I can for them but was only able to get a small percentage.
That what was promised, go and try it for yourself though. I’ve already created 3 new characters on Shek’zeer using names of established players on Firemaw (so that they don’t lose them).
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I can’t believe we were given these assurances, and then when the promise was broken, it was announced on a forum that the majority of players don’t read.
Lmao holy crap I was ready to respond with “I just read the blue posts pinned to the top of this forum” but wasn’t expecting you to link a REPLY to some random guys thread and blow that out of the water.
That is insane. WTF is happening. An Indian with a chat-gpt account would do a better job than this.
Yep. If you dont follow the forums these days you are out of luck. Literally having to dedicate to it lol.
Also they free’d up inactive names on mirage raceway, which is the only realm aside everlook that got no transfers to. Which means all these names free’d up there are from inactive accounts and ready to be taken without any harm.
The servers are connected. You can join a guild on any realm no matter what realm you are on. You might try your luck to get your names there as this info is almost next to unknown that this was happening to mirage on top of all the things and was mildly mentioned 2 weeks ago.
Yup. “Share with your friends” 2 days in advance by the way. People had 2 days to share into a weekend where people might not even be online let alone look at forums while wowhead also doesnt post this.
What makes this even more frustrating is that the issue in the first post happened the very day after transfers went live, well before the servers were unlocked. It feels like such a letdown right now.
I know it’s “just a game” and in the end only pixels, but for many of us these characters carried us through the isolation of the Covid lockdowns (with Classic launching just before the pandemic). That’s why I feel such a strong connection to my Firemaw characters, and I don’t think I’m the only one.
Making problem from nothing, its just name in damn MMO, you just need 2 get used that names usualy allready in use. Imagine if Hydra would start whining, that all hes usual toon names are allready used by fanboys.
Be honest, even if this message was in launcher, lots of people would still miss it. And even more, if this message was in pop-up somewhere in the game, people would just instantly close it.
Actually coming to the defense of Blizzard as a paying customer is just insane lmao, holy glaze.
This whole server shuffle has been an absolute clown show and whoever is making these decisions shouldn’t be in charge of tying their own shoelaces - nevermind the prod env of a game this big.
