About the World Merge and Character Transfers (02/09/2012)

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Originally Posted by Tastydoorstop

You need to post this on lodestone....

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

Greetings all,

Yoshida's most recent post lets players know the current plan for the World Merge.

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

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For the Topics announcement, we considered temporarily taking it down, but we decided against that as we feared that if players were unable to see the information, you wouldn’t be able to discuss it with the same background knowledge. Therefore, we’ll be keeping the current announcement up as we go into next week.
[...]

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He already answered this. :) Although a note that it's being revised would be a good idea.

Regarding Leela's Poll: Creating a Poll and then placing a link to said poll on a thread that is biased towards a particular option does not yield accurate results based on a cross-section of the community. That's the issue with the poll.

Also, I love how people are going about saying things along the lines of, "It looks like they are going to do the right thing." Very pretentious of you, to assume that you know what "the right thing" is in the eyes of everyone else. For someone like Sidious, this is not the right thing. Ironically he is more willing to say, "This isn't what I want, but I'll make do with it." than anyone else that has posted on this entire thread since it's inception.

No choice SE can make in this situation will make 100% of the population happy. There's no getting around that fact. Don't criticize SE's customer service and accuse them of releasing "half-assed" products because their decisions for the direction of the company or the products their company produces does not coincide with your personal beliefs on which direction the company takes or how the products are developed and released. You are not the CEO. You are not on the development team. Yes you are a paying customer who subscribes to the service.. but so is everyone else. Your personal opinion is not greater than their personal opinion. You are not "more right" than them.

That having been said, I honestly couldn't care less about which way they decide to merge the servers. None of the options are truly "ideal" and I'm willing to work within the confines of whatever choice they ultimately decide to make. There's only one person that I can honestly say I care where they end up.. and that's my wife. As long as she and I are on the same server, that's all I care about.

Bitch more. Seriously this thread doesn't have enough kitties already bitching about other people instead of the topic.

Dear Mr Biggs; if you see this please post what Server your moving to so me and turt can move to it as well :P

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Originally Posted by Kyri

I honestly couldn't care less about which way they decide to merge the servers. None of the options are truly "ideal" and I'm willing to work within the confines of whatever choice they ultimately decide to make. There's only one person that I can honestly say I care where they end up.. and that's my wife. As long as she and I are on the same server, that's all I care about.

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Then why did you just waste 2 minutes of my life with that post. ¬_¬

Time is money. I demand compensation!

Your idea of what's not right does not invalidate others' ability to judge right and wrong. No one is trying to put words in your mouth. Can you not stand to see people complementing a choice instead of complaining?

Hello, yoshi give us the opportunity to change their choice, with a suggestion for hybrid solution. I think the best option is that, the 2 for a majority of the community will not want to move (except without any coordination, and for proof ...), then those content with their actually server or afraid of the unknown.
And for players who want leave cause their playtime isn't the same of their serveur, they can do it.

Before the second announcement French people was resolved to work together for my community (yes I'm french, sorry for my bad english) can gather with other European players for the same ideal timeZone but if SE changes to the option 2 all can be happy (no need a big meeting next the game). But i think the big problem is to have the necessary space on the server recommended so that EU / NA / JP can play together as i love it so far.

SE tell us they have 18 serveur in total, if they are conscientious i don't see where is the problem. Just please, stop selfish message, write constructive ....

I just think since they know how much population each server has, suggest servers for people like "Mysidia go to 3" and then there's other servers going to 3 to make up the full population.

option 2 was A+B-X right? where people choose to go to server x right, so that means we'll merge two servers, and some will leave to x, whole ls's could choose to move I'm guessing. But it all depends on how much of option 4 he's keeping :/ So if he keeps more of option 4 I'd like suggestions like previously mentioned, if he keeps more of option 2 that'd be a whole lot nicer.

I'm guessing he's going with the option 4 part being the "pick a server if you want" *hopes*

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Originally Posted by Biggs

Says who? The people on here complaining? You do realize that everyone posting on here still only represents a VERY small portion of the community as a whole right?

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Yes but its kind of like in an election. People who don't vote (voice their opinion) don't have their choice counted.

Any option has its drawbacks. Option two lets SE balance out the player populations while still giving EU players the ability to choose a designated EU server if they want to. It also keeps groups together in a way that option four will make next to impossible. I have friends in other linkshells that may follow their shell to a different server than the one my shell goes to which would suck. A more traditional merge like the one used in XI, but with the option to opt out and choose another server is a good one.

