New Guild Services Now Available, Blue Posts

[Boubouille]

Update - The feature is now available on more realms

As an update, guild services are now available to players on the following realms:

Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Emerald Dream, Garona, Goldrinn, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Nemesis, Ravencrest, Spinebreaker, Sargeras, StaghelmStormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, Wildhammer

New Guild Services Now Available
In a nutshell:

• Guild Master Faction Change costs $40 US.
• The Guild Master Realm Transfer costs $35 US.
• The Guild Name Change costs $20 US.
• You will receive a $10 discount when purchasing Guild Transfer and Faction Change in the same transaction, for a new total of $65 US.

We are in the process of adding new guild services that will make relocating to a new realm, switching factions, or changing your guild name easier than ever before. Relocating your guild to a new realm or faction with this new service will keep your guild structure intact, including the guild leader, guild bank, ranks, and guild name (depending on availability). You won't even need to pack.

Guild members who decide to relocate with their guild may initiate their own paid character transfer. Upon a successful transfer they will automatically be part of the guild when they first log into the new realm. Their guild rank and guild reputation will be intact.

Guild leaders who do not want a change of scenery may also choose to pick a new guild name using another new service.

As a part of the process for adding these new services, we are launching on a single realm (Illidan-US) to perform additional testing for stability and functionality. We expect to be able to add additional realm availability to the service, including EU realms, in the coming days and weeks.

To learn more, read the FAQ below or visit the paid services page.

World of Warcraft Guild Services FAQ

Q. What are the guild services for World of Warcraft?
A. Three guild services are available: Guild Master Realm Transfer, Guild Master Faction Change, and Guild Name Change. These services can only be initiated by a character who is a Guild Master.

Q. How much do these services cost?
A. When purchased individually, the Guild Master Faction Change costs $40 US, the Guild Master Realm Transfer costs $35 US, and the Guild Name Change costs $20 US. You will receive a $10 discount when purchasing Guild Transfer and Faction Change in the same transaction, for a new total of $65 US. In addition, one Guild Name Change is free with the purchase of either a Guild Master Faction Change or Guild Master Realm Transfer. All sales of guild services are final -- no refunds will be given once a purchase is made.

Q. Do taxes apply to these services?
A. Players in select states in the U.S. may be subject to taxation when using a guild service. This includes but is not limited to:

• New Mexico
• Texas

Q. Aside from being a Guild Master, are there any other requirements for the character that initiates a guild service?
A. The Guild Master must meet the same requirements governing the equivalent character-level service (such as Character Transfer), including being at least level 10 (except for Guild Name Change) on an account in good standing. View the Character Transfer FAQ or Faction Change FAQ for more details.

In addition, the Guild Master's Battle.net account must be protected by a Battle.net Authenticator or a Battle.net Authenticator that has been active for at least three days (starting at the time of the first Authenticator-protected login to the game) before a guild service can be initiated. If additional security-related requirements apply to your character, they will be brought to your attention when you initiate a guild service.

Q. Are there any requirements for the guild to be able to undergo a guild service?
A. A guild must be at least level 2 to undergo a Guild Master Realm Transfer or Faction Change. There is no level requirement for a Guild Name Change.

Q. How do the two "Guild Master" services work?
A. When performing a Guild Master Realm Transfer or Guild Master Faction Change, only the Guild Master character transfers realms or switches factions. The Guild Master takes the framework of the guild as well, including the guild vault, level, perks, and achievements.

Q. What happens to my guild members?
A. Your guild members remain in the original guild. The original guild will be reset to level 1 and will not retain its guild bank or any of its achievements, reputation, or progression. You will also select a new Guild Master from the guild roster to replace you after your character leaves. Your guild members will be eligible to follow you to the guild’s new location by performing their own character service (such as a Character Transfer). If they do so, they will automatically rejoin the guild and retain their guild reputation.

Guild members who plan to transfer to the guild’s new location should not quit the original guild – otherwise, they will not regain their guild reputation after transferring to guild’s new location.

Q. What happens to my guild bank, level, and so on?
A. The guild bank, level, perks, and achievements transfer with the Guild Master character to the new realm and/or faction.

Q. Will individual members’ guild reputation be retained when they rejoin the guild?
A. The Guild Master character will retain his or her reputation after transferring, and guild members who decide to transfer will regain their guild reputation when they rejoin the guild at its new location. However, there are two notable exceptions where this does not occur: if the guild member transfers realms before the Guild Master, or if the guild member quits the guild on the original realm before transferring realms.

Q. Is there anything that doesn’t transfer with the Guild Master?
A. Besides your guild members, the only thing that doesn’t transfer is your guild rank structure. You will have to reassign ranks at the new location.

