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WildStar launches with new trailer, patch, and free realm transfers
It's the official launch day for WildStar, and Carbine's got a lot for you to digest this morning! We'll start off by pointing you to Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney's speech to the community. "If we're going to play with the big boys, we have to earn the right to be one of the few MMOs that can not just draw gamers in, but can earn those gamers' loyalty over time," Gaffney vowed. There's a new patch for launch day that includes more optimization and the ability to roll both factions on a PvP server. Carbine's also allowing players to transfer to and from certain realms for free in order to alleviate population issues. Finally, the team posted a new launch trailer, which we've got for you after the jump!
Guild Wars 2 offers limited-time transfers for free
Bummed that you didn't take advantage of Guild Wars 2's free transfers before ArenaNet started charging for them? You may have a limited window of opportunity to jump servers for the remainder of the month. Guild Wars 2 is offering players the chance to transfer from their current world to a medium-population server until April 1st without a fee. ArenaNet lists six NA servers and seven EU/Middle East servers as potential landing pads for this program. Since you can only transfer once a week and this chance lasts less than a week, you better make darn sure you want to be going to that particular world before clicking on that button.
Breakfast Topic: How realms evolve (or don't)
While writing a recent news post on Blizzard's decision to open free transfers to Drak'thul, I nosed around the server's forums to see what the inhabitants thought of the coming flood. As a server that was converted from a PvP to PvE realm, opened to transfers, and listed as a Recommend realm to boot, Drak'thul's undergone a fairly drastic set of changes, and all within a short period of time. As you'd expect, player feelings on the subject were mixed, but there was one former Drak'thul player who really got my attention. Drak'thul, he/she claimed, had been home to some of "the most mean-spirited PvP (he'd) ever experienced on ANY realm." It sounded like a tall claim, but there are a lot of other threads on the forum with oblique confirmations; players recall Alliance towns and quest NPCs "being camped 24/7," and holiday events and Alliance leveling zones being swarmed by opportunistic Horde players. Drak'thul became a low-pop server with a murderous faction imbalance -- Warcraft Realms listed the server's active population as 94% Horde before transfers were opened -- and I wonder how much of that be traced to the relentless ganking and camping campaigns three years ago. I look at realms like Cho'gall with equally crushing faction imbalances, some of which started out with fairly balanced faction ratios, and wonder -- how the hell does this happen? What spurs the departure of so many players from a specific faction? Is it really that simple as a relatively small number of players exercising such an impact on what happens to everyone on the server?
Free realm transfers announced
Blizzard poster Turrit announced yesterday that free realm transfers are being made available to address faction imbalance and overpopulation issues on the following PvE realms: Aggramar (Alliance only) Area 52 (Horde only) Blackhand Hellscream Stormrage (Alliance only) Thrall (Horde only) Undermine Destination realm: Drak'thul The free transfer period will run from Tuesday, May 25 (today) to Tuesday, June 1 at 11:00 a.m. PDT. However, Turrit did make a point of mentioning that Blizzard has a transfer goal in mind, and if it's reached, they may shut the free transfers down early. If you're on any of the affected realms and have been considering a transfer, this might be a good chance to save yourself $25. To my surprise, it turns out Drak'thul was actually a PvP realm until very recently, and after a quick look at WoW Progress's list of U.S. realms, I have to agree it looks like the server needs some love. While it's possible the page hasn't been updated, it's apparent that the Drak'thul's raiders are struggling -- and there's some rather illuminating commentary in this thread (I'll grant I can't verify the accuracy) on how some of the server's troubles may have gotten their start. Two things come to mind: Blizzard's observations a year ago concerning only PvP realms being low-pop, and: what's happening on Cho'gall. Interesting. The full announcement is past the cut.
