Guild Wars 2 server transfer fee to discourage casual changes

Although ArenaNet is happy to let you try out another server in Guild Wars 2, those who want to change loyalties permanently will have to cough up a fee.

Speaking to PC Gamer, lead designer Eric Flannum said that the team wants players to choose their home server - World - carefully, as it determines both who they'll fight for in the MMORPG's epic World vs World multiplayer as well as what bonuses they'll receive for winning. If they change their minds, they'll have to pony up.

"This fee exists because we want players to make transferring to a new home world a very serious thing and not something that players do on a whim," he said. "Once a player pays to transfer, there’s a seven-day period during which they cannot transfer again.

"The fee should serve as a pretty large deterrent to people looking to jump on the winning side [of PvP events]. Beyond this, a player’s not eligible to receive any of the World vs World bonuses during the match that is ongoing when they transfer.

"Because of our matchmaking system, you can never be certain that your side is going to win the next matchup, so you’d be risking your money without any guarantee of being able to reap the rewards that come with victory."

Don't worry though, if you end up all alone on a server while your friends rock out elsewhere, you can pop over and visit with them.

"A player may also choose to play on any server where they have a friend as a guest. We want 'guesting' to be an easy way for players to play with their friends from different worlds, so we won’t charge any sort of real world money fee for guesting," Flannum explained.

"Beyond that, we’re still working on what other restrictions we might need to impose and will announce more details when we have them implemented."

Guild Wars 2 is expected to launch this year and is currently in beta testing.