Influence, Gems and changing Servers
That would completely remove the point of the transfer fee, since everyone could just bypass it with this system.
It would have to require being in the guild for so long that it would discourage bypassing the fee (such as a month or more) or it would risk making the whole system unbalanced.
And with such a long wait people would most likely not bother with it anyway.
Another thing to keep in mind is that servers are only ever useful for WvW in the first place.
Krall Peterson – Warrior
Piken Square
That would be abused.
People would create guilds for the sole purpose of earning free (or reduced fee) transfers.
People would join guilds that didn’t require 100% rep to earn a spot on that guild’s server.
Well let me add a caveat that the guild must be of a specified size, say 300 members or more. I realize having your buddy create a personal storage guild just to bypass the transfer fee is not what I had in mind. And I think waiting a month to transfer servers, if you can avoid the costs is not unreasonable.
Well let me add a caveat that the guild must be of a specified size, say 300 members or more. I realize having your buddy create a personal storage guild just to bypass the transfer fee is not what I had in mind. And I think waiting a month to transfer servers, if you can avoid the costs is not unreasonable.
It would still be abused.
People would join non-100% rep guilds to do it.
Servers would have guilds with 300 people who just never represent for recruitment purposes.
Well let me add a caveat that the guild must be of a specified size, say 300 members or more. I realize having your buddy create a personal storage guild just to bypass the transfer fee is not what I had in mind. And I think waiting a month to transfer servers, if you can avoid the costs is not unreasonable.
It would still be abused.
People would join non-100% rep guilds to do it.
Servers would have guilds with 300 people who just never represent for recruitment purposes.
My original post takes this into account, you could not just be a member of a guild, you would have to rep that guild and demonstrate contribution to that guild, which the easiest measure of that would be influence created.
I think the bigger elephant in the room needs to be addressed first, and that is the absurd cost of server transfers in general.
When i look back at the game and find it cheaper to wait, and buy a new account than to buy a transfer, there’s an issue.
Transfers should never be as costly as buying another copy of the product.
Well let me add a caveat that the guild must be of a specified size, say 300 members or more. I realize having your buddy create a personal storage guild just to bypass the transfer fee is not what I had in mind. And I think waiting a month to transfer servers, if you can avoid the costs is not unreasonable.
It would still be abused.
People would join non-100% rep guilds to do it.
Servers would have guilds with 300 people who just never represent for recruitment purposes.
My original post takes this into account, you could not just be a member of a guild, you would have to rep that guild and demonstrate contribution to that guild, which the easiest measure of that would be influence created.
But guilds define contribution differently.
The social member who most spends their time in Lion’s Arch making friends, answering questions, and indirectly recruiting may contribute just as much as the guild mission players for a more casual guild. But not be considered contributing for a more hard core guild.
And if it was up to the guilds, the players would choose the guilds with lower contribution standards. And then once they transfer over, they leave the guild.
If you’re in a zerg guid, ask for donations and get the guild as a whole to cover the cost?
The only point in transferring is to switch regions or for WvW. I could see ArenaNet offering a discount for players that have a certain amount of contribution towards a guild, but they certainly wouldn’t offer it for free. Playing with guild members is tracked, so for example, after a month minimum and a certain amount of contribution from playing with other members, the cost of transferring would be reduced by x%.
In the future, I wouldn’t be surprised if servers were dropped and they went with some form of representation instead (for WvW).
Transfers should never be as costly as buying another copy of the product.
If you see no value in your account, you might as well delete all your characters and transfer for free. The cost to transfer might be more expensive when compared to the 75% sale, but those new accounts will need to pay another $20 to buy season 2, and then there’s HoT.
If 20g buys you 10,000 influence and 15g buys 100 gems then 75 influence is equal in value to 1 gem. (when purchased with gold) So I suggest that for every 7500 influence you create for a specific guild, you receive credit of 100 gems towards server transfer cost.
37,500 influence to transfer to medium server, 75,000 influence to transfer to high population server and 135,000 influence to transfer to very high population server.
Well let me add a caveat that the guild must be of a specified size, say 300 members or more. I realize having your buddy create a personal storage guild just to bypass the transfer fee is not what I had in mind. And I think waiting a month to transfer servers, if you can avoid the costs is not unreasonable.
That just raises other questions.
Why should this be restricted to large guild only? Why is a member of a small guild assumed to be incapable of providing meaningful contribution to the guild?
Guilds arent bound to specific servers anymore, only the players within the guild.
Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.
