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The Think Tank: The MMO server merge stigma
Last week, Turbine announced that it plans to address Lord of the Rings Online's ongoing population problems. New executive producer Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters wrote, "We're taking measures to get everyone onto the more populous servers" and "working on [...] improved server transfer tools." And later, she clarified, "We are still working through the details, but part of our efforts here are to make the transition as seamless as possible for Kinship leaders to keep the players together. The idea is to bring you together, not spread further apart." In our post, we called this process "server merges of a sort," but some loyal LotRO fans went ballistic at the idea that mass server transfers to, you know, merge players onto populous servers might be called "server merges." The term has such negative connotations and implications for a game's health that neither studios nor fans will dare use it even when it's a reasonable term to use and when it heralds good things for an aging game. The stigma might even make some studios leery of doing merges at all. What do you think -- is there a better term for these sorts of faux-merges? Have you been through a merge and found it a worthwhile experience? Can we be done with the merge stigma already? We're talking server merges in today's Think Tank.
PAX Prime 2014: ArcheAge is a go for launch!
The packed ballroom at Trion's PAX Prime party erupted into giddy cheers last night when the team announced that ArcheAge's launch is merely a couple of weeks away. This gorgeous fantasy sandbox blew up the alpha test population and is poised to be a huge coup for Trion as the studio adds another title to its growing portfolio. While the official launch date is September 16th, there will be an open beta from September 4th through the 8th, followed by a headstart launch on the 12th for founders. The team expressed confidence in the alpha testing and the back-and-forth communication with developer XLGAMES. If XLGAMES is the proud mom and dad of ArcheAge, I was told, then Trion is the proud auntie and uncle. A lot of work has gone into straightening out regional differences for the western audience as well. For example, in Korea it's quite common to play an MMO with the intent of selling your character for actual money, which places a different value and emphasis on what you accumulate and do. Since such sales aren't often legal here, adjustments had to be made for the localized version. There was also a special cape item that Korean players could use to identify botters, which was used responsibly in that country but has apparently been wielded as a griefing tool in the west. ArcheAge won't be budging on its commitment to an open PvP world; it's simply how the game is constructed. Players who want to avoid getting ganked will need to keep an eye on war zones that move throughout the world and accept the inherent risk that comes with attempting trade in those regions. The team hopes that there will be enough space on the servers for all subscribers to grab an open world housing plot if desired. Coming some time after launch will be castles, which are larger structures that guilds can build, maintain, and defend together. Trion said that server transfers won't be in for release but are being worked on for the future.
WildStar announces paid realm transfers, path gear vendors
WildStar has now started offering the ability to purchase a transfer from one server to another. The paid realm transfers cost $19.99 a pop. The only caveats, apart from the price, are that players cannot transfer to select realms with full populations and that they may have to change their character's name if someone already has it on the destination realm. The team is also working on patching in path gear vendors. These new vendors will sell path rewards that players may have accidentally deleted.
Final Fantasy XI easing up on world transfer costs
Skipping around Final Fantasy XI's worlds will soon be for the filthy commoner as well as the richest king, as Square Enix is preparing to lower costs and reduce the cooldown associated with transfers. Starting on April 1st, the price to transfer a character between worlds in the game will go from $25 down to $18. Even better, players will no longer have to wait 90 days before utilizing this service again, as the time between transfers will be reduced to a mere three days. Go ahead and put your April Fools' quip in the comments section. You know you want to do it.
Lord of the Rings Online fully automates character transfers
It's been long in the process, but now it's finally here: Lord of the Rings Online has switched over to a fully automated character transfer process. "We are pleased to announce that as of today, Monday, March 3rd, automated character transfers are available to all players for both Free People and Monsters," Turbine posted on the forums. "This is something you have been requesting for some time, and we are very excited to have the service ready for you now!" Players can move characters between servers by purchasing transfer tokens through the LotRO Market website. One token is $24.95, three tokens is $69.95, and six tokens is $134.95. Unfortunately the new system will not take Turbine Points, nor will it allow players to transfer between NA and EU servers. Turbine said that players have a "limited time" to request a transfer with Turbine Points by contacting support.
