Are we getting a server merge soon?

[Castanica]

FFXI has no instanced content, when you enter a salvage area you are taking up one of the 3 copies of each zone that exist side by side for that content. If you have 3 people who are hardcore and spamming salvage over and over you have a serious problem that locks others out, same goes for anything in this game. It's not made for large populations anymore and when the game did have large populations content was restricted to alliances / parties and had strict limits on how often you could enter. If you had a server with 2-3k people the game would be unplayable today, they would have to go back on all the RoV key items.

These long winded conversations are irrelevant anyway, they aren't going to do it. People have been on about this for years and the reality is that it just costs way too much money to do a merge and it upsets so many people.

[Diavolo]

FFXI has no instanced content, when you enter a salvage area you are taking up one of the 3 copies of each zone that exist side by side for that content. If you have 3 people who are hardcore and spamming salvage over and over you have a serious problem that locks others out, same goes for anything in this game. It's not made for large populations anymore and when the game did have large populations content was restricted to alliances / parties and had strict limits on how often you could enter. If you had a server with 2-3k people the game would be unplayable today, they would have to go back on all the RoV key items.

You're taking the idea of server merges to an extreme. As an example, Asura is NA/EU heavy, merge it with 2-3 JP-heavy servers with low populations and you suddenly have a server that's alive 24/7 without ever nearing your 3K simultaneous users mark. Let's not be silly and look at this idea of merges as some sort of "end of times" ordeal. Players expressed concern about it the last time it happened and everything worked out just fine.

These long winded conversations are irrelevant anyway, they aren't going to do it. People have been on about this for years and the reality is that it just costs way too much money to do a merge and it upsets so many people.

Now you're reaching. How much do you think it will cost them to consolidate servers? It took them a few hours to complete the task back when the population was over 15-20 times the size it is now. As for upsetting "so many people," we're talking about a tiny fraction of the community that will continue to play on despite their opinion on the matter.

The attitude you have is one that will never bring about change, whether in game or out in the real world. Telling yourself something can't be done is a self-fulfilling prophecy.We can criticize the FFXI development team all day long, but you can't ignore the fact that they have made tremendous changes to the game over the last few years - it's an almost night and day difference from the FFXI we played a decade ago - and I'm confident that they can continue making changes to cater to the remaining players, regardless of whether or not they decide to merge the servers.

[Castanica]

You're taking the idea of server merges to an extreme. As an example, Asura is NA/EU heavy, merge it with 2-3 JP-heavy servers with low populations and you suddenly have a server that's alive 24/7 without ever nearing your 3K simultaneous users mark. Let's not be silly and look at this idea of merges as some sort of "end of times" ordeal. Players expressed concern about it the last time it happened and everything worked out just fine.

Now you're reaching. How much do you think it will cost them to consolidate servers? It took them a few hours to complete the task back when the population was over 15-20 times the size it is now. As for upsetting "so many people," we're talking about a tiny fraction of the community that will continue to play on despite their opinion on the matter.

The attitude you have is one that will never bring about change, whether in game or out in the real world. Telling yourself something can't be done is a self-fulfilling prophecy.We can criticize the FFXI development team all day long, but you can't ignore the fact that they have made tremendous changes to the game over the last few years - it's an almost night and day difference from the FFXI we played a decade ago - and I'm confident that they can continue making changes to cater to the remaining players, regardless of whether or not they decide to merge the servers.

What is the point of a server that is alive 24/7? Japanese players don't want to play with EU/NA anyway and vice versa, do you just want it because or for an actual reason?

Also just because it took a short amount of time to actually do the merge does not mean it didn't take months of expensive preparations.

[Diavolo]

What is the point of a server that is alive 24/7? Japanese players don't want to play with EU/NA anyway and vice versa, do you just want it because or for an actual reason?

I apologize for the way this may sound, but are you being serious?

One of Final Fantasy XI's strengths is that it brings players from across the world together. I've been interacting with players from other countries my very first day in Vana'diel and I wouldn't have it any other way. If you start dividing the servers by region not only are you making the game world a less interesting place, but you're also slowing down its economy and its progress.