I would go a step further and suggest that accounts that haven't been logged into since 2010 be placed in a holding tank and not merged. If the player returns in post merger then they should have the choice to pick a server with the default option being the server their original world was merged to. Just my thought, but I would hate to see thousands of people who may never return to the game be counted as a part of a servers population total. All the servers should have room for new blood in 2.0.

It doesn't really matter which they choose because in the end everyone will make do one way or another. That said, anyone who thinks option 2 is in any way "the same as option 4 but better" lacks the foresight to really have a valid opinion on the issue.

I find it interesting that Yoshi provided us, the community, with an option with freedom for everyone to move, without question, to any server. No one was let out. High population or low population, you were going to get the choice to go anywhere. There has never been a fairer more free option for EVERYONE. The response was on the lines, at least to me, the community will be destroyed because people might CHOOSE to play with someone else over me. In short, they fear rejection and testing who will follow who to what server. I honestly liked the option originally provide by Yoshi, and SE, because it was fair to everyone and I knew who is important to me for my server selection.

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Originally Posted by Klive

I find it interesting that Yoshi provided us, the community, with an option with freedom for everyone to move, without question, to any server. No one was let out. High population or low population, you were going to get the choice to go anywhere. There has never been a fairer more free option for EVERYONE. The response was on the lines, at least to me, the community will be destroyed because people might CHOOSE to play with someone else over me. In short, they fear rejection and testing who will follow who to what server. I honestly liked the option originally provide by Yoshi, and SE, because it was fair to everyone and I knew who is important to me for my server selection.

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Lucky you, because you still get that with option 2.

Only those of us who want to move together to the same server get a guaranteed spot together by having entire servers merge. Then EVERYONE can transfer if they want to.

The original plan was not fair to "EVERYONE"

• Those who didn't have an active account would have been transferred to a random server.
• Those who wanted to move with a group or friends but couldn't due to the server filling up.

I know you don't care about those things, but luckily that doesn't matter. With "option 2" you still get what you want, and now so do the majority of other people. What is your complaint?

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Originally Posted by Murugan

Only those of us who want to move together to the same server get a guaranteed spot together by having entire servers merge. Then EVERYONE can transfer if they want to.

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By guaranteed spot you mean "don't need to move our lazy asses to organize the player base for a move", I presume?

Disregard this post it is excessively inflamatory and I am just greatly enraged at the mindset of some people.

Honestly, if I was SE, people without an active account would not be my biggest consideration. They are not paying or playing, they are going to miss opportunities. Does it suck for them when/if they come back, yes. I'm rather sure SE find the players currently playing and paying their game, thus supporting SE, to be the bigger concern. Asking them to worry about people not playing, or even paying, for their game is asking a lot.

From a sales stand point, I know people coming back due to the server merger. They see the server merger, with anyone able to go anywhere plan, with jobs coming out; a great way to rejoin the FF14 with a fresh start.

Lastly, you can not make everyone happy. No matter what plan or what option is put forth, someone is going to be upset. Due to human nature, that upset person, is going to be the most vocal.

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Originally Posted by Skies

By guaranteed spot you mean "don't need to move our lazy asses to organize the player base for a move", I presume?

Disregard this post it is excessively inflamatory and I am just greatly enraged at the mindset of some people.

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You're totally right. The shells that spend the month planning where to go, but then lose members because they all planned to go to server #7, but SE locks that server due to high population thus separating the shell/leaving members behind is TOTALLY because those members didn't move their "lazy asses" fast enough.

I hate that "people with out active accounts shouldn't this". I have friends who are cancelling their accounts until the end of the college semester (may) to ensure no distractions. School is more important than this game, but they do intend on coming back. Just because they didn't pay useless money in march they deserve to get flung to a random place unable to reconnect with friends until 2.0? I myself have quit this game for a period of 3 months or so while other things in my life took precedence, I don't believe that means I should be flung to a random place unable to reconnect for months. I just wonder how many of you are heartless people who haven't made any attachments on your server. I also have a lot of irl friends, that I can ensure are coming back, no one wants to pay for one month just ensure they can play with their friends later.

Many of you who believe the mobilization of people is easy should volunteer for a political party or take some sort of basic political science course, if mobilizing people were as easy as the critics on the forum make it think we'd have a 90% voting rate in Western democracies.

