Cazic Thul is requesting a server merge

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Emperior, May 5, 2019.

  1. Mediik Augur

    +1 for server merges. If it's not technically possible for mass mergers. It's clearly able to happen via transfer token.. or am I wrong? Make the transfers free. Let the guild's sort it out.

    Frankly. I would like there to be 1 server that raiders can call home. I don't know what that server is. Empower the people... we will sort it out. You're just going to cost yourself more subs in the long run.

    Tunare has 1 guild showing progress on TBL\GMM - If anyone should be complaining .. hehe

    Just make server transfers free already.,
    snailish, Metanis and Yimin like this.
  2. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Besides the technical issues preventing server merges (Felwhite plaques?). I would like to know Daybreak's server merge naming policy.

    Here's a hypothetical naming policy/system that I find workable.

    Server Merge Character Naming:

    A character at Level 90 or above is given priority for their name (which weeds out mules, defunct alts, Heroic Characters, and unused accounts). For conflicting names Level 90+, names will be sorted based on Date of Creation. (For conflicting names in the below 90 subset, names will also be sorted based on Date of Creation).
  3. Allayna Augur

    And this is how F2P has affected EQ mentality. If you want something that requires a dev intervention....pay for it. If more and more is given away, the game relies more and more on subs and expansion purchases which equals less content AND less services....see account to account transfers.
    Metanis, feeltheburn and Yinla like this.
  4. Metanis Bad Company

    I'm still in the IT business although somewhat retired. One of the constant buzzwords currently is automation. You can't tell me that DBG couldn't <mostly> automate the character transfer process!

    Then shoot for a 95% touch-free transfer rate! Price them fairly and low enough that people will take advantage and feel comfortable moving even their mules and alts. Say $3 to $5 per character. Not free, but low enough that it doesn't present much of a barrier to committed players. But high enough that DBG can make a dollar or two.

    Then let the various servers compete to become the final destination for each type of player. It would be fun to watch!

    Sure, the low population servers are going to die. But it might give other servers a chance for renewal.
    Mediik and Mintalie like this.
  5. Ziffiz New Member

    Ive been playing on and off on CT since 1999. Rarely raided, just back in the early days really. Im definitely a casual. Alot of elitism in this thread. At some point in time no one in this thread new what GINA was or how to play their character. There is a tremendous amount of information to be consumed covering the 20 years of EQ history. Not everyone has the time or interest in becoming an expert. Every time I take a break and return I have alot to learn and catch up with. I can tell you honestly that though I think I would enjoy raiding some it would not be enjoyable considering the condescension I see here. I feel it would be inevitable that someone would lose patience because I should know something I didnt know although I was never told.

    Casuals are out here, we are spending money. I have 4 accounts, latest expansion. Small guild of a few friends having fun.
  6. Endaar Augur

    The server transfer process is already entirely automated, is it not? What they can't seem to get working is character transfers across accounts, and that is likely an automation issue.
  7. Brohg Augur

    mm, I further bet that no-mergers & no-acct/acct-xfers thing is rooted in whatever structure has stood in the way of eqplayers' return
    Whulfgar likes this.
  8. kizant Augur

    The problem with account to account transfers is they need to have people verify that you own both accounts and they've probably made mistakes in the past. You can't just automate the whole thing.
  9. Tenken Augur

    A thing they could do is add a Transfer Token x1 into the (collector's edition) claimable with the next expansion release?

    Still be about the same price with a little bit more bonuses, An at the start of an expansion probably best time to move to another server to try and rebuild and/or reinforce if a guild could plan ahead.
  10. snailish Augur

    Just do a "20th anniversary free move window".

    1 month you can move from all these servers _________ to these select destination servers. Cazic would be one of the destinations, as it is generally seen as one of the more robust/successful raiding ones.

    Advertise that you are offering this.


    This doesn't take a small server (like say Vox) and force erase it.
    This doesn't mess up people's names unless they opt to move.
    This let's people move that pile of characters all at once. [$25 or one token isn't the barrier, it's multiplying that by characters and accounts]
    This let's guilds agree to move together because it is free.
    This should be a one patch turn it on for the selected servers, next patch shut it down kind of thing (It was free to FV for a time, now only Zek has that).

    This answers the "we need mergers" idea somewhat, and I think leads to more paid transfers down the line after the window ends.
  11. Whulfgar Augur

    I can't understand why is it 90% of the time a merge thread appears .. it's always by "new members" .. and not by a known handle correlated to a verifiable character on magelo..

