No more realms: how rulesets and two-part names work in Forever

Choosing a realm used to be the first big decision in WoW, and the one you regretted when your friends picked another. Forever removes it. Instead of a realm, you choose a ruleset, and everyone on that ruleset in your region plays together.

The rulesets

• Normal, PvP and Roleplaying at launch, with Hardcore coming later.
• You can't group across rulesets. Changing ruleset means making a new character.
• On PvP you can only create characters for one faction.
• Collections and Legacy points are account-wide. Hardcore only shares its progress outward, so it doesn't benefit from your other characters.
• There's a preferred-language setting to help you land with people who speak your language.

Two-part names

Without realms, "one Thrall per server" no longer works. So Forever names have two parts, a first name and a second name, and only the combination must be unique in your region. Two players can share a first name or a second name, but not both. You can hide your second name on nameplates in the world, but it still shows in chat. The name filter checks both parts together, so you can't split a banned word across them.

Dates to know

Heroic Pack owners can reserve names and create characters early, from 27 October to 3 November, first come first served. Launch is on 4 November. If you have a name you care about, decide on both halves before then.

What stays the same

Blizzard is keeping one bit of old-school friction: no shared mob tagging. Instead, a feature called Recent Allies marks players you've grouped with before, so the person who helped you with a quest yesterday is easy to find again. That's the social idea behind the whole design: fewer walls between players, and more reasons to remember each other.