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Originally Posted by Klive

Honestly, if I was SE, people without an active account would not be my biggest consideration. They are not paying or playing, they are going to miss opportunities. Does it suck for them when/if they come back, yes. I'm rather sure SE find the players currently playing and paying their game, thus supporting SE, to be the bigger concern. Asking them to worry about people not playing, or even paying, for their game is asking a lot.

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It's in their best interest. Since you've started talking about sales point of view, have you thought about the fact that people currently not playing are less likely to come back if they know they will land on a completely random server, separated from all their friends and basically forced to start anew? I know for sure I wouldn't come back.

So if SE doesn't care for non-paying players, not only do they lose potential customers, they also show the community they don't really care about it. Why do you think the JP side of the forums exploded in flames, even though they are usually calm and polite about everything?

And why do you think YoshiP made that post? Because of us raging? Hell no, they are afraid the JP community will give up and leave.

I haven't really kept up on the news of the merger but, can someone tell me what's going on? Is the 10 server thing still going to happen or are they merging servers together and giving people an option to move if they want? Just wondering since I don't want to skim through 70 pages of people yelling at each other.

I have no strong feelings either way since I don't have friends in the game nor am part of a linkshell. Again, just wondering.

poll is looking good

http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p...e1b0e44a9bc294






How would you like the merge to be in FFXIV
A + B⇒A World to merge with B World 7% (47)
A + B - X ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose a different World 65% (407)
A + B - C ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose to go to C World 2% (11)
Prepare 10 Worlds, set a limit, and give everyone the power to move their characters to a World of their choice. 26% (165)
Total votes: 630

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Originally Posted by insaneshadow

I haven't really kept up on the news of the merger but, can someone tell me what's going on? Is the 10 server thing still going to happen or are they merging servers together and giving people an option to move if they want? Just wondering since I don't want to skim through 70 pages of people yelling at each other.

I have no strong feelings either way since I don't have friends in the game nor am part of a linkshell. Again, just wondering.

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As of the last official word from SE:

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

Greetings all,

Yoshida's most recent post lets players know the current plan for the World Merge.Quote Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida View Post
Hello everyone, Producer/Director Yoshida here.

I’d first like to thank you for all of your posts.
I’ve been looking at the threads across all regions and I’m sorry that this has caused a huge disturbance amongst each of the regions.

Currently, we're seeing a lot of feedback that favors plan ②, and we're considering revisions that use plan ② as a base while retaining the merits of plan ④. The operations and development teams will continue to gather everyone’s feedback while we investigate further. This is also a technical matter and we also need to confirm schedule timing, so I’m sorry to say that we’ll need some additional time and that this will continue through the weekend and into the start of next week.

For the Topics announcement, we considered temporarily taking it down, but we decided against that as we feared that if players were unable to see the information, you wouldn’t be able to discuss it with the same background knowledge. Therefore, we’ll be keeping the current announcement up as we go into next week.

Just to reiterate, there are a lot of players that are voicing their concerns, and we will strive to find an acceptable balance as much as possible before moving forward. Therefore please keep this in mind and try to understand our reasoning.

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Plan 2 is:

A + B - X ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose a different World.

Which is what most of the people have been asking for here.

Just wait until more people actually start playing the game and they have to add servers back again. Watch it be the same clusterfuck.

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Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

I hate that "people with out active accounts shouldn't this". .

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It's funny how people were all "If you don't pay blah blah" and "FFXIV is a dead MMORPG" now all of a sudden we should care for the people who quit or chose not to pay?

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Originally Posted by Elexia

It's funny how people were all "If you don't pay blah blah" and "FFXIV is a dead MMORPG" now all of a sudden we should care for the people who quit or chose not to pay?

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As someone who plays the game shouldn't you hope, considering the sheer amount of people that have quit since launch (hundreds of thousands of people), that many of them will come back?

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Originally Posted by Murugan

As someone who plays the game shouldn't you hope, considering the sheer amount of people that have quit since launch (hundreds of thousands of people), that many of them will come back?

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If they want to come back they will, but merging servers isn't to benefit people who don't even play so why should they be in consideration? It's something done for the people currently playing so if people who are inactive or don't even play can't choose or example..there's really no problem.

