In preparation for World of Warcraft's next expansion, Blizzard is releasing a bunch of sidelined character names with the Warlords of Draenor pre-patch (6.0.2).
According to today's post, any characters that have not logged into the game since November 13, 2008 will have their names released to the wild, making them available to anyone creating a new character or using the paid Character Name Change service. Anyone who has not logged in since then will need to do so before patch 6.0.2 goes live or risk losing their character name.
"While it is possible no one will claim your recently released name and you might be able to snag it again, it is probably not worth the risk if you want to keep your names intact long-term," Blizzard said.
"Our goal with this great name liberation is to make sure new and returning players have a large and varied pool of names available to choose from—so log in now if you wish preserve your unused characters’ names for your journey intro Draenor."
Warlords of Draenor is the fifth expansion to release for World of Warcraft. It's set to release on November 13.
