Survey: Figuring out the faction transfer numbers
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 4th 2009 at 4:00PM
Obviously, we don't have access to all of Blizzard's audience, and our polls are definitely much less scientific than the data Blizzard gets to look at (you better believe they're tracking transfers and faction and race choices with a close eye, just as they're tracking server populations 24/7), but just for the heck of it, we'll ask. After the break, we've got a few polls designed to give us a very general look at how transfers are playing out so far. There's a lot of anecdotal experiences flying around since transfers went live, but I'd like to know, a little more objectively, just how things are panning out.
The first poll is simple: it's designed to let us know just how many players (in this case, readers of WoW.com, so at least a good sample of NA and EU players) have actually used the transfer service. Everyone should answer this.
| Yes | |
|---|---|
| No |
The second poll, to be answered only by people who have transferred factions already, should show us which way the transfers are going: from Alliance to Horde, from Horde to Alliance, or even:
| I went from Alliance to Horde. | |
|---|---|
| I went from Horde to Alliance. |
These next two polls are only for people who have transferred, and please only answer the poll that fits your faction transfer. While race choice on the faction transfers is limited by class, it should be interesting to see what people who are transferring factions are choosing in terms of races. And Blizzard will definitely be watching their versions of these numbers in their calculations, as they update racial bonuses and experiences in Cataclysm.
| Blood Elf | |
|---|---|
| Tauren | |
| Troll | |
| Orc | |
| Forsaken |
| Draenei | |
|---|---|
| Human | |
| Night Elf | |
| Gnome | |
| Dwarf |
Finally, for those of you who didn't transfer factions yet, the last poll asks if we'll see another big burst of faction transfers when Cataclysm releases, or at least when the Cataclysm races are available for transfer (Blizzard stated at BlizzCon that while they hadn't decided yet, transfers to the new races probably wouldn't be available right at release).
| Yes, I haven't transferred yet, but I plan to when Cataclysm comes out. | |
|---|---|
| No, I haven't transferred yet, and I don't plan to. |
Thanks for answering! If the results are surprising enough, we'll take a look at what they might mean in a future post.
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Polls, Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Blizzard, Factions, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
117 Sep 4th 2009 4:21PM
I'm pretty happy they did this. I started out playing alliance at release. I have a 74 and a 65 on alliance. Then, I started a character on horde to play with friends from work. Now I have 2 lvl 80s on horde. Last night I transfered my 74 on alliance to horde. So its not like I'm jumping to horde cause alliance sucks in bgs or whatever other dumb reason.
117 Sep 4th 2009 4:25PM
I forgot one thing:
The only flaws I've noticed so far (and I'm not sure if this was intended or not) is that it gave me all the flightpoints in northrend and I can now do all the horde quests even though I did a bunch of the alliance quests already. Which means more lots more gold.
Mr Angry Sep 4th 2009 5:22PM
Hehe I noticed the very same thing two hours ago!!
Also I think that some of the unique stuff you get to keep hasn't been uncovered yet, as I've been waiting for outcry from the community on that too!
Lakota Sep 4th 2009 4:29PM
Is there a way to see the results without voting?
T-M-B-S-E Sep 4th 2009 4:35PM
Click the vote button without selecting one of the choices.
Gamroc Sep 4th 2009 4:51PM
Yes just click to vote without hitting yes or no.
nobag80 Sep 4th 2009 4:08PM
I plan on transferring my human mage to a troll mage after i get paid tonight. He has no ties to any guilds and his friends list is smaller every day from friends leaving the game. It's time to start anew with him on the other side.
My human priest is staying where he is though to help my wife as she's a tank and I can fulfill two roles (heals and dps). Why have 2 DPS on the same side? I can help out my wife where i need to and then when I feel like meeting a new group of people, there's the mage sitting patiently in Dalaran.
Jade Sep 4th 2009 6:48PM
Let's see... 800 people have transferred, yet mysteriously almost 1000 more have some switched sides. Then there are 1200 more votes for races swaps, than for faction changed.
This poll is about as scientific as creationism.
LostOne Sep 4th 2009 4:08PM
If I understand things right, to transfer faction and realm is $55. I'm not paying that for multiple toons. If it was $30 for both I probably would. But the server I play on has a full roster of alliance toons, I'm not changing one to horde to play on the same server. I'd be willing to change one if the server transfer was free, I'd load him up with all the heirlooms I got and happily level new alts before Cataclysm.
Rhabella Sep 4th 2009 4:26PM
Well said, 55 bucks is steep for a simple reputation exchange program and copy. Wish Blizz had thrown us a bone when they added the faction transfers to include a realm transfer as well.
The Vile Dr H Sep 4th 2009 6:05PM
well, for give my cynicysm here, that is probably exactly the response Blizzard wants. They seem to want the faction change, name change, race change, etc. to be a big enough deal that players will not do it on a whim but consider it and only do it if they really want to. Then after you've done it they want you to not turn right around and go back.