I just found it funny pre-merge people were all for getting rid of those who didn't play or quit due to pay-to-play, now they're saying "WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!" basically.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

If they want to come back they will, but merging servers isn't to benefit people who don't even play so why should they be in consideration? It's something done for the people currently playing so if people who are inactive or don't even play can't choose or example..there's really no problem.

I just found it funny pre-merge people were all for getting rid of those who didn't play or quit due to pay-to-play, now they're saying "WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!" basically.

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Why should it not be a concern? I'm saying it should be a concern, that they should keep all those players (the majority of everyone who has played this game this far) in mind when they do server merges. Especially given the unique situation of FFXIV where the game is relaunching and so many people are simply waiting for that until they give the game another chance. The development team should do everything they can to make sure that when those players come back they have a positive experience, and don't experience the added inconvenience or even rage because they got sent to a random server away from their friends, linkshells, and anyone they ever played with. Whereas if they come back to a server with familiar faces, and an improved game their chances of staying with the game this time are much much higher.

I don't remember anyone excited about getting rid of people who didn't play or quit, I think people were tired of those who were trolling the game without actually having any intention of playing. But if there is anyone who plays FFXIV who doesn't know at least one other person who has quit that they would like to see play again in the future I would be shocked.

Of course inactive characters are important! Now they are not the top priority but they should be at least kept in mind a little bit!<3

A lot of my friends plan on coming back 1.21 to give it another try. That is their problem though, if they want to worry where they end up they can read the updates like everyone else and act accordingly! Not the end of the world though because we get to pick new servers/names(hopefully!!!)/characters in 2.0 no?<3

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Originally Posted by Babydoll

Of course inactive characters are important! Now they are not the top priority but they should be at least kept in mind a little bit!<3

A lot of my friends plan on coming back 1.21 to give it another try. That is their problem though, if they want to worry where they end up they can read the updates like everyone else and act accordingly! Not the end of the world though because we get to pick new servers/names(hopefully!!!)/characters in 2.0 no?<3

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Well there is no guarantee that will be the case from the developers, even if it is likely that paid transfers will be allowed at some point in the future.

However, what if they come back in the meantime after the server merges and before paid transfers are allowed? They will be less likely to stick around.

They are expected to "follow people on the lodestone" to find what server they end up on, but they have to do that now in cases of people with non-unique name to know what server they end up on. Or if searching for people they know when they get back they have to remember both names, and spellings in order to search for people.

So that is much more imposing than just doing what SE has now decided to do, and base server merges on option 2:

A + B - X ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose a different World.

Now when they come back they will be on the default server for those from their old servers, and will be much more likely to run into people they know without having to search for those people on the lodestone, or external sites. In fact they might simply run into people who know them, and having people to play with is a huge part of making an MMO palatable for most players.


Also you say "if they want to worry where they end up they can read the updates like everyone else and act accordingly!". Why would they do that?

You expect people first of all to closely follow developments on an MMO they are not currently playing, then to sub to that game they are not playing for an entire month just so they can take part in the transfer to ensure they get on a server with everyone they know for when they eventually come back nearly a year from now.

By large, that's just not going to happen. It is asking way too much of people that Square Enix needs to be winning back.

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Also you say "if they want to worry where they end up they can read the updates like everyone else and act accordingly!". Why would they do that?

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I say this because it is really their responsibility to keep tabs on their character/game if they really care about it. Square Enix usually sends me emails to the account I signed up with when something "big" is happening. I am not defending SE per say, I don't agree with them just throwing characters who are inactive on random servers...but really people should also take some initiative to take care of their own things.

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Originally Posted by Murugan

As someone who plays the game shouldn't you hope, considering the sheer amount of people that have quit since launch (hundreds of thousands of people), that many of them will come back?

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Maybe isnt a sure. Plus, pay $4 for a month to transfer or stfu. SE gotta care for us that paid, even 6 months ahead. Not some ship jumpers that may or may not come back.

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Originally Posted by Noir

Maybe is a sure. Plus, pay $4 for a month to transfer or stfu. SE gotta care for us that paid, even 6 months ahead. Not some ship jumpers that may or may not come back.

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Well that's not much of an argument, the game needs more people to sustain it (and the former playerbase is a great target audience). They are "caring for us that paid", how are they not? But they need to appeal to these people when/if they come back too.

Threatening them that they will end up on a random server if they don't resub now isn't likely to bring anyone back, but it might make many think twice about even bothering to return to their characters. That's just one reason why Yoshida's decision to change course to Option 2 was in the best interest of the game.

