Trion World have announced that Rift players will soon be able to transfer their characters between different servers, completely free, with a weekly cool down. The ability to transfer characters is a feature that many players have requested and will be added with patch 1.3, which is coming early this summer.
There will be limitations on which servers players can transfer to, both to avoid over-population but also to maintain a certain balance between the Defiant and Guardian factions. These limitations will change as the populations on each server fluctuates, so over a longer period of time you should be able to hook up with all your friends just fine.
I'm sure this has something to do with the history of Telara
Character transfers will include items, currencies, achievements, titles, pets, collections and there even is an option for guild leaders to move their guild elsewhere, complete with its guild level and experience.
“MMOs are all about playing with your friends no matter which server they’re on, and that’s why we’re offering this as a free service to our subscribers,” according to executive producer Scott Hartsman in the announcement. “Rift is both a game and a service, and adding free server transfers is just one more way we can make this the best possible MMO experience available.” This is a refreshing attitude to the genre, rather than squeezing every single penny out of the player base. It will also help enhancing the loyalty of the game, and ensure that servers become big enough to maintain an active player base.
One obvious concern would be servers that become deserted, but only time will tell. Either way, this is great news for Rift players – as other games charge a relatively high fee for the same service.