Setting aside the obvious RP/lore issue of 'how does a human suddenly wake up as a tauren?' there are lots of other issues including the economy of the servers, etc. There is a big market for vanity pets for example where people will buy the 50 silver pets from the various vendors in the major towns then transfer them to the opposing faction through the neutral AH, and sell for a 1000% markup to the opposing faction.
I could extend the argument to gold farming as well but will stop there. The point is there is a lot more to this than some warlock on the Thrall server wanting to be a human on Frostwolf. This could have a significant negative impact on the game if they aren't careful.
LadySDevil Sep 4th 2009 6:41PM
I had been hoping for the faction change to include an optional server transfer as well. I have an alliance priest that's only level 65. My plan had been to either dump some stuff from my main to an alt big enough to make the cross (gold, heirlooms, profession mats), or bring the priest over and finish leveling it horde.
Only problem? My horde and alliance characters are on different servers, and while I was willing to fork over $30 (which is more after exchange rate and fees) I'm not willing to fork over $55.
Here's to hoping they change it and toss in server transfers!
JamieG Sep 4th 2009 8:32PM
There's nothing stopping people with multiple accounts or friends on the other faction doing this trading already, so I dont see any problem when they pay to do this?
Also, a 1000% mark up of 50 silver is only 5 gold 50 silver ;D
Aramis Sep 5th 2009 7:46AM
Vile Dr. H
"well, forgive my cynicism here, that is probably exactly the response Blizzard wants. They seem to want the faction change, name change, race change, etc. to be a big enough deal that players will not do it on a whim but consider it and only do it if they really want to. Then after you've done it they want you to not turn right around and go back."
That's not cynicism, that's a very realistic point of view. I changed my faction after MUCH consideration. I had to consider 1) the price; 2) the realm I was on and the balance issue; 3) the contacts and frequent PUG friends I made; 4) the faction titles and achievement penalties associated with the Argent Tournament, etc...It goes on. Any smart person who changed their factions took these among other things into consideration before actually doing it, adding that there's no turning back for at least two months. All this goes in line of what you were saying about how Blizzard probably wanted to control the number of transfers so there was a few pitfalls in doing so, so that the ones who truly wanted to do it would after much internal debate.
RetadinMan Sep 4th 2009 4:11PM
I'm happy with the numbers of people becoming Draenei. The more the merrier!!
S?hrtogg Sep 4th 2009 4:46PM
Oh noez, the annoyance of not being able to see the poll results if you don't vote... That alone makes me want to ninja-vote it, but I didn't (at least not this time ^^ ssshhh yes, i plead guilty)
Mike, please, give those "only vote if you ..." polls an extra answer next time: "I'm do not meet the requirements, but I just want to see the result so far". That'll also help to ensure the results stay representative, excluding those from people who didn't withstand the temptation of data.
On a side note: the 4 polls could have been replaced by a single one: (albeit - I have to admit - a bit messy)
Have you transferred a character between factions?
* No, I haven't transferred and I don't plan to do so in Cataclysm either.
* No, I haven't transferred yet, but I plan to when Cataclysm comes out.
* Yes, I've transferred my Alliance character to Undead
* Yes, I've transferred my Alliance character to Blood Elf
etc.
* Yes, I've transferred my Horde character to Human
etc.
- all other statistics can be readily determined from the results of this poll
- it doesn't cover people who've made multiple transfers, but neither do the 4 original polls; a tick-box poll that allows more than one answer would fix that though
Mike Schramm Sep 4th 2009 4:49PM
If you just hit vote without choosing an answer, you can see the results and it shouldn't affect the poll.
As for combining them all into one, frankly, I plan to use the different polls as a kind of guidance on how closely you're all following directions -- the sum of the two bottom results should add up to the number of people who answered the first question negatively, for example, if everything is going to plan.
Also, I'm a writer, not a pollster, so if I made a mistake in putting this together or if there's a better way to do it, that's my bad. This is what we're using.
S?hrtogg Sep 4th 2009 4:59PM
Right-o...
Don't select anything and hit vote... Why didn't I think of that? >.> Thanks for pointing out my failure to the system and no offense intended ofc, it just occurred to me.
And well ye lacking the raw statistical power compared to Blizzard data, polls are ofc also for the fun of it.
Mike Schramm Sep 4th 2009 5:14PM
Actually, now it looks like that might cause you to vote the first choice. Oh well. If there's a big discrepancy in the first choices, I'll just attribute it to "vote-peeking" and skim it off as best I can. You're right: there should be an easy way to see results without voting.
Tim Sep 4th 2009 5:29PM
I did the no click an answer but yes click the vote button and it looked like I voted for every option. Since I voted quickly when I hit vote all the answers only had 1 vote. as in "If you went from Horde to Alliance, what race (you had to pick one associated with your class) did you become?" all the races were 1.