ArenaNet - Please Hear This: $9.99 fee for 2nd Account Slot Merge

Why people would rather have one big account instead of two smaller ones:

You need to buy expansions seperately
It takes extra time to relog
It is a lot harder to transfer items from one account to the other (you need to rely on others, and often your trusted friends are not online or busy somewhere)
You need to unlock everything twice
You do not have your rank on your second account.
People on your friends-guild list need to add you twice, which causes confusion.


Why people bought second accounts in the past:

There was no way to have every profession in the game.
They were in need of storage.

Both these problems can be solved by buying character slots, which is much more practical than buying extra accounts.

I just want to add to your list.

• You have to gain your Faction (Balth, Kurzick, Luxon) all over again on the second account as well.
• You have to maintain a second email address to have your second account.
• If you choose not to buy a new chapter twice, some of your characters will not be able to gain the new skills or armor.

There are lots of reasons to want this.

Agree, and

/signed

:/unsigned deal with it

Everyone keeps adressing the fact of fame or other account features.

As I stated at the very beginning, I dont care about *anything* on the account other than the two PvE characters. I don't want fame to be merged or anything else quirky! Simply to fill two new empty character slots with the PvE characters from my other account. Go ahead and even cancel the account after that for all I care!

Isaac

Is it? What if your friend quit playing and gives you the account? What if you buy a fully unlocked account with rank 9 off of ebay? I think the big problem with a merge is that there is no way to tell if it is really someone who had two accounts or if someone is trying to buff their account with an ebay pick up - or add free slots from a friends account no longer in use.

There is also a security issue - need to make sure some doesn't merge accounts into theirs that do not belong to them.

Here is another one - say both accounts have full storage and and max gold? What happens to the stuff?

For these reason I could see some sort of limited time frame trade in option where you get your 2nd account canceled out and the 4 slots added to your 1st account (although the problem of is it really yours still exisits and must be solved).

In short - its not so much technical reasons - its logistical ones I think

Most people bought thier second account online directly from NCSoft... after all, you don't need 2 install discs. I'm sure they can track that purchase.

I'm sure they can also check the IP address of the computer you've been logging in from for both accounts.

/not signed

That's part of the enjoyment of the game - managing your money and inventory. Sure, I'd love to have enough storage space to keep every creature drop, stacks of materials, and all the event items in addition to the several sets of armor and weapons for each character.

Buy your new slots and reroll your characters. Get run, power levelled, whatever you need to do. Then give your second account to some needy friend that doesn't have the game and get them hooked on it. Maybe even give them your old characters, if you want.

Please read the request before you respond negatively!

1) You can't buff an account. All your doing here is adding a single PvE character

2) There are no logistics problems! No adding fame, no merging storage, nothing! Just simply copying one pve character and whats soley on that charcter alone onto an empty slot. KISS

3) Identity. Simply put if I have the login and password, its my account :] The could check IP I soppose but simply, just asking for the user and password should be enough

Comon guys, keep it simple here. Anet - we just want it simple. Just adding a pve thats it!

Isaac

Hmm, having 2 accounts means you have to get 2 copys of factions in order to link them both, which imo sucks a little bit. I have but one account, so it doesnt bother me too much, but i cant understand why ANET would essentially punish the gamers that support them most by buying 2 copies of their game, and then are forced to buy 2 copies of factions.

Merging 2 prophecies accounts, and then merging that to the Factions account seems most viable, especially since ANET has shown that accounts are flexible as far as adding characters are concerned. Perhaps the should add a service to allow the players that have supported them most to merge such accounts.

/signed on this suggestion

For those not agreeing with this, at least read the reasoning of those who are in this situation. Don't conclude thinking "It's not my problem, deal with it. /Unsigned."
The way I see it the only ones who are saying '/not signed' are ones who have free slots on their main account (including PvP characters), or if they have another account, they use it for storage and nothing more. So these ones obviously aren't in this predicament.

There are so many people in this situation since the only way until now to have more PvE characters was in fact to buy a whole new account. If we had known that we would be able to simply add slots to our account, likely the majority would have not bought another account.

Again, we don't expect this merging to come free of charge. We know it may be a difficult process, and the majority will be willing to pay whatever fee is necessary.
THEIvo's and Undivine's reasoning at the top of this page explains the situation perfectly. This change needs to happen, please keep this thread alive.

I don't really understand this arguement. Inventory management adds tactical thought in other games, but not this one. In this game storage is really just about how much the server can support.

If you merge two accounts into one it would essentially be just like buying 4 character slots. You still only get 1 storage. So the inventory management thing is moot. Sure, you can have "mule" characters, but you could just as easily have that with 4 individually purchased slots too.

