Cost of Server Transfers

[DoctorPepper]

Although I have no desire to transfer servers and it doesn't really effect me, I have to say that the $18 per transfer price tag seems a bit high for a subscription based mmorpg. The reason I say this is because there are a number of highly rated mmorpg (many even F2P) out there now that do not even charge for server transfers, but instead put a time limit on the number of times you can transfer (ie. 1 transfer every 30 days).

I know there will be people who disagree with me and that's fine but how does the general forum population see this? Is it really fair to charge $18 per transfer for an automated service when they are already charging a subscription fee? They are basically charging people to be able to play with their friends at the end of the day and that just seems wrong to me in this type of game which should be promoting a healthy community and encouraging people to play with friends rather than charge for it.

I personally think that in the end this causes more of a hindrance for players as it makes them less likely to connect with friends who may be on other servers and in turn makes it more likely for said players to quit if they are poor.

Also, with the current loot system it would make it difficult to "ninja loot" some gear and then swap servers so that point does not seem valid to me using the current system. Can anybody give me a good reason as to why we should pay additional money for this automated service aside from lining SE's pockets a little more?

Anyways, this is more of a QoL thing than anything else and I didn't see another thread about it so I wanted to hear peoples opinions.

[Astarica]

The cost of transfer is there to discourage people from transferring too often, not because it actually costs anything meaningful to move some data around. Of course there's also greed.

[Pronsolo]

I thought it was $25 a transfer?

[Zantetsuken]

Working as intended.

[DoctorPepper]

How does greed become a factor and why would it have a negative effect if people were transferring too often? You are capped at 1 million gil when you transfer servers and with the current loot system it is impossible to ninja loot anything of value. Also, as mentioned before, usually for free transfer services in other games there is a lockout timer for transferring another time so you are stuck on whatever server you transfer to for at least a month.

[Gucci_Gabbana]

They are basically charging people to be able to play with their friends at the end of the day and that just seems wrong to me in this type of game which should be promoting a healthy community and encouraging people to play with friends rather than charge for it.

It was TOTALLY free for a week or so. Transfer fee is ok with me, it helps in a lot of ways.

[DoctorPepper]

I'm aware and grateful for the free week of transfers. Can you explain to me how it helps in any way aside from providing SE with additional income?

[Sinth]

I'm aware and grateful for the free week of transfers. Can you explain to me how it helps in any way aside from providing SE with additional income?

It prevents the practice of buying cheap in one market and selling high in another. So, for instance, philo items are selling for 50k on Lamia, but only 25k on Leviathan. Someone on Leviathan can buy 500k worth of philo mats, transfer to Lamia, double their money and transfer back.

Transfer costs prevent world-market exploitation.

[Noahlimits]

It's mainly a anti RMT move. It isn't cost effective for an RMT to go from server to server to sell / transfer money to a customer now. If it were free, RMTs would be even worse.

[DoctorPepper]

It prevents the practice of buying cheap in one market and selling high in another. So, for instance, philo items are selling for 50k on Lamia, but only 25k on Leviathan. Someone on Leviathan can buy 500k worth of philo mats, transfer to Lamia, double their money and transfer back.

Transfer costs prevent world-market exploitation.

I can understand this to a degree but a lockout timer for transferring again would negate this in most cases unless somebody is a completely solo player that wants to transfer every other month and does not have any friends they want to play with. Also, as mentioned before there is a 1 million gil cap on transferring gil so the impact on market exploitation would be minimal at best, even at 25k per tomb item you would not even be able to make more than 4 2 star items and then would have to sit on them for over a month and pray that prices don't get adjusted on your old server in order to make it actually worthwhile.