Server Merge request

[Cesil]

Hello,

Every time I resubscribe to this game it is the same issue I face. I get missions done, quests caught up, whatever..then I get to the end game and there isn't enough people on my server to do content with.

And before anyone tells me "GO TO ASURA!!!!" no. Someone oddly enough took my name and my BF name. His name isn't popular at all, and turns out the person told me it was to impersonate us, whatever. Okay then lol.

To clarify - We've had our names since 2002 launch, so if it followed the same rules as before, we would keep our names.

Anyway, I don't want to have to lose my name due to being forced to move if I want to play with people. In 2010, we had way more players then "260" which is the average on Lakshmi, and SE, you merged the servers. Now we have WAY less than we had when they were merged before and there is still no sign of a merge.

So many of my friends want to come back, but they keep telling me "We will when they do another merge, I am not playing a MMO with 200 or less people on a server"

My BF too - He doesn't want to move either because he will lose his name and feels that if they still don't merge the servers, they just don't care about the state of the game, so why invest time and money in it if the company doesn't even seem to care enough to merge so we can have people to do content with.

So I figured I'd ask yet again..and give it a month I guess, if no merge then I'll just let my sub run out again and keep waiting..or just give up for good.

I think when making a party to do the content is more challenging than the content, something isn't quite right. I saw on reddit they did a survey and the majority expressed wanting a merge too.

And again, I'd love to move to Asura where it is populated, but I don't want to lose my name..so my only option is to keep asking, or keep waiting.

[Sirmarki]

Aren't you severally limiting/punishing yourself by refusing to move, simply because of your character name?

[Mittenz]

Um, the older character had nothing to do with keeping the name in the 2010 or the 2011 mergers. It was a simple case of the host world characters get to keep their name while the imported ones would have to change just the same as a server transfer.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/pol...ews18111.shtml

Character Name:
In cases where a character with the same name already exists on the "Destination World," you may be required to change the name of your character. If this is necessary, your character name on the character selection screen before login will be displayed in yellow. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the change.

So if you want Server merges to keep your name you best hope yours is chosen as the host world and not the imported one.

[madmartin]

ironic as im pretty sure one of the reasons SE wont do another server merge was because everyone was upset they had to change their name last time! But yeah i'm sure there's a few linkshells on Lakshmi doing content on your time zone. Some people like the smaller servers because of the smaller close knit conmmunitys, 200 consecutive players is fine. You don't need more than 6 people for any content anyway. But if you want to be able to join pick up groups easily rather than organised linkshell events you need to move to Asura.

[Cesil]

Aren't you severally limiting/punishing yourself by refusing to move, simply because of your character name?

We should not have to pay them extra money to play with more people. That's not really fair when a population problem happens, its Square Enix job to fix, not the customers. Sure, I could transfer, pay them more money, lose my name, then have all my friends who just paid to transfer to my server..pay to transfer..AGAIN, probably lose interest and not want to play. I can't ask them to do that.

And no, its not only about the name, there are many more reasons that I didn't feel the need to list. I figured expressing a desire due to lack of population on my server enough info, as SE devs said on the reddit AMA, they will do it if enough people ask. So..I asked :P

[Sirmarki]

We should not have to pay them extra money to play with more people. That's not really fair when a population problem happens, its Square Enix job to fix, not the customers. Sure, I could transfer, pay them more money, lose my name, then have all my friends who just paid to transfer to my server..pay to transfer..AGAIN, probably lose interest and not want to play. I can't ask them to do that.

And no, its not only about the name, there are many more reasons that I didn't feel the need to list. I figured expressing a desire due to lack of population on my server enough info, as SE devs said on the reddit AMA, they will do it if enough people ask. So..I asked :P

I completely understand what you are saying and some what agree. However, you have to deal with the here and now. Holding on to something that may or may not even happen (mergers) is kind of self-defeating. At least by transferring yourself, it's done and dusted (ie in your control).

[Vold]

You need to tell your friends it doesn't matter if there's 6 or 6000 on the server, most content is designed for low man now. Asura is overcrowded by today's standard and they have congestion issues. Sounds to me the friends are just making excuses not to play. But if they are serious then really, just switch servers and change your name and put in your bazaar comment <the player formally known as blank on blank server> if it matters enough. You will find it does a remarkably good job to your mental state after losing a long time name. I get it. It's yours. You came up with it. My main may not be 100% original but after 14 years I have come up with some mule names I am proud of.

