21/01 Free Character Migration

Due to population and faction differences, the following Free Character Migration will be available from January 21st to 27th:

Horde only: Magtheridon --> Haomarush, Tarren Mill, Trollbane, Zenedar
Alliance only: Alonsus, Aszune, Bronze Dragonflight, Bronzebeard, Emerald Dream, Eonar, Kul Tiras, Runetotem, Shadowsong, Silvermoon --> Magtheridon (more about this: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=7575650109&sid=1)

Al'Akir, Ravencrest --> Kor'gall, Lightning's Blade
Burning Legion, Crushridge --> Vek'nilash, Xavius
Grim Batol, Twilight's Hammer --> Dentarg, Dragonmaw
Outland, Kazzak --> Burning Steppes, Haomarush
Shattered Hand, Stormreaver --> Genjuros, Trollbane
Stormscale, Sylvanas --> Spinebreaker, Zenedar

Argent Dawn --> Darkmoon Faire, Steamwheedle Cartel, The Sha'tar

Please note that any migration may be closed at any time should a destination realm's population rise too high.

If you have any questions about this specific migration, please feel free to add them below. However, note that migration is opened based on realm population analysis, not popular demand, so requests for other free migrations will not be responded to.

FAQ: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/charactermove.html

Just to add that in this new thread too...

Q u o t e:
Confirmed for Burning Legion, still not working.

This is being investigated. It's a bit of an elusive bug, considering it affects some players and others not, but hopefully it'll be found and corrected soon.

We found a possible fix for the transfer problem from Burning Legion. Can those wanting to move from Burning Legion please try again now and post a reply here to let us know whether it works?

Edit: typo

Thanks for the confirmation everyone. We'll consider the issue solved. Please report any new issues you encounter, and we'll get on them as soon as possible.

Q u o t e:
Stormscale to Spinebreaker aint working atm, says some other servers I can migrate too vek nilash or something :s

Q u o t e:
Can't transfer :S

Shattered Hand, Stormreaver --> Genjuros, Trollbane

Doesn't work ;(

Q u o t e:
Transfers from Al'Akir aren't working, I keep receiving an "error" in the status column when i go to cehck my trasnsfer status.

Any heads up or solutions or, anyone else experienceing this issue?

Q u o t e:
Btw: I confirm that free migration from sylvanas is currently available to Xavius and Vek'nilash despite of what blizz says. (tested myself)

These should now all be corrected.

Q u o t e:
I would like to inquire if there is any chance to open free migration from overpopulated realms to more than 2 underpopulated realms?

We generally try to keep the number of source realms per destination realm low, as we can never be sure how may will migrate. If many players move from multiple source realms to the same destination realm we risk flooding it and having new queues form on that realm, which wouldn't be fun at all.

We do try to rotate what destination realms are offered to each source realm though.

Q u o t e:
same servers for like last 2-3, give us normal pve servers to move to :p pretty please

FCM is not normally offered between different realm types. If you wish to change what realm type you play on, e.g. RP to Normal (PvE), you'll likely need to use Paid Character transfers.

Q u o t e:
There are still queues to enter the realm and then in Naxx you experiance slideshow fights.
Open up the FCM to other types aswell so the overpopulated servers gets some slack.

We are not as certain as you that opening migration to PvE realms would be a greater incentive than moving to other PvP realms, but it is surely part of the considerations we make. There is however also the added concern of all PvE realms being very well populated already, and free migration there may create long queues. Opening a completely new PvE realm to have a totally unknown number of people move from PvP realms is not very likely.

Migrating to RP(-PvP) realms from non-RP(-PvP) is very unlikely, as past feedback has shown RPers on those realms not being too happy about "importing" non-RPers. ;-)

Q u o t e:
The FCM away from outland has been on and off for well over a year now, are there any results to show for? Yes, players do take the FCM, but how many players do you see transfer back? Or keep an alt on the server and play that instead?

Is there any (public) information about the effects of FCM and if it results in a netto loss of population when seen over a month?

First of all, thank you for giving feedback on the matter. We definitely understand the frustration of encountering queues, and the resulting doubt in whether FCM actually works.

We do not release numbers regarding the FCM, but we see that they do have a significant effect on most realms involved. However, FCM rarely permanently lower the population on a source realm, as the thriving community on the realm brings in more people over time. That doesn't mean the population doesn't drop when FCM is open though - only that it will typically slowly grow back and thus warrant new FCM later on.

Additionally, when there's a long queue on a realm, FCM might not be very noticeable for those who stay on the realm, as those players who would previously just log off when seeing a queue of X will now wait in the queue and thus keep it pretty close to X anyway. There are also other factors impacting the queue, like seasonal events, raid schedules, vacations, new content, etc.

The option of moving to new realms is also always being considered, as that typically draws another level of migration. However, we also have to keep in mind the total population on a realm type (like PvP). Leaving realms at significantly lower population than others is not nice to players on those realms. Yet they are too highly populated for the merge suggestions we see posted on the forums from time to time.

It's not a simple task to balance it all out, and we do understand both too high and too low population is frustrating, but we try to address both concerns. And we do see results, even if they're not immediately or clearly noticeable to the players. :)

Q u o t e:
Outlands player base currntly stands at over 30,000 characters , and your offering free migration to realms with 1500-2000 character base

I'll just say that whatever source you're basing those numbers on is simply way off the mark.

Archiving this thread as the migration period is over.