Breakfast topic: Server transfers
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Aug 7th 2007 at 8:00AM
It's been over a year since Blizzard began doing paid character transfers from server to server, and I'm still not sure how much of a success it's been.
On one hand, it's definitely changed the WoW environment. Guildless raiders can now apply to hundreds of potential guilds, instead of just the few on their server. People who rolled on a random server, only to find that their friends had rolled on another, can join their pals without having to relevel. And long-abandoned alts can finally be dusted off and brought into the light.
But there's a dark side to transfers, too. I frequent the Customer Service Forum, and a good number of the posts there have to do with unauthorized character transfers, character transfer screwups, or the like. (The rest of the posts are divided between "Why can't I swear in general chat?" "How can I become a GM?" and "Do something about the AFKers in Alterac Valley!") People are still unhappy that they can't transfer from PVE to PVP servers. And transfers can hurt. More than one guild has broken up because some of its officers decided to ninja-transfer to a better guild, sometimes taking the guild bank with them. People transfer in anger and then realize that they have to wait a long, long time to come back -- or sometimes can't come back at all.
I've never transferred, and probably will never do it. In spite of the idiots, trolls, and ridiculous flame wars, Magtheridon is my home server, and I'd feel lost without any of the people I've grown to know over the past few years. Have you ever transferred? What do you think about the service?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Greg Aug 7th 2007 8:17AM
I have characters on 3 servers and have finally settled on one of them as my home. I would love to transfer some of my other characters across, but the realm I have chosen is PVP and the other 2 are PVE :(
Other than that bug bear I think character transfers should be free but with a long cooldown period. Surely Blizzard make enough money already?
Psycho Jester Aug 7th 2007 8:44AM
I recently utilized the character transfer feature for the first time. It was incredible for me, as I have 2 level 60s and a level 40 on a server that I was convinced to join with RL friends (it's an RP server and I really don't care for that aspect of the game). Well, none of those friends play anymore, so I began anew, joining other RL friends on a different and new server (PvE or Carebear to those of you hardcore PvPers). I waited the 6 months until transfers were opened and have finally been able to pull my old Orc off the shelves. I'm waiting to transfer the other 2, because $75 in one pop is quite a pricey sum for me. It would be really nice if Blizzard offered some sort of "group" discount for multiple characters. Especially since the whole process is automated and took them about 30 min. to complete. I guess they are trying to keep down the amount of gold/item effects transfered characters can have on a newer realm, but a little price break would be nice. Of course, I plan to transfer the other 2 anyway, so they must know what they're doing.
Hokuto Aug 7th 2007 8:37AM
I'm a transfer myself. Brought my lock from a PvP to a PvE server, since I got tired of so much ganking. I think I'd transfer it back now I can fight back, because somehow the PvE progression is slower on the server I'm in. Oh well...
About the transfer fee, I'm pretty sure it's to stop people from exploiting it. On instance, if the price of a Primal Water on server X is 10g higher, you'd get all the motes you have, put on the mule, transfer over, sell, create another char and transfer back. A lot of people doing that would mess with one (or two) server's economy pretty fast.
runako Aug 7th 2007 8:32AM
if you're paying to transfer you should be able to do outside the 3 month cooldown period, its hellannoying
Ghen Aug 7th 2007 8:32AM
the pay-per-transfer fee in my opinion is to keep the transfers minimal. No matter how long a period between allowed transfers you create, there will still be way more than what is 'necessary'.
For instance, if server transfers were free, you'd see mass exoduses of guilds from servers where the other faction outnumbers them 2:1. Freed from the constraints of making the entire guild foot a transfer fee.
daniel Aug 7th 2007 8:42AM
stopped playing before TBC, levelled up a priest with basically just one friend on the server, she stopped playing and i transferred to another server to play with my workmates, never regretted it. payed transfers are awesome and should be made more available.
Boru Aug 7th 2007 8:54AM
The transfer option has been a great success for me.
Blizz allowed me to split my kid's hunter toon off of my main account & now we can quest/PVP together on 2 seperate accounts. We also Xferred both characters off of our horrific Ally dominated server & to a 50/50 balanced server, which has made the game alot more fun for both of us.
So it cost a few bucks & a 2nd paid account...but my son & I are enjoying the game *much* more & that's what it's all about.
Chad Aug 7th 2007 9:08AM
I had utilized the free character transfer just before TBC came out so that I wouldn't have to deal with massive queues. This new server ended up being a black hole, at least on the horde side. Economy was completely non-existent and finding a raiding guild was almost impossible. After months of frustration I did a paid transfer to a better populated server and everything changed. I could make money on the auction house. I was doing full clears of Karazhan and was getting invites to fill in spots in The Eye and SSC. The paid transfer service has really helped me enjoy the game.
Shiro Aug 7th 2007 9:10AM
I'm another "love the transfers" person.
Back in the pre-transfer days I was getting bored with the server I was on. It went down a lot, upper level instances were laggy, and I was ready for more than ZG but the server lacked any MC guilds (they had all moved on to BWL).
I ended up re-rolling a brand new character and leveling her to 60 on a different server so I could play in the guild that a friend of mine was in. The re-roll was painful, and I really missed my other 4 level 60 alts.
Of course, a month after I get my new character to 60, those transfers opened up. I ended up moving my old 60 (same class) to a different account, and moved my other alts over so I could play them again. It really made things a lot more homey for me having them all on one server. I left a couple of lower level alts on my "old" server, but I've never made it back to play them. I know that if they were on my "new" server that I'd have already leveled them to 60. :P
Oh well. I'm with the previous poster that there should be a "transfer all characters" discount of some kind.
Talludora Aug 7th 2007 10:47AM
Transferring is an awesome feature.