Warhammer Online merges two more servers
It wasn't entirely unexpected -- after all, Jeff Skalski gave some indications this might be coming in our recent interview with him -- but it's still unbalancing. Warhammer Online community manager Andy Belford confirmed today that two of the game's servers, Dark Crag and Phoenix Throne, will be shutting down. The population of these servers will be allowed a free transfer to two other servers each -- Iron Rock or Badlands for Dark Crag, Gorfang or Volkmar for Phoenix Throne. He also mentions that there will be a 20% bonus to experience and renown in the weeks following the transfer, to at least slightly take the sting off the event. It looks as if there will be slightly more servers in the European region, as they have a total of 13 still open... but several of those are due to the different languages, and at least one of the realms is scheduled for shutdown. As for what this means for the game itself... it's hard to call it anything but bad news, even with the promises of a boost incoming to ease the impact. We know that Warhammer Online's future looks a bit shaky after recent events, but this is more dire than any of us had expected or hoped. We'll keep up on any news as it becomes available. [ Thanks to JP for the tip. ]
Twenty two U.S. servers open for free character transfers
Normally there are only a handful of servers involved when Blizzard opens the door for free character moves. However Bornakk announced today a total of 22 U.S. servers that you can move off of. There are various groups of servers, labeled "Source A" through "Source E", that are allowing free moves to destination servers, labeled "Destination A" through "Destination E."If you are interested in taking advantage of these free moves, get in quickly as these offers have been known to close down once Blizzard meets their transfer goals. The transfers begin tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. PDT and end at 12:00 p.m. PDT on November 4th (election day, next Tuesday). You can begin the transfer process by visiting https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html when the transfers are available starting tomorrow.The full list of servers are reproduced for you after the break.Good luck if you're moving!
Oceanic Alliance characters to get free PvE to PvP transfers
If you're a regular reader of our Guildwatch feature, you may remember hearing about the woes of the Oceanic PvP realm Thaurissan on the last Guildwatch. The server is incredibly Horde heavy, with an estimated 14 to 1 imbalance, and the server denizens say it is genuinely near impossible to get 25 people together to do raid content on the Alliance side. Unfortunately , we also know that Blizzard is still firmly against PvE to PvP realm transfers, which may be preventing Thaurissan from getting the influx of new blood they need. However, for the sake of Thaurissan's Alliance, they have suspended this restriction. Starting today, June 12th, and ending no later than June 19th, Alliance characters (and only Alliance characters) from the Oceanic PvE realms Nagrand, Aman'thul, and Khaz'goroth will be eligible for free transfers to the Thaurissan realm. Blizzard reserves the right to close transfers early if they meet their goals, so if you're eligible and you want to go, you'd better get that request in now. This is not the first time they've done this type of thing. Over two years ago, a large cluster of PvE realms were given the opportunity to transfer to the Black Dragonflight and Dalvengyr PvP servers. Thus, it seems that they can be convinced to waive their restrictions on transfers, but that a chance to do so may only come up once every 2 years. Good luck to everyone transferring to Thaurissan, and hopefully this gives the Thaurissan Alliance the shot in the arm they need to get their end game going.
Europe joins in the free move fun
To go along with the set of free North American character transfers that started yesterday, Blizzard Europe has seen fit to open the following free character transfers: From: Al'Akir, Crushridge, Grim Batol, Outland, Stormscale To: Burning Blade, Laughing Skull The transfers are scheduled to be active from today until next Tuesday, March 4, although the standard disclaimer applies that the transfers may be shut down early if the desired population levels are reached.Since Blizz bases their transfer decision off of their stats for what realms need it most, this should be the appropriate set of servers, but I'll ask you anyway: if you're on one of the "from" servers, are you overcrowded now? If you're on one of the "to" servers, are you glad to have some new company coming? And if you're on another server altogether, do you need some transfer loving? Sound off in the comments.
Breakfast topic: Will you be transferring?
Yesterday we received the word that Blizzard was opening free transfers from certain overpopulated realms to certain underpopulated realms. No doubt Blizzard is hoping to re-distribute realm population to make some of the player-less "ghost" realms more playable while alleviating login queues on the largest realms -- but we'll see how well this works after transfers are completed. For those of you on realms that have transfers available, however, are you planning on transferring? And for those of you who aren't on realms allowing transfers, would you plan on transferring if you could? After all, maybe the grass really is greener on the other side...
Free character transfers for Oceanic realms
It's been a little while since we had some free character transfers, probably because of the realm population cap increase that came with the BC infrastructure upgrade. Starting tomorrow, residents of two Oceanic realms will be eligible to transfer to some less populated ones: We will be offering free character transfers from the following Oceanic realms to other, lower populated realms to assist in alleviating population growth. These transfers will become available on Thursday, June 21 at 12:01 PM PDT, and run until Thursday, June 28 at 12:01 PM PDT. In the event that a realm meets our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, the transfers to that realm will be disabled. We highly recommend that if you are planning to transfer that you do so at your earliest convenience.Once the transfers open you can begin your transfer by visiting the Character Move page located here: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.htmlSource DestinationAman'Thul -> NagrandJubei'thos -> ThaurissanAre you on any of the involved realms? Will you be transferring, and if you're on Nagrand or Thaurissan, would you in fact advise others to transfer to your realms?
