ServerTransfers
Latest
Breakfast topic: Server transfers
It's been over a year since Blizzard began doing paid character transfers from server to server, and I'm still not sure how much of a success it's been. On one hand, it's definitely changed the WoW environment. Guildless raiders can now apply to hundreds of potential guilds, instead of just the few on their server. People who rolled on a random server, only to find that their friends had rolled on another, can join their pals without having to relevel. And long-abandoned alts can finally be dusted off and brought into the light. But there's a dark side to transfers, too. I frequent the Customer Service Forum, and a good number of the posts there have to do with unauthorized character transfers, character transfer screwups, or the like. (The rest of the posts are divided between "Why can't I swear in general chat?" "How can I become a GM?" and "Do something about the AFKers in Alterac Valley!") People are still unhappy that they can't transfer from PVE to PVP servers. And transfers can hurt. More than one guild has broken up because some of its officers decided to ninja-transfer to a better guild, sometimes taking the guild bank with them. People transfer in anger and then realize that they have to wait a long, long time to come back -- or sometimes can't come back at all. I've never transferred, and probably will never do it. In spite of the idiots, trolls, and ridiculous flame wars, Magtheridon is my home server, and I'd feel lost without any of the people I've grown to know over the past few years. Have you ever transferred? What do you think about the service?
Realm Splitting?
According to a post by Tseric on the World of Warcraft General Forum Blizzard may decide that certain largely overpopulated worlds need to be split, and Blizzard has created a mandatory world split procedure and is testing it on Hellscream. The way the process would work is that a user would log on, be prompted to choose one of two worlds, and when split day happens will be moved. Players that don't choose a world to move to would be moved to the same world as their guild master, if they aren't in a guild they'd be moved with the rest of their arena team, and if they aren't in either a guild or an arena team Blizzard will pick. Also, Blizzard may override your choice of a destination if the problem that caused the split isn't being resolved.They've got some good reasons for doing this, but I can see a lot of very bad things coming out of this. Guilds getting split up, friends getting split up, guild alliances getting torn apart. The reaction in guild chat when someone brought it to our attention was very negative, but I'm torn. I've seen what long queue times do to gameplay and raid attendance. What do you think? Do the good results outweigh the consequences of moving people around?
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Paid character transfer cooldown reduced
And not just reduced a little bit, it has been reduced a lot. It has gone from six months to a single month. So if you transferred a character at the beginning of September, you can go ahead and transfer again to any eligible realm for the standard fee of twenty five dollars.I wonder why they did this? I liked the rationale of having a 6 month cooldown, that being to prevent people with generally boorish behavior from jumping from server to server. But at the same time, if someone made a mistake in transferring to a server, it would be nice to be able to reverse it in a relatively short amount of time. And the cynic in me thinks that Blizzard simply sees this as a new revenue stream. But hey...no crime in that! Making money is what they are in business for. With the new, shorter cooldown, are you more likely to transfer knowing you can undo everything (for $25 of course) in a mere thirty days?
Update on Upcoming Character Transfers
Transfers to the new Norgannon and Thrall servers are still on hold until further notice, though CM Drysc posted on Saturday assuring us that preparations for the transfers continue, and that they have not been canceled. Drysc has also provided an update on transfers to new realms Black Dragonflight and Dalvengyr. Due to "gameplay-related concerns" the Khaz'goroth to Dalvengyr transfer has been dropped from the list, but the remaining transfers began this morning at 3:00 AM PST. These transfers end on Thursday, so if you're interested, get to it as soon as possible!