WRONG AS NOTED BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD THEIR ACCOUNTS LOOTED/STOLEN

OR ARE YOU REALLY SAYING IF I CAN GRAB IT I CAN KEEP IT?

but I think that is why implementing "merging" wont be that simple for them. I think they have already looked into these 2 options (merge/buy slots) and after careful considerations, chose to give us the "purchase character slot". (bcuz they are basically going to have the same function.)

With the "merging", so many other things are going to be affected. IMO. they would need a re-vamped account system to accomodate this (as others have specifically pointed out). Though, I do believe (all) players wouldnt mind if this was implemented in later chapters of course. (Anet's choice)

So, I think players who have /unsigned. (as I myself did), have done so bcuz, this is mainly about "slots issue" again, and Anet has made their decision about it.

/The weird thing i also find is that, "merging" could have been a better idea actually to have asked for months ago, than the "buying of slots". but I believe when they said, "No" to it. we moved on and chose the "buy slot" route to fight for... (and it might have been quite a surprise to some, but we got it.)

Added: Hi jgortner, just a question: From your 1st post/last post (^above) , If I am correctly reading this right. You were basically just asking for a Transfer of Character(s) from one account to another. but since, Anet has rejected the request. You went for the "merging" idea, so it can be the whole account, rather than some specific existing slots, bcuz it can be more feasible/reasonable idea? right? /just for clarity /fenx.

Alright, if I can I'd like to summerize exactly how the merge should go down.

You pay ArenaNet to have account B merged into account A. Account A is your primary account and will consume Account B. You provide them with both email addresses and both CD keys and you specify clearly which account you want to be the "primary" account, which we will call Account A. You do not provide them with your passwords, as naturally they will never ask for it. The passwords will be used later when the merge actually occurs.

They tell you that when the merge happens you will lose anything that you left in storage on Account B, and you will have to resolve your inventory before you begin the merge.

They will then stream something to you the next time you log in to Account A that allows you to initiate the merge from the login screen. You go to the "merge" screen and fill the feilds with the email addresses of both accounts and the passwords of both accounts. The email addresses must match the ones you provided to ArenaNet or the merge will not continue. You then click "merge." A message pops up warning you of how the merge will happen and what you will lose on Account B.

When you merge, you lose the storage, unlocks, friend's list, guild memberships, and faction levels on Account B. Your newly merged account (hereafter known as "Account X") uses Account A's storage, unlocks, etc.

Account X has 4 additional slots, and your characters from Account B appear on Account X. Account B is completely deactivated and you can no longer log into it. Account X uses the email address, password, and CD key of Account A.

This merging service will be available for, say, 4 months. After that period, ArenaNet will no longer need to offer it. That should be enough time for everyone with 2 accounts to take advantage of the offer if they choose. They do not need to provide this service forever because nobody will be buying 2 accounts from that point on, since they can instead buy extra slots for one account.

If someone gives their account to someone else, I honestly don't see the harm in it at all. If someone sells their account to someone else for the merge, that is against the End User Licence. In this case it is hard to detect. I'm sure they will use the same methods of finding these exchanges that they use to find the selling of virtual gold or items for real world cash. But since they are only offering this service for 4 months, it wouldn't be a concern for long.

How does that sound?

I'd like to know why it would be difficult. I'm with jgortner on this one...all I want is my characters from one account to be transferred (or merged, whatever) to the other account. I don't give a crap about everything else. Since they can obviously add slots to an account, I fail to see why it would be such a great leap to add a slot to an account and then fill it with an existing character from another account. I would, of course, accept that it's difficult if someone who has specific knowledge about how Guild Wars is implemented explains the technical problems with transferring a character from one account to another. Specific knowledge as in someone who knows the code, knows the database schema, etc. As in an Anet developer. Otherwise, it's just speculation.

People are overcomplicating the problem, IMO. The character name, appearance, inventory, skills, and completed/uncompleted quests/missions would be transferred. Everything global, like fame, faction points, etc., would be dropped. So it's basically adding a character slot to an account, which we KNOW they can do, and then filling it with the data for the character being transferred.

The revamped account system I'm sure would easily be paid for with the money we give them for this service.

And if this is going to be offered at all it really must be done now, before those of us with 2 accounts waste too much money on multiple purchases of the chapters to come.

Why would we need a revamped account system to add a slot to an account and then fill it with character data? When you add a slot to an account, you'll fill it with character data the moment you create a character. Transferring a character from another account just means filling it with data automatically. We don't need a revamped account system to add character slots. So why would we need one to transfer a character?

This actually sounds like a good idea - You cover a lot of the potential hazards and have a limited time offer. - altough I might make it a shorter window - say 2 months from the time slots are available for purchase.

