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WOW faction changes live in the US News

MMO PC News by Oli Welsh

4 September, 2009

Blizzard has made it possible to move characters between the Horde and Alliance factions in World of Warcraft for the first time. The service is only available in North America at present, and there's no word on when it will be available in Europe yet.

Making the change costs $30, twice what Blizzard charges for other paid services such as server transfers or character re-customisation. Name change and re-customisation (necessarily, since you'll be changing race) are thrown in, but a server transfer does not come as part of the deal.

Blizzard also announced that it will be introducing a race-change service for those who don't want to change faction in the future. "Based on further community feedback, we have also decided to offer a race change service in the future. Players who choose to switch races will be able to change their race within their same faction and class. Additional details will be released at a future date," it said on the official US WOW site.

There are many ramifications to changing your character's faction, particularly concerning quests and faction-specific items. These are covered in detail in the FAQ.

It's expensive - but if you do it, you're a traitor, so see if we care.

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Comments: 1-18 of 18 in total

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Azazel
04/09/09 @ 08:55
#1
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Just from a technical perspective - is there a good reason why this costs $30 to do?

Genuinely curious.
sneetch
04/09/09 @ 09:07
#2
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No, I can't think of a good technical reason why it costs anything really. I think the charges are there to dissuade people from race, name, server and faction swapping willy-nilly. If you really want it, you can pay for it but they'd prefer if the servers were more consistent.
lord
04/09/09 @ 09:13
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It probably depends how much database work and ongoing support issues it might generate.

Items like faction and racial mounts will have to be switched. Certain quests might need to be expunged from the log? Also all the reputation figures would need to be sensibly converted. I wonder how they handle region and flight master discovery too.
sneetch
04/09/09 @ 09:28
#4
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@lord

Ok, I couldn't think of anything but you thought of a lot of things. I blame lack of sleep. ;)

Hmmm... I wonder how they'll handle things like the Alliance or Horde only special mounts from say the Argent Tournament.
Shikasama
04/09/09 @ 09:30
#5
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*sigh*

The gullible Hordes (see what I did there?) of the WoW userbase will eat this up and lizzard will make a fortune.

Although at least this provides more value than the upcoming paid race changes. I can't believe how excited people are about paying to change a graphical model
white_frank_white
04/09/09 @ 09:42
#6
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It's not just "chang[ing] a graphical model" though is it?
butler`
04/09/09 @ 09:50
#7
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biggest casuality will be the already floundering sense of community on your average wow server (thanks to paid migrations).
shamblemonkee
04/09/09 @ 09:54
#8
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@ lord - they have preset flight paths that they say are appropriate for the level you xfer at, so obviously some analysis and then popping in the relevant batch of fps
Kremlik
04/09/09 @ 10:01
#9
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The inter-faction race change is more to most players liking considering cata adds more race classes in - theres a lot of wannabe gnome priests and 'holy cows' out there, I'm eyeing it up for a dwarf shammy and a worgen druid at least
actionfitz
04/09/09 @ 10:02
#10
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"Making the change costs $30".

You know when you've been Activisioned!
(or tangoed).
curtlikesmeat
04/09/09 @ 11:23
#11
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Does the server transfer cost $15? Because I think it also costs £15, which in the world of online gaming makes perfect sense.
sneetch
04/09/09 @ 11:38
#12
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@Kremlik
theres a lot of wannabe gnome priests

/e raises his hand guiltily

I have a 40ish night elf priest that I play with some friends once or twice a week, I'd make her a gnome in a second and $15 fee be damned. :)
lord
04/09/09 @ 12:00
#13
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still, $30 is a LOT cheaper than starting a new alt and spending a few weeks dinging. Unless your time is worthless.
JahB
04/09/09 @ 13:41
#14
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Just from a technical perspective - is there a good reason why this costs $30 to do?

yes - if it was free, people would do it constantly (and sooner or later find a way to exploit it).
Canyarion
04/09/09 @ 15:14
#15
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@JahB
That's not a technical perspective, is it?

And Gnome priest is for me a possible reason to restart playing WoW vanilla. And Worgen. Worgen... yum.
Red Moose
05/09/09 @ 10:54
#16
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@sneetch: they are not there to "dissuade" anything. It's a positive action to make "money" from people!
Nephirion
05/09/09 @ 13:51
#17
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The service is only available in North America at present, and there's no word on when it will be available in Europe yet.

So relevant to European Players then :O
cobaltfram
07/09/09 @ 04:39
#18
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Wait, we're incensed that Blizzard's charging an arm and a leg for a service they're providing? Like, we expect them to change their ways for some reason? It's a MMORPG: the endless taking of your money is the point.

Comments: 1-18 of 18 in total

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