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Paid Character Transfers At Last?

THURSDAY JUNE 22 2006 11:09 AM

Submitted by Posh. Edited By Rahodeb.

TAGS: World, of, Warcraft, Blizzard, Vivendi, Universal, character, transfers

There's been a lot of speculation about paid character transfers coming to World of Warcraft: mainly gossip and conjecture about cost, logistics, and--oddly enough--a lot of chatter about how it's somehow a very stupid decision on Blizzard's part. Last night, in the forums of all places, word spread about a leaked (but not really) internal FAQ document from Vivendi Universal Games Australia. Set to be published this morning, June 22nd, at 8am, the document claims that while the transfers are imminent, they will not be available across all reams. Yet. Blame load balancing issues. I just beg that Deathwing is included!

At a cost of only $25 per transfer, a figure much below other competing MMOs, Blizzard will surely be plating their gold--with gold.

On numerous occasions, I've seen the whimpering of multiple account owner players begging to be given the chance to transfer their characters to the same account, and now, with paid character transfer, you can.

Transfers between accounts are only allowed between accounts where you are the subscriber. To initiate an "account to account" transfer, you will have to answer the 'secret question' for each account, and the last name of each account holder must match.

The transfer process will take approximately 10 days to complete, during which you will not be able to play the character in question.

And to those wondering, no, you cannot transfer from a PvE server to a PvP server. However, for those hating the ganked life in STV, transfers from PvP to PvE are allowed.

No official date has been released.

19 Comments

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PatrickY

Vancouver, WA

December 2003

JUN 22, 2006 11:14 AM

Posh said:
they will not be available across all reams. Yet. Blame load balancing issues.

Whenever I can't promise something in every ream, I ALWAYS blame load balancing issues.

This is an interesting article. Why would people say it's a stupid decision on Blizzard's part? And how much do other games charge for a transfer? From where I'm sitting, 25$ is a pretty good-sized chunk of change. Are we talking 50, or a 100$ for other games?

Because if we are, I threw my hat into the wrong ring when I started working in the pen and paper rpg industry.*

*Not that I didn't already know that. "No, Mr. Ford, I'll stick with making horse carriages. There's no future in automobiles."

dEREKTheRed

Monrovia, CA

January 2004

JUN 22, 2006 11:47 AM

Oh please let this be true. My druid needs a new home.

noctua

Palo Alto, CA

February 2004

JUN 22, 2006 12:04 PM

PatrickY, I don't know about other games, but for EQ and EQ2, transfers were into the $50-$100 range, depending on whether you were doing server-to-server on the same account, transferring chars from one account to the same server, or transferring a character from one account to another on a different server.

SOE once scoffed that nobody would pay such a premium for the service, so set it high to discourage casual use of those services.

They soon were rolling in millions of dollars. And that was with a subscriber base 1/12th that of WoW.

Ziltoid

Australia

April 2006

JUN 22, 2006 01:01 PM

Cool beans.

Oh and w00tburgers to Posh for making consistently well written and interesting news posts on all things geekish. ^^

cmdrfire

United Kingdom

December 2005

JUN 22, 2006 02:05 PM

EVE Online has a character transfer fee of 20 Euros.

I don't get WoW personally... I don't dig the "attack Rat" type MMORPG.

Posh

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

JUN 22, 2006 02:31 PM

Why is it always the Eve Online folks with bad things to say about WoW?

funktion

I'm lost

June 2003

JUN 22, 2006 02:57 PM

you're wanting to move back to DW??

Posh

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

JUN 22, 2006 03:08 PM

Heck no! My druid is coming along to Dark Iron.

noctua

Palo Alto, CA

February 2004

JUN 22, 2006 04:45 PM

Posh said:
Why is it always the Eve Online folks with bad things to say about WoW?

I noticed that, too. I don't get it. They're just very different genres of games. It's like tea drinkers smack talking beer drinkers -- they're not the same, and there's no reason you can't enjoy both. I do.

Posh

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

JUN 22, 2006 05:28 PM

While it's not much of a response, Blizzard acknowledged the FAQ on the forums, and have a thread for questions/opinions, etc.

Scopitone

Irvine, CA

OLD SKOOL

JUN 22, 2006 05:35 PM

cmdrfire said:
EVE Online has a character transfer fee of 20 Euros.

I don't get WoW personally... I don't dig the "attack Rat" type MMORPG.

Indeed. However most people don't get the "attach myself to a space rock and suck it for twenty hours in real time" - type of gameplay.

Except for maybe Trek people

Jubalharshaw

Saint Paul, MN

December 2002

JUN 22, 2006 05:40 PM

I'm missing why PvE to PvP is wrong. On any established server, it seems like all that would really happen is a group of people learn that gathering just outside of Onyxia is a dumb idea.

Keith

Oklahoma City, OK

August 2002

JUN 22, 2006 06:17 PM

Jubalharshaw said:
I'm missing why PvE to PvP is wrong. On any established server, it seems like all that would really happen is a group of people learn that gathering just outside of Onyxia is a dumb idea.

I would imagine it's because it might be argued that it's a lot easier to get good gear and level 60 on a PVE server. So they don't want people playing on "easy mode" PVE until they hit 60 and get all their uber gear, and THEN moving over to PVP. If you want to be uber on a PVP server, you've got to suffer your ganking from the time you leave the noobie area on just like everyone else.

Personally, I bailed on PVP because those people are fucking dicks. I don't mean that I got defeated, I mean I got griefed repeatedly and constantly by fucking dishonorable jerks. Fuck that.