Guild Wars 2

SkyShroud.2865:

The transfer cost is meant to be gold sink, the server population status is broken for more than a year since mega server.

How is transferring servers meant to be a gold sink?
Transferring serves costs gems, not gold.
You can buy gems for cash, or for gold. However, the gem exchange cost for gems to gold goes up as more gold is used to buy gems. Which is meant to be a disincentive to buy gems with gold, and use cash instead.

Xillllix.3485:

I think these things should be regulated. Like I said, in ESO it is free to change servers, why does it cost 10$ in GW2? I’ve already wasted over 50$ in transfer fees just because the servers were dying due to lousy matchups repeating months after months.

You spent $50 in transfer fee in the last 3 years. System is working as intended.

atheria.2837:

The lower tiered servers are being decimated by transfers and the larger ones like FA are reaping the rewards of buying – literally – guilds.

It’s wrong

It’s wrong?

What rule or law are they breaking by transferring? You have proof of the transaction of them purchasing a guild?

Have you purchased any guilds? Would you appreciate random posters claiming you did?

TyPin.9860:

pdavis.8031:

True, but they are still paying.
Plus all that gold means that people had to play the game, which is their main goal anyway. But in order to do that, they had to buy an account.
So in the end, Anet gets money and people playing the game. Which is exactly what they want.

However, going on a stretch here, it might mean that the current transfer system encourages to buy more accounts. To a part this might be even true, when someone realizes that sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a new account and start on another server than the actual transfer costs. But again we are only assuming. No1, who claimed that the system actually works, has provided thus far anything conclusive. It might be a reasonable assumption, but it is not more than that. So presenting it as fact is not honest.

The problem with buying a new account, is that on a sale, the initial cost may be lower than a transfer. But there is the time invloved. You need to re-roll new characters, get their traits, gear them out, etc.
The time investment + the cost of a new account, just to transfer is far more than just buying the gems and transferring.
But if you are dead set on transferring for free, you can always delete all your characters, put everything into the bank (i.e. anything non-soulbound), and do it that way. You can transfer for free, and you get to keep your gold, ascended, mats, and any leveling tomes you may have.

Which would be a far better option than buying a new account to transfer.

another often overlooked cost is purchasing a commander tag for the new account.

The idea that transferring to a lower ranked server should be cost less just reinforces the idea that it will be a lesser experience. As if all those poor ppl stuck in bronze are there because they are too economically challenged to afford moving? No. Many are there because they like their community and being the cheap transfer server would destroy their work.

At this point in the games life server politics are transferring are part of the game. The costs are definitely too high and is a barrier to those players and guilds who desire a challenge and would integrate into a new community rather than just bandwagon.

I think what is needed is a way to decouple transfers from fluctuating gem prices.

A quick idea… what if there was an item sold by an npc vender that could be purchased with a variety of currency like karma, BoH, gold or laurels; when activated allows a transfer at character select?

So this thread started getting too long for me to read it up to this point so if this has been suggested already please disregard.
1. Differentiate the server transfer costs slightly (t1-current price, t8 maybe 1200 gems)
2. Adjust each server’s cost the same way the game handles transferring gems to gold or vice versa, done!

Basically I’m on Borlis Pass, say it costs 1300 gems to transfer there, but if I transfer OFF, the price to transfer TO BP goes down 3 or so gems, if somebody transfers TO BP it goes back up a little bit.
If tons of people try to stack a server it just gets more and more expensive, while if people leave a server it will get cheaper and cheaper.

the prices don’t reflect WVW population …..

just because my server says very high like all the others does not mean u have a populated wvw

the only people who would pay for a server swap is a wvw player because EVERYTHING is a MEGA server except for wvw

my wvw has been dead for over a year i have stoped playing
the population is not about to stabilize any time soon … i have been waiting over a year for that to happen …actually closer to 2 years now

after 2 big guilds got in to a fight and destroyed the wvw population … when they moved to new servers

i am not going to change servers every time 2 guilds get in to a hissy fit destroying the wvw population

and i am not going to pay for something that is becoming irrelevant in game because of the addition of mega servers.

server transfer lower then your server should be free

boomersooner.4612:

server transfer lower then your server should be free

No, unfortunately that’s to simple to be good. Massive down movements, pushing their destination server beyond the capabilities of it’s opponents and leaving their source as a victim of it’s opponents was the reason why player once voted for transfer costs.