[Aisu]

Few things:
I miss the huge communities so don't get me wrong
Having NA/EU/JP all on one server makes an active 24/7 server even if JP don't want to play with NA/EU that is still more people to buy and sell items on AH. So weather they like us or not it is still beneficial
Last time they merged servers there were tons of issues with congestion and it took SE months and months to try to resolve issues. (instances being full and battling over them, area lag due to overcrowding)

Now it might feel different cause last time they merged servers to get about 4k players on but back then every player wasn't able to summon 5 trusts/player and solo everything. There were time restrictions like dyna/salvage/einherjar/sea had day waits and still people found times where it was still over populated. Now that there are no time waits and NM's are just pop NM's with Items that you can buy with sparks and solo or low man with trusts there is going to be problems with roughly 1000-2000 players active on a server cause escha/resisnjima/high tier battlefields are really the only places to be other than those that still like to farm dyna/salvage for relic/mythics. Some of which at certain times of the day are already congested as is to the point i have had to wait to go into certain battlefields or look around multiple places for NM pops.

Now i don't think it will be too bad if some of the smaller servers gets merged with 1 other small server but i personally feel that any more than that would be far too much. As i keep trying to explain with the population decrease SE made trusts so people could solo/low man stuff. That is the purpose of trusts they knew the game was losing a lot of players and they came up with the ability to change difficulty on battlefields and HP scaling so people can still complete these without the need of many players.
That is how the game is now and too many people don't realise this and want the game back to as it was years ago. Well not going to happen and never will and people need to get over it and realise this is a different game and SE are designing content for how it is now low populated and casual content.

[Castanica]

I apologize for the way this may sound, but are you being serious?

One of Final Fantasy XI's strengths is that it brings players from across the world together. I've been interacting with players from other countries my very first day in Vana'diel and I wouldn't have it any other way. If you start dividing the servers by region not only are you making the game world a less interesting place, but you're also slowing down its economy and its progress.

So just because, gotcha.

A lot of XI players moved to XIV and love the separation (on both sides), one of the biggest complaints of this game was how racist JP players are (even though they just didn't want to play with people they can't speak to). I understand it's a big deal to you personally but that's not true for most people, Asura has almost no JP players and nobody complains there are no people they can't understand on it.

This whole worldwide server idea is just nonsense in reality (it was done to save money because the game has no regional server centers), they can't understand you, they won't play with you and it just packs the server with people that might as well be afk/npc. On my old server everytime a JP shouted, someone would say they were racist for not shouting with auto translate. The JP playerbase in particular prefer to be separated.

Asura is a unoffical English speaking server now, that's how people like it. If you want a multicultural server with lots of people online when you're in bed then move to one that is like that and don't ruin one that is fine how it is just because that's how you want it to be.

Also this isn't about restricting anything, the players themselves have moved themselves towards doing it by choice so dont' say it's not what people want. Jp and English speaking players alike have been paying to move to the unofficial JP and English speaking servers.

Asura used to have a large JP playerbase, most of them moved to Odin to have a better community they can actually play with, most english speaking players move to Asura for the same reason.

[Aisu]

So just because, gotcha.

A lot of XI players moved to XIV and love the separation (on both sides), one of the biggest complaints of this game was how racist JP players are (even though they just didn't want to play with people they can't speak to). I understand it's a big deal to you personally but that's not true for most people, Asura has almost no JP players and nobody complains there are no people they can't understand on it.

This whole worldwide server idea is just nonsense in reality (it was done to save money because the game has no regional server centers), they can't understand you, they won't play with you and it just packs the server with people that might as well be afk/npc. On my old server everytime a JP shouted, someone would say they were racist for not shouting with auto translate. The JP playerbase in particular prefer to be separated.

Asura is a unoffical English speaking server now, that's how people like it. If you want a multicultural server with lots of people online when you're in bed then move to one that is like that and don't ruin one that is fine how it is just because that's how you want it to be.

