Transfer Restrictions and Roleplayers

[Marluxia]

Final Fantasy XIV has a thriving roleplaying community, and Balmung is its (unofficial) hub. A hub that just got neutered due to these transfer and creation restrictions coming out of nowhere with no warning.

With the new transfer restrictions in place, any new players who wanted to roleplay on the largest server now don't have any options, and part of the problem is that there's no officially designated RP server.

With these restrictions in place and the RP community now too large and too sedentary to coordinate the growth of another server, it'll be very difficult for roleplayers to find a community. And honestly, I don't think roleplayers want to flood an unsuspecting server's PvErs with another "unofficial" RP server.

Some background: The RP community consolidated on Besaid in 1.0, and remained there when Besaid and Fabul got merged to create Balmung. Besaid was more or less picked out arbitrarily by community vote as the unofficial RP server.

Balmung is saturated, both with RPers and non-RPers, hence the population problem.

The solution to this is very simple though: create and designate an official RP server, and offer free transfers to that server with no loss of assets.

It's important to designate an official RP server because one of the core causes of Balmung's overpopulation is the lack of segregation between RPers and non-RPers. RPers really only want to be on a server with other RPers, and I'm inclined to think that non-RPers don't want to be on a server with a bunch of RPers, generally speaking.

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TL;DR

1). One of the main reasons why Balmung is overpopulated is because it has two servers' worth of players in two broad demographics. Balmung has been host to both RPers and non-RPers ever since Besaid and Fabul were merged.

2). Providing incentive for the RP community to move is the easiest way to lower Balmung's population. Non-RPers generally don't have many reasons to transfer, whereas RPers will transfer to be with other RPers, especially if that transfer is free.

3). A new server that is designated with an "RP" tag is the ideal solution. A new server means that players and Free Companies who transfer can keep the exact plot that they own and all of their assets such as airships. It also means that an unsuspecting server's PVErs don't have to be flooded with RPers.

4). The restriction should last until sufficient people (in this case, mostly RPers) have transferred off. I know this is controversial, but after further thought, I don't think the New Server Solution would work without this. Keeping the restriction is key in removing Balmung's reputation as the "RP hub". Otherwise, RPers will keep transferring to Balmung and keep making characters on Balmung indefinitely and we end up with a pretty bad cycle.

[Airget]

"Transfers to the following Worlds will be suspended until their active player populations have stabilized."

"Transfers to the following Worlds will be suspended until their active player populations have stabilized."

Nothing about forever, yet you are treating it like that. Sure it sucks that if someone wanted X server they will now have to wait, but the integrity of the servers outweigh giving players the option to choose any server to go to.

[Voison]

So just help start a new role playing community on another server...?

[Sarevok_Thordin]

Sadly there isn't much they can do about it except lock it up for now.

Balmung has been getting crippled as it is effectively the Moonguard of FFXIV (If you played WoW you should know what that means). It was due to get reigned in sooner or later and now it looks like they finally took the step of locking transfers to that server.

Sadly without more cross-world play, it's not going to get better for the meantime.

[sydh]

SE should have taken the chance long ago to actively incentivise players to transfer or create characters elsewhere. The are already ready to give out bonuses as listed in the recent news post. Flat out locking a server is pretty bad if this is a long term thing... hopefully not past 4.0 launch. This could have been curbed quite a bit of they started last expansion or even in 2.x with how big Balmung and Gilgamesh had become.

Now it is a wait and see to what these bonuses actually are.

[Khalithar]

I wish there was a dedicated RP server. =/

[Velox]

You're welcome to come to Siren. There is a growing RP population here and plenty of space for everyone. It might be a great place to truly create a 2nd RP server. All it would take is people willing to put effort into making it so.

[odintius]

Well the alternative is just let it go until your server crashes or hours in que waiting your turn to get in you pick. /Shrug

[Alestorm]

The reasons why make sense. I played WoW during 2 major expansion launches on a medium pop server (Ner'Zhul) and ever launch everyone who quit would come back and logging in was a fight even hours prior to the content going live. I have my game client crash the night Warlords of Draenor went live and it took 3 days before I could log in due to the number of people trying to get in/were logged in.

Right now I'm happy being in a smaller server, means I can play when Stormblood goes live with little to no issues.

[Vanitas]

So just help start a new role playing community on another server...?

This really needs to happen. If the community as a whole would make an effort to give birth to a new unofficial RP or even "Raiding" server, then there would be more options for future players.
Balmung ended up this way because this never happened. I mean its gonna have to happen now with it being closed off finally, but I'm sure people will just complain instead.