500 diamonds Needed to Change Server...

MODERATOR EDIT: The OP did not include content in their initial post. The thread is about their dissatisfaction with paying 500 gems to transfer servers.

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The gem paywall is in place to prevent what we call bandwagoning, or hopping servers often enough to cause population balance issues in WvW.

You can change servers for free if you delete all of your characters, and I believe buying an expansion grants you a free server swap. I might be wrong though.

Also just in case you didn't know, servers only matter for the WvW gamemode. In PvE, all of the region's (EU/NA) servers are mashed together into a megaserver, so you don't need to worry about not being able to play with friends.

With the WvW alliance system you can "transfer" for free, albeit with a delay (1-7 weeks). Theres no need for them to change instant transfer fees, it can remain as is. Impatient people that want to bandwagen for the zergloot pay for the rest of us.

@"Dawdler.8521" said:With the WvW alliance system you can "transfer" for free, albeit with a delay (1-7 weeks). Theres no need for them to change instant transfer fees, it can remain as is. Impatient people that want to bandwagen for the zergloot pay for the rest of us.

Worth noting that this WvW alliance system does not exist yet and has no known release date. The only way to change servers as of this post is paying the transfer fee using gems.

@Hevoskuuri.3891 said:The gem paywall is in place to prevent what we call bandwagoning, or hopping servers often enough to cause population balance issues in WvW.

You can change servers for free if you delete all of your characters, and I believe buying an expansion grants you a free server swap. I might be wrong though.

Also just in case you didn't know, servers only matter for the WvW gamemode. In PvE, all of the region's (EU/NA) servers are mashed together into a megaserver, so you don't need to worry about not being able to play with friends.

Hi,

Unfortunately, I tried to join a Musician's Guild on Saturday but was unable to because the player I was speaking to (who had invited me to join the guild) was standing right next to me in Divinity's Reach, but unfortunately we couldn't actually 'meet' and interact because I figured out that he was on a different server than I.

It turns out he's on the USA Server, and I'm on the EU one.

It was a bummer because I tried to switch server (it was a simple thing in GW1), but got a message asking me for 500 diamonds which I found quite ludicrous.

It would be nice if players were limited to a handful of server changes per year before a charge is incurred (if there really is an easy with population balancing).

This stops us from playing with friends on different continents.

There are only two Regions: EU and everywhere else (NA). Players usually choose the data center closest to them, but not always.One can always create another (Play4Free) account, at no charge, in the other Region.(Just an FYI: If two players on the same continent choose different Regions, they still won't be able to play together. Conversely, two players on different continents, should they choose the same Region, will be able to play together. It's all about choice.)

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:

@Hevoskuuri.3891 said:The gem paywall is in place to prevent what we call bandwagoning, or hopping servers often enough to cause population balance issues in WvW.

You can change servers for free if you delete all of your characters, and I believe buying an expansion grants you a free server swap. I might be wrong though.

Also just in case you didn't know, servers only matter for the WvW gamemode. In PvE, all of the region's (EU/NA) servers are mashed together into a megaserver, so you don't need to worry about not being able to play with friends.

Yes. Unfortunately cross-datacenter play is not possible due to how the account data is stored.

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:

Unfortunately, I tried to join a Musician's Guild on Saturday but was unable to because the player I was speaking to (who had invited me to join the guild) was standing right next to me in Divinity's Reach, but unfortunately we couldn't actually 'meet' and interact because I figured out that he was on a different server than I.

It turns out he's on the USA Server, and I'm on the EU one.

If the other player was standing right next to you (and you saw him/her standing there) you can't be on different regions (EU or NA), as they don't share map instances.

@Rhiannon.1726 said:

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:

Unfortunately, I tried to join a Musician's Guild on Saturday but was unable to because the player I was speaking to (who had invited me to join the guild) was standing right next to me in Divinity's Reach, but unfortunately we couldn't actually 'meet' and interact because I figured out that he was on a different server than I.

It turns out he's on the USA Server, and I'm on the EU one.

I saw his white symbol on the map, but we couldn't find eachother, and we also tried to meet inside the guild hall but that failed.

It's ok we confirmed that we were on separate continents/servers.

I SO wanted to be in that Musicians Guild lol.

@Jayden Reese.9542 said:I saw 500 and thought it wasn't much. I went on my character just to see and a transfer says 1800 so idk where the 500 comes from. I transferred back in the day when it was free like when game first came out. 500 is nothing honestly to stop band wagoners.

Are you sure about that?

It takes you 1 year to grind 100 gold.

@Jayden Reese.9542 said:I saw 500 and thought it wasn't much. I went on my character just to see and a transfer says 1800 so idk where the 500 comes from. I transferred back in the day when it was free like when game first came out. 500 is nothing honestly to stop band wagoners.

The price depends on how populated the server is. If you want to join a 'high' populated server, it'll cost you more than let's say, a 'medium' populated server.