Q. How will my guild members know when this happens and how to follow me?
A. After a Guild Master service is complete, your guild members will receive an in-game mail with instructions on how to follow you. They will be directed to Battle.net account management to initiate their own character service(s), which will need to be purchased separately. This process will be streamlined, so options such as the destination realm and/or faction will be preconfigured.

Q. Will there be an out-of-game notification of a guild realm transfer or faction change?
A. No, the only notification will be the in-game mail delivered to your guild members.

Q. How long will a player be eligible to follow a Guild Master after a realm transfer or faction change?
A. There is no time limit on following a Guild Master to a new location, as long as the guild member does not leave the current guild before Guild Master Realm Transfer or Faction Change is complete. If a guild member leaves a guild that has moved to a new location, or joins a new guild, the member’s reputation with that guild will be wiped after 30 days.

Q. Are there any requirements for a guild member who wants to follow a Guild Master Realm Transfer or Faction Change?/
A. The guild member must meet the requirements of the character service they are undergoing (Character Transfer or Faction Change), including being at least level 10 and on an account in good standing. For the complete list of requirements, refer to the Character Transfer FAQ or the Faction Change FAQ.

Q. How long does a guild service take?
A. Under normal conditions, a guild service takes one to two hours to complete, but please allow up to several days.

Q. Is there a cooldown period for guild Realm Transfers, Faction Changes, or Name Changes?
A. The cooldown periods for guild services are the same as their related character-level services. For more information on these services, please refer to the Character Transfer FAQ or the Faction Change FAQ.

Q. What happens if I transfer my guild to a realm where my guild name is taken?
A. If your guild name is taken on the destination realm, you'll be prompted to pick a new name for your guild during the realm transfer process on the Battle.net website.

Q. Can I customize my character and name when doing a faction change?
A. Yes, the same character customization options offered in the Appearance Change service are included in a Guild Master Faction Change.

Q. I'm ready to move my guild! How do I initiate a Guild Master Realm Transfer or Guild Master Faction Change?
A. Before initializing a guild service, make sure you've created a Billing Profile. (Learn how to create one.) Step-by-step instructions on performing a guild service can be found here:

• Guild Name Change Change
• Guild Master Realm Transfer
• Guild Master Faction Change
• Guild Master Realm Transfer / Faction Change combo

Blue Posts

Player Housing
Player housing, like the dance studio, are nowhere near the ballpark of pet battles in terms of development time. This goes back to the final point I made in my original post. You can't just put a huge list of features on an equal timeline and decide which to throw out. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Faction Balance in the WoW Storyline
I know I did talk about this subject when Cataclysm was the fresh, hot topic. I don't remember what my exact words were, though, and would love to read them again after seeing several people bring them up in this thread.

I'm pretty sure I never made any specific point that an equal amount of story and retribution would be dedicated to the Alliance in Cataclysm, because I was well aware of how most of the story would play out. The Horde made many more grabs for power and dominance when Thrall left. Then Thrall became the protagonist with the evolving story of each patch focusing on the efforts to defeat Deathwing.

The stories of the villains in the expansions so far have had pretty direct closure, but that's never been the case for the two player factions. And one shouldn't expect it to be with the conclusion of any expansion. Things will continue to change and there will be an ongoing tit-for-tat between the Horde and Alliance. If you start the story at Warcraft I and move forward, that's evident. Leaders have changed. Cities have been destroyed. New cities have been created. Land has been gained and lost. The races who have allied with either side have changed.

It's going to keep going and we have no ambitions to decisively make one faction less interesting or cool than the other. That's not a good design philosophy for two playable factions and it doesn't make for a flourishing story.

But you will win some and you will lose some. And the wins and losses won't be at equal intervals for both sides, aligning with the release of each patch or expansion. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Pet battles? Why?
We do add features to the game often based on concepts players have expressed interest in. But in order to dedicate ourselves to making epic games, we also need to spend a lot of time and resources anticipating what gamers of all walks of life will find fun. That's how all of our games thus far have been created. While our design decisions for any game will always be met with mixed reactions, we couldn't be respected in our industry if our approach to game design is always reactive.

You made it clear you don't like the idea of pet battles. It seems there's a decent chance you won't enjoy them when the system's released either, though there's no sense in conceding that absolutely before you try it -- no matter how convinced you are you'll hate it. But, as was said multiple times by Game Director Tom Chilton at BlizzCon, we want more content systems and forms of progression in the game so our extremely diverse playerbase has a lot of choices over what to spend time doing for fun, accomplishment, socializing, a challenge, etc.