Also where do you get $4 from?

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Originally Posted by Murugan

Also where do you get $4 from?

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I'm a little curious about this myself...

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Originally Posted by Murugan

Well that's not much of an argument, the game needs more people to sustain it (and the former playerbase is a great target audience). They are "caring for us that paid", how are they not? But they need to appeal to these people when/if they come back too.

Threatening them that they will end up on a random server if they don't resub now isn't likely to bring anyone back, but it might make many think twice about even bothering to return to their characters. That's just one reason why Yoshida's decision to change course to Option 2 was in the best interest of the game.

Also where do you get $4 from?

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I must've missed something but where did Yoshi say he was going to go with option? What I read was that they were gonna consider a mix of option 2 and 4... o.o;

I am curious if the application page will be through the lodestone or will we have to access it through the client?

this is important for some people I know who have acees to internet but the computer with the client is home and they may be away during the application period.

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Originally Posted by Palidine

I am curious if the application page will be through the lodestone or will we have to access it through the client?

this is important for some people I know who have acees to internet but the computer with the client is home and they may be away during the application period.

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Since they got rid of Playonline for XIV (and XI essentially), I would be surprised if it's through the client unless thats being updated too.

Very likely through the lodestone/forums (somewhat similar to how XI did Test server apps.)

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Originally Posted by Frisque

I'm a little curious about this myself...

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Lmao. $4, $7 I paid 6 months. Lol. Add the character fee. Can't remember it all. ;)

Dear Admins,

Just do what you do and stop listening to the trolls.

Sincerely,
Ya Boy Vegas

At least they put option 1 on reassess. They might go with option 2.

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Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

I hate that "people with out active accounts shouldn't this". I have friends who are cancelling their accounts until the end of the college semester (may) to ensure no distractions. School is more important than this game, but they do intend on coming back. Just because they didn't pay useless money in march they deserve to get flung to a random place unable to reconnect with friends until 2.0? I myself have quit this game for a period of 3 months or so while other things in my life took precedence, I don't believe that means I should be flung to a random place unable to reconnect for months.

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This is one point I agree with.

When XI launched our linkshell from Carbuncle choose a server to join in XIV. Everyone but me stopped playing within a few months of the launch. Some returned to XI, but some had stopped playing XI long before XIV launched. Now I am in a new linkshell with a bunch of people from Bismark who I would follow to whatever server they choose under option 4, but but but but...

If my old XI group returns in 2.0, and some will I am sure, they may login to some randomly chosen server with no way to find out which of many servers the shell landed on. I can update the ones who still play XI with the new location, but the ones who no longer play XI would be lost potentially forever. The lack of a real flist system make this unworkable.

I have some friends that already experience considerable lag in areas where there are a lot of players. I can only hope that there are some client tweaks in 1.21 and in the servers that can help cope with the rise in population.

Personally, I'm excited to have more people around. It is so dead in there sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Mireille

If my old XI group returns in 2.0, and some will I am sure, they may login to some randomly chosen server with no way to find out which of many servers the shell landed on.

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I play and played XI heavily so I know for a fact:

1. Your linkshell most likely had a website if it was ever seriously ran.
2. You had contact information of them.

They would have a way of knowing which server you guys landed on, it's funny though how with that option they would "have no way of knowing" but with any other option "they would know" even though how would they then you guys still even played due to the fact in a merge the linkshell would be deleted as well as friendlist due to potential multiple names?

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Originally Posted by Elexia

I play and played XI heavily so I know for a fact:

1. Your linkshell most likely had a website if it was ever seriously ran.
2. You had contact information of them.

They would have a way of knowing which server you guys landed on, it's funny though how with that option they would "have no way of knowing" but with any other option "they would know" even though how would they then you guys still even played due to the fact in a merge the linkshell would be deleted as well as friendlist due to potential multiple names?

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Really, now? I seriously doubt every member of a linkshell is going to lose their name.

Besides, if you at least knew the server, you could /shout for your old friends in Ul'dah or ask around to see what became of XXYYZZ linkshell from Mysidia. Also, people change e-mails. I doubt whichever e-mail I used 7 years ago for my first endgame shell still exists; I definitely have no idea what it was.

Of course it's going to be difficult to find your friends, but there's no denying that it will be a lot easier with option 2 than option 4.