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:Are you sure about that?

It takes you 1 year to grind 100 gold.

While this point is entirely arguable, one year for 100 gold is quite unrealistic even for the most casual player. You get over 700 gold a year just by doing dailies every day, and grinding 100 gold actively in a farm map will take you a few hours at worst.

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:It takes you 1 year to grind 100 gold.

It definitely takes less than a year to get 100 gold. You'd get far more than that by only doing your three daily achievements every day for a year; actual grinding for gold would get you said gold much more quickly.

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:

@Jayden Reese.9542 said:I saw 500 and thought it wasn't much. I went on my character just to see and a transfer says 1800 so idk where the 500 comes from. I transferred back in the day when it was free like when game first came out. 500 is nothing honestly to stop band wagoners.

Paladawan gets me about 7-10G per event and takes about 20 mins if i decide to sell the Unided grear, even a pretty casual player shouldn't take more than a week to get 100g.

And i'd agree that 500 gems isn't that much and no deterrent to bandwagoners

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:

@"Jayden Reese.9542" said:I saw 500 and thought it wasn't much. I went on my character just to see and a transfer says 1800 so idk where the 500 comes from. I transferred back in the day when it was free like when game first came out. 500 is nothing honestly to stop band wagoners.

Just the mystic coins from logging in for 5 months would have that 100g covered. That is about as bare a minimum as you can get to count as "playing" .

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:It takes you 1 year to grind 100 gold.

I can easily grind 100 Gold per DAY in Istan with minimum effort. In fact, ANYONE can do it, because we don't even need raid/meta gear for it. Even if your play time is limited, you can easily get 20-25 Gold in only 1 hour just by following a Commander in Istan and spamming auto attack.

@Mea.5491 said:spamming auto attack.

or a paper weight on your 1 key :p

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:

@Jayden Reese.9542 said:I saw 500 and thought it wasn't much. I went on my character just to see and a transfer says 1800 so idk where the 500 comes from. I transferred back in the day when it was free like when game first came out. 500 is nothing honestly to stop band wagoners.

or about 15 minutes of real life work...

If it takes you a year to grind 100 gold then I suggest you buy the gems with real money. 500 gems is $6.25. Most people can afford that, especially if they give up soda or coffee for a day or two.

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:If it takes you a year to grind 100 gold then I suggest you buy the gems with real money. 500 gems is $6.25. Most people can afford that, especially if they give up soda or coffee for a day or two.

While this is true, i think its funny everyone focused in on the 100g comment instead of trying to correct him on being able to interact with somebody on the NA server with a EU server account.

@Dante.1763 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:If it takes you a year to grind 100 gold then I suggest you buy the gems with real money. 500 gems is $6.25. Most people can afford that, especially if they give up soda or coffee for a day or two.

I think - taking posting history into account - most people gave up on that.

It depends on what server you are and where you want to transfer. When I went to NA for a bit it was free because I had bought an expansion before. When I went back I had to pay 1600 to go back to my high population server, so I went with a low population one instead, which was only 400 gems.

@Dante.1763 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:If it takes you a year to grind 100 gold then I suggest you buy the gems with real money. 500 gems is $6.25. Most people can afford that, especially if they give up soda or coffee for a day or two.

I saw 3 posts discussing the point on being on either an NA or EU server so I figured it was covered. The cost, $6.25, was not so I posted on that.

500 diamonds Needed to Change Server...Yes, that's the minimum cost. Is there some reason why the OP started a thread without actually offering a suggestion or an argument as to why ANet made a mistake to charge gems for transfers? As ANet has explained (since before the game launched and after): the charge partially defrays the cost of enabling the capability to make it easy to transfer, it discourages people from moving often, it helps keep demand for gems high, and it's within line of what it costs in other games.

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:It turns out he's on the USA Server, and I'm on the EU one.I believe there are several music guilds in NA.

It was a bummer because I tried to switch server (it was a simple thing in GW1), but got a message asking me for 500 diamonds which I found quite ludicrous.Why is it ludicrous? There are lots of reasons why it was possible in GW1 and why it's unrealistic in GW2. (In particular, it would add ping to everyone in EU permanently.)

It would be nice if players were limited to a handful of server changes per year before a charge is incurred (if there really is an easy with population balancing).Sure, it would be nice. It would also be nice if ANet gave away the game for free.

This stops us from playing with friends on different continents.It does. ANet doesn't like the situation any more than you do, they just haven't figured out a good way to make it possible without people in EU suffering a huge performance hit. They realized the situation was unfair in GW1, but it didn't matter as much because there wasn't WvW and there were no open world instances with 80-150 people plus foes.

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Cedric Ambidexter.9174 said:

@"Jayden Reese.9542" said:I saw 500 and thought it wasn't much. I went on my character just to see and a transfer says 1800 so idk where the 500 comes from. I transferred back in the day when it was free like when game first came out. 500 is nothing honestly to stop band wagoners.

lol