14 DAY TRIAL // Developer ArenaNet has already revealed that it will allow gamers to try out various servers to play on in the upcoming Guild Wars 2 and the company has justified its decision to link permanent switches to a fee of in-game currency.
Eric Flannum, the lead designer working on Guild Wars 2, has told PC Gamer that, “This fee exists because we want players to make transferring to a new home world a very serious thing and not something that players do on a whim. Once a player pays to transfer, there’s a seven-day period during which they cannot transfer again.”
The development team is afraid that players switching worlds and allegiances will upset the balance of Player versus Player events and will also change the way the rewards are distributed so they created the limits to the transfer mechanic.
Flannum added, “Because of our matchmaking system, you can never be certain that your side is going to win the next matchup, so you’d be risking your money without any guarantee of being able to reap the rewards that come with victory.”
The transfer mechanics in Guild Wars 2 will also allow players to move, as a guest, without having to pay any sort of fee to any server where they have a friend playing.
The ArenaNet development team is still exploring the consequences of the server transfer mechanics and says that more limitations might be revealed as the game is closer to its launch date.
Guild Wars 2 will use the same business model as the first game in the series, asking players to pay in order to get the core game package and any expansions and then allowing them to play without any subscription for as long as they want.
The developers might introduce fees for other in-game actions.
Guild Wars 2 is set to arrive during 2012 and a closed beta stage is currently running.