Have server transfers ruined the game?

Eyeball-Dragonmaw · Post by **Eyeball-Dragonmaw** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:09 pm

I would like to hear you reasons why or why not.

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:51 pm

Don't really see why they would tbh. I can see it being hard on low pop servers when people transfer off, but otherwise what's the problem with them anyway? Personally I'm happy to remain on the same server, but I'm not complaining about the incoming transfers because Horde side went from ghost town to nicely populated over the last 6 months or so

Eyeball-Dragonmaw · Post by **Eyeball-Dragonmaw** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:41 pm

I think it has ruined the whole community feel of the game. One day you have a friend, and the next day they are gone. It seems like there are 100 new names a day floating across my screen in trade chat.

Alanthus · Post by **Alanthus** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:55 pm

Hmmm, don't think it has really, I never really felt any sense of community in the game after the people I initially started playing with disappeared (left for EU or simply quit, the ones that later transferred were not people contributing to a community feeling). I can see where it can be seen as an issue but to be honest the design focus on gear chasing rather than realm cooperation is effective enough at tearing guilds apart for transfers to have only a minor impact.

Hybuir · Post by **Hybuir** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:19 pm

People using server transfers and name changes have been detrimental to the way that people play or how guilds progress. Although you could say that it's killed off some guilds, therefore applying a sort of Darwinism factor, I think that people see it as an escape method rather than a pleasant change.

Server transfers should be every 3 months and free, imo. This would help out server populations but make it so that people choose wisely on what realm they want to be.

Name changes shouldn't be allowed. Although if they're on your friends list the name wont drop off, the chances of having someone that ninja'd your guild bank in your friends list is more than a long shot.

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:38 am

Eyeball-Dragonmaw wrote:I think it has ruined the whole community feel of the game. One day you have a friend, and the next day they are gone. It seems like there are 100 new names a day floating across my screen in trade chat.

There's a lot of new names coming in, yes, but none of my friends have left the server. Plenty have disappeared due to real life though - does real life ruin the game then?

And yeah I'm not a fan of being surrounded by strangers but not being in a raiding guild solves that problem nicely - just be in a friends-only social guild

Post by **Rollie** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:08 am

If someone transfers off without saying a word, they weren't your friend in the first place.

Jokester · Post by **Jokester** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:31 pm

I've said yes, though it's not something I feel overly strongly about. For me it just sort of encourages mercenary behaviour and doesn't positively add to a realms community. This and name changes are a minor annoyance.

Aurabolt · Post by **Aurabolt** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:53 am

After reading this topic I had no idea Server Transfers were such a hot-button issue.

I can see people who tranfer their char from one account to another their WoW Friends don't know about. Me personally, I don't see anything wrong with it if your current server isn't meeting your needs and your're level 60+.

Someone on Gamefaqs' WoW Board said this but ALL Char Transfers should be free--with certain conditios having to be met of course. I see the point that Blizzard's techs wanna be paid for manual Labor, etc. but transfers don't usually take more than 3 hours max and 1 char = 10$ more than a monthy subscription and therefore Blizz is ripping you off.

Overall I applaud people who change servers whatever their reason may be. Mostly for paying however much they spent than anything. I haven't seen much of an impact on Uther from this but I've been wishing folks would be more active during the summer months.

Fiamma · Post by **Fiamma** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:48 pm

Hybuir wrote: Name changes shouldn't be allowed. Although if they're on your friends list the name wont drop off, the chances of having someone that ninja'd your guild bank in your friends list is more than a long shot.

I was in a guild who was halfway through MH/BT progression, and we'd started farming Sunwell trash for the chance at more epix. In two weeks we got the mining recipe to drop, the hardened khorium band recipe, and the sunmotes needed for ONE ring. we had 3 or 4 people who wanted the ring, one of them was a guild officer. So he and his boyfriend (yes, you read correctly, they're literally gay.) who was the guild banker took the ring, 5 or 6 BT recipes, and 3k gold out of the bank, server transferred and name changed. Name changing is BS when paid for, but unfortunately, if you're running away, you can create a character with the same name on your new server, forcing your name to change... There are always going to be ****heads who use the system to get at other people, but what can we do...

Ps. I actually got to this website looking for him, I've been doing census' on Caelstrasz and Dath'Remar (US) trying to find characters who match the professions, gear and rep to find them, so far no luck though...

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:43 pm

Ouch, that is a nasty story! Unfortunately there's not a whole lot that could be done to prevent that; I think most uses of transfers and namechanges are perfectly legitimate (people who made really bad names deciding to fix them for example), but yeah it sucks not being able to find people who steal stuff.

Have you tried http://www.wowprogress.com/detective/eu/draenor for finding matching people btw? Obviously put your own server into it (I just saved my own server into my favourites), but it seems to match fairly accurately where it can figure people out. And as I say that I notice 2 cases on my server where it offers 2 options for the original people of newly arrived people on the server, ok maybe it's not so accurate but maybe a starting point anyway

Fiamma · Post by **Fiamma** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:31 am

Yea I actually did try that page (thanks for the suggestion anyway) but nothing, no details on my server change either, though my boyfriends transfer did show up. If you guys have any more ideas, I'd love to know, these guys hurt a lot of my friends, I don't want revenge, but if I can find them I can warn other guilds of what happened to us

Hybuir · Post by **Hybuir** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:23 am

I wonder if by changing toons from one account to the next you get a new GID... hm.. /Rollie

Fiamma · Post by **Fiamma** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:05 pm

GID? But I'm fairly sure he didn't have more than one account...

But with swapping toons between accounts, I've heard cases where identical twins weren't able to trade toons between their accounts, even when the ONLY different detail was their first names. Honestly, I think same credit card should mean same owner.

Post by **Rollie** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:26 am

Yeah, I'm not doing anything at all with GIDs as it stands.