ArcheAge Russia struggles with overloaded queues
ArcheAge's recent launch in Russia has not gone completely smoothly, as overloaded and somewhat unstable servers have struggled to accommodate those interested in trying out the fantasy sandbox. A post on the official Russian website says that XLGAMES is working hard to bring new servers online in order to reduce the queue. The team is also looking at ways for players to transfer characters from full servers to the new ones, but this may take time and further testing. "Developers continue to work to improve the function of the client and working on priority entrance to the server for premium account holders," the team posted. It informed players that those trying to stay logged in while AFK will be "forcibly disconnected" going forward. The free-to-play game is rumored to have brought in $10 million so far from its Russian launch.
The Guild Counsel: Running an MMO guild on an empty server
Guilds and MMOs have a surprising number of things in common. They both want the game to succeed, they both want lots of players to be in game playing, they want people to be happy and having fun, and they both constantly struggle with attrition. That last one has been a particular problem for practically every MMO that's launched because after the first few months, populations begin to drop, sometimes dramatically. For MMOs that have multiple servers, this means some servers will begin to feel empty, and that can take a toll on the guilds that play there. When you're running a guild in a graveyard, it's harder to recruit, more difficult to find others to group and raid with, and harder to keep morale up. But is moving the guild really the best answer? Let's explore your options in this week's Guild Counsel.
BioWare granting one-time free transfer to SWTOR APAC refugees
BioWare community manager Eric Musco has updated Asia-Pacific Star Wars: The Old Republic players on their server transfer options. The company announced in late March that the game's APAC shards are being shuttered. "Starting on Tuesday, June 4th, you will all be allowed a free one-time transfer for each character you have on an APAC server, Musco wrote. "We are going to allow you a one-time transfer to any SWTOR server. To reiterate, starting on Tuesday, June 4th, you will be allowed a one-time transfer for each character you have on an APAC server to any other non-APAC server."
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.
Free character moves offered to select US servers
Higher population servers getting you down? Isle of Thunder too crowded to get anything done? You're in luck! Blizzard is offering free character moves from and to select servers as follows: Source Realm --> Destination Tichondrius --> Blackrock Illidan --> Mannoroth Stormrage --> Trollbane Blizzard notes that due to the unpredictable nature of free transfers, they may close down any Free Character Moves at any time and without warning if the target realm becomes full. So, if you plan on moving realms with friends or a guild, be sure to coordinate plans. These transfers are like Blizzard's paid character services, they're one-time, and one-way. If you change your mind after the free character transfer, you'll have to shell out the $25 USD to go elsewhere. As it stands, the free character moves have already begun, but will end on Thursday, March 21. If you'd like to get started, head over to Blizzard's Free Character Migration FAQ.
Shut Up And Take My Money: Thoughts on Blizzard's paid services
After playing for almost eight years, I've become accustomed to the fees that accompany World of Warcraft. It's just... part of the game. We pay a monthly fee so the developers can bring us new shinies and dragons to slay. We pay a monthly fee so our Community Managers can wrangle cats and serve as our voice. We pay Blizzard to keep WoW going. At what works out (in the US) to be about $0.50 per day, in my mind, there's never been a cheaper night of entertainment. Now, I wouldn't pose an argument against our monthly fee, but it's common to see complaints from the community about Blizzard's paid services for WoW. A character transfer is $25 USD, name change $10 USD, appearance change $15 USD, race change $25 USD, faction change $30 USD, and let's not forget about the various Guild Services offered at a price. Select services combine a few changes -- an appearance change allows a name change as well, for example. What is reasonable? Well, for cosmetic services like appearance, race, and name changes, the prices are fair. They're things that aren't necessary in order to play. If you're in a top 100 guild, at some point you may gain an extra edge in changing race to benefit from a racial. Who knows. If you're being harassed by someone in-game, it may be necessary to name change, even. Other than that, I can't think of a situation in which those services would be "required." Character transfer charges, on the other hand, should be looked at. Over on the EU forums, Taepsilum posted a great response to a thread on paid services that got me thinking.
