Discussion: Free Character Transfers extended until February 28th!
By
Amanita,
Posted on: 2010-01-29 17:52 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
<3
Another month of roaming about, I love it! 
Any and all spelling, grammar and logic errors are intentional so this post will blend seamlessly into the Internet
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Unbelievable. You, [subject name here], must be the pride of [subject hometown here]!
Huh, I wasn't aware that free server transfers were going on at all.
When City of Heroes announced, a month ago, free character transfer between servers, I thought, "Wow, that's a lot work! Why would they do that?" Potentially, it could be a logistical nightmare, requiring a great deal of staff time and effort to process all of the requests. So, why would a company do it?
The stated reasons were, it's a special holiday treat so you can play with your friends no matter what server they are on. (A holiday treat that lasts the entire month of January?)
Allowing free character server transfers for an entire month is very exceptional, very unusual. Now, it's extended for a second consecutive month? By popular demand?
Why would an MMO game company commit resources to this business action, lasting 1/6 of the new year? Do they hope that free character transfers across servers will help hold onto existing subscribers, make former players want to renew, and attract new players?
Or, do they hope that players consolidate themselves on some populous servers? Leaving them with no choice but to shut down less populated servers?
Is this really a way of getting out in front of an unpopular decision -- to consolidate players on a fewer number of servers and shut down some servers?
In the latest issue of Beckett's Massive Online Gamer magazine, their "2009 in Review" article traces industry highlights and trends during the past year, including:
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Are the current free character server transfers in CoX a prelude to NCSoft and Paragon Studios following this industry trend? | October 15: Citing "the overwhelming success of the recent Free Character Transfer Service," Sony Online closed 12 Star Wars Galaxies servers. Players were given one month (from Sept. 15) to transfer their characters (for free) from one of these servers to another server. |
I would not be surprised to see some CoX servers shut down before the release of Going Rogue.
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I'd be astonished if NCSoft announced any plans to merge servers prior to the release of Going Rogue. Server merges are pretty much universally regarded as a sign that the game is in trouble (recent examples such as SWG, WAR and AoC seem to support that) and to drop that bomb in the run up to GR would be absolutely nuts.|
Originally Posted by Starrbolt
I would not be surprised to see some CoX servers shut down before the release of Going Rogue.
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I'm very unlikely to use the transfers myself, but I'm happy to take it as a sign that NCSoft are happy enough with the state of the game that they don't feel the need to try and squeeze every last $ out of the players.
My two inf.:
It didn't produce the overwhelming flood of transfers they thought it would.
Extending it another month not only makes players happy, it allows them to confirm that.
And datamining the transfers gave them valuable info to help identify RMTers.
I predict we'll see this made permanent.
I'd be even more excited if they would raise the cap on the maximum number of characters per server from the current 36 (total with purchased/free slots) to something more reasonable, like, say, 200 (hey, I have alt-itis!)
TargetOne
"If you two don't work this out RIGHT NOW, I'm turning this invasion around and going home!" - Emperor Cole
It really reaffirms my faith in humanity to see;
"Hey, we'll be nice and give you guys some free stuff while we work on GR!"
"....OMG DOOM! Wheres the catch, huh, huh? S'gonna be server merge, right? Right?!"
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Er... server transfers are made by a piece of software. No human has to do anything.| When City of Heroes announced, a month ago, free character transfer between servers, I thought, "Wow, that's a lot work! Why would they do that?" Potentially, it could be a logistical nightmare, requiring a great deal of staff time and effort to process all of the requests. So, why would a company do it? |
Doomsayers: NCsoft is probably making a lot more money out of the Booster Packs than the character transfers, and they decided to give us a great QOL feature. No doom, no conspiracy.
I'm really happy that the free server transfers are going to continue. I am one of the people who have been using them a lot for events; I've been transferring my main constantly to Justice and back to Freedom to participate in Hamidon raids and other events.
In my opinion, $10 per character transfer was way excessive; quick "server hops" to visit friends elsewhere and come right back would cost $20 each time. And that's really the only use I have for the feature; I know what my "home server" is... but I don't mind visiting others every now and then.
www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
I'm happy, gives me another month to shuffle inf and enhancements around. Was a bit worried that I'd bump up against the 6-a-week limit getting the last of my things transferred, but now I don't have to worry about that.
@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
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How about this one? Took about 5 minutes and isn't PERFECT, but hey.|
Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Well fail on you then >_>
I didn't make the original (sadly) and I can't get the damn thing to work with a transparent background. It just comes up white, which look even worse. So, at least 50% of people get it |
You needed a file format that does transparency (JPEG doesn't). You can use either GIF or PNG (I chose PNG because there's less color degradation).
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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I see what you did there.
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Originally Posted by NightshadeLegree
So in CoH we're continuing to get for free a feature we expected to pay for, whereas in a Certain Other game they're having to pay for a feature they expected to get for free.
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Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Sounds like everything is WAI. |
Originally Posted by NightshadeLegree
So in CoH we're continuing to get for free a feature we expected to pay for, whereas in a Certain Other game they're having to pay for a feature they expected to get for free.
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Muahaha! My plan... it is working!
