Paid Character Transfer Confirmed
by Mike D'Anna 
Jun 26th 2006 at 3:00PM
Looks like Elizabeth's earlier report on paid character transfers was right on the money, as today's report on UkGamespot confirms. They have an interview with Blizzard developer Shane Dabiri, who sheds some more light on the process, including official details for pricing & realm transfer rules.
Dabiri also touches on some of the reasons for the transfer regulations, and addresses some other related questions, including the oft-mentioned cross-realm battlegrounds. So, if you're planning on switching realms when transfers become available, check it out & find out all you need to know!
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh Miller Jun 26th 2006 8:58PM
Let me just echo some of the comments on the original story link: wow. $25. To do something that should be complimentary, yet limited, for those shelling out serious dough over an extended period of time.
Not cool, Blizzard. Not cool at all.
boneyard Jun 27th 2006 3:22AM
again then also, 25 dollar is fine, it causes work for blizzard and it's not like they ever said they would do it for free or such.
Heff Jun 27th 2006 4:11AM
Don't bother reading the comments on the original story ... all these silly sounding people tsk tsking Blizzard ("for shame") for charging a fee to transfer realms. There are lots of good reasons not to make it free or so cheap that folks would do it all the time (read the developer's comments). And IT stuff can be more complex and costly than most people think. For anyone dying to switch servers ... $25 isn't that bad. It's nice to have the option, but at the price, I don't think we'll see people doing it all the time with all their characters -- which, I'm sure, is Blizzard's intention.
GJ Jun 27th 2006 4:20AM
I think it is a perfect price. Not to expensive but just enough to make people think hard before taking the plunge. If it was free everybody would be doing it all the time on a whim causing huge strains on the servers.
Mike Jun 27th 2006 6:29AM
I would have to agree with GJ. Having people flip flopping back and forward on servers will put a strain on the servers. Cross Realm Battle Grounds would be sweet. I hate waiting hours in the que to get into the BG's. Twenty Five dollars is a lot of money but it will deter the gold farmers from pooling their resources together and having control over all realms. I would like to move to a lower populated server and not have to wait 20 minutes to get on to a server. When I'm ready to play WoW I don't want to wait to play. If $20 will fix that problem. Sign me up!!! This could be a great move for WoW. I could see certain servers being geared toward lower lvl players and instances and other servers with higher lvl players. Let me know what you feel will be perks of this change will be and the draw backs. Thanks, Mike
Jef Jun 27th 2006 7:35AM
Neat I wonder if this will work easier.I think this is a great idea and will be a great thing added to wow.25 I think is a little steep to change realms so I guess not a lot will want to change right away maybe even never why do they have to pay for this when other mmo games you get to do it for free.cross-realm battlegrounds sounds like it will be a nice new feature added.
boneyard Jun 27th 2006 8:15AM
i was wondering, will this also enable people to move one or more characters from one account to another? or is it just to move one whole account to another server?
boneyard Jun 27th 2006 9:21AM
there are also mmorpgs where it costs more and others where it isn't possible at all or done differently.
Morbis Jun 27th 2006 9:29AM
Well Blizzard just found anouther way to make the almighty dollar. Let them suck us dry!
"Who cares if your server sucks (we like it that way) This way you pay us even more money for our crappy servers that crash at least once a day."
Please I don't care if it is more work for them, they should invest some of their millions in a better QA
/endrant
josh Jun 27th 2006 10:16AM
They are gonna make hand over fist on this. A lot more money than they think. Smart move.
Davrin Jun 27th 2006 10:25AM
"i was wondering, will this also enable people to move one or more characters from one account to another? or is it just to move one whole account to another server?"
This is going to be a per-character service. So, if you have 10 characters on a server and wish to move them all, you are going to have to be shelling out $250.
In reference to the post, I don't see $25 as being that big of a deal, seeing as people are shelling out tons of money for gold all the time.
-Davrin
VoIP Ted Jun 27th 2006 11:05AM
First transfers should be free. There's no cost to Blizz for the xfer. Or charge ingame gold to cut down on the frequency of transfers. But I've already spent hundreds on the game, char transfers should be included; ie. I shouldn't have to pay for something that incurs very little to no cost to blizzard and basically has no value to me. $25? Hell that's more than two months of play time.
James Jun 27th 2006 2:02PM
Crap, I just deleted my whole post. Suffice it to say that VoiP Ted's post is retarded, and #3 Heff is right.
Carry on.