Officers' Quarters: Don't start from scratch
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Something in human nature relishes the concept of "starting from scratch." Is it the blank slate that excites us? Is it the opportunity to let go of the past and forge a new destiny for ourselves? Is it the joy of creating versus the tedium of maintaining? In any event, I've received a lot of emails lately about this idea. Players have written me expressing a desire to create a new account or get a name change and then create a new guild on a new realm where they will be the guild leader. Usually it's a lone person or a duo. To all of these people, my most sincere advice is this: don't. And if you have no experience with leadership, especially don't. First I will explain why this is a bad idea. Then, because I hate to discourage anyone from taking up a leadership role (the game always needs more of you), I will give a few words of advice about how you should approach it. Finally, I will offer an alternative that may work out better for you in the long run. Read on if you want to know!
Guild Wars 2 will soon offer paid server transfers and guesting
Paid server transfers and the ability to "guest" to other servers have been in the cards for Guild Wars 2 for, like, ever. Well before launch, players knew that those would eventually be features of the game. Until today, though, we never knew precisely when they'd come about. ArenaNet's Martin Kerstein has given us the final word: Both features will be coming in with the January patch on the 28th. They're part of a series of improvements and updates the company plans to make throughout early 2013. Guesting gives players the ability to join friends on other servers to participate in pretty much everything but World vs. World. Server transfers will cost an unknown number of gems and be limited to once every seven days, so make sure you're on your desired home server before the patch hits on the 28th. Head on over to the official announcement for a full guesting how-to.
Guild Wars 2 clarifies guesting, world transfers, and regions
The launch of Guild Wars 2 is drawing ever nearer, which means there's an ever-diminishing amount of time to disseminate information to the writhing hordes. A news post today shed light on some of ArenaNet's policies and technomagics that go into supporting the game's accessibility. To begin with, there are three main regions recognized by the game: North America, Europe, and Other. Digital versions of the game are automatically entered into the correct region based on the purchaser's location, while physical retailers give out a serial code to register in account creation. Players must register a code that matches their location (a customer in Europe has to register a European code), but after that one-time check, they can access the game from anywhere in the world. Home worlds are automatically displayed by region, but players can opt to join the servers of another region. Once a home world has been chosen, all characters on an account belong to that server, and a gem transaction has to be made to switch to a new home world. That won't be implemented at launch, however, in order to facilitate the spread of a stable and healthy population across all servers. At launch, transfers between worlds will be free. After the populations have settled, world transfers will be restricted to a once per week and cost gems. At the same time, the guesting feature that allows players to visit their friends' worlds will be implemented. Check out the news post for all the gory details, or hit up the Guild Wars 2 knowledge base if you've got some burning tangential questions.
Drama Mamas: Roommate vs. family
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Ah, college. Good times. The music was fun, too. On to the drama. Hey drama mamas! So, I'm going to try and keep this short. I have played on the same realm for three years (since I started). My dad and brother have both recently started playing and joined me on this realm. My dad has two 85s, and my brother is still working on his first. I've also developed great relationships with my guild, but its starting to dwindle down. Here's my problem. I'm starting college next month, and my roommate (who played nor only on a different server, but the opposite faction) wants me to join her. I have no problem with this, but she really wants me to just server transfer as opposed to just starting a new alt.
Star Wars: The Old Republic unleashes second wave of server transfers
Star Wars: The Old Republic's server merges are continuing at a steady pace, and today BioWare has sent another round of servers up to bat. If you've been waiting patiently for your chance to hop to a more populated server, now's your opportunity. The sheer number of origin servers now available to players is a bit staggering, so we won't dare try to list them all here, but if you're a SWTOR player, you should definitely check out the full list. If your server is eligible for transfer (and you haven't gotten your account banned), then you can take any characters from that server (that aren't guild leaders) and slap 'em on a transdimensional ship to a galaxy almost-but-not-entirely like your old one. For the full details, plus a handy and helpful transfer FAQ, check out the SWTOR official transfer page. Oh, and while you're at it, check out the newly released group finder guide, so you'll know what to do with all of these new people around.