This is great news. Bravo, whoever made this decision. Heck, it's even getting some money out of me which wouldn't happen otherwise, since I can now justify (to myself) buying extra slots. Shrewd move there NCSoft.
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Truth, when I transfer a character, it takes maybe two seconds to happen and I can log in right there. No human could do any sort of approval process that quickly. Somehow I doubt this slick new technology has been withheld from the EUians.
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Originally Posted by Leandro
Er... server transfers are made by a piece of software. No human has to do anything.
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I think that the Developers probably saw how much money they were making from people buying new character slots to transfer their toons over to other servers and said, "Hell, yeah, another month of this would be great!"
I know I personally forked over $40 already to move most of my Protector toons over to Virtue and Freedom so I could play with my friends who frequent those servers, and will probably fork another $20 to complete the exodus now that they are extending the free transfers.
Whatever the reason, I say "thanks" to the developers for enabling me to play with my new friends with some of old favorite toons.
Good news to me as I made the mistake of moving one character to the wrong server this week.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
I'm glad they're doing this. Thanks to my work schedule which leaves me with only monday and tuesday nights at home, and the fact that two of my best CoH buddies have largely given up on CoH to play facebook games, my characters on guardian and protector are largely gathering dust. Those servers are mostly ghost towns on monday and tuesday nights when I log in, and since my friends are not around, I can't play with them. So I've moved some of my characters from other servers over to virtue, and moved my villains over to Freedom from Virtue and Justice. I will most likely end up buying more server slots, perhaps later this month. Count me in as another who would like it if they raised the max number of server slots from 36 to something higher.
I do plan to talk to my friends who are addicted to facebook games- if they are planning on coming back to CoH any time, I'll leave some alts on Protector and Guardian, where we used to play together. If not, I am strongly considering moving some more alts, at least the ones on guardian.
A (Golden Gate) Bridge Too Far- arc 299315
Crazy NIMBY's, Railroad robber barons, and kickboxing Engineers, Oh My! Go back in time and join the fight to save a San Francisco icon!
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This! |
Originally Posted by TargetOne
I'd be even more excited if they would raise the cap on the maximum number of characters per server from the current 36 (total with purchased/free slots) to something more reasonable, like, say, 200 (hey, I have alt-itis!)
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I have filled up my home server, Guardian, already so there isn't much left for me to use the free transfers on. I would love to be able to assign "slots" to preferred server along with characters.
Thank You Very Much!
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^----- This|
Originally Posted by Starrbolt
When City of Heroes announced, a month ago, free character transfer between servers, I thought, "Wow, that's a lot work! Why would they do that?" Potentially, it could be a logistical nightmare, requiring a great deal of staff time and effort to process all of the requests. So, why would a company do it?
The stated reasons were, it's a special holiday treat so you can play with your friends no matter what server they are on. (A holiday treat that lasts the entire month of January?) Allowing free character server transfers for an entire month is very exceptional, very unusual. Now, it's extended for a second consecutive month? By popular demand? Why would an MMO game company commit resources to this business action, lasting 1/6 of the new year? Do they hope that free character transfers across servers will help hold onto existing subscribers, make former players want to renew, and attract new players? Or, do they hope that players consolidate themselves on some populous servers? Leaving them with no choice but to shut down less populated servers? Is this really a way of getting out in front of an unpopular decision -- to consolidate players on a fewer number of servers and shut down some servers? In the latest issue of Beckett's Massive Online Gamer magazine, their "2009 in Review" article traces industry highlights and trends during the past year, including: Are the current free character server transfers in CoX a prelude to NCSoft and Paragon Studios following this industry trend? I would not be surprised to see some CoX servers shut down before the release of Going Rogue. |
However, thanks for the free transfers.
Cool! I was worried that I would forget to transfer some of my toons and now I can relax again.
Although I'm not sure I'll be utilizing this feature, I went to check what doesn't transfer, and I keep getting a response that "Permission is Denied", and "This answer is no longer available" when I click on the link for the Knowledge Base article. Anyone else having this problem? I would just like to have access to the info, in case I decide to move someone before the end of February. Thanks.
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I rather call it a 'little' compensation for the poor advertising.. rather say 'lack of' on the EU side for this game. Goodies, events, ingame stuff, where is all the good stuff going on? (apart from few events in UK, ironicly).|
Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain
gift horse?
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Good side about 'pulling the plug', NC do give nice stuff. When Tabula went down i got quite alot of free stuff as compersation, now if they would do so on CoH... we get GW2 and B&S beta acces?
(tabula gave 3 months CoH, LA2 and full acces to both beta as launch of Aion).
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
well while this is nice, i want to ask IF and IF they do shut down servers, what would happen to my SG? and base? i have a 1 person SG/VG and I spent a LOT of time building. if it could not transfer, I would be VERY upset. and I assume others are in similar spot.I have used only 7 transfers from the first week,
Fluffy Bunny 1 Person SG
Rabid Bunny 1 Person VG
Both on Pinnacle
Hobbit's Hole 1 Person SG
Spider's Web 1 Person VG
Both on Freedom
Ahh, the d00m starts...
*readies flamethrower, lawn chair and popcorn*
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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I love this, gives me another month to get that character to 50 first!