Locking Balmung/Gilgamesh is not working

[Tevatron]

Someone needs to communicate to the dev team in basic terms that we understand their reasoning for not wanting to open an official RP server and encourage RPers to transfer there.

We understand the fear of a potentially hostile, toxic environment.

That understanding doesn’t change the fact indefinitely closing off and suffocating a community guarantees it will become an unhealthy, toxic environment.

The character creation restrictions meant we didn’t get as much fluctuation in our populations and economies as other, smaller servers, but it was literally infinitely more than none.

There needs to be at least one official roleplaying server with a reason to go there other than punishing players for staying with their friends and FCs. People are not going to leave en masse unless there is a clear choice for their community to go to and a stronger incentive for it beyond a pittance of gil. I can only speak for my FC, but we’re not abandoning our mansion and we’re not risking leaving members and friends behind for a community where the RP might not last.

I can also speak for my FC when I say I'd rather deal with idle timeouts and scheduled forced logouts during patch releases than subsist in a community where recruiting is a struggle until another free company implodes from the tension inherent in being in a stagnant community.

It is not our fault that a community created with the tools given to us in lieu of communication from the dev team creates a technical problem. This is a problem that could have been prevented by Square Enix with clear communication and better management of resources. It is one that will have to be solved the same way because, evidently, strangling the life out of a community until its members give in and transfer elsewhere is an ineffective and anti-consumer thing to do.

Square Enix has been a fantastic company to give money to for the most part, but half a year later, their “fix” hasn’t worked and the strain is showing.

This is something they’re doing that is genuinely against the interests of their customers and that fact is self-evident by virtue of how little it’s worked.

[LaylaTsarra]

It's over populated and will reopen when the population stabilizes. You won't get your wish until that happens.

[PerkPrincess]

It's over populated and will reopen when the population stabilizes. You won't get your wish until that happens.

Try reading.

And yes, absolutely agreed. SE needs to actually step up and literally help us help them. They need to actually direct their community to where it needs to go, and that's as simple as flagging one or two servers for RP.

Trusting players to be able to direct themselves only results in a Balmung situation, where everyone tries to dogpile in, abusing every transfer mechanic they can, so they can be on the community-created RP server. I would gladly transfer if they would actually show me where to go.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Do you really think ever RP'er on every other server would drop their non RP friends and move to an RP server?

What about all the people who like the RP ambiance, but don't RP themselves? This is why Balmung flourished

[LaylaTsarra]

Try reading.

Oh I read it and just so you know Balmung and Gilgamesh for which i have toons isn't special. Sorry you expect special treatment for role players but it's not going to happen.

[Tevatron]

Do you really think ever RP'er on every other server would drop their non RP friends and move to an RP server?

Absolutely not, but providing guidance as to where roleplayers can go rather than relying on ad hoc solutions from the community is a positive incentive to risk dropping those friends, especially in the contest of cross-server friend lists and linkshells.

The problem is that "oh we'll give you some gil" is not an effective nudge. It does not give the impression that transferring off is what that portion of the community is doing by default. Giving roleplayers a default place to be along with already-extant incentives to move from a too-full server would do that.

(Also, sorry for the Richard Thaler reference, been reading him a lot in the last year.)

[PerkPrincess]

Do you really think ever RP'er on every other server would drop their non RP friends and move to an RP server?

What about all the people who like the RP ambiance, but don't RP themselves? This is why Balmung flourished

No of course not. But it would help alleviate server constraints from there on, because then new players could actually go to where they want to, without having to consort to paying for transfers to get onto closed servers.

It's basic future proofing.

And it would help Balmung and Gilgamesh, far more than just locking them down permanently.

[Serilda]

I don't think they have ever said that they're afraid of opening an RP server due to toxic players. I think they see it as unnecessary, because RP happens on every single server in the game (this is also true for Japanese servers). If anything, painting Balmung as the RP destination caused a lot of problems of its own.

I don't mind either way, but I do think it's a shame to discourage RPing everywhere. But then I was on an RP server where RP was never actually enforced and it just threw up a whole bunch of new problems of its own.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

No of course not. But it would help alleviate server constraints from there on, because then new players could actually go to where they want to, without having to consort to paying for transfers to get onto closed servers.

It's basic future proofing.

And it would help Balmung and Gilgamesh, far more than just locking them down permanently.

Except the community set other servers as RP servers, and that did not help much either. People interested in RP go to RP sites, where all of this is laid out.

[PerkPrincess]

I don't think they have ever said that they're afraid of opening an RP server due to toxic players. I think they see it as unnecessary, because RP happens on every single server in the game (this is also true for Japanese servers). If anything, painting Balmung as the RP destination caused a lot of problems of its own..

Again, because when players are left to make due with the ( non existent ) tools on their own, they will swarm and overpopulate servers, 100% of the time. SE literally set this problem up themselves by assuming the community can direct itself.

Except the community set other servers as RP servers, and that did not help much either. People interested in RP go to RP sites, where all of this is laid out.

Because they were dead servers to begin with, with absolutely little backing. Mateus is the only other reasonable alternative to Balmung or Gilgamesh. And it's already closed, too. Who woulda thunk it.