WoW: Forever name reservations stumble, then go live ahead of November 4 launch

World of Warcraft: Forever's character name reservations got off to a rocky start this week, but they're now open ahead of the game's full launch on November 4.

The window was supposed to open in Europe first, with North America following at 1pm PT/4pm ET. Instead, Blizzard posted a message in the Battle.net client: "World of Warcraft: Forever Name Reservations are delayed while we resolve some final technical issues. Thank you for your patience!"

IGN reported that many European players found the blue Play button grayed out, so they couldn't get into the game at all. A WoW forums thread on the delay passed 120 posts, with one player, Katerlina, asking, "They did this already for USA right? Or are we the test?"

GameSpot later reported that character creation and name reservations are live.

To get in, you'll need Forever preinstalled on Battle.net and to have bought at least the $30 Skyborne Heroic Pack. That pack also unlocks the Skyborne elves, the game's new optional playable race.

Once you're in, you pick a ruleset and can create and name up to three characters before launch. Forever also asks for both a first and last name, unlike other versions of WoW, so you've got more room to get creative if your go-to name is taken.

Choose that ruleset carefully. Blizzard says there won't be a way to transfer characters to different rulesets once the game is live, and on PvP rulesets you can only make characters of one faction, Alliance or Horde.

The reservation window comes after the Forever beta ended last week.