why do you need a world pass?

[the_ultimate_shadow]

what is the world pass talk about? im hearing you need a world pass to get on a server of your choosing? im confused, im probly gonna start playing here soon, and i want to know how this system works. thank you.

[Murphie]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

You only need a World Pass if you have a specific server in mind. Otherwise, you'll just be placed randomly when you start.

You cannot choose your server at character creation like in other MMOs. If you have a specific server you'd like to join, request a WP and use that when you create your character.

[the_ultimate_shadow]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

thats stupid. that makes it hard to play with friends, how different is one server from another? (PS. thank you, ur anwserin all my questions tonight :D)

[Murphie]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

It is stupid, but that's how SE wanted to do it. It's easy to get a WP, so it's not really a deterrent.

[the_ultimate_shadow]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

thats stupid. that makes it hard to play with friends, how different is one server from another? (PS. thank you, ur anwserin all my questions tonight :D)

ok, but like i asked before, is one server from another that big of a deal?

[Murphie]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

Not really, no. They are all the same. Some have slightly different enconomies, and if you're looking for like, a large Euro population, that's something you can ask around about (but you're US, so it doesn't matter). So really they are all the same.

[bungiefan]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

thats stupid. that makes it hard to play with friends, how different is one server from another? (PS. thank you, ur anwserin all my questions tonight :D)

Not really. World Passes are cheap, and one person can work up the gil within an hour of farming crystals (usually only one stack of crystals is needed for the gil you need) to afford a general World Pass to invite 5 friends. Otherwise, you can just chain together Gold World Passes and be able to party in the same level range, regardless of how much earlier someone in the party started, plus the EX item benefits you get from that pass.

[Balfree]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

It's hardly stupid.

This way they limit people from overcrowding one server, and having little populations on other servers, as of today all servers have nearly the same ammount of players, the game chooses a server for you, but its not entirely randomly, it checks the population of each server and sends you to a specific place to balance out the population, its actually quite clever. If you want to join your friends, you ask them for a WP, and you can play with them.

For the record, you dont need this for each time you want to play, it only happens once upon creating your character.

[Lunaryn]

Re: why do you need a world pass?

It's hardly stupid.
This way they limit people from overcrowding one server, and having little populations on other servers, as of today all servers have nearly the same ammount of players, the game chooses a server for you, but its not entirely randomly, it checks the population of each server and sends you to a specific place to balance out the population, its actually quite clever. If you want to join your friends, you ask them for a WP, and you can play with them.
For the record, you dont need this for each time you want to play, it only happens once upon creating your character.

Your first character, more specifically; your first character is sent to a server based on a weighted random selection. Any further characters are sent to the same server as your first. You will only need a World Pass for an additional character if you wish to have characters on multiple servers (and this becomes impractical relatively quickly, particularly if you don't manage to establish yourself well in the communities of each server and divide your time equally among characters; I ended up dropping my Remora character after some time, and she was still under level 10).

World Passes are easy to obtain through the game. A standard World Pass has 5 uses and runs about 2.5k; a Gold World Pass has 1 use and runs 1k, and ties you to the invited character for the "Gold World Pass Benefits" item giveaways. Each pass type is valid for 5 days IIRC. The NPCs which sell world passes are located in Heaven's Tower (Windurst's Government zone), Port Bastok, and I think Port San d'Oria? The pass prices are easily within the range of low-fame repeatable-quest gil rewards.

Each Server Forum here has a stickied World Pass Request forum where you can request a pass if you don't know someone on the server who can give you one.

I would recommend doing a little research into the community on the server, as I've heard that a few of them have concentrations of... abrasive personalities beyond what is statistically normal. So far I've had a lot of good luck with Midgardsormr, though.