SWTOR patch 1.3 bringing group finder, legacy perks
A long time ago on a server far, far away, the Imperial forces BioWare prepared a Star Wars: The Old Republic update to rule the online world: patch 1.3. Called Allies, patch 1.3 will usher in a group finder, character transfers, and legacy perks. The group finder will aid in banding together interested adventurers to tackle operations and flashpoints. Lead Designer Daniel Erickson said that the time is ripe for the feature, as players are spread out in levels and are rolling plenty of alts. Saying that BioWare wants to "respect the communities" that have formed, Erickson reports that the group finder will not be cross-server. He also revealed some of the other key features for patch 1.3. Additional perks to the Legacy system will allow players to customize their experience; we'll see new ports, earlier access to mounts, and bonus XP modifiers for PvP. The patch will also change social gear to fit the armor type of the class using it, server transfers, and the ability to add augments to any crafting items. Looking past 1.3, Erickson promises a "return to big content" with patch 1.4. If you're a fan of the SWTOR novels, you'll also be delighted to hear that Drew Karpyshyn announced that his next novel, Annihilation, is scheduled for November 13th. You can watch the patch 1.3 preview video after the jump!
5 awesome ways World of Warcraft has improved since day one
I've been known to wax poetic about the good old days of vanilla World of Warcraft from time to time. I have lots of crazy good memories about the early days of the game -- exploring the world, playing through quests that are now long gone, raiding old content when it was current, that sort of thing. And I've followed the story of Warcraft along the way, delighting the various ways its changed and shifted over the years. It's no secret that I loved the early days of WoW -- heck, I've been playing this game for seven years now. Something's kept me sticking around, right? Every now and again, I'll have a conversation with a friend that starts with said friend asking, "Hey, Anne! You like vanilla WoW. If they ever released a server that was just vanilla WoW with nothing else on it, would you play it?" And then there's a moment where I think about that. I think about the first day I was presented with the character selection screen, going over my choices with wide-eyed delight. I think about the night elf druid I made, and the months spent exploring this shiny new world. I think of my Forsaken priest and the hours of fun I had raiding with 39 other people. And then I say to my friend, "No. Oh, no no no. Heck no."
SWTOR preps character transfer service for this summer
Feeling grounded on a particular Star Wars: The Old Republic server while your friends are hyperjumping on a different one? BioWare says relief for player segregation is in sight, as the studio is preparing for character transfers in SWTOR starting "in early summer." According to Senior Producer Dallas Dickinson, the service will be made available in waves. The studio will begin by offering free transfers to and from specific servers, but later on there will be a more widespread system that will allow anyone to transfer to the server of their choice. The service should help alleviate issues with low population servers by offering transfers to high-pop ones. It's important to note that while some of these transfers will be free, others will require a real-world fee. SWTOR recently released in new territories including the Middle East and has plans for additional playable races for later this year.
Gold Capped: Transferring to a new server
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. And be sure to catch the return of Basil and Fox's podcast, Call to Auction! In the game world, just as in the real world, prices of even the most basic of materials fluctuates based on your location. A hamburger in Beverly Hills costs more than a hamburger in Milwaukee. Heck, just about everything costs more in Beverly Hills -- that's just the way it goes. Your dollar is simply worth less there. But what if we were going to move from Milwaukee to Beverly Hills? We could just brace ourselves and accept that we're going to have to pay more for hamburgers. Or, we could load up our car with hamburgers and resell them for a profit when we arrive. That concept is probably a bit disgusting -- I wouldn't recommend a cross-country trip with a car filled to the brim with ground meat. But when it comes to realm transfers, the idea's right on the money. On some realms, gold is worth more. On other realms, the stuff you buy with gold is worth more. Making the most out of a server transfer (or indeed, making a realm transfer with the goal of making in-game money from it) is a skill that could make you rich overnight -- literally.
