Please close Asura

[Alhanelem]

I personally am of the complete opposite opinion about Asura, I was on the verge of quitting before I came to Asura, it really saved the game for me, I couldn't get any group content done back on Fenrir,

You just have to find the right people. Most major linkshells on any given server, i.e. the ones that do stuff, put their pearls on the linkshell concierges. Sometimes unusual things can hook you up with people as well. I used player event support and threw a Ballista party. Initially no one showed up, but i messaged someone on my friends list, and first they came over with a bunch of mules (which was still entertaining lol) and then all of assuden half their LS showed up. Now I have their LS and we do stuff.

You couldn't pay me to move to Asura, doing ambu or farming stuff you need is an exercise in frustration at best.

The smaller servers are more close knit and once you get your foot in the door, you'll get stuff done.

[Selindrile]

You just have to find the right people.

That was easiest for me on Asura.

You couldn't pay me to move to Asura

And you couldn't pay me to leave, I left an underpopulated server, and I would never ever return, I get so much more done here, and I love it, the downsides to me, are nothing in comparison to the upsides. But again, this is all subjective, which is my whole point.

[Sirmarki]

I've found on Shiva, people actually help eachother out sometimes, and there's minimal RMT/merc shouts, but still enough people around to get things done when it comes down to it. If the BS gets too annyoing for you, come on down, we're pretty welcoming. >.>

That is not what people who moved from Shiva to Asura have told me. They told me that they moved because they couldn't get anything done whatsoever and had no choice.

[Alhanelem]

That was easiest for me on Asura.

Then you clearly gave up too easily.

That is not what people who moved from Shiva to Asura have told me. They told me that they moved because they couldn't get anything done whatsoever and had no choice.

Well, they just didn't look around enough.

My experience is that anyone who says that is expecting passerby to pick them up. My first linkshell I actually joined via linkshell concierge. The second from speaking to others, and the th ird through my story above. The friends and the help are there. People just have to ask for it.

Asura is overpopulated. If people didn't conspire to pile on it a few years ago, everything would be more balanced now. Because Asura is overpopulated, it also has the most botting, the most RMT, and the most mercing. Oh, and the most item duping. >.>

I've never paid gil to get into content or get drops. I've been able to find help every time I really needed it. And I don't even play meta jobs (or meta playstyles). If anything I should be THE person to have the worst experience on a smaller server, but that's not the case.

Server populations need to be balanced. Asura absolutely should be closed and incentives should be offered to balance the population.

[Selindrile]

Then you clearly gave up too easily.

Well, they just didn't look around enough.

So you're claiming to be the arbiter of what is "enough" or "too easy"? I watched Fenrir slowly die for years, my linkshells grow smaller and smaller and die out, I got bored and almost quit myself, I tried plenty, it went from quite the struggle to easy to find tons of people to play and enjoy the game with.

Obviously that threshhold is different for different players, what's "enough" or "too easy" for you, is not the same for everyone, many, Many, MANY people were unhappy on other servers, and are happy on Asura, why in the world do you fathom that your way of "having fun" is objectively any better than anyone else's?

Because Asura is overpopulated, it also has the most botting, the most RMT, and the most mercing. Oh, and the most item duping. >.>

Sure, because it has the most players, if we spread out those players, and all of those players kept playing, the same amount of each of these things would exist, spread out through more servers, why does it matter what server they're on.

I've never paid gil to get into content or get drops. I've been able to find help every time I really needed it. And I don't even play meta jobs (or meta playstyles). If anything I should be THE person to have the worst experience on a smaller server, but that's not the case.

Great anecdote you have there, but the sheer volume of players on Asura proves that your experience is an outlier and not the general experience, I went from feeling very bored and alone to having tons of people to play with and tons to do, obviously if many people had the opposite experience, they'd be moving off Asura, rather than to it.

[Alhanelem]

Sure, because it has the most players, if we spread out those players, and all of those players kept playing, the same amount of each of these things would exist, spread out through more servers, why does it matter what server they're on.

I'm not going to pretend that those things won't get worse for others if that happens, but it's better for it to be balanced than all concentrated in one place.

I really don't get it, yes, there weren't as many players as the heyday, but everything was just fine before somebody somewhere started telling everyone to move to Asura.

