World of Warcraft character move fees waived

@killer32130 i dont think you understand how WoW realms work if you have F2p servers, what happens when they purchase the subscription? they'd still be stuck in F2p servers because you cant just world hop. there will be an unfair advantage then in those servers and people will complain. so then no one will want to play on those servers because the lower leveled/F2p players will always be ganked by higher leveled charactors. and adding servers actually costs money so if not enough people play on them, its a loss of money for blizz and as a business, that's a poor move. besides, Blizzard doesnt need to increase subscribers by offering F2p. They gain enough subscribers annually as is. and despite what you think, blizzards interests and players interests go along the same line. they want more money, we want quality games. they give us quality games, we give them more money. circle continues. They're not going to give us quality games if we dont give them money, and if we dont give them money, they wont make us quality games. Simple Supply and Demand. Take an economics class, maybe you'll learn something. and if you look at it from the Blizz business point of view, the opportunity cost of F2p wouldnt be worth it. so maybe we cant read, but at least we get how the real world works, kiddo

@Slammer612 F2p worlds? They don't have to be on the suscribers world... AGAIN (4th time now) i will say, they could sell F2p for $30+ (forever) You guys still don't get it... your only thinking in your best interest. Blizzards best interest is to get more $/Players, and once AGAIN i will say it will significantly increase suscribers over the course of a year if they were to implement this......................... Does anyone read anymore?

@killa32130 Yes I do see it as freeloaders, and hindering the people who play from playing with insanely long Qs since most of the free2play will want to play on servers that are highly populated for obvious reasons which are already at high capacity. Unlike RS you arent allowed to switch servers if one is full since WoW likes server norms in an economy and guilds. second 10 days is plenty of time to make a judgement on the game, takes about 3-4 hours to get to level 20 if that, and gives you the option of at least 6 dungeons. The only reason why a lot of games have went F2P is because they stopped making a profit which is not the case with WoW otherwise they would. Finally, you do keep your gear when you upgrade to a full subscriber, you do not keep it if you go and make a 2nd account to play the free trial.

@killa32130 fyi you dont lose all your items if you upgrade from the free trial. thats what i did. the idea of F2p WoW though, is not business efficient though. why have F2p when people are willing to pay? my point is that paying for WoW is actually good for the players because it gives Blizzard the funding to 1) Improve WoW and maintain servers (which actually takes alot of work concerning how many people play) 2) Constant support to fix bugs, ban hackers, and all those issues that come with a MMORPG -which both improve the overall game 3) Give them a budget to work on their other flagship games Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo, of which they charge nothing for to play. and despite however rich a company may be, for a large scale game with so many players, there are always server issues, which is why they have maintence days. With 12million players, there will always be someone trying to hack into the system. Viruses change, and code writers get better. and If something goes wrong, Blizzard is going to have 12 million subscribers nerdraging and after their heads. The last thing Blizz needs is people creating mass characters to try to exploit the game and attempting to hack it because its F2p. The fact that they make good games and support them garners my support. If they didnt charge for those services, frankly, they wouldnt happen and their games would be nowhere near the quality they are now.

I've given the the trail a chance twice so 20 days, frankly the fact that you lose whatever you get sucks and is dumb unless you pay before that time expires. My main issue was getting new people like myself to play Wow, not whether you like Runescape, it was an example (Btw it's a browser game = play anywhere without installation, Graphics are very good for that, don't compare them to wow... Plus i'm selling my account for $400 so i can buy a new guitar & amp) My MAIN point was if it offered limited f2p elements like Runescape i bet i would have been playing that right now instead (Suscriber) & the unlock it for free forever you pay $30+ ect to prevent "losing money." From your comment you don't want f2p because it "clogs" the servers up, Blizzard is very wealthy and should not have server issues lol. Like you said they have 12 million suscribers, why not 5 million f2p players? out of that 5 million i am sure 50% will definaltly become new suscribers after a year.

