character-transfer
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15 day credit given to players affected by character transfer issues
Back in late October and early November, you may (or may not) remember that Blizzard was having some substantial issues with their character transfer system. To prepare for the release of Wrath of the Lich King, there was an epic number of people moving characters around for one reason or another. A problem came up where some characters were getting lost in limbo along the way. Stuck, and unable to be played.One of our readers wrote in this morning with a followup, and it seems that everyone who had issues is being granted a 15-day playtime credit on their account to make up for it. Half a month across the board is a pretty substantial credit, especially considering many of the people we've heard from were only locked out of their characters for a couple of days. I'm sure we'd all prefer there was never a problem to begin with, but this is a pretty generous compensation if true. I was impressed when they gave everyone a three day credit awhile back.
Gold limit increased for character transfers
If you've ever worried about how to bring all your Gold with you when moving to another server, you should rejoice at this recent bit of news. Blizzard announced at the forums earlier today that characters Level 70 and above may now bring up to 20,000 Gold when transferring to another realm. This limit was previously set at 10,000 Gold for Level 70 characters, although the limits for other character levels do not appear to have been raised. This feature will become available on November 4, after the regular weekly maintenance.This should come as welcome news to some players who find that accumulating money in the current environment has become increasingly easier with daily quests and increased activity in the Auction Houses. The amount is still a far cry from the maximum amount of Gold a character can possess, but it's enough Gold to purchase a Grand Caravan Mammoth, currently the most expensive item in the Wrath Beta, with some change to spare. I'm not certain why there's a Gold limit to begin with, especially for max-level characters, but the raised cap should ease the burden for some well-heeled characters when making the leap. With a mere 300 Gold to my name, it's not something I think I'll be concerned with for quite some time, though...
Free character transfers announced for Warhammer Online
Free character transfers were just announced for Warhammer Online, for characters on low population servers who'd like to move to high population servers. The service will be put into place in the coming days. The character transfers will be done in the Mythic Account Center, which will have a Character Transfer button, just below "Activate a Key" and "Validate your Email Address." In addition to Free Character Transfers, Mythic also announced Guild Transfers. This comes with its own set of caveats as the transfer cannot be reversed, with details to be listed on the Character Transfer page.There's an added bonus for characters moved to higher pop servers -- a Realm Population Bonus of 20% experience and renown. The Warhammer Online Herald will update the playerbase once the Free Character Transfer service goes into effect. Until then, see the WAR Herald announcement, which lists further details on the transfers and lists the source and destination servers eligible for Character Transfers for North American and Oceanic regions. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
PvE to PvP transfer impact
Since PvE to PvP transfer option became available, I've kept a close eye on my own realm to see if there'd be any discernible change to transfer patterns both on and off. As far as I can tell -- no. I've seen a few people transfer off but there doesn't seem to be any more so than usual. Only a few players did so purely for the purpose of PvPing on a different battlegroup, and most of them, like Zach Yonzon, had previously been PvP-realm transfers or rerolls anyway. The flood of high-level PvE to PvP transfers gloomily predicted by many doesn't seem to have materialized. People who'd rather play on a PvE realm are doing just that, and most of the people who'd rather play on a PvP realm were already there (never saw that one coming, eh?). I thought at the time that Blizzard's decision would probably have its biggest impact, not on PvP players, but on PvE raiders who had previously been restricted to recruiting PvP-to-PvP, PvE-to-PvE or (much less commonly) PvP-to-PvE only. If you've ever been in a raiding guild which found great recruits from the "wrong" kind of realm, you're probably familiar with what a headache that was.I play on a medium population PvE realm that launched when Burning Crusade hit. Since we're not really at the cutting edge of either PvE or PvP content as a result, mine is probably a bad sample size as we're not a hotbed of transfers either way. So, I'm not sure if my own experience is representative. If you're playing on a medium-to-high population realm, either PvE or PvP, are you noticing any difference to the traffic patterns, on or off? If you're on a low-population realm, has your situation improved or worsened?
Coming home to PvP
I've waited for this opportunity for years. When my wife and friends decided to re-roll on a PvP server in early 2006, I had already spent weeks after weeks of sleepless nights grinding through the punishing decaying Honor system. I was a couple of weeks removed from the next rank but we had all decided to move on. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make in the game.Over the course of the past years, I would pay my original characters -- an Undead Rogue and a Troll Hunter -- on our first server, the occasional visit. I missed playing them a whole lot, but I could never bring myself to play them seriously on a normal realm. I created a Blood Elf Rogue and a Tauren Hunter on our new home but it just wasn't the same. I missed my Ressan the Needler, a pet I'd had since Level 11. I missed my Rogue in a twill suit. I wanted nothing more than to bring over my original guys to where we were playing now.Of course, up until two days ago, that wasn't possible. Their original reasoning, that it was easier to level on a normal server than on a PvP server, no longer held true. To be honest, I didn't think it was that big a deal two years ago. In fact, I relished it. I enjoyed the idea that there was real danger lurking everywhere, and that enemies could kill me -- and I could kill them in turn -- at any time. But the truth is, the dreaded griefing happened so occasionally I could count the number of times I got frustrated on one hand. Maybe even two fingers.
World of Warcraft opens PvE to PvP character transfers.
In a move that has stunned many people in the World of Warcraft community, Blizzard has reversed their earlier stance on no PvE to PvP server transfers. Per Bornakk on the official World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard has decided to open up transfers from PvE servers to PvP servers because "World of Warcraft has matured significantly since the inception of Paid Character Transfers, [they] don't feel that PvE-to-PvP transfers will have the negative impact on the game that [they] initially wanted to avoid when [they] started the service in 2006. This change will provide more mobility and freedom for players to experience the game with friends or play in the type of environment they're looking for." Considering the furor that is now starting up on the official forums regarding this major change in dynamics, we can only wonder why after so many years Blizzard has reversed their decision. Previously, Blizz maintained that they wouldn't allow transfers from PvE to PvP because it would be unfair to players who leveled characters up in a PvP environment. They wanted to avoid PvPers having to deal with people who transferred into the harsher climates that PvP servers provide after having leveled up on PvE servers. With the largely guaranteed bank roll that is Wrath of the Lich King, one wonders just precisely Blizzard seeks to gain by changing a long-standing mechanic such as this. Do they really need more money? Or is this just, as one forum poster suggested, a way to allow players who started on PvE realms to finally 'rescue' their characters? Perhaps it has something to do with the smaller populations traditionally on PvP servers? Only Blizzard knows for sure as to the reasoning. We recommend packing marshmellows if you go anywhere near the WoW forums for the next while; the flames are coming.
US PvP realms get free character moves
Bornakk announced last night that selected US PvP realms will be given free character moves starting at Noon pacific time today, July 10th, and ending on July 17th. As always, Blizzard does reserve the right to close transfers early once their quotas are met, so be sure to get your transfer request in as early as possible if you plan to move. Once the transfers are open, you can visit the character move page to request a transfer. The realm transfers are as follows:
