Rift players will soon be able to frequently transfer their characters between the MMORPG's servers, completely free of charge, developer Trion World has announced. The feature will be added with patch 1.3 "early this summer."

Players will be able to shift to "select servers" in their territory once per week. Trion's FAQ notes that players won't be allowed to transfer anywhere they please, due to concerns about over-population and balance between the Guardian and Defiant factions. However, the servers open to transfers may change as players ebb and flow.

Trion says that players will take their "items, currencies, achievements, titles, pets, collections, and heck, maybe even the kitchen sink!" with them when they transfer. It beats materialising nude, I suppose. There'll also be 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," said 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." The man's obviously a fan of his own product, but he does has a point.

Trion notes that "character transfers will remain a free service for the foreseeable future, and could become a permanent addition to the Rift experience." The big daddy of the MMORPG sphere, Blizzard's World of Warcraft, charges $25 for a one-way character transfer.

A seven-day free trial recently launched for the MMORPG, if you fancy giving it a go.