Guild Wars 2

Hello All

I really just wanted to capture the general mood everyone has over the current charges for a world transfer.

So at the time of me writing this up Gem exchange ingame was well over…

• 2g = 100Gems -//- £1.06 = 100Gems

But to make the maths a little simpler thats the transfer rate I’m going to work with (which really means the prices below are less than what you actually pay Gold wise).

Current Costs (Gems):
Medium: 500 10Gold / £5.30 per transfer
High: 1000 20Gold / £10.60 per transfer
Very High: 1800 36Gold / £19.08 per transfer

These prices seem a little out of touch with the actual service they’re providing, now I understand the bracketing system pay less for a medium density population encourages more transfers in that direction rather than overpopulating an already heavily populated server.

However these prices just don’t add up for that price you’re almost looking at paying enough out for a tranfer as you would a new game.

Let me know what you’re all thinking, agree, disagree or some place in the middle I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The transfer includes all of your characters which is leagues ahead of other games that charge for each toon.

Transfer costs were supposed to ship with the game but they delayed implementing it due to the guesting feature not being live yet. Unfortunately it was causing problems with guilds server hopping for WvW wins, people have been asking for paid transfers since the game launched because of that.

You can delete all of your toons to start fresh on a new world (good for a new account, no way I would do that with 6 months invested) or you can pay with ingame gold, so you have a couple of other options than paying cash for gems.

I think these transfers are only important to those people who are so invested in wvw. With PvX players, servers hardly matter apparently.

It´s basically one of the main monetization items and only ANet´s smart decision to hammer out WvW first is responsible for having the free switch “grace period”.

Pay up and keep ANet afloat.

It’s not out of line with what other games charge for transfers, even subscription games. In a non-sub game it’s certainly not out of line.

Seems to me what you’re looking at is how much gold it would cost to buy the gems, but you can just buy gems, in which case, that point is moot. The gem to gold conversation rate doesn’t really figure into it.

Put it this way. If this was WoW, you’d be playing $15 a month and still paying $25 cash to move a character to another server. And there’s be no way to do that with in game gold at all.

Wish I would have done WvW exploration when I first got the game, just for my 100% map completion. Looks like I may have to pay to switch to a server with a stronger WvW talents because it appears the server I am on is owned by the other worlds and I will never win some of the places that have some of the poi/vistas I need for completion.
But maybe I will be lucky on friday resets and be able to grab them before the othet world take over the maps (again).

If anything it is too cheap to transfer to high pop servers. They should have made it like $50.

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a charge, my argument really is that the cost is too excessive and these other games of which you speak allow multiple characters across a number of servers.

I would happily fork out the money if it wasn’t such a excessive amount, I understand the concept of a FTP game and that these ingame purchases are what keeps the company progressing forward.

However for the service provided, the amount they’re asking is unjustified regardless of what other games charge – GW2/Anet whoever this comes down to should understand as a basic business concept that keeping your customers happy encourages longevity and repeat purchases which leads to greater profitability in the long term.

Yes, but you have too remeber there is WvW in this game. Making it too easy to transfer really screws with that. I could see making it super cheap or free to move to a lower pop server, but make the high pop servers rediulously expensive to stop bandwagoners from jumping to the top.

Valid point I agree but lets be honest your bandwagon players won’t pay and will exist no matter what server you’re playing on or whatever the price – that be No.1 or Last.

The game should reach a balance restrict how often transfers can be made further but cap the price at around £10 so that its within the majority of players price range not the minority.

Yes it is very expensive, 35$ to buy gems to transfer.

That’s why I deleted all my characters and transferred worlds for free.

And by deleting your characters you will be able to transfer servers free of charge and you will keep items and gold in your bank. On top of that your pvp rank DOES NOT reset and nor does map completion.

I am going to list all the flaws in the original post.

1/ For PVE players, choice of server doesn’t matter due to free guesting.

2/ Gold price isn’t relevant for gem transactions. Being able to buy transfers with gold is an option not present in other MMOs.

3/ Except for high pop servers, the transfer cost is cheaper than any other MMO.

4/ Not only that, but it is an account transfer, in comparison to a character travel in other MMO games

5/ It is only relevant for WvW players and primarily a system to balance servers.
5.1/ as such the only possible improvement would be to make transfer to low pop servers free.

There is no real problem. Any issues you think you have with the current system are entirely imaginary.

I think the cost is fine.

It’s cheaper than what I’ve seen in other games, applies to all characters, and unless you’re wanting to switch what team you play for in WvWvW, irrelevant anyway due to the ease of guesting.