I don’t think you’ve shown a compelling reason for ANet to pay for a server transfer for anyone, highly contributing guild member or not. If the guild values that member so much, sure they can help him out. Why should ANet get involved? They have no way to see how much a guild values one of its members.
One person could be playing and earning lots of influence but not interacting with the guildies. Another person could play less and earn far less influence but interactive and thinking of things to do and contributing to guild chat. Yet by influence, the first person can transfer and the second not.
(edited by Astral Projections.7320)
So my question is, why is there a fee, and such a crazy high one too?
WvW aside, for everyone else it’s just about playing with friends, and isn’t that kind of the whole point of the game?
So my question is, why is there a fee, and such a crazy high one too?
WvW aside, for everyone else it’s just about playing with friends, and isn’t that kind of the whole point of the game?
Apart from wvw, it doesnt matter on which server you are because you can guest.
Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.
So my question is, why is there a fee, and such a crazy high one too?
WvW aside, for everyone else it’s just about playing with friends, and isn’t that kind of the whole point of the game?
If it’s WvW aside, then they don’t need to transfer because the game has Megaservers. The only reason to transfer is WvW or to switch between NA or EU.
As to price, maybe the price is high to discourage switching to another WvW server. The switch used to be both free and daily, it became more restrictive as time passed, possibly because whole guilds were server jumping on a frequent basis to get into the “best” server rather than sticking around and working with the one they were on.
Guilds would transfer to one server, get it high in the ranks then leave. Causing it to fall to the bottom of the ranks and hurting morale in that server. The Henge of Denravi is a case of that. People transferred for free to a then top server. This caused problems (excessive queue times for one). The original WvW guilds left, then the “opportunist” guilds left, causing a free fall towards the bottom.
(edited by Astral Projections.7320)
So my question is, why is there a fee, and such a crazy high one too?
WvW aside, for everyone else it’s just about playing with friends, and isn’t that kind of the whole point of the game?
Apart from wvw, it doesnt matter on which server you are because you can guest.
And the megaserver as well, reducing the number of map instances available. And I believe I heard that it does take guild into consideration if there is more than one map instance available.
Well let me add a caveat that the guild must be of a specified size, say 300 members or more.
So every family sized guild supports Anet and pay’s for transfers. And yet, the big guilds that has WAY more resources is entitled to a free ride??? Sure, and I think the 1% shouldn’t have to pay any taxes either. In fact, if you are a millionaire or more, everyone should have to pick up your tab in the restaurant. When you go to a club or bar, everyone has to buy you drinks.
Seriously, if you have a guild of over 300, <insert many swears> and pay it <more swears> forward!!! Grrrrr……
So our guild had this idea that if a player joined our guild, but happened to be from a different server, If they demonstrated that they were going to be a contributing member to our guild family, that we would all chip in to pay for the cost of them transfering to our server.
So I was wondering, (being the cheapskate I am), if Anet would pick up that cost.
If a person joins a guild that has its home on a different server, and that player stays within that guild for a to-be-determined amount of time, that they could get a free or reduced server transfer fee.
if your entire guild is going to chip in to pay for the transfer it really isn’t that much gold LOL
So my question is, why is there a fee, and such a crazy high one too?
WvW aside, for everyone else it’s just about playing with friends, and isn’t that kind of the whole point of the game?
and what prevents you from playing together right now, in game, and with no transfer fee?
also, I dont think guilds belong to a specific server anymore with megaservers. How does the game even determine that?
Incoming Quaggans [iQ]
Some interesting thoughts in this thread, so let me add another tangent of thought.
Setting aside the idea of transfering servers for a moment.
I believe if for every 7500 influence you create for a guild, you receive credit of 100 gems, would encourage people partying up in thier respective guilds, because of the bonus of influence gained when in a party, 10 vs 2.
This would give poorer players an option for aquiring gems, while building guild unity.
Creating gems out of thin air is not something that is a good idea for the economy.
Especially considering that you can outright buy influence.
Krall Peterson – Warrior
Piken Square
Some interesting thoughts in this thread, so let me add another tangent of thought.
Setting aside the idea of transfering servers for a moment.
I believe if for every 7500 influence you create for a guild, you receive credit of 100 gems, would encourage people partying up in thier respective guilds, because of the bonus of influence gained when in a party, 10 vs 2.
This would give poorer players an option for aquiring gems, while building guild unity.
You’ve explained why the players would want this. Now explain how ANet benefits from creating thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of gems out of thin air and handing them out to players, where they don’t get any money from it.
How would that effect the gem exchange? How would free gems at such a volume effect their income?
(edited by Astral Projections.7320)
Creating gems out of thin air is not something that is a good idea for the economy.
