US <-> EU Migration

[Deleted]

So I wrote a similar thread a while ago about this same issue, but after doing some thinking, I wanted to bring it up again to see if I could find real tangible reasons as to why the transfer of characters from a US guild to EU or vice versa, can't be accomplished. Some background information:

I live in the UK but raid on a US server 4 nights a week. We make good progress and I love my guild and everything about it, however I do sometimes wish I had the option to change to my region should it come to the point where I want to raid early evening and not on EST. I would also love to experience a raid without dealing with 100ms+ latency - at best. This latency may seem trivial to some, but when it affects raid calls, I can sometimes get caught out and die to mechanics when really it's just server lag trying to catch up.

So...

• Blizzard allows internal server migration as a main feature, alongside name changes, race changes and faction change. All of these are just basic data swaps within their database of players
• Chosen data has to be passed from US to EU servers otherwise the same updates wouldn't apply to both US and EU game clients
• Why can't this be done with character transfers? even for an increased price
• With Blizzard's introduction of cross realm raiding/rbg's and battletags allowing for increased socialising with those on other servers, why hasn't a US to EU movement option at least been trialled?
• Even if the option isn't feasible for Blizzard, why can't they give people who wish to change clients a new character on their new chosen US/EU realm that is a copy of their current character?
• For example: I have a level 90 Warrior on a US server, if I chose to migrate to an EU client, I'd like to have a new Warrior with the same level/gear waiting for me on my new server so i could pick up where I left off.
• I wouldn't mind paying an increased fee for this, since it would allow me to play literally on my own time instead of meeting raid times in the middle of the night and having to deal with sometimes game changing latency. Plus not having to level from 1 to 90, acquire all the gear and achievements again would be more than worth an increased price tag.

My main concern out of all of this, above all the lag issues and time difference, is having a similar thing happen to when I started Diablo 3. Because all my friends from WoW (naturally) started playing on US servers I began there too. But an update appeared sometime after the game released and deleted all of my characters and forced me to play on EU servers, starting from scratch. I came to the conclusion it probably had something to do with the RMAH due to currency conversion perhaps giving me cheaper prices for items.

If this happened with WoW at any point, it would legitimately piss me off due to the countless hours I'd put into this character and community I had joined over the past 2 years. I don't want to quit WoW, but it would ruin the game for me if Blizzard decided to make this change. And from all I've written here, and all the thinking I've done, I don't see why there isn't an option at least in the works for us to transfer to where we want to go.

[Xantrus]

Having recently moved from the Americas to the UK and having to start afresh with a new account, I would certainly love to be able to transfer my characters over, giving up my rank 14 warrior, gladiator mounts etc. was a pain. However, I doubt it is a service that will be offered, the servers aren't connected in any way, it would probably be as bad as exporting data and emailing it to the EU people.

[Thyranne]

Having recently moved from the Americas to the UK and having to start afresh with a new account, I would certainly love to be able to transfer my characters over, giving up my rank 14 warrior, gladiator mounts etc. was a pain. However, I doubt it is a service that will be offered, the servers aren't connected in any way, it would probably be as bad as exporting data and emailing it to the EU people.

They are all connected to Battle.net

[Xantrus]

They are all connected to Battle.net

eu.battle net and us.battle net

Separate.

[Phaesimvrotos]

eu.battle net and us.battle net

Separate.

So seperate that for this to be done you would need a second account... Though... in HotS (new SCII exp) you will be able to choose the region you want to play in with the same account... Something similar has more possibilities to be done in WoW as well instead of just character transfer... Except if they transfer your whole account to EU from US... The HotS feature I mentioned is essential though if you want to have one char in EU and another in US and I don't think they even consider implementing it in WoW...

[Thyranne]

eu.battle net and us.battle net

Separate.

They aren't. A blue (and a GM in game) told me I can put my EU WoW under the same Battle.net account that is my US WoW.

I wanted to do it because of account wide achievements, mounts and pets. But later I discovered it'd not work cross regions

[Deleted]

Just because accounts are connected at an abstract level does not mean accounts are connected across logical and physical layers. It is not just a matter of inserting data from one DB to another. The issue isn't what client you use its the backend architecture was (probably) never designed to be able to facilitate region transfers.

[vizzle]

You really can't blame your death on 100ms. Honestly.

[Thyranne]

Just because accounts are connected at an abstract level does not mean accounts are connected across logical and physical layers. It is not just a matter of inserting data from one DB to another. The issue isn't what client you use its the backend architecture was (probably) never designed to be able to facilitate region transfers.

You can use the same client to connect to US and EU. All you have to do is change a line in a file called Realmlist.wtf (but I think they changed it).

[Deleted]

I believe they have no feature implemented that lets you do this. I also believe that this is totally not understandable.
They could charge some $$ for it, and even if it meant a US Blizz employee emailing an EU Blizz employee a fucking .zip file with the data for my toons, that should be doable and would be a feature many people would love.
You really cannot tell me in all honesty that it wasn't possible to transfer a bunch of database entries.

[Deleted]

You really can't blame your death on 100ms. Honestly.