I’ve already played a fair bit on every server available at this point, just from messing around with guesting.

I have no issues with a high transfer cost.

As a PvE player you are able to guest to other realms to play that portion of the game. Yes, you do lose your WvW bonuses but if you’re not participating in WvW to help your server you probably should not be reaping the bonuses anyway.

The only reason to move is for WvW and 99/100 moves are fair weather players looking to move off their losing server to a winning server. These moves do significant harm to a system that only works when players do not shift around.

I actually wish the cost of server transfers was higher. Given that the recent mass exodus of players from Sea of Sorrows has thrown off the WvW ranking system for weeks to come.

Marnick lets go through your post…

I am going to list the flaws in your origional post.

1/ Free guesting is limited to Europe and America

2/ Gold transfer to Credit is available in a number of MMO’s

3/ Show me where you gathered this information? …and also point out at what point it becomes relevant what other games charge.

4/ Other MMO that allow character tranfer allow multilple characters to be made across a number of servers which if put in place would remove the issue most players have of wanting to play with friends in both the EU and America.

5/ GW2 only experience is not WvW, there are many other reasons for someone to want to join a defined server.

5.1/ Agreed.

There are real problems. Any issue I think I have with the current system are entirely relevant to a large player base.

Delgan.8619:

Marnick lets go through your post…
little cut
There are real problems. Any issue I think I have with the current system are entirely relevant to a large player base.

No. Most people shouldn’t have a problem with the current system if they use the insides of their skull.

If you’re tech illiterate I understand why you don’t agree with the EU/US split. However that’s a technical issue that’s virtually impossible to solve.

In case you didn’t know, the entire internet runs through a system of trans atlantic trunk lines. These are the most laggy connections imaginable and completely unsuitable for MMO play. That’s why serious MMOs restrict intercontinental play.

What marnick. My guild is us and eu, the us members have no real lag, transatlantic is about 150ms, which is totally fine in an mmo.

Intercontinental play is not restricted in gw2, just guesting, for some weird reason.

World of Warcraft’s server transfer costs $25.
And that’s on top of the $15/month subscription fee they charge.
And you can’t use in-game currency to pay for their server transfers.
And ArenaNet let us transfer servers for free for almost half a year.
So no, I don’t think Guild Wars 2’s server transfer fees are too expensive.

Who here asked for cross server intergration between America & EU, us less tech savvy individuals also would like to point out that GW1 actually had this cross intigration which at its peak was one of the most popular (Serious) MMO games of its time.

Clearly you have missed the point of this thread on numerous levels, you’re rude not helpful and possitively a negative influence on this forum.

darkace.8925:

World of Warcraft’s server transfer costs $25.
And that’s on top of the $15/month subscription fee they charge.
And you can’t use in-game currency to pay for their server transfers.
And ArenaNet let us transfer servers for free for almost half a year.
So no, I don’t think Guild Wars 2’s server transfer fees are too expensive.

what you’re missing though is that WOW allows multiple characters to made on a number of different servers – This is the defining difference.

Delgan.8619:

darkace.8925:

World of Warcraft’s server transfer costs $25.
And that’s on top of the $15/month subscription fee they charge.
And you can’t use in-game currency to pay for their server transfers.
And ArenaNet let us transfer servers for free for almost half a year.
So no, I don’t think Guild Wars 2’s server transfer fees are too expensive.

what you’re missing though is that WOW allows multiple characters to made on a number of different servers – This is the defining difference.

Totally irrelevant, since in WoW there’s nothing like WvW. This game is not designed to allows that for a reason and that reason is one of the main selling points of the game for a lot of people. Same reason why the costs are there.

You claim it doesn’t matter what other games/companies charge. How can it not matter? The price of pretty much anything is determined by competition. No one can sell a gallon of milk for $100 because no one else does. The price of anything is set by what people are willing to pay for it, and what the competitors charge for it.

Now if Anet in a free to play game was charging twice or three times what a pay game is charging, you’d have a point. But it’s not. It’s charging less than the pay game. It’s also a game that allows you to PVe on ANY server in your server park without paying that transfer fee. Those other games that allow you to have characters on other servers don’t allow that at all. So you can have a character in one server and play on another anyway, which makes transfer more optional in this game than any other.

The only real thing that is affect, as others have pointed out is WvW. What reason do you need to transfer if not for that. And if that is the reason then the cost MUST remain high for the WvW to be viable at all.