Assume a guild/group of ~150 WvW-player bored to play T1.
20 of like to play at night, 50 of them like to play at day, 80 of them like to play in the evening. Assume they move to a T7-9 server. They win every match till they reach T2/3, when they start loosing they transfer to a new T7-9 server. This leaves their old server doomed to be smashed till it falls back to T7-9 and enables their new server to smash it’s opponents till it climbs to T2/3.

Just more imbalance in all tiers will be the result.

It’s also questionable that we want a spread out of player, not even T2 has enough player to fill it’s maps.

I would rather vote for free movements UP (till it reaches full, but the population status should be based on active WvW-player(-hours) and not include inactive and PvE-player), such that in the end we get a few full server and we can close several no longer needed empty server.

I don’t see why don’t you just choose good server in launch and stay there. What kind of noob change server anyways.

Junkpile.7439:

I don’t see why don’t you just choose good server in launch and stay there. What kind of noob change server anyways.

There are a bunch of good (not noob related) reasons:

• You don’t like some of those that play at the time you play, e.g. the commander
• You server depopulated as others moved away
• Your server went up higher than you wanted, such that you (your group/guild) that did well before is now always overrun.
• You did not care about WvW when you choose your server, but now you would like ….
• You meet people in PvE/PvP that are on a different server and now you like to play with them WvW
• Your friends move (whatever their reason was, yours is a good one)
• You are curious how is WvW on other servers/tiers
• You are bored of having the same opponents for to long
• You are bored of having the same team for to long
• ….

Transfers only exist for WvW. Frankly paying 22,50$ for a transfer is not worth it as WvW is just a mess when it comes to matchmaking.
And if you really wanted to anyway, you’re better of picking up an entirely new copy of the game during a sale for less then half the cost of a transfer. It’s literally cheaper to buy two new acounts during a sale than it is to transfer.

If you stacked your new character, like everyone else, you’ll very quickly get to lv80 through steamrolling 24/7 in EotM.

There definitely should be a change to the transfer costs, though I don’t think a lower price should be an option. 1800 gems is a decent price for a quick transfer, and if you don’t have the cash gold farming isn’t that hard to gather enough for 1800.

In the interest of transfers though it should be based more on rank, there should be higher costs.

My suggestion would be something in this range:

Conversion into USD
Tier 1: 4000 Gems – $50.00
Tier 2: 3600 Gems – $45.00
Tier 3: 3200 Gems – $40.00
Tier 4: 2800 Gems – $35.00
Tier 5: 2400 Gems – $30.00
Tier 6: 2100 Gems – $26.25
Tier 7: 1900 Gems – $23.75
Tier 8: 1800 Gems – $22.50

Pros:
- Barrier to entering a top tier server is higher, there is already a mass of players in WvW on these servers and adding to the number should be something to really want.
- Entering a lower tier server is a little easier in comparison to higher tier, which gives incentive to switch to a lower tier if your guild is looking to move, or if you are an active WvW player looking to switch to a new home world.
-Decreases Server Stacking as frequently in the higher tier, guild on T1 moving to T2. This would make them more likely to move to T4 or lower if they are paying for their members to move.
- Also by making the lowest price still the high level price bracket it is now Anet takes no loss in transaction fees. (Which is the main reason there is a cost in the first place.)

Cons:
- Cost may be an issue for some that their guild has decided to move higher up in the Tiers. Or if they joined a new guild.
- Negative views from the player base when it’s first implemented, as with every change many will not understand and will grumble.

Switching to Tier 1 when a spot is open should not be easy, and should be discouraged servers need players in the lower tiers so it should be encouraged as much as possible to move lower. Not free as stacking and switching is a major issue with WvW, but definitely something needs to be done.

Side note: I was with a guild that had gathered prior to beta to be dedicated to WvW. At release when switching was free the guild switched servers several times during the free period and the rate at which other guilds were doing the same thing is a major reason why I put the game down and walked away for over a year. Full guild switching will never be something that can be stopped completely but there should never be free range for matches to be stacked because the transfers are free.

Jonesi Blitz.5263:

There definitely should be a change to the transfer costs, though I don’t think a lower price should be an option. 1800 gems is a decent price for a quick transfer, and if you don’t have the cash gold farming isn’t that hard to gather enough for 1800.

In the interest of transfers though it should be based more on rank, there should be higher costs.

My suggestion would be something in this range:

Conversion into USD
Tier 1: 4000 Gems – $50.00
Tier 2: 3600 Gems – $45.00
Tier 3: 3200 Gems – $40.00
Tier 4: 2800 Gems – $35.00
Tier 5: 2400 Gems – $30.00
Tier 6: 2100 Gems – $26.25
Tier 7: 1900 Gems – $23.75
Tier 8: 1800 Gems – $22.50

Pros:
- Barrier to entering a top tier server is higher, there is already a mass of players in WvW on these servers and adding to the number should be something to really want.
- Entering a lower tier server is a little easier in comparison to higher tier, which gives incentive to switch to a lower tier if your guild is looking to move, or if you are an active WvW player looking to switch to a new home world.
-Decreases Server Stacking as frequently in the higher tier, guild on T1 moving to T2. This would make them more likely to move to T4 or lower if they are paying for their members to move.
- Also by making the lowest price still the high level price bracket it is now Anet takes no loss in transaction fees. (Which is the main reason there is a cost in the first place.)

Cons:
- Cost may be an issue for some that their guild has decided to move higher up in the Tiers. Or if they joined a new guild.
- Negative views from the player base when it’s first implemented, as with every change many will not understand and will grumble.

Switching to Tier 1 when a spot is open should not be easy, and should be discouraged servers need players in the lower tiers so it should be encouraged as much as possible to move lower. Not free as stacking and switching is a major issue with WvW, but definitely something needs to be done.

Side note: I was with a guild that had gathered prior to beta to be dedicated to WvW. At release when switching was free the guild switched servers several times during the free period and the rate at which other guilds were doing the same thing is a major reason why I put the game down and walked away for over a year. Full guild switching will never be something that can be stopped completely but there should never be free range for matches to be stacked because the transfers are free.

For the cost of transfering to a tier1 or t2 server it is cheaper to buy a new copy of the game, and make a new account.

If the game is on sale i could buy five new copies for the price of transfering to a tier1 server. Even going to the lowest tier server is still twice as expansive as GW2 on sale. And once you are on the tier1 server i can very quickly level a new character to 80 due to the dominance this server has in wvw and eotm.

Your price scheme isnt a barrier because there are other, much easier, ways to get the same thing.

Transfers are free in other games, Anet needs to justify why we have to pay in their game. It’s not like we get anything out of it.

Dayra.7405:

Junkpile.7439:

I don’t see why don’t you just choose good server in launch and stay there. What kind of noob change server anyways.

There are a bunch of good (not noob related) reasons:

• You don’t like some of those that play at the time you play, e.g. the commander
• You server depopulated as others moved away
• Your server went up higher than you wanted, such that you (your group/guild) that did well before is now always overrun.
• You did not care about WvW when you choose your server, but now you would like ….
• You meet people in PvE/PvP that are on a different server and now you like to play with them WvW
• Your friends move (whatever their reason was, yours is a good one)
• You are curious how is WvW on other servers/tiers
• You are bored of having the same opponents for to long
• You are bored of having the same team for to long
• ….

Pretty sure Junkpile was being sarcastic.

Xillllix.3485:

Transfers are free in other games, Anet needs to justify why we have to pay in their game. It’s not like we get anything out of it.

Tranfer also cost in other games. Your making a hallow point.

What do they need to justify to you? They previously had free transfers and the community spammed the forums with demands to add a fee because many were upset that the masses were transferring in and out of the server around them.

I am baffled by your claims that anyone owes you an explaination. As it has already been explained at least once in this very thread.

Terrahero.9358:

For the cost of transfering to a tier1 or t2 server it is cheaper to buy a new copy of the game, and make a new account.

If the game is on sale i could buy five new copies for the price of transfering to a tier1 server. Even going to the lowest tier server is still twice as expansive as GW2 on sale. And once you are on the tier1 server i can very quickly level a new character to 80 due to the dominance this server has in wvw and eotm.

Your price scheme isnt a barrier because there are other, much easier, ways to get the same thing.

You don’t need to buy a new copy for free transfer, just delete all your toons. Oh wait people like to keep their progression and still use the same account. The cost of a new account is invalid. If someone truly wants to transfer they will pay whatever fee you put in front of them. However the higher it is the more likely they will think twice.

coglin.1867:

Xillllix.3485:

Transfers are free in other games, Anet needs to justify why we have to pay in their game. It’s not like we get anything out of it.

Tranfer also cost in other games. Your making a hallow point.

What do they need to justify to you? They previously had free transfers and the community spammed the forums with demands to add a fee because many were upset that the masses were transferring in and out of the server around them.

I am baffled by your claims that anyone owes you an explaination. As it has already been explained at least once in this very thread.

Changing servers is Free in ESO. It’s just time-gated. You can also guest to other WvW servers too in that game any time you want. Having my money taken and get nothing in exchange it’s really not something I appreciate. Anyway charging for transfer fees is a 1990s idea based on prehistoric limitations, in 2015 companies pay for bandwidth usage: if you download 1GB on a server or on another server it doesn’t cost ANET more money.

And I certainly don’t see why I would have to pay because they can’t find a way balance their game PvP population.

if server transfer prices did not cost more than the price of the game on sale
there might be less multiple accounts . and over all less spying …

but as it is now if u want to change servers it is better to wait for the game to go on sale and get a new account that comes with more character slots

Jonesi Blitz.5263:

Terrahero.9358:

For the cost of transfering to a tier1 or t2 server it is cheaper to buy a new copy of the game, and make a new account.

If the game is on sale i could buy five new copies for the price of transfering to a tier1 server. Even going to the lowest tier server is still twice as expansive as GW2 on sale. And once you are on the tier1 server i can very quickly level a new character to 80 due to the dominance this server has in wvw and eotm.

Your price scheme isnt a barrier because there are other, much easier, ways to get the same thing.

You don’t need to buy a new copy for free transfer, just delete all your toons. Oh wait people like to keep their progression and still use the same account. The cost of a new account is invalid. If someone truly wants to transfer they will pay whatever fee you put in front of them. However the higher it is the more likely they will think twice.

Deleting your characters and rolling a new one are two entirely seperate things.

Argument invalidation, invalid.

Terrahero.9358:

Jonesi Blitz.5263:

Terrahero.9358:

For the cost of transfering to a tier1 or t2 server it is cheaper to buy a new copy of the game, and make a new account.

If the game is on sale i could buy five new copies for the price of transfering to a tier1 server. Even going to the lowest tier server is still twice as expansive as GW2 on sale. And once you are on the tier1 server i can very quickly level a new character to 80 due to the dominance this server has in wvw and eotm.

Your price scheme isnt a barrier because there are other, much easier, ways to get the same thing.

You don’t need to buy a new copy for free transfer, just delete all your toons. Oh wait people like to keep their progression and still use the same account. The cost of a new account is invalid. If someone truly wants to transfer they will pay whatever fee you put in front of them. However the higher it is the more likely they will think twice.

Deleting your characters and rolling a new one are two entirely seperate things.

Argument invalidation, invalid.

Actually I was stating the cost idea. You argued its cheaper to get a new account than to pay the transfer fee. New account comes with non of the perks, no items already prestored in a bank, no gold or karma, no WvW title progression that allows you mastery over siege and other things. At that point you might as well delete your existing account if it doesn’t reset your WvW rank than you get a bonus (I have not tried it on an account that has actually WvW.) And it is free.

However people like to maintain all their items, and gold, and no trade able things that are account bound, say legendary weapons which to buy with cash alone cost more than a transfer.

Just buying a new account or my option of deleting characters would not be viable to maintain things. Therefor people will pay the transfer fee if they want to transfer bad enough.

Jonesi Blitz.5263:

Just buying a new account or my option of deleting characters would not be viable to maintain things. Therefor people will pay the transfer fee if they want to transfer bad enough.

Actually buying a new account would allow you to maintain your current achievements. Unlike deleting all your characters a new account is an ‘extra’. Both options are very very different and one can now choose to either play on the desired server but have to start anew or play at the old but have all the things. But you can for instance send yourself in game money from one account to the other, which in turn will makes things already easier for you. And if you have enough of it, you can return to your already established heroes^^

Don’t bother, anet is more concerned in making objectives auto upgrade and removing the guards buffs than actually trying to make matchup balanced.

pdavis.8031:

SkyShroud.2865:

The transfer cost is meant to be gold sink, the server population status is broken for more than a year since mega server.

How is transferring servers meant to be a gold sink?
Transferring serves costs gems, not gold.
You can buy gems for cash, or for gold. However, the gem exchange cost for gems to gold goes up as more gold is used to buy gems. Which is meant to be a disincentive to buy gems with gold, and use cash instead.

it is because it is. you, as a person, can choose to buy gems using cash but that doesn’t mean that others will buy the said gems using cash. the exchange rate is there for a reason, to sink your golds to make buying cash more valuable and likewise make gems to gold xchange more valuable.