[QUESTION] Character-account transfer

mooSe_

FH is my second home
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Sep 5, 2008
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2,904
My brother has recently made a few characters on my account to try out the game (as there is no trial for him to use) and is now considering getting his own account. The only problem is that he would then have start from scratch again and he would like to keep the characters he currently has.
I was wondering if there was any secret way of transfering characters to other accounts that I haven't heard of; or on failing that, if there will ever be a system for this put in place?
I am aware that this could lead to people selling characters to others or some other kind of thing that Mythic/GOA would frown upon but I just thought I would ask because it would be convienient if it were to happen.
 

MagnusGOA

English WAR Community Manager
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May 12, 2008
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224
Hey MooSe,
I see where you're coming from and I'm know there are others in the same situation. I'll check with Billing on Monday and see what the story is. For certain though, I've got my doubts as, like you say, allowing character transfers between accounts is to invite farmers. If at all possible, it would probably be limited to accounts belonging to the same person.

So for now, a tentative no, but I'll speak for you first thing Monday.


-Magnus
 

Bahumat

FH is my second home
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Hey MooSe,
I see where you're coming from and I'm know there are others in the same situation. I'll check with Billing on Monday and see what the story is. For certain though, I've got my doubts as, like you say, allowing character transfers between accounts is to invite farmers. If at all possible, it would probably be limited to accounts belonging to the same person.

So for now, a tentative no, but I'll speak for you first thing Monday.


-Magnus

Without farmers you'd have no meat, milk, cheese, bread etc. They deserve a break imo!
 

Cadelin

Resident Freddy
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Feb 18, 2004
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Without farmers you'd have no meat, milk, cheese, bread etc. They deserve a break imo!

or potatoes...

Also how does transferring a character to a new account help farmers? A farmer would want to get the maximum use out of an account so wasting time having more than one character on it seems silly.

People can sell accounts now if they want. (GOA might not like it but they can't stop it happening in one form or another)
People can also buy Power Levels. Buy a new account then pay somebody to power level you.
With account transfer it might make it slightly easier to buy power leveled characters but if you have a fee for character transfer of £20 that would stop that. Also whats wrong with paying for a character if you want to?
Some people might not have the time to level a character but do enjoy playing the end game. Is that really so bad it must be stopped at all costs?
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
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Dec 23, 2003
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or potatoes...

Also how does transferring a character to a new account help farmers? A farmer would want to get the maximum use out of an account so wasting time having more than one character on it seems silly.

they do more then just farm gold you know. they do PL services aswell and a possible character copy between accounts gives them good arguments for "easy and safe".
 

twix112

Fledgling Freddie
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Apr 16, 2008
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169
they do more then just farm gold you know. they do PL services aswell and a possible character copy between accounts gives them good arguments for "easy and safe".

you seems to know quite a lot about these persons... what did you say you do for a living?? :lol:
 

Cadelin

Resident Freddy
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they do more then just farm gold you know. they do PL services aswell and a possible character copy between accounts gives them good arguments for "easy and safe".

I notice you didn't read the second half of my post regarding PL. As long as the character transfer is to a new account then it is no better than the current situation where you can buy a new account and then pay someone to pl you. If GOA were to charge a small fee for character transfer then that would cut into the farmers profit margin and make it worse than whats currently available.
 

MagnusGOA

English WAR Community Manager
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Without farmers you'd have no meat, milk, cheese, bread etc. They deserve a break imo!
..which is exactly why they can't be allowed to play! I mean, sure, from a business perspective we'd want all the customers we can get. Then again, if we'd allow farmers to play, we'd essentially bring about the fall of this civilization due to them neglecting their wordly duties and that would be bad for business!

or potatoes...

Also how does transferring a character to a new account help farmers? A farmer would want to get the maximum use out of an account so wasting time having more than one character on it seems silly.

People can sell accounts now if they want. (GOA might not like it but they can't stop it happening in one form or another)
People can also buy Power Levels. Buy a new account then pay somebody to power level you.
With account transfer it might make it slightly easier to buy power leveled characters but if you have a fee for character transfer of £20 that would stop that. Also whats wrong with paying for a character if you want to?
Some people might not have the time to level a character but do enjoy playing the end game. Is that really so bad it must be stopped at all costs?
With account trading follows account scams, something our billing team is made painfully aware of now and then after our customers have had their accounts stolen. So the reason we're against account trading isn't for our own sake (technically, we're happy as long as we get subs right?) but for that of our customers who's accounts are ninjaed and or looted by the very people who provide these 'services'.