I played for two years on Garona (PvE) with one guild. I played with the same toon, my first toon. (Nelfie Hunter) We progressed together and when I hit 60 (after one year) We began to explore the end-game a bit. Just 10 and 5 mans.
Then RL issues caused to to leave the game for 6 months. When I came back, post-BC, everyone I played with was 70, ready to raid (I am NOT a raider by any means), and I couldn't get a group to take my book to Dire Maul. I was miserable. I needed a change.
I rolled onto a Moon Guard(RP) out of curiosity and loved it. I found a good guild of RPers and found that they could use my 61 Hunter. I transferred and didn't look back. I'm having a blast again with the game.
And yes, I did get my book into Dire Maul.
Don Aug 7th 2007 9:17AM
Im happy with the service for the most part. We took Blizzards free tansfer off of Warsong when it was bad but they stuck us on a west coast server even though we were on an east coast one. We raided for 2 years on that server despite the fact I was up till sunrise on my coast sometimes.
Recently me and my roomate transfered after our long time raiding guild fell apart. We went from a PvP to a PvE server so we could raid again but it was well worth it since we are on east coast times once again. I brought two 70s over and left a lvl66, a lvl44 and a bunch of 20 something alts behind. Theres time I miss the thrill of a pvp server but overall Im happy with the move. I do plan to finish my 66 rogue and continue to play him with friends still on my old server.
euphorion Aug 7th 2007 9:20AM
I've transferred several times, and it's never worked out all that well. Either the friends I transferred to play with then cancelled a month later, or my new server has more jerks than my home server (Hellscream), or... so now I'm on a low-pop, unfriendly server and I refuse to pay any more money to Blizzard as I try to find a Horde server that doesn't suck.
Mad Cow Aug 7th 2007 10:40AM
I quit playing wow a few months ago as all of my RL friends had quit. TBC launched and they all started playing again, but on a new server. By the time they convinced me to start again, they were in their 40s and 50s ... I wasn't keen on playing catch up, so I forked out $25 bucks to bring my pally over to the new server. Transfer took all of 3 minutes and I was gaming with my buddies before I could close my browser.
I believe it has its pros and cons. But over all, I'm glad to have the option.
afhouston Aug 7th 2007 10:56AM
I transferred after TBC to a EST server. I was tired of raiding until 2-3am on a PST server.
Paid transfers have helped improve the "quality of life" for players like me.
telot Aug 7th 2007 4:48PM
One more for the discounted multiple characters move! I have transfered one character and am planning on transferring another. Only feature I wish were available is transferring from one account to another that isn't in the same name. Whats their issue with this? Why not blizz? Just because a friend gave me his lvl 60 (he gave up wow) so I could play on horde with a RL friend why can't I transfer it to my allready-being-paid for account?
bitbot.cc Aug 7th 2007 10:17AM
I'm sure character transfers could easily be free, and they probably should be, as long as a cooldown (3 months is good) period remains. People shouldn't be able to transfer around like bored vagrants (or gold and character leveling services) looking for a good time.
If one server is sucking for you, chances are it's the game, not the server. The one exception might be that you rolled originally on a server that became extremely Low pop, at which point it's pretty easy to figure out which ones are High pop after studying the serverlists for a week or two, or using various sites that log that for you, and then transfer to it
Porterhaus Aug 7th 2007 10:09AM
I rolled launch day on the perfect server. It was a high population PVP server in the same time zone as me. After playing for two years on it, I decided to transfer my 70 Tauren Shaman to what was, in all respects, a lesser server. It was PVE, in the wrong time zone, and had a horrible name.
Needless to say, I'm having more fun on the new server than I ever did on my old one for one reason: all my friends rolled on it.
Running Kara in a room with 4 of your friends, with 5 more of your friends in another house across town doing the same thing has made for one of the most fun gaming experiences I've ever had in my life.
Definitely made that 25 dollar fee worth every penny.
PyroAmos Aug 7th 2007 10:44AM
paid transfers are horrible for low-mid pop servers... usually ends up anyone who wants to raid eventually transfers off or joins 1 guild. its why 75% or so low-mid pop servers only have 1 raiding guild... they had the people for 2 or 3, but they all transfered off. Thats been my experiance anyway... I've had a raid master, and several core members transfer, and recently all the officers of the main raiding guild on the server all transfered... and where do they all go? Kargath. lol... they must have 10 guilds in TK/SSC by now, if what happened on our server happened to others as well. I finally gave up, i wont char trans tho, i just re-roll... no more low-pop servers for me, being a guild officer in 6 versions of the same guild was more than enough for me, didn't wanna deal with que times to log in on a super-power server though, so i went mid-high pop, not a super-power server.
futura Aug 7th 2007 11:11AM
Heh this picture makes me laugh. But brings me to say this, as there is truth in it:
STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MAL'GANIS
We hate hate hate hate people that transfer to our highly populated home. I don't know what the big deal is about our realm but everyone seems to think it's the place to be. Just cause we have Ret, Aurora, Elitist Jerks, Goon Squad doesn't mean A) your going to get in to any of those guilds B) make you a better player C) help you make friends. Don't believe me? Log an alt in ask about transfering in trade chat. You'll get quite a response.
PyroAmos Aug 7th 2007 12:29PM
@18, its not particularly getting into one of those guilds, but everyone knows, goto one of the servers with very end game raiding guilds, kargath, mal'ganis, ect, and you'll at the least prolly be able to get into one of the many fledging 2nd class guilds there, which are almost certainly 2 or 3 months ahead of anything on the low pop servers they're coming from. Thats really the only problem with server trans... imo i wish they hadn't put them in, if its that significant for you to move servers reroll, its anoying to trudge through lvls again, but... it beats striping low pop servers and increasing high pop servers numbers and quee time even more.