Forced renames follow offensive names on the beta

Blizzard is forcing name changes on beta characters whose names break its naming policy. Players with the worst names lose their beta access. WoW developer Fwoibles announced it on 24 September and adds that customer service will not handle appeals.

Two kinds of action

The forced renames apply to characters created in the Forever beta that break the naming policies, writes Fwoibles on the Blizzard forums. For some players it went further. Their names were far outside the Code of Conduct, and their beta access is gone.

Forever gives every character a main name and a secondary name. That opened up new room for creativity, writes Fwoibles, but some players used it to reveal too much about themselves. They no longer take part in the beta.

The World of Warcraft team takes the safety and inclusiveness of our game very seriously. These actions were performed directly by the World of Warcraft Development team and were individually reviewed.

No appeal through support

The development team reviewed every case itself, according to Fwoibles. The Customer Service team cannot help with an appeal and will not. On 19 September a support agent still wrote that a player who suspected a mistake could appeal, as described in an earlier post.

A filter is on its way

A system that enforces the naming standards comes online very shortly, writes Fwoibles. Blizzard asks testers not to “test” it. Whoever does, risks action against the account and the loss of beta access. When exactly the system goes live, Blizzard does not say.

The rules themselves are in the Code of Conduct of Blizzard. How the two names work and why splitting a banned word over both does not help, is in the post about the naming system.