How Often Can You Race Change Wow

World of Warcraft'south $25 server transfer fee is infuriatingly overpriced

(Epitome credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

In a genre that has largely gone costless-to-play, Globe of Warcraft is easily the nearly expensive MMO. Though it comes with a free trial (which has its ain issues), you'll need to fork over $40 for the latest expansion pack and sign up for a $15 monthly subscription to really experience Azeroth. I've happily stomached that cost for 17 years considering WoW is a genre-defining titan that continues to innovate and reinvent itself in heady ways. Only every time I've had to shell out more than money to pay for one of WoW'due south different game services like a server transfer, information technology feels like I'm being taken reward of. WoW'due south game services are an insanely loftier price you sometimes accept to pay just to enjoy the game equally Blizzard intended.

Before nosotros get into why WoW's game services are such a negative experience, permit's interruption downwardly exactly what they are and how much they cost:

Boosting a character to level 50 costs $60.
Changing a character's race costs $25.
Irresolute a character's faction costs $30.
Transferring a grapheme to a different server costs $25.
Changing a grapheme's name costs $10.

Here's how those fees compare to Final Fantasy xiv, which is another MMO very similar to WoW in terms of structure and offered account services.

For FF14's level heave, the total is calculated past adding a grade level boost ($25) and the Tales of Adventure ($25), which unlocks the story campaign of the latest expansion. In that location are no factions in FF14, either.

So it'southward clear that WoW's game services cost significantly more than its closest competitor. But what really frustrates me is how often I've felt forced to buy a WoW service in social club to go on enjoying the game. Server transfers feel like an unnecessary penalty to fix problems that accept nothing to do with me every bit a player and everything to do with some of WoW'south most outdated features.

WoW has a population residuum problem

Blizzard should exist working to eliminate every barrier that exists between players having fun together, non monetizing them.

In Earth of Warcraft players are divided between 2 warring factions: Horde and Alliance. Though recent expansions have unified the 2 factions somewhat—at least in terms of narrative—this means that WoW is largely two separate games: Horde players have access to entirely different quests and areas than Brotherhood players. Your faction is more than a loose grouping of unlike fantasy races. The choice matters.

Existence on ane faction means you lot tin't cooperatively play with those from the other. At all-time players tin can co-exist in neutral towns, but there is no way to course parties or groups across factions. Fifty-fifty if y'all could, the game garbles the text chat of opposing factions to simulate the linguistic communication barrier between them. In that location's no fashion to communicate with what is supposed to be my mortal enemies.

This faction system is one of WoW's defining features and is apace becoming its greatest weakness. Having a huge group of players to fight against is awesome, just it effectively cuts WoW'southward population in half, pregnant less people to team upward with. Considering WoW players are divided up between hundreds of different servers, some servers have become more than popular for one faction more than the other. Wildly more than popular, in many cases. Wowprogress estimates that seven of the top ten servers with hardcore raiding guilds disproportionally favor the Horde. Illidan-US, one of WoW'south original servers, has an estimated 22,000 active Horde raiders compared to simply 148 active Alliance raiders. That ways if you want to play WoW's more difficult endgame content, you're likely going to need to start over (or pay) to get a Horde character.

During BlizzCon 2021, game director Ion Hazzikostas admitted that faction balance was one of the biggest issues plaguing WoW today and that there were no piece of cake answers. The faction imbalance not only makes the game less fun for those in the minority on a server, but it likewise oft divides friend groups unnecessarily unless everyone agrees to be on the aforementioned side.

In recent years, Blizzard has merged servers and fifty-fifty implemented complex technology to try and solve the trouble. Connected Realms, for example, link 2 or more servers together to brand them act as if they were ane big server. If I'm an Alliance role player on Illidan-US and I go out exploring, special cross-realm zones volition also ensure I bump into other Alliance characters. It helps, but they're a ring-assistance.

Despite a practiced many US servers being connected to others, there's simply as many that aren't continued. And if yous're on one of those non-continued servers, the faction imbalance can absolutely sting you.

Dorsum when Shadowlands commencement launched, I decided to start over with a new graphic symbol. Almost all of my WoW characters are Alliance, and so this time I thought it'd be fun to play as the Horde instead. But information technology wasn't until I spent most a hundred hours getting to level 60 and playing the endgame that I started to realize something was incorrect. No matter where I went in the open globe I felt similar I was swarmed by enemy Alliance players. I eventually had to plow off PVP birthday because I would routinely get ganked. There were also fewer Horde players to group up with in certain earth quests, and when I got to a high plenty level where I wanted to outset running Mythic+ dungeons and raids, it felt like there weren't very many open up parties. Even finding a decent guild was slim pickings. Having played Alliance characters on the same server, the difference was profound.

I finally realized why things felt so weird when I looked upwardly the estimated population remainder for my server, Lightbringer-US. Alliance characters outnumbered Horde characters on Lightbringer-Usa past an estimated factor of 20. Horde wasn't simply in the minority, we were practically non-existent. What'southward worse, Lightbringer isn't connected to any other server according to WoW's support folio.

What frustrates me is that WoW'south hundreds of servers are not equal, but none of this is communicated to the thespian through World of Warcraft straight. When logging in, servers are only listed past approximate population but don't provide any more granular item nigh the culture of that server or what timezone it'due south based in (beyond broad geographic descriptors like "European"). All of this incredibly useful information has to exist discovered using third-party websites. It makes choosing a server an extremely risky decision that practically requires doing a good amount of enquiry. Adept luck finding that i out, new players.

What'due south unbelievably shitty, though, is that once yous're in that position you only have three options: Pay upwardly, start a new grapheme from scratch and lose all that time and endeavor, or grit your teeth and go along playing. If I wanted to stay on Lightbringer-US, I could pay $thirty for a faction change only I'd have to give up my badass Blood Elf appearance and change to an Alliance race. Or I could pay $25 and transfer to a different server with a thriving customs of Horde players. So that'south what I did.

Why am I having to carry the hidden cost of Globe of Warcraft's crumbling server infrastructure and faction design? This is Blizzard'south problem, not mine.

This is now the second fourth dimension that I've had to pay for a server transfer. The get-go time was years agone when I originally transferred to Lightbringer-US so I could link upward with a grouping of friends in a guild. Talk to any WoW veteran and chances are they've experienced a similar situation. As a thespian, it pisses me off to feel like I'm being taxed just because I want to enjoy World of Warcraft the way it was intended—either directly with friends or alongside a healthy community. Blizzard should be working to eliminate every bulwark that exists between players having fun together, not monetizing them.

I get that these services cost money to discourage players from taking advantage of them, which could theoretically outcome in a bad feel for many players. But making the barrier such an exorbitant fee—over half of the price of the new expansion in some cases—feels scummy, especially in the eye of a pandemic when people are already hurting financially. Why am I having to conduct the hidden cost of World of Warcraft'due south aging server infrastructure and faction blueprint? This is Blizzard'south problem, not mine.

Earth of Warcraft has fabricated some great strides over the past few years to go more accessible to all players. Its new starting zone is a much better introduction for newbies, leveling up takes a fraction of the time it used to, and Blizzard fifty-fifty eliminated the fee to change your character's gender and fabricated it something yous can do as much equally you want, at any time. But there'south even so so much else that makes World of Warcraft frustrating. It's loftier fourth dimension for Blizzard to rethink its arroyo to these services and the kind of bulletin they send to players who accept already invested so much fourth dimension and money into this game.

With over vii years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven'south mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether information technology's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-booty truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming'south greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an unabridged day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he and so played for at to the lowest degree a hundred hours. It was a good demo.