ASCII Change - Seems to have be the reverted.

[moosejaw]

Vrak pointed out this change was strictly for the NA servers. IMO I think they are planning a character limit (more than 12) change or something similar real soon. Or perhaps allowing the same name on ally and horde, but that could still create problems. Although there doesn't seem to be issues in BG's with same name characters, unless your clones start assisting/following the wrong cow. ;(

[pengwynman]

i'm really not disappointed by this change at all. it has always been a bit of a hassle when you have someone with an ascii char in their name... talking on vent "hey invite this guy Dëâthbèlöw." "umm.... how do you spell it?"

[Caspian]

The original TOS or ELUA or NA naming policy forbid using extended ASCII characters. After a while it seems like they gave up on it. Looks like they finally implemented what they originally wanted and the fix is in.

i'm really not disappointed by this change at all. it has always been a bit of a hassle when you have someone with an ascii char in their name... talking on vent "hey invite this guy Dëâthbèlöw." "umm.... how do you spell it?"

/who thb

that will get him

[Tehtsuo]

Called blizz support, lady there said this shouldn't apply to transfers unless your name is already taken. So.... wish me luck!

[elsegundo]

As long as they're consistent.

If they remove the ability to make new toons with ascii symbols, then they should force everyone with the symbols to rename their toons too.
If they allow people to keep toons with the ascii symbols then new toons should be able to utilize this feature too.

I'm fine either way.

I'd be willing to bet they changed it because of all the asshats who used the ascii chars to make naughty names, as they'd get past the filters, or creating names close to other player's names, to get into guilds (Hey, I'm an alt of <someone>, invite me!) and clean out the guild bank.

Anytime Blizzard takes something away, it's because the idiots are exploiting it.

*sigh*

Nothing new here. I can tell by reading the CSF forum posts that Vrak and Orylia don't want to discuss it, which means it's not a popular change, and is probably causing customer support a lot of headaches - and Vrak's abrupt responses says to me, it ain't changing soon.

well... im sure there are plenty of people blaming the mb community for it also by saying they're sure its because of all the asshats who used the ascii chars to make similar names, as they'd confuse players in arena, bgs and such. well what can you do? avoid pointing fingers, ya?

Vrak pointed out this change was strictly for the NA servers. IMO I think they are planning a character limit (more than 12) change or something similar real soon. Or perhaps allowing the same name on ally and horde, but that could still create problems. Although there doesn't seem to be issues in BG's with same name characters, unless your clones start assisting/following the wrong cow. ;(

i would love to have more than a 10-char per realm limit. i've used up all my slots in my realm, and its pvp too. =[

[Starbuck_Jones]

My 1x priest 4x mage group was all named Alysca with the last a in each being an ASCII character, This lasted till level 62ish or so when I got home one day and found my email full of messages from Blizzard about TOS naming violations, I thought I was getting banned or something, but they said that the names with special characters were not allowed and made me change them on the next log in. Odd thing is one mage still has it but I had to change the other 3. I was a little miffed when I came back to WoW after a good year+ break to see all kinds of people with ASCII special characters in their names.

[Ualaa]

My roommate does not multibox, but uses the ascii characters frequently.
He's a huge transformers fan, and without the special spelling, it would make it impossible to get some of his names.
Megatron, Soundwave, Laserbeak, etc.

It's not just boxers who use it.
Given we're a smaller percentage of the wow population overall, I'd imagine we're a smaller percentage of those with the funky names too.






*Edit*
Pretty much ascii characters violates the naming policy.. but GM's don't actively enforce this.
If someone on your server reports you to a GM, via a ticket, then you will be asked to change the name(s).
So its policing via the community, without customer service actively looking.

[Redbeard]

I welcome the change. Yay blizzard.

[jettzypher]

in concurrence with it being against the user agreement. but i thought that the agreement said you couldnt use all non-standard chars. idk, either way i like it. havin those chars makes so many things a pain in the ass in that game. sorry for those that use it to create variations of a single name. but imo, learn to be more creative.

EDIT:

If you feel the need to troll, go find a multiboxer thread or something

wow...definitely someone against our cause.

[Tehtsuo]

in concurrence with it being against the user agreement. but i thought that the agreement said you couldnt use all non-standard chars. idk, either way i like it. havin those chars makes so many things a pain in the ass in that game. sorry for those that use it to create variations of a single name. but imo, learn to be more creative.

EDIT:

If you feel the need to troll, go find a multiboxer thread or something

wow...definitely someone against our cause.

Actually, I checked very thoroughly through the terms of use and all related material on the blizzard site. When I found nothing restricting the use of special ascii characters in names, I posted on the blizzard forums to confirm that it is now allowed, and received the same "It is allowed at this time, but may change in the future" we get about multiboxing.

I respect your opinion, but why should I be more creative? My naming schema was one of the highlights on my team, I considered it a way that I was being creative, rather than naming them Tehta, Tehtb, Tehtc, Tehtd.