I did say 100ms'+', I'd be lucky if I did get 100ms since a lot of people I raid with come close to that under heavy fight mechanics/spell effects and they're only a state or two away from server location. Usually in a typical 25m fight I'm at 130-140ms at any given time which does make a difference. For example, Zor'loks 'Attenuation' ability as a melee can catch you out at the best of times, and when you're dealing with 130ms game latency, and ventrilo latency of the approximately the same amount, unless you're very quick off the mark, you're going to die from it. The same thing occurred in Dragonsoul, Morchok's 'Stomp' on heroic would frequently kill me even though on my screen I was max melee range, in game I was too close. It does happen and can definitely be an issue at endgame raiding.

I believe they have no feature implemented that lets you do this. I also believe that this is totally not understandable.
They could charge some $$ for it, and even if it meant a US Blizz employee emailing an EU Blizz employee a fucking .zip file with the data for my toons, that should be doable and would be a feature many people would love.
You really cannot tell me in all honesty that it wasn't possible to transfer a bunch of database entries.

In a nutshell this is what I'm trying to say. It seems laughable that in this day and age, a matter of transferring character data from one continent to another is an impossibility for a company as huge and diverse as Blizzard. They created the worlds largest MMO, spanning dozens of countries but allowing players to move a character from servers in the US to servers in the EU isn't plausible?

[Xantrus]

You can use the same client to connect to US and EU. All you have to do is change a line in a file called Realmlist.wtf (but I think they changed it).

Obviously the client is the same!

Pointing a client at a completely different realmlist server doesn't equate to the two servers being linked in any way.

[Vereesa]

I can see where you're coming from and feel tempted to make the remark 'Should've started playing on the EU servers to begin with', but I won't.

While I'm not the biggest tech-nerd ever to have lived, I can't imagine something like a US -> EU transfer being a technical impossibility for Blizzard at this time, however if there are alterations they'd need to actually go out of their way to make, I don't think the service would cater to enough customers to actually warrant using time on developing it.

[Deleted]

I believe they have no feature implemented that lets you do this. I also believe that this is totally not understandable.
They could charge some $$ for it, and even if it meant a US Blizz employee emailing an EU Blizz employee a fucking .zip file with the data for my toons, that should be doable and would be a feature many people would love.
You really cannot tell me in all honesty that it wasn't possible to transfer a bunch of database entries.

They could probably do a load of things but it's their choice whether to do it.

As for emailing a file, like many people complaining about a lack of service you do so without knowledge of how the system works, only your assumption of how, and more importantly you are only thinking of your own single instance, and in this situation, not the number of other people who want the same level of service because you got it.

[Thyranne]

Obviously the client is the same!

Pointing a client at a completely different realmlist server doesn't equate to the two servers being linked in any way.

You missed my second post

They aren't. A blue (and a GM in game) told me I can put my EU WoW under the same Battle.net account that is my US WoW.

I wanted to do it because of account wide achievements, mounts and pets. But later I discovered it'd not work cross regions

[Deleted]

lol when i started to read this post I thought you where actually considering moving to the states in order to raid at a better time

[Xantrus]

You missed my second post

So you have an EU and a US account under the same battle.net account?

How do you log onto your account (web portal), you go through eu.battle.net or us.battle.net?

Can you access both from your WoW login screen, or do you have to change your realmlist etc.?

(not being sarcastic, genuinely curious)

[Thyranne]

So you have an EU and a US account under the same battle.net account?

How do you log onto your account (web portal), you go through eu.battle.net or us.battle.net?

Can you access both from your WoW login screen, or do you have to change your realmlist etc.?

(not being sarcastic, genuinely curious)

I don't. I gave up when I discovered account wide mounts, achievements and pets wouldn't work cross regions . They said I'd have to call them but I was too lazy to do it and have no benefit from it.

But I can, for example, login in my US account in eu.battle.net

If I try to login my US account in a EU server it'll say that I have no valid WoW account for that region (I didn't test a battle.net account that had no game tho).

[Vereesa]

So you have an EU and a US account under the same battle.net account?

How do you log onto your account (web portal), you go through eu.battle.net or us.battle.net?

Can you access both from your WoW login screen, or do you have to change your realmlist etc.?

(not being sarcastic, genuinely curious)

I do too, the US account being a trial. Since the client is uniform for EU and US and connects to a region according to what the realmlist.wtf file says, you'll need to change the information in there to connect to the region you want.

If, for example, you want to login to the Kil'jaeden US server with your account, you'll need to set your realmlist to the US and will be wholly unable to connect to the EU servers until you change your realmlist back to EU.

Hope that was clear enough.

[Xantrus]

I do too, the US account being a trial. Since the client is uniform for EU and US and connects to a region according to what the realmlist.wtf file says, you'll need to change the information in there to connect to the region you want.

If, for example, you want to login to the Kil'jaeden US server with your account, you'll need to set your realmlist to the US and will be wholly unable to connect to the EU servers until you change your realmlist back to EU.

Hope that was clear enough.

Yes, until I stopped my sub for my US account I was able to play both by changing realmlist etc (though after MoP this became a huge pain, they changed something).

That doesn't make them linked at all though, just a client pointing to two different servers.