Also this isn't about restricting anything, the players themselves have moved themselves towards doing it by choice so dont' say it's not what people want. Jp and English speaking players alike have been paying to move to the unofficial JP and English speaking servers.

Asura used to have a large JP playerbase, most of them moved to Odin to have a better community they can actually play with, most english speaking players move to Asura for the same reason.

As i stated in the post above this, there is no downside to having JP/NA/EU players all on the same server. On this server it is actually beneficial because very few NA/EU players want to do domain invasions even though there are plenty of them on so i have to wait until the JP's are on to make it happen. Another thing is that they can be racist all they want they can ask for JP players only if they want that is their choice. Honestly what is the difference if they were there or not? you not going to go to whatever they shouted either way cause they either don't want you to or they won't be there to even shout so either way that makes no difference. (at least you have more of a chance to go if you find a nice JP shouting which i have met some really nice JP's and have done plenty of events over the year due to JP's). Another benefit and the big one is the supply and demand, The more players that play NA/EU or JP will provide a better economy more players to farm/craft/buy things. They don't play at the same time so you are only likely to really see JP prime time for a good few hours.

There is no real downside honestly because you increase the population for some benefits while also making it so the prime times for each nation don't increase much more because of the timezone difference. Instead of saying your argument is because they are racist and people like it better that way, Think of some actual facts as to why exactly a server would benefit the seperation of NA/EU and JP.

The only reason why FFXIV seperate servers are better for the players is because of the server connection for people since the NA server is based in NA, EU server is based in EU and JP server is based in JP. It has nothing to do with racism or anything of that sort and In FFXI all servers are in JP that is the big difference.

Also most people move to asura for the bigger community doesn't make it "better". A good community is ones own opinion. On Shiva i have a better community of friends than i would find on asura i do events with them and we help each other out and i enjoy talking to them and i get stuff i want done with no issues. Having NA/EU/JP on one server has no downside some people just wanted a larger community and that is all and has nothing to do with what is better or not.

[Diavolo]

So just because, gotcha.

A lot of XI players moved to XIV and love the separation (on both sides), one of the biggest complaints of this game was how racist JP players are (even though they just didn't want to play with people they can't speak to). I understand it's a big deal to you personally but that's not true for most people, Asura has almost no JP players and nobody complains there are no people they can't understand on it.

This whole worldwide server idea is just nonsense in reality (it was done to save money because the game has no regional server centers), they can't understand you, they won't play with you and it just packs the server with people that might as well be afk/npc. On my old server everytime a JP shouted, someone would say they were racist for not shouting with auto translate. The JP playerbase in particular prefer to be separated.

Asura is a unoffical English speaking server now, that's how people like it. If you want a multicultural server with lots of people online when you're in bed then move to one that is like that and don't ruin one that is fine how it is just because that's how you want it to be.

Also this isn't about restricting anything, the players themselves have moved themselves towards doing it by choice so dont' say it's not what people want. Jp and English speaking players alike have been paying to move to the unofficial JP and English speaking servers.

Asura used to have a large JP playerbase, most of them moved to Odin to have a better community they can actually play with, most english speaking players move to Asura for the same reason.

There is little that can be said about that post without it sounding insulting.

The large scale migrations to Asura have left their footprint on FFXI's forums, it doesn't take much digging around to find posts complaining about the lack of activity on most of the remaining servers. Likewise, if such a migration is happening on the Japanese side it wouldn't surprise me if it was clearly evident on forums as well. However, let's be clear here: these migrations aren't happening because players want to escape entire segments of the population, be it Japanese, American, German or what have you - they're happening because players want to go to a server that has an active population, that is alive, and right now if you're an English speaking player your best bet is Asura. It's no more complicated than that. Not everyone is as xenophobic as you appear to be, thankfully.

