World of Warcraft character move fees waived

The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion sees a major upheaval for the virtual world of Azeroth, but the changes to Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game will extend to the player base as well. To accommodate the influx of new and returning players, Blizzard today said it will allow free character transfers to and from specific servers in the game for a limited time.

Until December 22, Blizzard will allow free realm transfers from 25 highly populated servers to alleviate log-in queues or performance issues. Although there are a dozen possible destination realms, players will only be able to pick from two at the most, depending on which realm they are transferring from. The official World of Warcraft website has a list of eligible realms and their allowed destinations.

The free transfers are one-way and one-time only. Players who find the destination realm unsuitable will need to pay the standard $25 transfer fee to move their character elsewhere. Additionally, any items, gold, or progress lost during the free character transfer will not be restored.

For more on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.