@killa32120 (2/2) Theres not much end game armor/gear in Rs at all. you have your godwars armor, dragon, and maybe something else while as WoW progresses, new raid content is released giving players another Tier of armor and weapons to obtain through defeating the bosses inside them. there's also different armor for each class of character and each piece looks tons different from others. just google it. Also class doesnt restrict what you can do. you can make more than one charactor and each class plays different so you get a whole ton of replayability. they have different skills, different perks, wear different kinds of armor and use different kinds of weapons so not everyone is carrying around the abby whip in their bandos armor. You have obviously never played WoW for a good amount (if any) so i would say that you need to look through the eyes of others and maybe actually play it so you have an idea what im talking about? and dont say i havent looked through the eyes of others. i know what you are talking about. I've played Rs since classic and i've seen the new stuff. and frankly im saying that Rs is terrible compaired to wow. yes it costs $15 to play but its darn worth it to pay the 15 bucks and play WoW with all of its polished game mechanics instead not paying for WoW and having it end up a shell of a game called Runescape. again, TLDR $15 WoW > Free/$5 Rs actually i take that back Free Trial WoW > $Rs

@killa32130 (1/2) I'm pretty sure i logged on a few days ago and graphics still look like ****. and yes i've seen Rs's "expansions" and frankly i wasnt impressed. hence i dont play anymore. plus the F2p hasnt gotten much either in terms of new content. Who said anything bout "spawn points?" im taking about literal starting zones. in WoW there are 10 different zones that you start in when you first begin playing with their own story depending on your race, and it all ties together with the big picture. You obviously don't know what you're talking about if you think Fally, Lumby, and whatnot are starting zones. and i've seen the "Raid Content" in Rs and frankly.. they ARE just minigames. Try to play WoW Raid Content. You might actually get somewhere. Grand Exchange was a terrible idea along with the trade cap. i played Classic Rs up til they changed all that stuff because it was stupid. PvP worlds? yeah okay, maybe if PvP in Rs actually took skill. and PLEASE dont say they do. because it doesnt. i've played it. Does Rs have competitive ranked arenas that give rewards at the end of its season based on your Team Ranking? does it even support PvP teams or do u just meet up with a bunch of randoms and gank people? Actual Guild System > Clan system. do you get guild perks? guild rewards for doing things as a guild? guild chat and guild talbard? guild affiliation under your charactor name that everyone can see? guild reputation?

@Sleeping_Badger Lol... LOOK THROUGH THE EYES OF OTHERS FOR ONCE... And you clearly have not played Runescape for many years judging from your comment? LargeScale expansions? they do that and it's free. Combats the same for now. A Econemy? There are like 5 other spawn locations, not just lumbridge. Raid content? There are minigames on that. It's called the Grandexchange and they have charts on the main site to tell you whats droping and rising (Go to the tower, put money in for W/e and get your item for higher or lower, depends on the seller). Graphical improvments were made last year to HD and they're really good for a browser game. They Made PVP worlds. They added a Dungeoneering skill, theres a demo on their site. Class limits you because then your stuck with that class. There is a Clan system. Most high lvl Armour looks fine. Races? Who cares? Underwater, there is a area for it, not huge though. My Arguments alot better then yours... Dunno when you were in grade 6, but ALOT has changed in that game since you played, the bad thing is you did not look into it to make sure you were right before posting.

@killa32130 Go back to RS. i remember when i played that in 6th grade. No one gives a care about Rs. We pay for WoW because its actually good. and why would they have F2p when there are 12mil people that are willing to pay to play it? herpderp. we dont need more freeloaders clogging the servers. i mean i would love to have F2p but i also dont mind paying for it because its a great game. even if WoW was F2p, i can pretty much guarantee people will be paying the $15 anyway for the "full" content. Theres no point sitting at level 20 when theres Deathwing to kill. $5 Rs membership is terribad either way. what do you do? unlock more skills to grind to 99... fun. When Rs starts getting large scale expansions, better combat/skill/gameplay mechanics, graphical improvemnts, full guild support, an actual economy, ever increasing dungens/instances and raid content, flying, actual specialized classes, actual PvP and battlegrounds, phasing terrain, armor/weapons that are nice to look at, underwater zones, different races, starting zones other than lumbridge, a story, and something other than standing in one spot for an hour fishing for lobster, I might actually go and play again. but then again, its a $5-a-month game so i doubt any of thats going to happen. TLDR P2p Rs is bad anyway so your argument is invalid

Sadly they won't let us move from a crappy- low population server to a good medium one.

yay!

@Slammer612 You see them as free loaders lol? Did you not read my previous comment? " The funny thing is i paid for Runescape (member) for around 4 years, Why? Because i played it for a year F2p with my friends and that motivated me to get it. If Blizzard did the same i probably would been playing & paying for Wow instead." Blizzard makes a ton of money off Wow, server population should Not be a issue. As ANOTHER example F2p Runescape limits what you can do compared to members, So if you get into the game you can feel justified in paying $5 a month. Man your not reading anything i said, "i realize there is a 10 day trail but thats not enough time to do anything, If they did, to prevent "losing" money as an option you pay $20-30 to unlock F2p forever."

@killa32130 why would they want to go to a free to play model when they already have over 12.5 million people playing it and do not need to go to that model such as lord of the rings or runescape to make a profit? I am sure they have run the numbers through on this, and this is were they will make the most money out of, and that if this changed I am sure it would be under consideration. 20-50% of free loaders = $0, and makes the servers even more crowded than they already are. With Qs to even get into the servers right at the moment is as high as 500 I have seen. No it really isn't that hard to figure out within the 10 day free trial how to play the game at the start. If you have played FPS or dragon age, or any other 3rd person perspective game on the PC it will take 2 minutes to figure it out. If you want to see a hard game to figure out try Ultima Online at the start, or even star wars galaxies is more complicated. Also Runescape has many advertisements plastered on its game unless you fork over the 5 bucks a month for membership (unless they changed the pricing of it since I played it, but I do recall even some ads being pop up.). I would be curious though to see what % of Runescape is Members to Freeloaders.

@Slammer612 The key word you said was "coming back" so your refering to people that have already played the game. If Blizzard implemented F2p like in my previous comment i bet the number of suscribers would jump 20%-50% over the course of a year. Another reason why F2p is a good idea is for the people that are not always on the computer, then they don't have to think "Man i don't have enough time to play this game and i'm paying $15 a month for it." & from what you said " the game is so basic to learn even a caveman could figure it out." Your not getting the point dude, people who are new to games or MMO ect WILL have a harder time fiquring out the best way to play.

You guys complaining about gold or items who really cares? Oh no my epic items from Wrath are gone whelp might as well go quest in Cataclysm for 20 mins and get better gear and gold. @killa32130 obviously with the surge of people they already have coming back to allow this transfer to happen means they do not need your business, and that the game is so basic to learn even a caveman could figure it out.

Which is why I play LOTRO.

This is such a misleading article title. Blizzard have done this several times previously when introducing new realms, it's not exactly new.

Character move need to be a controlled thing. Just imagine that everyone of the millions of active players every morning can just wake up and decide "ok, let's try a new server today". Paying a fee is just a way to limit and control characters migrations, to ensure every server does have a mean number of players. You guys that came here only to $hit on a game you admit you'll never play, without knowing nothing about game mechanics, you had you ego refill for today, now (as another user already suggested) go back to your console. And by the way, I personally moved one of my characters and I did not lost anything in the passage, and the same happened to many guild mates. You don't loose anything, so quit your futile whine about this thing.

They said wow is dead, is that true ?

Teh greediness

they should make it free anyway

Why the hell dont they just let us pick whichever one we want!

Guys the "will not restore lost items" thingy is just a standard warning. I've never heard of anyone having trouble with the transfer service. I've used it a few times. The only problem you could have is if you applied for transfer and then went raiding and got a bunch of epics while your account is pending transfer. You could run into problems keeping those items you got.

@jay_rock_ I don't care if $15 isn't that much, it's not the point. "I don't want to play wow"? Why would i leave a comment suggesting a alternative to get people to play like myself? The funny thing is i paid for Runescape (member) for around 4 years, Why? Because i played it for a year F2p with my friends and that motivated me to get it. If Blizzard did the same i probably would been playing & paying for Wow instead. Get it? Think through the eyes of someone else for a change, just because you dislike it doesnt mean others do.

What about the low alliance population located on US-Detheroc? Why can't we get any free transfers to improve our populace. :{

That all sounds like a double standard to me.....One standard will do just fine thanks.......

LOL!! $25 Transfer Fee? Lost gold and items? Are they kidding? I lost all my Epic items that I spent the last year trying to get and now Blizzard won't recover it because I didn't spend $25 transfer fee? lmao!! That's rich (no pun intended). I'm glad I quit WoW long, LONG time ago. Now I have a reason to remove it from my PC and restore over 35 GB of much needed space. ********************************************************************** @Cwagmire21 Items, gold or progress lost won't be restored? So basically players can take this free transfer but if they lose anything then they're SOL? This doesn't sound like Blizzard at all... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- No, it sounds like Activision. They are the money hungry company.

@killa32130 Ok we know you don't want to play WOW or pay for it go play Runescape already the game sucks anyways thats why its free lol 15 dollars is nothing when you have a job (not saying u don't) just making a point,and its not a bad price with all of the stuff you can do in the game shoot Aion is better then Runescape that game is just boring to me I gave that game a try twice never again EVER...

I'm personally not intrested in paying the monthly fee for Wow, i might if it had F2p elements like Runescape (yes i said runescape.) Why? because then i could get some decent stuff and learn the game, i realize there is a 10 day trail but thats not enough time to do anything. I think they should open a portion of the world up for F2p and put a unit cap on and limit equipent ect, then i may be willing to pay, but i doubt that will ever happen. If they did, to prevent "losing" money as an option you pay $20-30 to unlock F2p forever.

"Blizzard has to be one of the most money hungry companies i've ever seen. I mean I'm still angry over the fact that they charged 60 dollars for one starcraft campaign" Is this garbage still coming up? People who use this argument completely fail at logic. SC2 ~= 29 missions. SC1 ~= 30 missions. I can't help but think that people who complain about this (especially now that the game has been out for a while) have never played the game or are just whining for the sake of whining. I'm guessing the latter since it seems like that's the thing to do nowadays.

$25 bucks is a ripoff and "free" is almost dooming your character. "Sorry if you lost everything, but you didn't have to pay $25." Um, I'll have to pay for three months of service to get back half of my inventory.

Blizzard has to be one of the most money hungry companies i've ever seen. I mean I'm still angry over the fact that they charged 60 dollars for one starcraft campaign

Items, gold or progress lost won't be restored? So basically players can take this free transfer but if they lose anything then they're SOL? This doesn't sound like Blizzard at all...

@ nailfoot: You gotta understand, its a complicated issue to write a piece of code that allows one value of a given profile to be changed, it might take even take dozens of minutes to write it! And then you kinda wouldnt ever have to write it again Yeah, it doesnt make much sense that they are charging so much for a server change. I can see the reason for a small fee to keep players from jumping timelimes for timed events, but that would be more like 5$.

Trying to work up the energy to care....bah its useless, this is pretty irrelevant

Blizzard requires more minerals!

This seems like a good PR and customer relations move to me for Blizzard. It can't cost Blizzard $25 worth of work to move a character, I imagine there is a ruotine written that automates the entire process. Or, is there even a "process"? Simply change the server a character's profile is tied to.

nerds, all of ye!

Yeah, Blizzard needs more money.

thats good news. too bad i cant play with the uk friends i had on runescape on wow. untill that happens i will not play wow

Funny that you're reporting this now just because Cataclysm just came out and you guys wanna be hip. Blizzard does this every now and then and you've never posted anything about it. Good job, you guys. Get back to consoles now.