One thing you left out on your merge scree - just so it would be clear - a big ol' warning that says "WARNING: THIS ACTION CAN NOT BE UNDONE- ALL MERGERS ARE FINAL" -- even if there is an issue where someone scans a merge and there is a backdoor undo for the devs, there should be no expectation of this for the players

Finally, would you be willing to submit to a $10 transfer fee for such a system? I suspect Anet would want to cover some cost. Most MMOs have server transfer fees and account merger fess so this would not be unusal - especially since it isnt pay to play

/nice and specific. Undivine. -a nice big boost of revenue. who wouldnt want that. -a prob that may arise is the fact that it has a "time limit" of service. hence, a similar thread like this. but it is a given..

---------------------------------------------------
/felinette
/transfering = account -character -content -slot and probably other criterias that will have an effect, even if you can choose and pick what to touch/untouch...there is still a lot of things to consider with handling it. it isnt a simple cut&paste of data. correct?

-Who is to say they do/dont already have a new system for the adding of character slots.
-why they would need it and why they wouldnt are both speculative. unless you are an insider. .

If it was that ez then they wouldnt have rejected "merging" when it was asked before (not before as in when the OP started this thread. this was asked months ago), and would have given us the option and in turn, not to have approved/confirmed the selling of slots.

/just a thought.

I agree with merging the accounts. My thoughts have basically already been written out in other's posts'.

/signed

No, not correct, because I'm talking strictly about transferring characters. If you read the posts of people who want this, they mainly want to preserve their characters. It's a matter of having characters you've put a lot of time into and that you don't want to start from scratch.

If we stick to just transferring characters as a one shot deal, where you have to transfer ALL the characters/character slots from one account to the other and then the second account is cancelled/shut down/deleted/whatever, then it's really not all that complicated a problem. There would be no pick and choose what you keep and what you don't. All the slots would be transferred with any character-specific data maintained, global account data like guild, fame, etc. would be dropped, second account would be deleted, end of story.

Sure they might have. When planning what goes into a product and what doesn't, it's usually more complicated than, "how difficult is it?" There's all sorts of things to consider. So they may never transfer characters even if it would be easy to do. I'm just responding to all the people who are saying how difficult it would be when they really have no idea. I'm also speculating that it wouldn't be difficult, but I've said that if an Anet developer explains why it would be difficult, I'd obviously bow to the Anet developer.

Essentially, I'm saying that rejecting the idea out of hand because it would be too difficult to do isn't a viable position because there's no evidence that it would, indeed, be terribly difficult.

the OP was stating mainly about transfering "PVE characs". (that is pretty much "choosing".)

I apologize if I misread this, but doesnt that exactly what Undivine suggested except the ability to save some data, which exactly = "merging" = "All, but fame/etc." = again "merging". /just for clarity. /fenx.

/signed but..

It would cost 9.99 per character you are merging and all rank unlocks, etc would take from the count your adding to.

I could see merging the unlocks and taking the "highest" rank of the two not adding. It would also require the cd-key and invalidate the old account.

Why a $9.99 charge for each character? We have technically already paid for those extra slots. I don't mind paying an additional $9.99 to have all the characters of one account merged into another, but I'm not buying slots that I've already bought.

I think the idea of making it a limited time offer is good, and I didn't really think about how long it should be. 2 months is fine.

The warning is a good idea too. Merging an account seems like it may be easy enough, but splitting an account... pfft. Don't bother. Perhaps ArenaNet will have the old account in backup, but I don't think they could track which items on Account X came from Account B and which came from Account A.

And the $10 transfer fee was implied when I said at the beginning "you pay ArenaNet to have..." I would not expect this service to be free.

/SIGNED

w00t! i've been asking for this ever since i bought my second accout a year ago. I bought it to give myself the oppertunity to play all 6 professions. I did, and will keep my characters. But i'll tell you the truth, it's not fun at all trying to get somebody to help me transfer an axe from account B to account A just cause my warrior is on that account. I dont have the luxury of having 2 computers to make transfering easy. Anyway, again /signed. If a-net could possibly find a feesable way to provide this, that would be awesome.

While i'm not opposed to merging accounts, I'd like to point out a small issue that could arise. Lets say you have two accounts, both with 4 characters, each of which has full cash and inventory, and the storage for each account is also full of both cash and inventory. If you merge these two accounts, what should happen to the excess?

Make them designate which one will be moving towards the other one, and the account that is moving can be told to remove all items from storage (onto player inventory) for the merge.

As mentioned, the main problem with merging accounts is not so much the technology but rather how to make this option balanced with the following in mind:

How do the server decide which storage box to keep and which to delete?

How do the server decide which unlocks for PvP rank to keep and which to delete?

The above two considerations alone is difficult enough for a player to decide least a developer. Seening the system as it is right now, merging accounts is a very tricky issue and if not dealt with correctly will result in a very big diasater for GW and all this keeping in mind of potential scams that may occur where you may lose your accounts all together.

