The next step on the march to WoW Classic kicked off earlier with the opening of name reservations.
Get that name!
Blizzard has a long article about how to get yourself setup so you can log in and create up to three characters in order to hold names.
As it so happened, the whole thing opened up at just about the time I got home from work, so I was quickly to my computer to see if I could grab the name “Wilhelm.” I rarely am ever able to get that.
I got the launcher going, which needed to download a small update for WoW Classic, after which I was able to log in and see the server choices, which lined up with what I posted last week.
At the server selection page
Skronk and Ula were also online and ready to go fishing for names. Our plan was to roll up on Bloodsail Buccaneers, an idea reinforced by the fact that it showed as low population when the list came up.
However, things did not go as smoothly as one might have hoped. While the world servers were up, logging into them was another thing altogether. I took a few runs at BB that all ended up with the same error.
Oh the errors you’ll see…
I began to wonder if this was another form of load test, seeing if the login and world servers could work smoothly as people tried to pile in to grab names. If it was going badly I half expected Blizz to announce additional servers in a couple of days. Heck, I wouldn’t bet against that even now.
On Discord we started talking about backup options, but other servers were not responding for me either. Then Ula got into Mankirk, but her name there was taken.
We took a run at Pagle, where she got here name but I was thwarted trying to get Wilhelm. It had been scooped up already. But I had backup names I am fine with… I have to be fine with other names since I so rarely get that one… and Pagle seems like a possible landing spot for the group.
Then, in trying servers again I managed to get into Bloodsail Buccaneers. I immediately created a paladin and tried once more for the name Wilhelm… and I got it. Ula got her name as well. We were quickly back to our original plan. BB would be our server of choice. I put in a reservation for a hunter name as well and was set.
My reserved names
Not everybody was having as much luck as I was. Streamer Asmogold, who has been getting throngs watching his streams of the WoW Classic beta, showed up only to find his name had been taken.
Somebody got there first…
But I was taken care of.
All I could have wished for at that moment was that the “Enter World” button was active so we could get started on this new venture. But mousing over just told me how long I was going to have to wait.
I’ll be counting the hours… by tens at first probably
Oh well. We still have plans to make. If the historical record (read: the blog) is correct, it has been been almost 4.5 years since we last ran a dungeon together. Some research and work ups might be in order.
Other posts about name reservations readiness:
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
Understand You =P welli enter 40 minutes later and cant get my main names (i am a lucky guy with 5 Leonidas in normal game) Other names as Mufasa, Blood, Omega, Ender already taken. At least i have in Normal =)
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I’ve never had this problem withnames because I rarely re-use any. I like to create entirely new names for every character I play in every game, sometimes taking them from books but mostly making them up on the spot at character creation. I like to think of all my characters as individuals so giving them the same names wouldn’t really play to that.
I do have a handful of repeat names I use mostly for games I don’t expect to be playing for long and those are usually available because, again, they are just ones I’ve made up that no-one else appears to have thought of.
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@Bhagpuss – I have a whole bag of backup, go-to names I like for certain character archetypes. There is already a list in my head for human paladins, so it would have been no big deal. I was more keen to see if I could actually get Wilhelm, which as I noted, I almost never get, it being a common German first name and all.
But for a lot of characters I go with new names. You could see in my post yesterday my Orc had a name straight from the randomizer.
I also forgot to mention how this name reservation event was really a double win for Blizz.
First, they let players who obsess a bit get in and get their character names set in advance. Second, they pushed through a lot of character creation work before WoW Classic launches, meaning that a bunch of server/database overhead will be out of the way as a lot of people will have their characters set and ready to log in.
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I know that it did seem to take forever and I kept getting forced to Mankirk and finally got to BB – it was pretty stressful for me because I was wanting to get my names from Vanilla going – I got them too – I was chair dancing when it was all said and done.
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Correction. It used to be a common name to give here in Germany. When I hear it, I think of my grandpa who always claimed this was his second name, but as we found out after his death, he didn’t officially have a second name, but eh, details… :p But you’re right – it’s a regular name, so I’d assume it’s taken fast. Even better that you managed to get it then. :D
I hardly ever run into issues finding a suitable name as the ones I’ve come up with in the past were basically random letters put together until it sounds nice. ^^ But I really wanted “Ghamina” on the German PvE server as that was my mage’s name with whom I’d been the most active. If people recognize me, it’s because of this name (and I got it. So yay!).
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@Wilhelm Arcturus
“I also forgot to mention how this name reservation event was really a double win for Blizz.”
I’d say triple win, i planned to renew subscription day before launch, but chance to reserve name was tempting enough to give Blizzard money almost 3 weeks earlier, don’t think i was alone.
Oh well i have characters ready and found most mods i need, so win for me too i guess.
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Would you happen to have reserved the name Arcturus on Grobbulus, or know of someone who did? I ran into the same troubles as you of getting into the realms once they finally came online, but upon entering Grob, it had already been snagged :-( It was the only name I wanted too, as it’s an RP character of mine who I’ve been playing for years!
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@Arcturus – That wasn’t me. I stuck to BB and Pagle and Arcturus wasn’t anywhere on my list. I use that as a last name… though it is a character in the StarCraft lore, Arcturus Mengsk, so perhaps a fan of that grabbed it.
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@Wilhelm Arcturus Yeah, I wasn’t aware of Mengsk until I googled the name, and then I understood why it had been taken so fast. Ah well, was worth a shot. Guess I’ll have to keep hunting for it — thanks for the response!
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