-IF- guesting would work cross-continent, I’d say the prices are fine. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Kimyrielle.3826:

-IF- guesting would work cross-continent, I’d say the prices are fine. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Completely agree.

This in a nutshell would resolve all problems – WvW may be a huge part of this game but it is by no means the only content this game has to offer or only reason anyone would have for moving from an EU to American Server.

Delgan.8619:

Kimyrielle.3826:

-IF- guesting would work cross-continent, I’d say the prices are fine. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Completely agree.

This in a nutshell would resolve all problems – WvW may be a huge part of this game but it is by no means the only content this game has to offer or only reason anyone would have for moving from an EU to American Server.

I am just curious as to why a lot of people didn’t just choose the same server to be on—-let alone how does NA meet a EU player and vice versa. I can only imagine you being friends with them in real life and wanting to play but as far as I know, other than gw2lfg.com you wouldn’t be able to run into a EU player in the NA servers at all. (Unless overflow includes them?) Not sure. But still, I think it should’ve been decided what server you were playing on in the beginning when it was free and they gave a fair warning.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Delgan.8619:

Kimyrielle.3826:

-IF- guesting would work cross-continent, I’d say the prices are fine. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Completely agree.

This in a nutshell would resolve all problems – WvW may be a huge part of this game but it is by no means the only content this game has to offer or only reason anyone would have for moving from an EU to American Server.

I am just curious as to why a lot of people didn’t just choose the same server to be on—-let alone how does NA meet a EU player and vice versa. I can only imagine you being friends with them in real life and wanting to play but as far as I know, other than gw2lfg.com you wouldn’t be able to run into a EU player in the NA servers at all. (Unless overflow includes them?) Not sure. But still, I think it should’ve been decided what server you were playing on in the beginning when it was free and they gave a fair warning.

I’m actually an old GW1 player, I myself and a number of friends all went off together and the majority did infact all choose EU servers but I have a number of “Friends” who opted to play on a server in America – This previously was never an issue on the origional Guild Wars.

Delgan.8619:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Delgan.8619:

Kimyrielle.3826:

-IF- guesting would work cross-continent, I’d say the prices are fine. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Completely agree.

This in a nutshell would resolve all problems – WvW may be a huge part of this game but it is by no means the only content this game has to offer or only reason anyone would have for moving from an EU to American Server.

I am just curious as to why a lot of people didn’t just choose the same server to be on—-let alone how does NA meet a EU player and vice versa. I can only imagine you being friends with them in real life and wanting to play but as far as I know, other than gw2lfg.com you wouldn’t be able to run into a EU player in the NA servers at all. (Unless overflow includes them?) Not sure. But still, I think it should’ve been decided what server you were playing on in the beginning when it was free and they gave a fair warning.

I’m actually an old GW1 player, I myself and a number of friends all went off together and the majority did infact all choose EU servers but I have a number of “Friends” who opted to play on a server in America – This previously was never an issue on the origional Guild Wars.

Valid point, I am not against the idea, but I think paid transfers are fine as is. What they really need to do is change the guesting system. It benefits both sides. I doubt the guesting system is a technical issue (unless it’s configured differntly than GW1 servers) and if it’s a resource issue, it’ll just take time and gem revenue for them to probably include that option. But there’s no harm in reminding them I s’pose

How much WoW pays truly is irrelevent as the level of dedication to your character in that game is far more severe and costly to maintain than here. I’d compare it to the cost of a server transfer to a game with about the same amount to lose… like shadowbane. Which cost $5.00.

Since WvW is meaningless, there is no endgame to speak of, and since the server populations are so severely out of whack, I’d agree with the others when they say the cost to transfer servers is a bit excessive. Especially since the metric they’re using (server population of target server) seems to be completely erroneous.

I’d like to see them merge realms to shut down the under populated ones (Ferg’s Crossing for example) and cut their server transfer fees in half.

Considering that changing the server cost no money for six months, the value proposition right now is a bit hard to perceive.

Considering you can buy gems for gold i find this price ok. Nobody forces you to buy gems for real money. And i guess in other games you cant pay for server transfer using ingame currency.

Massacrul.2016:

Considering you can buy gems for gold i find this price ok. Nobody forces you to buy gems for real money. And i guess in other games you cant pay for server transfer using ingame currency.

You’re right can’t deny that, but the time required to make 36Gold to be blown all at once just so you can play with friends?

On a game that is based around it’s giant social community unique selling point is restricting people from playing together! No?

everquest used to charge like $50 or$75 per character to transfer servers so i dont think anets prices are unreasonable at all.