How about this solution... make a trade: my second account + any fees for the trouble of making the changes for 4 new character slots on my first account. If people have problems with loosing unlocks, or characters, then they could just keep their second account. But i'd be willing to bet that most people with second accounts wouldnt mind this. Not only that, but anet could delete the accounts they get which would probably free up some space, making things on their end a little easier.

Although i'm not a huge fan of getting rid of the characters on my other account, i'm willing to sacrifice to have all my character slots on one account.

This could be something that anet could accomplish pretty easy, but *wonders to himself* if anet is in the money making business (which most business are), they probably wouldnt give this option, cause they could make more off of selling new slots. And they know there's a lot of people like me that will probably just break down and buy extra slots for their first account.

anyway, now i'm blabbing on...

I think it will be simpler in this way.

In my account B i have a warrior who i want put in account A

I pay 9.99$ + "some fee" to add in account A one character slot who will be filled immediatly with my account B warrior. obviusly the account B warrior will be deleted after the process. no fame , no unlock no anything else merge.

and please stop wondering how difficult the move it will be.

if the databese is structured in a certain way it will require only modify a field , if is not it require more. No one but arena.net developer can tell how hard it may be.

Lishi, please don't make assumptions about how ANet has things setup, you plain and simply don't know. As far as it being a database, it's more likely that it's multiple databases, X for the character, X for the skills, X for the characters equipment, X for the accounts storage. I work with databases for a living, they really don't like having record A merged into record B, especially when info in A, would result in some form of overflow in B, tends to result in bad/incorrect data or in worst case senario, a corrupted database.

I think I need to bring this one up again. Anet has decided to have many expansions in the long run (ch. 3 already in development, expect ch. 4 in less than 2 years time?). I as an owner of two accounts, it would be huge disadvantage to be "forced" to buy 2 copies everytime an expansion comes out.

They should have implemented buyable extra slots in the beginning but now some GW hardcore players are already stuck with 2 accounts or more. So I also agree with this merging accounts idea.

/signed

Whichever one you decide to have the merged account use.

You have both passwords, don't you?

You do a simple > comparison for each numerical rating. Use the higher of the two. You perform an OR operation on the unlocked skills between the two accounts so that the merged account has every unlocked skill of the other two accounts.

Please explain to us all how buying a new account and 4 new character slots is cheaper than buying only a new account and merging it into your old account.

If you gave your password to somebody else, then I have no sympathy whatsoever for you. If your password was stolen by a keylogger, then you need to fix your computer. If you can't demonstrate to Anet that you own the account that somebody has stolen from you, then you won't be getting it back anyways, and this argument makes no difference.

It doesn't. The player decides and the server follows what the player decides.

This is not a difficult problem at all, and the solution is obvious. The new account gets the higher of the two old accounts ranks and faction. It gets every single skill that was unlocked on the old account.

just so ya know... they announced a long time ago that there will be a new chapter every 6 months. Ch. 3 should come in October, Chapter 4 will come in April of 2007, Ch 5 will be October 2007... and so on until they stop making new chapters.

If they did this I think there should be some delay before it actually takes effect, so that if someone does somehow get their account stolen they will have time to tell Anet before the thief merges the account.

I'd pay simply to mege my two current accounts because it means I'd have the same identity and save time and energy logging in and out. It would also reduce the need for muling in which there's always a risk of the other party stealing your goods and ignoring you. HOW this would be done (in the technical sense) baffles me because of the separate email addresses, storage etc.

But... /Signed

I'd pay good money for this service and maybe even donate a kidney to anet

If u guys hv no 2 seperate accounts, U will not know it's too troublesome to transfer items.
(U hv to logout window(not logout GW), switch user(windows) to login another char than put in items & click summit offer
than switch windows again to ur another char to click accpet trade than switch user again back to log out ur the other char,
than switch user back to ur char to continue play! OMG!!!)

I hv 2 GWP & 1 GWF , the GWF is link to one of the GWP.

I will very need of the merging of my 2 GWP. I dont care if the rank stay. I even dont care if my 2nd GWP char if merge could access Cantha or not. (Is fare that it's not cause i didnt buy factions for my 2nd account).
Pls Pls PLs, for the sake of the many loyal supporters of GW. Pls let us hv the option to link our accounts.

/Signed

thread necro of the week.

they said they CANNOT merge accounts due to the way the database is set up not that they are unwilling to do it.

the extra empty slots are giving them a problem which explains the delay so far.

imagine trying to merge an entire account.

not possible not that they wouldnt take your money if they could.

case is closed due to technical difficulties so drop it please.

and yes i have multiple accounts i shift around regularly so i know the small problems.

plan what you are going to shift and put it all together on one character and have another character empty.

join and zone.

drop all items you want to trade and have the other character pick them up.

avoid all the accept/trade switching.

if worried about a glitch do any number of items in multiple drop/pickups if you wish.

much faster