In a perfect world every Final Fantasy XI subscriber would be playing on one server capable of hosting an infinite amount of instanced battlefields with an incredibly active virtual economy. The software/hardware for making that sort of game a reality likely won't be available for at least a few more years, but there is no reason whatsoever why servers today are only hosting as few as 200 to 400 simultaneous accounts at any hour of the day, many of which are idle bazaars and/or people playing multiple accounts. The situation can be improved for everyone with minimal effort without us all having to pay SE $18 to do it. If they're worried about losing profits from server transfer fees they should just do what every other game developer on the planet is doing and offer unique items for sale. Now that we've got mounts, they can start with a FFXI version of this bad boy:

[dmuller30]

I moved to Odin because this server didn't have enough people on it. I think server merge would be great despite any publicity because in the end it should be about the community sadly it isn't in SE's eyes. So the few are left to suffer the 18 dollar transfer fee if they want a change. Maybe the mobile release will bring in more people and help bring back some life to these low populated servers? Maybe some of these problems can be fixed now that the limitations of the ps2 are gone? I remember playing around CoP days to log on to having 3-6k people on even if you add the amount of trusts being used on these servers I don't think you would really reach those numbers, not everyone has trusts out full time. Maybe just merge the servers that have 300 something players on them and not merge the big guys like Odin / Asura. The only people that seem to play this game are hardcore FF fans, which right now makes up most of their FFXI server base. As far as all the other things like Salvage or high tier battles couldn't they just up the amount of available slots? FFXIV there are so many parties that can enter the same instance and that is pulled from every server so it isn't impossible.

[Castanica]

There is little that can be said about that post without it sounding insulting.

The large scale migrations to Asura have left their footprint on FFXI's forums, it doesn't take much digging around to find posts complaining about the lack of activity on most of the remaining servers. Likewise, if such a migration is happening on the Japanese side it wouldn't surprise me if it was clearly evident on forums as well. However, let's be clear here: these migrations aren't happening because players want to escape entire segments of the population, be it Japanese, American, German or what have you - they're happening because players want to go to a server that has an active population, that is alive, and right now if you're an English speaking player your best bet is Asura. It's no more complicated than that. Not everyone is as xenophobic as you appear to be, thankfully.

In a perfect world every Final Fantasy XI subscriber would be playing on one server capable of hosting an infinite amount of instanced battlefields with an incredibly active virtual economy. The software/hardware for making that sort of game a reality likely won't be available for at least a few more years, but there is no reason whatsoever why servers today are only hosting as few as 200 to 400 simultaneous accounts at any hour of the day, many of which are idle bazaars and/or people playing multiple accounts. The situation can be improved for everyone with minimal effort without us all having to pay SE $18 to do it. If they're worried about losing profits from server transfer fees they should just do what every other game developer on the planet is doing and offer unique items for sale. Now that we've got mounts, they can start with a FFXI version of this bad boy:

You seem awfully worried about hurting my feelings, don't worry about it, you can't.

Players are moving by their own volition and planning to ODIN (the unofficial JP server, which was already a fairly large server) and Asura (the unofficial english server, which was already one of the larger servers), nobody is making them do this. By your logic everyone wants Asura and Odin to be merged for this utopian mixed server but that isn't the case because it offers no benefit and a lot of negatives. If people wanted what you are talking about the Japanese would not of completely moved off Asura and would of instead made Asura the unoffocial JP server would they not? There used to be a fairly large JP base on Asura, they moved enmasse to Odin and now there are almost none there at all, because very much like english players they made plans to make a regional popular server.

Again, you are pushing what you like and want onto everyone else. You aren't even on Asura. The auction house is fine, the playerbase is fine. There are no problems with Asura that would be fixed by adding 100% more players that want nothing to do with us and vice versa for them.

Merges are for the small servers, not the big servers that have formed the way the players who paid to move want them. If I simply wanted to be on a big server I and others on Asura could of moved to Odin, we didn't want a big server...we wanted a lot of people we can actually play and communicate with. You will have a hard enough time getting a merge of the small servers like syplh and shiva, let alone this crazy idea of a multi cultural mega server that would offer no benefits. Most people don't care about it, and we would have to go back to kick timers to make people logoff and all kinds of nonsense. It's a major headache to players and the company alike.

We don't need the big servers to be bigger, we need the smallest servers merged to make them comparable to the big ones (even this probably won't happen anyway).