Blizzard has confirmed that the name check behind WoW: Forever's pre-purchase name reservations was overly strict, wrongly rejecting legitimate names — and the studio's own example is blunt: anything containing the letters "c-o-n" was being blocked. The fix goes in with the next realm restarts in each region, and Blizzard is telling players to resubmit whatever got rejected.

The blue post, published early October 28 UTC on the official forums, keeps it plain: "Today we've determined that we have a bug in the process that caused the game to be overly restrictive with some names. For example, it has been incorrectly restricting names containing 'c-o-n.'" The restricted name list, as Blizzard describes it, was only ever meant to block specific non-profane names — major Warcraft lore characters and names locked "for technical reasons." The list isn't the problem; the check wrapped around it is.

The timing matters. Reservations opened October 27 and close November 3 at 23:59 Beijing time (15:59 UTC), so every day a short name sits falsely locked is a day somebody else claims it.

What players ran into on day one

Reports piled up on the official forums within hours of the blue post (all times UTC, October 28):

  • Anything starting with "Con" was dead on arrival. "Any name or words that starts with Con is forbidden," one player wrote, noting it "was working fine on the beta, on classic, retail, everywhere else." Five posts, three participants — and note Blizzard's post confirms only the containment case ("containing 'c-o-n'"); it does not say the prefix reports are the same bug.
  • Of the class names, only "Druid" went through. "Every other classes are restricted," another thread reports.
  • Names containing Chinese characters failed. An Oceanic player couldn't reserve any name with Chinese words while alphabet names passed, and asked whether that remains "a planned restriction after 4 Nov." The thread has no replies.
  • One player who couldn't get in during launch-day server trouble missed the name they'd planned around and is asking whether the pre-purchase can be refunded. No answer on record.

What Blizzard hasn't said

Exactly one example — "c-o-n." No restart times. And no word on whether class names or non-alphabet names fall under this fix. Players in those groups should still retry after the restarts, but a second rejection wouldn't contradict anything Blizzard promised, because none of it was promised.

What to do now

Wait for your region's restart, then resubmit any name that returned "That name is restricted" if you believe it should be allowed. Don't leave it to the last night: the window closes November 3 at 23:59 Beijing time. If a name is still rejected after the fix, take it to the Forever section of the official forums.