    That's so.. weird ..
    Mintalie and Allayna like this.
  12. Mediik Augur


    I can't disagree with what you say, F2P definitely wasn't what they thought it would be. But as far as I know, the transfer token doesn't require dev intervention. It's a scripted thing. I can think of many things they could offer and monotize. I'm kind of puzzled why this hasn't happened.

    It's hard to look and see that the server raid populations are trending down. I just look back over the raid progression boards per server and you can see the number of guilds are reducing each expansion. With these trends, a lot of raiders, or people who play the game just for raiding will have to face the decision one day. Fork out the dough to continue raiding elsewhere, enjoy group game, or move on. There are probably some more subtle choices to make. I know that for many people with alts\boxes the costs alone may force their decision. I don't mind paying for these things, but I know many that would simply move on. Too bad transfer tokens can't be tradable. I have enough DBC saved for about 7 transfer tokens. If they were tradeable, I would even go so far as to fund this sort of endeavor with guild efforts.. like trading krono for transfer tokens. Then you would get a monotization aspect along with giving the guilds power to make moves.
  13. smash Augur

    Why should they remove a lot of their income?

    If you wanna transfer you PAY for it, it is so simple.
    code-zero and Allayna like this.
  14. Drogba Augur


    it's something a lot of us do. But as customers should we have to? Do we want it to be this way?

    Wouldn't we prefer the responsibility to be on the developers to fix the population issues instead? Not everyone is willing to server transfer, and we can't make every player pay up.

    Whether someone see's the current population situation as good/bad i'm sure falls under the category of subjective, personally i feel a merge was needed years ago, and now i'm at the point where i feel there should probably only be 2-4 servers to provide an in-game community that is as lively as it were over a decade ago.
  15. smash Augur

    And why should they? There n place that says people can xfer for free, it has always cost money and no reason to change it.

    And from business view, giving things away for free is bad, a small discount is ok as long it give income, the anniv give xfer for free is bad as it sould be pure loss.
    code-zero likes this.
  16. Drogba Augur

    Unsure what the costs are, but it could be to their advantage, for the health of the game.

    If I ever got a full time job, i'd have 2 guilds as options for full time raiding in australia, and they would be fielding 30-40 players. I'd probably just retire if I was in that position. If I was a new player, and the LFG situation was as it is now, i'd also probably be deterred and just retire as well. These issues would be remedied with server merges.
  17. Aurastrider Augur



    Giving things away to paying customers is a proven business strategy that works actually. For example I was just at Costco today. If you have never been to one they require a membership to shop there. They also have tons of samples throughout the store. I probably tried a dozen different samples and in the end I purchased two of the items. Had they never given me the free sample I probably would have never bought the items.

    I understand this isn't Costco and giving out samples isn't really feasible for the most part but understanding what your paying customers needs are and why some of them potentially become former customers is smart business. If giving away random things like server transfer tokens to paying customers keeps people playing and paying it isn't actually a loss as you just retained a customer. On the flip side paying customers do get their free DBG cash every month that they could save and move for free so I can see the argument on that side. Maybe if someone is payed up for 6 months or more they could forfeit future DBG cash claims in exchange for a transfer token which would suit the customers needs now and hopefully keep them as paying customers into the future.
    snailish likes this.
  18. smash Augur

    There is a difference about their free gift, that is to attract you as customer, in dbg case you already customer.
  19. smash Augur

    If i was a new player i would likely play on tlp server.

    If new player i prob not raid and and my friends most likely still there and if they stop there still others. Network still the reason for play.

    And if you ftp then really not care if stop, you do not give income.
    If not ftp you have prepayed so i have got the money.
  20. Aurastrider Augur



    Actually I am already a customer in this case. Pay my annual membership not for the samples but to actually buy from them. The free items are an incentive in this case for me to potentially spend more money if I like the items they let me sample.

    In DBG case it would boil down to the numbers. Do they make more money off of server transfer tokens or off of current customers who quit for reasons xyz that could have been avoided should they been able to move from server to server freely. I doubt even DBG knows the answer to this since there isn't exactly an exit survey.

    At any rate if this really is an issue that is costing them money coming up with a creative solution to retain as many of these customers as possible while still making a profit off of server transfer tokens is smart business. I would venture to say that a customer retained is going to make them more money in the long run off of subs and expansion sales than a server transfer token should this individual not be willing to buy one due to the unknown. After all outside of those who buy them for cross server trading purposes or those who already have an established guild waiting for them on the other side someone might just want to test the waters on another server to see if there are more groups or more potential for raiding. I don't think many are going to take a chance purchasing a token just to be in the same situation they already are in. Sure someone could make toons on every server, ask around if anyone would be interested in grouping with them or adding them to their guild should they transfer but that's starting to sound more like a job and less like entertainment imo.
    Metanis likes this.