Blizzard bans first WoW Forever players over the new surnames

Blizzard has banned the first World of Warcraft Forever players over the game's new character surnames. Reports from the test put about two days between the feature going live and the first accounts being pulled. In the same window, Blizzard warned that it will punish anyone who buys gold with real money „very aggressively".

What is known

World of Warcraft Forever gives every character a freely chosen surname on top of the existing first name. That second field falls under the same naming rules as the first one.

Testers used it right away, and not carefully. Coverage of the test describes suggestive and insulting names that only work once the first name and the surname are read together.

Blizzard answered with account bans. The first cases became public while the feature was days old.

Blizzard also addressed the trade in in-game gold. Players who buy gold with real money are to be punished „very aggressively". The warning names the buyers, not only the sellers.

Why it matters

A second name field does not add a little risk, it adds a lot. Two harmless halves can combine into something that breaks the rules, and a check that reads one field at a time has nothing to catch. That is the exact pattern the test produced.

Banning accounts during a test, instead of only rejecting a name, sets the standard for launch. A surname is part of the character name and gets moderated like one.

The gold warning follows the same line of enforcing rules before the game settles into daily routine. The target is the notable part. Blizzard points at the people who buy, the demand that keeps the market running, and the phrase „very aggressively" promises severity without naming a penalty.

For players, both items come down to one thing. The account carries the risk, not the name and not the money spent.

What is still open

The reports do not say how many accounts were hit. It is also unclear whether the bans are temporary or permanent, and whether offending names are reset instead of the account being suspended. Blizzard has not specified what gold buyers will actually face, or when the tougher enforcement starts.