Some of us would love to lose our names. You have an idea on what it's like to spend 14 years being judged because your name looks like Voldemort? take that idea and multiply it by 100. Nevermind that my second character on my account since day one is named Voldemortt, because Voldemort was already taken. I was brand new at the time to MMORPGs and the idea was to create a cunning warrior and a deadly alt mage, before I realized what sub jobs were. Voldermolt was my choice for my warrior and Voldemortt for my mage, entirely because I got tired of being told 'name already taken' on all my other choices, even names I thought I was being original and I wasn't. So I came up with a ton of names based off Voldemort that weren't lazy ripoffs like Voldemortt or Voldimort or Voldbmort and were not pronounced as Voldemort, and the one that got through first was Voldermolt. For Voldemortt it was going to be Voldemort followed by as many ts as it took because at that point I didn't care, i was going to be a lazy ripoff for my mage character. Could have been Voldemorttttt. Voldemortt got by first.

((I just want to take this opportunity to point out that at the time I had no clue that Voldemort was bald. I don't even know if his first appearance on screen was before or after I started FFXI. I was never a harry potter nut. I've never read the books. I just thought the name was cool and I knew Voldemort was a wizard. FFXI > red mage > gotta name it voldemort! Durrrr! The fact that my character is a bald hume is entirely chance. At the time I had a shaved bald head and it resembled me the most *shrug*))

But nobody wants to hear it, I obviously misspelled Voldemort by accident despite that at the time you couldn't last a half hour on the internet without coming across the name VOLDEMORT. In very large part this is why I can be such an ass to people I don't know and I do apologize for it but that's where it comes from, years of hearing shit over a name and seeing people use the /scared command because all they see is Voldemort when they look at my name. I make no excuses for my shitty attitude over the years, I'm merely revealing where it all started. I had the power to not be an ass. I chose ass. That's how it is and my older self suffers for it as I don't believe I deserve to play amongnst others for my past behavior. I play solo most of the time if friends aren't playing at the time. As a result I can't stay top geared in FFXI like I do other games. I'm always years behind. That's my way to pay for my sins. FULL DISCLOSURE: It has been a long time since anyone gave me shit over my name. The last person to do it wasn't actually doing it to insult me, I understood things and she and her husband became great allies of mine to get stuff done. So it hasn't been happening for all 14 years. Most left playing have grown up and aren't immature babies anymore online, for many years now.

In short, just be glad your only worry is losing your name. It could be way worse. I really would just pay the fee and jump ship, if you are serious about playing the game. For what it's worth I'm the complete opposite. I want to switch servers just to change my name to the all mine original name I came up with 10 years ago for MMORPGs(by the create a char method with current name on another world) but I don't really care to deal with the hassle. It matters alot but at any given time a group of friends may finally log in for a few months before they log off for another year +. I gotta take'm when I can get them. At least until I forgive myself enough to try to play with others again, but even to this day I have 'wrong think' opinions like how people need to stop complaining about blank job because it deserves it's pewpew moment after 15 years of being shat on by players, so I probably won't be invited to dynamis supper any time soon by anyone in the end game scene. I did group with peeps for the 99 cap fight and the final mission fight for rhapsodies, but that's it for many years now.

[Nicklamort]

If it helps, I agree server merges are needed as well. The game just feels dead when there's <500 on a good day. AH is so slow.. Maybe most are in their "cliques" of shells and friends and dont really face the issues new and returning players do of feeling lonely in an MMO.

[Afania]

If it helps, I agree server merges are needed as well. The game just feels dead when there's <500 on a good day. AH is so slow.. Maybe most are in their "cliques" of shells and friends and dont really face the issues new and returning players do of feeling lonely in an MMO.

It's understandable that a new/returning player got the above conclusion based on their past FFXI or MMO experience. However for those who already know how to make progression on small servers merge may be acceptable but not absolutely necessary.


Here is what you can do:

1) Just transfer.
2) Look for new/returning player LS on your server.

Many established endgame group(regardless of server) are cliques because in high level endgame not everyone can work together with everybody. Some people has bad pt synergy, some don't get along, some has jobs that can't form functional pt composition in endgame, and some people has different goal or want to do different type of content. Therefore cliques are formed for these reasons, basically only like minded player with similar goals and jobs that works well can form a group for endgame stuff.

So a new player are less likely to just return and jump into a group that does higher lv content right from the start, and it's not server's fault.

That being said, new player needs to join returning player friendly/social LS to gear up first by ask for help then reach out to established endgame group based on what they want to do.

[Nicklamort]

So a new player are less likely to just return and jump into a group that does higher lv content right from the start, and it's not server's fault.

I'm not saying new or returning players should be able to join an endgame ls haha; and I get why the "cliques" are formed, that's fine. Hoping to find such a returning player social/friendly ls and do just that, but it won't change being in a dead server with a bad economy, no shouts, and a weak overall community.

They could simply drop just a few of the most underpopulated servers and allow the players there to choose which live server to transfer to, allowing them to choose one where their name is not taken thus not be forced to change their name. Then follow this up with a free world transfer campaign so that after things have been shaken up a bit, it allows players who prefer smaller population to move to one if they end getting more populated than desired. Win win?