In what surely is a sign that some measure of balance has been achieved across Aion servers, NCSoft ended its months-long free character transfer service today.
Players still looking to change realms can do so, but now it’s on a case-to-case basis with NCSoft evaluating each request based on a set criteria. Aion revealed these manual transfer criteria late last month, which basically only allows these exceptions:
- Uniting separated family members who have a history of playing together
- New players who figured they chose the wrong server to sign up on
- Characters of the same faction
If you don’t even vaguely qualify for these manual transfer criteria, the best course of action will be to put up the cash for a paid transfer service. Call it a cash grab, but for those who returned only recently and want to find a new home, a paid transfer could be worth it to avoid the imbalance problems still present in some realms.
Last year, Aion implemented a controversial World Merge that led to an explosion of Asmodian dominance and Elyos whining, forcing NCSoft to offer free character transfers in an attempt to restore order. The manual transfer service–and to a lesser extent, the gated paid transfer service–should stabilize the semblance of faction balance achieved over the past months.
“The manual process is designed to protect the server populations while still helping the players that are allowed to move. It is more labor intensive, but we feel it is a better service for those of you still trying to transfer before we switch to a fully paid service” explained NCSoft in in an official blog post announcing the end of free transfers.