I guarantee you a lot of players are really going to love this feature. It's going to be an engaging mini-game that actually has quite a bit of depth and progression, just not in the traditional sense of increasing your character's power. That shouldn't always have to be a driving factor in our content. As the OG players have said countless time before, Southshore and Tarren Mill world PvP battles didn't become popular because there was a tangible reward incentive. The majority of World of Warcraft systems and content, particularly at level 85, are currently directed at enhancing a character's power. While that won't fully change, we want to continue creating new avenues to make that happen as well, such as is the case with adding a third, more accessible raid tier with the Raid Finder, or adding PvE Scenarios to facilitate the quick formation of smaller groups to take on a series of event-driven quests.

But Pet Battles and Dungeon Challenges are very different. With one, you're actually getting a use out of the pets you've collected over the years, in order to progress them in a fun mini-game, unlock countless more pets, and just generally give your character a new depth of style and flavor. Similarly, Dungeon Challenges are difficult 5-player dungeons which really allow you to push your skills and PvE small group coordination to the limits. They'll scale, so the better you do, the better you're rewarded and ranked. That gives your character a new measurement of PvE progression prowess and bragging rights. Plus, you can earn exclusive set designs which are purely aesthetic -- to be used with Transmogrification -- which, again, give your character a new depth of style and flavor.

It's about giving people options in the game to play it how they want to. We have a lot of people playing, so with almost seven years of World of Warcraft on the market, we want to continue innovating features we believe people will enjoy experiencing in this game. And a hell of a lot of thought, discussion, debate, and iteration at Blizzard goes into this stuff, mind you. :)

To address your overarching point a little bit, the way various development resources are expended on creating features for the game is extremely complicated and very unique to each project. That can't be explained in a way that will be fully understood by the community at all times, in all situations. While I understand your point is that no resources should be spent on pet battles, you're really not in a place to make a well-referenced argument about what features in development are taking time away from others you feel are more pertinent. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

[Aerialslayer]

Wow that's expensive.

[Deleted]

pricey, but no doubt it'll be useful

[Deleted]

Good news...

A wall of text explaining why pet battles

[Deleted]

o.o cool

[bas]

wow nice way to steal a guild lol

[Deleted]

So expensive... Blizzard is printing money here!

[Kaneiac]

wow nice way to steal a guild lol

It's only the guild master...I'm pretty sure they can't steal something that they own.

[F-Minus]

wow nice way to steal a guild lol

The old one stays, so people can still have fun with it. The things the GM bought go with him as they should.

[Mif]

In other news, Bobby Kotick just ordered a new Lamborghini to burn for the winter.

[Killmaim Deathbringer]

Holy shit that's expensive. Oh well, i wont be using it anytime soon. As for my raid master perhaps...

[greyghost]

If half of a 25-man raid team chips in $5 to a guildmaster they trust to get off of a terrible server, I do not see the price being that big of a deal ESPECIALLY if people value the guild perks and the saved convenience of not having to re-level a guild (ie, having to slam through heroics they're bored of / grinding daily quests, ect).

This is in best case scenario, though. If the guildmaster and 3 of his/her friends just takes the guild and runs off, then... well, I guess you're paying down a cash bet against Blizzard to see if you can get your stolen guild bank restored back to the members and get banned.

[Deleted]

I still fail to understand why peoples hate pet battles. How the fuck can you hate it? Is it so fucking hard to just say "I do not care about that new thing they add, let others have fun about it". Do your butt get so fucking hurt, because they use time on something else than what you would like? Jesus christ peoples, get over yourself and be happy for those peoples who asked for pet battles.

[Puremallace]

Holy crap that is expensive. Wow Blizz is getting their moneys worth even when Rift proved this could be free. Why are they still pushing this?

[Scaleface]

finally guild name change!

[Deleted]

the hell? didnt name changing a guild use to cost gold? now its $20? thats stupid.

[Deleted]

nice prices blizz nice prices

[-Cynical-]

Expensive? It costs $30 to Faction Change YOUR Character, To Faction Change a GUILD it COSTS $40. If anything it's cheap for Blizzard.

the hell? didnt name changing a guild use to cost gold? now its $20? thats stupid.

Only way to change your Guild Name was to make a Ticket and you could only do it like once in the guilds life time.

[Essenji]

Oh fuck that... Why would they charge for changing the name of a guild? That's just silly. I've personally never really been fond of having to pay for any such services (faction change/realm change) but now they're really crossing a line with me. I know that I wont ever use this thing out of principle. How can they be this greedy? These types of services should be included in the 10 euro per month that we already pay them. Fix it Blizz!

[Deleted]

So they are really going to pull this off with work half done. As i expected, Activision surely did a lot. They don't make games, they make money!