Server merging

[Lithera]

Along with the name stealing bs that seems to happen during merges

[Mirage]

There are probably thousands of legitimately created characters that aren't in use anymore but just happen to take up names that are currently used on other servers. It's not always intentional although some are. They blocked character creation for merging servers before they announced the merge last time, though.

[Sapphires]

What are the downsides to a merge BTW? I can understand JP master race and SE want to please them, but if there's no downside to doing it anyway...

Downsides:
-You now get 2-3x more competition in dynamis. This is still an extremely popular activity and people have grown accustomed to little to no competition for their favorite spot at certain times. Huge negative for people that farm regularly.

-Salvage congestion+lag and being locked out of entering since the instances are limited.
-Myself or friends would probably have to rename their characters and linkshells due to name collisions.

Merges in mmos have a rather destructive effect on communities, people that you know casually or just see regularly day to day (they arent in your guild, but you've maybe known of that person through their deeds or grouped with them a few times, or whatever) those people get 'erased' with name collisions.
That seems like not a big deal but it makes people feel like they have been removed from their old server entirely because many of those people 'disappear' due to name changes and other players really do disappear because they view merges as a sign of a game thats bound to die soon (why make another RME if the game is gonna die right?)

-increased congestion for AA/DM which is still making alot of people money
-even higher population during jp time so content bottlenecks get even worse for them
-higher congestion and demand for limited resources will also bring about a wave of inflation on items.
-players from merged server communities can still strongly identify with their old server and stick to just hanging out with their 'own kind'. This means you have extra people running around on your server that are for all intents and purposed someone that you wont have any interactions with, except for competition over a shared resource (AH items, a world NM, battlefield event, etc).

Alliance content is mostly dead, so even if you triple the people on the server, social circles (linkshells) will probably remain numerous, but small and fragmented.

Many people stand to lose more than they gain with a merge.

A merge just means double the worm party shouts , and maybe twice as many people doing some random delve/skc/aa once an hour with 4/6 slots filled shouting for a whm or brd. If you're lucky.

[Damane]

Downsides:
-You now get 2-3x more competition in dynamis. This is still an extremely popular activity and people have grown accustomed to little to no competition for their favorite spot at certain times. Huge negative for people that farm regularly.

-Salvage congestion+lag and being locked out of entering since the instances are limited.
-Myself or friends would probably have to rename their characters and linkshells due to name collisions.

Merges in mmos have a rather destructive effect on communities, people that you know casually or just see regularly day to day (they arent in your guild, but you've maybe known of that person through their deeds or grouped with them a few times, or whatever) those people get 'erased' with name collisions.
That seems like not a big deal but it makes people feel like they have been removed from their old server entirely because many of those people 'disappear' due to name changes and other players really do disappear because they view merges as a sign of a game thats bound to die soon (why make another RME if the game is gonna die right?)

-increased congestion for AA/DM which is still making alot of people money
-even higher population during jp time so content bottlenecks get even worse for them
-higher congestion and demand for limited resources will also bring about a wave of inflation on items.
-players from merged server communities can still strongly identify with their old server and stick to just hanging out with their 'own kind'. This means you have extra people running around on your server that are for all intents and purposed someone that you wont have any interactions with, except for competition over a shared resource (AH items, a world NM, battlefield event, etc).

Alliance content is mostly dead, so even if you triple the people on the server, social circles (linkshells) will probably remain numerous, but small and fragmented.

Many people stand to lose more than they gain with a merge.

A merge just means double the worm party shouts , and maybe twice as many people doing some random delve/skc/aa once an hour with 4/6 slots filled shouting for a whm or brd. If you're lucky.

I dont see, the best solution would be of them to assign 1-2 NA and EU player servers and let people move for free over there.


and playing during JP primetime is not the solution, especially when you work during that hour, imho the only solution i see is either a designated EU/NA server where people move to/are moved to, or try plaiyng the game until its not anymore possible with the remaining shell members and call it then quits.

[Deifact]

I dont see, the best solution would be of them to assign 1-2 NA and EU player servers and let people move for free over there.


and playing during JP primetime is not the solution, especially when you work during that hour, imho the only solution i see is either a designated EU/NA server where people move to/are moved to, or try plaiyng the game until its not anymore possible with the remaining shell members and call it then quits.

Yeah that's a good suggestion!

[Rainehx]

As a company selling subscriptions another merge would be a very bad idea, so don't expect it any time soon imo.

They will want to have as much capacity for "new/returning" players as possible. I understand to us this sounds silly
but lets say they merge..every server is 2-3k peek time aside from the obvious problems with events etc what will they do
with all the "new/returning" people they have to expect when the next expansion hits? a new server? no.

I think when they give up with the game we will see a merge, but I hope that's no time soon as it will
likely spell the end of updates or any chance of another exp pack.

Careful what you wish for.

[Byrth]

Lakshmi was an anemic 2k during JP peak times shortly after Adoulin's release. The servers used to handle 5k, so I don't think that merging two servers would necessarily cause mass hysteria.

Their decision to make Delve scale from 6-18 people means that server merges are no longer quite as essential as they once were. You now only need 6-7 people to clear all current content (albeit well-geared people), so it isn't like I'm hunting up an alliance of friends anymore. If they were going to merge servers, they would really have to do something about their horrible BCNM system.

That being said, I'd like to see more new faces on my server. What they need to do is:
1) Announce there will be a server merge in June. Explain exactly how it will work.
2) Merge worlds 1:1, giving name priority to active accounts and filtering by hours of playtime in the event of naming conflicts (so mules don't get priority over mains).
And there you go, 90% of the merge problems gone.

[Dazusu]

giving name priority to active accounts and filtering by hours of playtime in the event of naming conflicts (so mules don't get priority over mains).

People definitely don't leave mules logged in 24/7. Sometimes more than their mains. Do agree with the bolded part, though.

[Castanica]

The problem isn't server populations, it's the kind of content they are making now.

Server merges have multiple negatives also.

Overcrowding for JP players, being unable to do content because the dungeons/spawn points etc are full, lag issues, name loss, not knowing who anyone is because even the people you are familiar with will mostly all lose their names, linkshell issues.

More people quit after a server merge than any other time, they are only done if they absolutely have to.

[Sapphires]

One thing that kind of makes this population/merger thing such a big deal is that SE sort of abandoned a certain class of game content that made servers feel busier.

-Wildkeeper reives used to have very meaningful rewards so we all piled into them (and died alot, but hey we were all playing together).

-JSE cape farming in marjami back when the zone was fresh and we wanted ALL THE CAPES (something else where a bunch of random people came together and did something together cooperatively)

-Voidwatch - was quite popular for a time, and one of the most inclusive activities because you wanted 18 people of various jobs. The mechanics required diversity, and the weapons+armor were relevant, and you didnt have to be overly picky about who came until T6/Prov

-Delve 1.0 when people would do shouts for alliance plasm farm and kill a random NM or two inside before we all wised up and knew how to burn through the place with an LS alliance.

I keep wondering why SE isnt making more 'easily social' content like this.
I felt like I got to know more people on my server when these things were popular. Those activities were pretty good at building community and just having random people playing together.

Now many people just break off into their own 6 man groups(statics) hidden away inside some AA/SKC/random battlefield, not really being that social and making the world feel even more empty.
And SE encourages that because that's where all the best loot is.

They can merge servers, but they also need to make more content that brings people together+playing more easily, preferably in larger numbers.