This Reddit thread has generated over 400 comments so NCsoft responds through different channels. Blade and Soul gold allows players who have preordered the game to reserve their names ahead of the launch. However, player reported on B&S subreddit that the game’s GM grabbed 7 popular names such as Naruto and Saber before the start of name reservation.
It may be unfair but seems to be normal thing to happen, as Omeed, NCsoft’s Director of Community and Social tweets “Employees almost always get to choose their names early. I’m not sure why anyone chose specific names.”
On the other thread, the game’s Brand Manager Julianne Harty explains that the purpose of GM securing popular names is to prevent these names from selling for money by players.
Shady people sell popular names. To me, that’s more unfair than losing out on the lottery for the name that you want, because someone has come in and reserved a name specifically so that they can earn money on it. You want a definition of pay to win? THAT is it right there – a person paying $400 just to have Naruto and bypassing the lottery system.
We have, in the past, reserved popular names in order to prevent this sort of shady stuff from happening. I can’t speak for Youmukon right now, since I’m on the road, but it’s highly possible that this is a scenario that is occurring and that the names will be released later on in a more fair manner that prevents this sort of account/name selling. This is not uncommon; its just unfortunate that we have the character lookup so you can see a lot of the inner workings of the game being prepared for launch.
The bladesoulgold gamemaster the thread talks about is known as Youmukon in the internet, and he defends at Twitter that “I don’t really care about what people think frankly or I wouldn’t be doing this job.
Some suggest that if NCsoft has to avoid popular names being sold for money, they should lock down those names instead of letting GMs have them. And some think GMs should have prefix on their names such as GM_Naruto and so. So, your opinions.