Blizzard’s World of Warcraft will soon be receiving the Warlords of Draenor 6.0.2 pre-patch to prepare players for the upcoming expansion pack. It will also be the point at which those of us who may not have logged in for a while could be losing our precious character names.

If you haven’t logged in to World of Warcraft since November 13, 2008, then expect your names to be gone and available for anyone creating a new character or using the paid Character Name Change service.

The process of retaining your character’s names is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is log into World of Warcraft and enter the game with the character whose name you want to retain prior to patch 6.0.2 going live.

Blizzard says just because you don’t log into World of Warcraft prior to patch 6.0.2 going live doesn’t mean your character will automatically lose their name. Instead, their name will only go kaput if another player picks that exact name for their character. So if you have a character with a bunch of unique characters or a name you believe no one will ever create, then you shouldn't worry too much.