Additionally, there's obviously game reasons for opposing account and character trading; this is a subscription based MMO and an integral part of a game of this type is that effort (including time) and skill are the determining factors for in-game success - not real life money.


-Magnus
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
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I notice you didn't read the second half of my post regarding PL. As long as the character transfer is to a new account then it is no better than the current situation where you can buy a new account and then pay someone to pl you. If GOA were to charge a small fee for character transfer then that would cut into the farmers profit margin and make it worse than whats currently available.

no sorry mised that part >.<

but its still safer for the PL'd to have a toon transferred to his own account (new or not) then just buying the account. mostly because most sites dont allow changing of the vital account info, such as name and stuff.
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
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..which is exactly why they can't be allowed to play! I mean, sure, from a business perspective we'd want all the customers we can get. Then again, if we'd allow farmers to play, we'd essentially bring about the fall of this civilization due to them neglecting their wordly duties and that would be bad for business!


With account trading follows account scams, something our billing team is made painfully aware of now and then after our customers have had their accounts stolen. So the reason we're against account trading isn't for our own sake (technically, we're happy as long as we get subs right?) but for that of our customers who's accounts are ninjaed and or looted by the very people who provide these 'services'.

Additionally, there's obviously game reasons for opposing account and character trading; this is a subscription based MMO and an integral part of a game of this type is that effort (including time) and skill are the determining factors for in-game success - not real life money.


-Magnus

Magnus, about the account thefts. might be worth looking at how WoW do it with their Blizzard Authenticator? if u dont have possession(sp?) of the one thats linked to the account you cant log in. thus no more account thefts. and if ppl still get "hacked" u can be absolutely certain a account trade has happened and u only need to ban it.
 

Cadelin

Resident Freddy
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With account trading follows account scams, something our billing team is made painfully aware of now and then after our customers have had their accounts stolen. So the reason we're against account trading isn't for our own sake (technically, we're happy as long as we get subs right?) but for that of our customers who's accounts are ninjaed and or looted by the very people who provide these 'services'.

As I have pointed out account trading already happens. You have also pointed out that people already get scammed. As I have said by making it a pay for service you will stop it being used by Farmers as it will cut into their profit margin and they won't do it. People get scammed because they are greedy or un-informed. You can never stop the greedy people from getting scammed as they will be prepared to believe anything. Removing a service will not prevent the un-informed person from being scammed if they don't know about it in the first place. To prevent scams you need better communication, maybe you could add something to the website? A "How to keep your account safe" and reminders when we log in to never give our password out in the same way banks do etc.

If we follow your logic there will come a time when:
CSRs in game lead to people impersonating CSRs.
People impersonating CSRs leads to scamming.
Scamming is bad therefore you won't be able to contact a CSR ingame.
GOA only do this to help you enjoy the game more and for your protection!


Additionally, there's obviously game reasons for opposing account and character trading; this is a subscription based MMO and an integral part of a game of this type is that effort (including time) and skill are the determining factors for in-game success - not real life money.

It wouldn't be too difficult for me to dig up a video blog from the developers where they say something along the lines of; "casual players will be able to compete in RvR" which by implication indicates that time won't be the determining factor for in-game success. Account trading/PLing does take the time invested vs reward to the extreme but there will always be a market for this. What you should concentrate on is making sure that the average person does not need to buy PL or buy items with real money to compete. Investing so much time in preventing anybody from ever getting a PL/items out of game is doomed to failure (as you can already see through the number of accounts that are scammed).
 

Mr_Grumpy

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Nov 7, 2008
Messages
105
The whole character transfer is fubared atm anyway. Got email from tech telling me. Seems the feed from servers isnt *feeding* the web based functions like transfers and realm wars.

Think its connected to why you only see some servers you play on ,with one or two chars showing or why the wrong server / character list shows when you login.


Everquest, to name one, allowed/allows account wide transfers so long as both accounts are held by same person and all details match.
 

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