Posts with tag pct

Since PvE to PvP transfer option became available, I've kept a close eye on my own realm to see if there'd be any discernible change to transfer patterns both on and off. As far as I can tell -- no. I've seen a few people transfer off but there doesn't seem to be any more so than usual. Only a few players did so purely for the purpose of PvPing on a different battlegroup, and most of them, like Zach Yonzon, had previously been PvP-realm transfers or rerolls anyway.

The flood of high-level PvE to PvP transfers gloomily predicted by many doesn't seem to have materialized. People who'd rather play on a PvE realm are doing just that, and most of the people who'd rather play on a PvP realm were already there (never saw that one coming, eh?). I thought at the time that Blizzard's decision would probably have its biggest impact, not on PvP players, but on PvE raiders who had previously been restricted to recruiting PvP-to-PvP, PvE-to-PvE or (much less commonly) PvP-to-PvE only. If you've ever been in a raiding guild which found great recruits from the "wrong" kind of realm, you're probably familiar with what a headache that was.

I play on a medium population PvE realm that launched when Burning Crusade hit. Since we're not really at the cutting edge of either PvE or PvP content as a result, mine is probably a bad sample size as we're not a hotbed of transfers either way. So, I'm not sure if my own experience is representative. If you're playing on a medium-to-high population realm, either PvE or PvP, are you noticing any difference to the traffic patterns, on or off? If you're on a low-population realm, has your situation improved or worsened?

Ever since paid transfers were introduced, quite some time ago, there has been one very prominent restriction: no transfers from PvE servers to PvP servers. The general reason given for this is that it wouldn't be fair; people who level to 70 on a PvP server have a significantly harder time of it that people who do it on a PvE server, and letting people transfer from PvE to PvP is just going to encourage them to level where it's safe easy and then transfer to go around ganking and raiding and whatever else they want to do. Well, that restriction is lifted: paid transfers from PvE to PvP servers will be available from now on.

Blizzard's stated reason for this is that "providing a smooth and enjoyable experience for all players is always a priority for us," and that these transfers are being implemented "to provide players with more mobility and freedom to easily play with their friends." While these are valid reasons to a certain extent, I still think this will be pretty unpopular with players on PvP servers.

[thanks, Nega]

European CM Thundgot announced today that the cooldown periods for both paid character transfer and paid character name changes have been reduced from three months to one month, effective immediately. The transfer cooldown was originally six months when the feature was introduced in June 2006, but was reduced to three in October 2006. In the intervening time, they've looked at server logs and so forth and come to the conclusion that moving it to one month would not have catastrophic consequences.

This change appears to be effective on the US realms as well, so wherever you are, you can hop servers and adopt new aliases every month if you want to pay for it. Also, Thundy clarifies that as long as your last transfer/name change was at least 30 days ago, you are immediately eligible for transfer/name change now. He also said that "moving forward" the price for paid transfer is going to be 20€/£15, but given his phrasing and the fact that I'm on the North American realms, I can't tell if that pricing is new or not. Do any of you know? Edit: Not new; thanks.

Well, I have some difficulty calling this an update, since it was initially announced in August -- but since the initial announcement was rolled in with news about new realm openings, I imagine it didn't get the attention it deserved. So today, to much applause, Eyonix has informed everyone that paid character transfers will not be available to any realms not yet open for 6 months (as opposed to the previous 3 months). This will allow new realms some time to ramp up and approach other realms in content before potentially troubled by a flood of new (and better geared) players into the realm economy. Of course, there are still players complaining that 6 months is not enough -- but it's certainly a lot closer to what I would consider a reasonable ballpark.