Suggestion: Turn Balmung into an Official RP Server

[Abriael]

Back when A Realm Reborn was about to launch, the roleplay community learned that, like in 1.X, there would be no official RP servers.


So they got together, and selected one legacy server and one non-legacy server as the unofficial RP servers, Balmung and Gilgamesh.

While the Gilgamesh experiment pretty much crashed and burned for various reasons, Balmung thrived with an ever-growing RP community. As a matter of fact, it thrived too much.

The lack of official status as an RP server caused Balmung to attract both the vast majority of the RP community, and its fair share of non-roleplayers. That's the primary reason why it's so overpopulated.

Afterwards, it kept attracting RP-oriented refugees escaping the dwindling Gilgamesh community and non-roleplayers who simply wanted to play with their friends or wanted a high-population server.

A potential solution to this is to to turn Balmung into an official RP server, amending the mistake made of not giving roleplayers a clear home when the game was launched.

some of you are probably thinking: "wouldn't this make Balmung even more overpopulated?"

yes and no.

Of course this would have worked much better if implemented from the very beginning, but having the server labeled officially as an RP one would probably serve as an encouragement for non roleplayers to move to other servers that aren't officially recognized as dedicated to a playstyle they don't care about.

Most probably, at such an advanced stage, this wouldn't be enough by itself, so Square Enix should probably implement tangible incentives for those who move away. I doubt that what is offered now will be enough to convince any relevant percentage of the population to make the jump. As for what those could be, I let Square Enix to decide, or others to suggest, but it needs to be quite a lot more tempting than a free transfer.

Once the server is established as an RP one officially, and people who don't care for RP start leaking out to other servers, Square Enix should reopen transfers to Balmung for those who want to join the RP community.

Basically everyone would win from this.

Roleplayers on Balmung get official recognition, and on the long run a steady influx of like-minded people from other players.
Non-Roleplayers currently on balmung get to take advantage of tangible incentives to move to a less populated server, where they can invite their friends without worrying of closures.
Roleplayers currently in other servers get to move to a bigger and more thriving RP community of they so wish.

On top of that, Square Enix has every reason to cater to roleplayers. As customers, they're among the steadiest and most profitable. They're more liable to spend money on the mog station in order to get the latest glamors, and they have an additional reason to be attached to their Final Fantasy XIV characters. Regardless of the content Square Enix releases, they always have a reason to stay (and to continue paying the sub), because they effectively self-generate content they enjoy.

Of course no one should feel forced to either leave (non-roleplayers) or join (roleplayers on other servers) Balmung, but giving it an official RP tag would at the very least make it less desirable for a sizable part of its massive population.

[Theodric]

No thanks. Even as a role-player myself I have no interest on playing on a server where role-play is encouraged above all else. I enjoy the game as a whole and want to see people encouraged to commit to the PvE and PvP side of things if they so desire - so making it less desirable for people who don't role-play is very, very dubious and a slippery slope.

[MomomiMomi]

It's already the RP server. Everyone on there knows it's the RP server. Why would labeling it the RP server make them want to leave?

The more realistic option is to make a new server and make it an official RP server.

[Abriael]

It's already the RP server. Everyone on there knows it's the RP server. Why would labeling it the RP server make them want to leave?

I believe you overestimate the public visibility of a decision taken unilaterally by the RP community, and never acknowledged in any shape or form by Square Enix. I know a ton of people currently playing on Balmung who don't have the slightest idea that Balmung has any specific status, albeit unofficial. Even more had no idea when they joined, and even those who know have absolutely no reason to leave, simply because the server is not a sanctioned RP server.

Lots of roleplayers know, because they're part of the community to begin with, or they searched for like-minded people before they joined. But non-roleplayers joining the game have absolutely no reason to know unless they went out of their way to do some research.

The more realistic option is to make a new server and make it an official RP server.

There really is no reason for Square Enix to attempt to displace the entire RP community. It wouldn't even work. Some would move, some would not, with the sole result of fragmenting the community.

No thanks. Even as a role-player myself I have no interest on playing on a server where role-play is encouraged above all else. I enjoy the game as a whole and want to see people encouraged to commit to the PvE and PvP side of things if they so desire - so making it less desirable for people who don't role-play is very, very dubious and a slippery slope.

I'm not sure where you got this idea that roleplayers don't commit to PvE and PvP. Of course they do. I don't know a single MMORPG that has RP servers in which those two aspects are neglected in any relevant way.

[MomomiMomi]

Even most people outside of Balmung know it's the RP server without doing any research, and transfer into Balmung has been the only way onto the server for an eternity now. One does not simply end up on Balmung.

[Theodric]

-snip-

Quite a lot of role-players either do not keep up to date with content or just focus primarily on role-play and little else. On Balmung, quite a lot of role-players spend most or all of their time online standing around in private instances, attending player made events or just lingering in hubs such as Ul'dah. Does this apply to every role-player? No, it doesn't - not did I imply as much.

It's still a decent amount, though - and it's mitigated by having players who are primarily interested in PvP/PvE who will head out into the game world to gather, hunt and queue up for duties. It's also not fair to expect players already playing on Balmung to just up and leave or find it less desirable (your words, not mine) to remain there because it suddenly gets flagged for 'RP'.

[Abriael]

Quite a lot of role-players either do not keep up to date with content or just focus primarily on role-play and little else. On Balmung, quite a lot of role-players spend most or all of their time online standing around in private instances, attending player made events or just lingering in hubs such as Ul'dah. Does this apply to every role-player? No, it doesn't - not did I imply as much.

Roleplayers are a very varied bunch. Tons of them enjoy PvP and PvE like the next fellow. They simply also enjoy to RP. I've been on official RP servers since the times of Dark Age of Camelot (where the RP server Guinivere had some of the best PvP i ever had), and I never had any problem finding people to enjoy normal game content, from PvP to hardcore raids.

That's simply a non-issue. Official RP servers have worked great, and retained plenty of PvP and PvE oriented active population for decades in other games. I didn't just invent the concept myself

It's still a decent amount, though - and it's mitigated by having players who are primarily interested in PvP/PvE who will head out into the game world to gather, hunt and queue up for duties. It's also not fair to expect players already playing on Balmung to just up and leave or find it less desirable (your words, not mine) to remain there because it suddenly gets flagged for 'RP'.

It's quite fair if they're given tangible incentives to do so. No one is forced to leave any place if they enjoy it.

[347SPECTRE]

For the fact that I and more than likely, others have friends that PVE and RP, this would only succeed in exacerbating the "playing with friends" problem that has been brought up countless times. Let's not suggest ideas that divide people into absolute sides such as RPers vs PVEers, that's just asking for trouble.

[Alynn]

What's the point of slapping on a label if no one can enter? You're either in there and you already know and if you aren't then it doesn't even matter to you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

[TitaniaZero]

It seems to me he is wanting the lable to drive away the non-rpers.

I mean this sudden crisis seems silly to me. Did no one foresee this issue? I know I did. And I'm not a part of those big servers for a pretty darn good reason.