Especially considering that you can outright buy influence.
the numbers I have stated take into account the cost to buy influence, you wouldnt’ gain an advantage by buying the influence then converting to gems.
You’ve explained why the players would want this. Now explain how ANet benefits from creating thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of gems out of thin air and handing them out to players, where they don’t get any money from it.
How would that effect the gem exchange? How would free gems at such a volume effect their income?
A crack dealer gives his customer a free hit, knowing that they will be back for more.
or
Giving the players something, knowing that a happy player base is more likely to invest in the game.
as far as the gem exchange, I don’t know how that would react, I would think it would make gems less expensive to buy with gold, but still the same cost to buy with real money.
the numbers I have stated take into account the cost to buy influence, you wouldnt’ gain an advantage by buying the influence then converting to gems.
Maybe not. But it doesn’t change the fact that gems are created out of nothing, as opposed to being traded via the currency exchange.
Krall Peterson – Warrior
Piken Square
You’ve explained why the players would want this. Now explain how ANet benefits from creating thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of gems out of thin air and handing them out to players, where they don’t get any money from it.
How would that effect the gem exchange? How would free gems at such a volume effect their income?
A crack dealer gives his customer a free hit, knowing that they will be back for more.
or
Giving the players something, knowing that a happy player base is more likely to invest in the game.as far as the gem exchange, I don’t know how that would react, I would think it would make gems less expensive to buy with gold, but still the same cost to buy with real money.
They give 400 gems every 5000 achieve points. If ANet thought giving away more was good business then they would have made this gift more frequent. That it’s only every 5000 achieves shows that they don’t feel it’s good business to hand out free gems more often than that.
Some interesting thoughts in this thread, so let me add another tangent of thought.
Setting aside the idea of transfering servers for a moment.
I believe if for every 7500 influence you create for a guild, you receive credit of 100 gems, would encourage people partying up in thier respective guilds, because of the bonus of influence gained when in a party, 10 vs 2.
This would give poorer players an option for aquiring gems, while building guild unity.
How does this help the game? Anet would lose out on sales. It would just encourage players to event hunt more. Certainly would kill most zones as everyone would go to the Silverwaste. Then this would promote super guilds and hurt family guilds.
How does this help the game? Anet would lose out on sales. It would just encourage players to event hunt more. Certainly would kill most zones as everyone would go to the Silverwaste. Then this would promote super guilds and hurt family guilds.
Events are not the only thing that gives influence, most things that players do together creates influence, except the LS and PS ( which I think they need to change also to promote partying up for those)
I don’t see how a large guild benefits more from people gaining influence than a small guild does. Influence gained is determined by party size, not guild size. I think a small guild would want to promote people partying up more, to maximize the influence gain for the guild.
Well let me add a caveat that the guild must be of a specified size, say 300 members or more. I realize having your buddy create a personal storage guild just to bypass the transfer fee is not what I had in mind. And I think waiting a month to transfer servers, if you can avoid the costs is not unreasonable.
I completely agree. Lets all create a guild of +300 for the sake of transferring to other servers. I would love to avoid the gem fee too. You, sir, are a genius.
Anet incentives by changing the servers status from time to time, besides the 500 gems from achievements points, as well as free transfer if you delete all your characters. Bear in mind they need the microtransations on TP to keep this game running, they benefit from the transfers as well with the items sold from gem store.
Is it expensive? Yes, but if one don’t want to throw some cash in, can very well take a couple of weeks to run dungeons or SW and raise the gold for the transfer. Not only that, but guilds that value their members and thrust, will certainly chip in for them.
Thief / Mesmer / Elementalist / Warrior / Necromancer / Ranger / Engineer / Revenant
Crystal Desert – Eredon Terrace – Fort Aspenwood – Stormbluff Isle
Transfers should never be as costly as buying another copy of the product.
If you see no value in your account, you might as well delete all your characters and transfer for free. The cost to transfer might be more expensive when compared to the 75% sale, but those new accounts will need to pay another $20 to buy season 2, and then there’s HoT.
If you think they (the WvW community) care about season 2 at all.
My perspective was from that of a WvW player and an very far reaching issue, that of population balance. It makes 0 sense for the majority of the players to continually dogpile onto the top 6 servers, which seem to continually have openings. Anet has a full tag for a reason and yet it seems to be neglected or grossly miss-used. See Dragonbrand during WvW season 3 (seemingly full until Anet moved the goalpost on the definition of full).
As it stands there’s a big need to for them to reconsider the price of transfers and how they can be attained as well as population distribution. To think the problems are mutually exclusive would be negligent oversight to say the least.