Great anecdote you have there, but the sheer volume of players on Asura proves that your experience is an outlier and not the general experience

If it's an outlier its just a result of people thinking more is always better or them not trying to make friends, expecting them to just come to them. I knew how to look for help. I think most people just don't. I imagine most people don't even know about the linkshell concierges for example, or that each one is intended to promote linkshells with different purposes.

Regardless, this promotion of piling on Asura needs to stop. The experience for all players will just continue to get worse. Whether it's long waiting times for content or not being able to fight certain monsters because of RMT botting or getting harder to find friends or auction house supply issues, there are problems on both sides and the best way to solve them is to have balanced populations, not one huge population and a bunch of small ones.

Basically, by leaving the not-asura server you were on before, you made certain problems worse both for people on Asura and for people on the server you left.


----

I came back to the game and found two linkshells with several active players, and in fact all of whom do not merc or buy gil. If I can do it, you can too.

[Selindrile]

but everything was just fine before somebody somewhere started telling everyone to move to Asura.

Basically, by leaving the not-asura server you were on before, you made certain problems worse both for people on Asura and for people on the server you left.

Do you not see your own inconsistency here? Either it's fine to be on a low population server or not.

Anecdotally, things were not "just fine" for me, and many others, and they've gotten much much better for me personally since my move to Asura, and statistically, that holds up, or people would be leaving Asura rather than flocking to it. As to making certain problems "better" or "worse" these are not black and white true or false states, different people have different preference ranges, Asura is far closer in population to servers the way they were in the earlier years in XI, I think that appeals to a lot of people, for some of us, more is usually better, and that expectation of friends coming to me was met, and it is for many others, I've re-met MANY old friends from other servers that splintered off over the years on Asura, it's wonderful. You mention the problems "getting worse" but even Asura doesn't have the population levels we had back in FFXI's height, and I doubt it ever will, if things weren't catastrophic then, they almost assuredly won't be now.

To quote you on the Beastmaster thread: "Players shouldn't be strongarmed into a play style-" which is not unlike what closing off Asura would be doing, you could theoretically incentivize others to leave, but without closing the doors to reenter, I doubt incentives would be very effective, because again, this is what most players seem to prefer.

[Sirmarki]

Then you clearly gave up too easily.

I came from quiet server (I think Sel possibly even came from the same server to Asura).

It wasn't about giving up too easy. I had been on that server (Fenrir) for years. When I left (around 3~4 years ago), there were 300 people approx on at my time, and that is why I left. You could walk around zones and not see ANYONE for miles. Around 10 people I know left Fenrir too and went to Asura (and have been there ever since).

Asura is overpopulated. If people didn't conspire to pile on it a few years ago, everything would be more balanced now. Because Asura is overpopulated, it also has the most botting, the most RMT, and the most mercing. Oh, and the most item duping..

I wouldn't say Asura is overpopulated. It is populated with a fair amount of genuine players, however it has an equal amount of RMT/Bots/Cheats/Extreme Mercs (dare I say it). People multi-box which obviously makes up a bulk of that number too.

It is about balance, servers other than Asura are too small, and Asura has just steam rolled ahead in terms of population explosion. MMO's are meant to have lot of people running around and participating in content, more people = more subs, less people = possibly closure. This is why a lot of people moved to Asura because they like to see a thriving world with actual people movement.

[Alhanelem]

I wouldn't say Asura is overpopulated.

Asura has more players on it now than most had nearly 10 years ago.

there were 300 people approx on at my time

That's more than enough to do things. That's still thousands of users in total over a 24 hour period. As I said, I found linkshells on Shiva without much difficulty. Sometimes I have to plan things out ahead of time, but I can definitely still do them. Enough content is completable with trusts that there are still enough people available to do the things that really do require actual people. And I will take that situation over things like trying to out-pull RMT farm bots and long wait times for ambu vs. getting in essentially instantly.

Even with the lower population, up to this update every single server never failed to kill a domain invasion NM, there are still multiple dynamis-D teams out there, people still have fully augmented RME weapons, etc.

[Zehira]

About 2,000 online players. That's a normal number for one server however Asura has way more English speaking players so. Personally, I'd like to see something that would split up the population into two big servers and that should be about 1,200-1,500 online players on each server. I know we can't do anything about it. Only Square Enix can. I also would like to see if Square Enix could change the names of our servers to like Asura (NA/EU), Shiva (NA/EU), Bahamut (JP) etc etc.. So that the players would know where to go. Currently, 16 servers are too many for this small community.