Transfer Restrictions and Roleplayers

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Originally Posted by Naunet

Indeed. That's essentially what roleplay is - a model of real human relationships.

So you should understand that uprooting people is asking a lot, especially when SE can't seem to offer a complete transfer.

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I understand your point but that was not the point of my post, stuff in RL happens that people may not like or need to do stuff that they don't want. Same for RP in the game.

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Originally Posted by Endeleon

What is with you Balmung RPers and being so entitled? There's a pretty healthy RP communnity on Mateus and no one reacts like this. (But please, don't come to Mateus we don't want you here)

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WrA vs MG all over again lmfao

Want to talk about entitled lets talk about housing. Mateus seems to be the most likely candidate for new RP server because you guys still have empty plots there. 20mil for a large? WHEW sounds nice. ENJOY ALL THE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T HANDLE BALMUNG.

:'D

THE TIME IS NOW FOR THE FABULIANS TO SPLIT FROM THE BESAID RPERS! Sever the server! No.. jk :P

I do think the lock should stay in place for server health but that is a temporary solution and SE should look for other long term solutions. I believe establishing more than one RP server, officially, is a good next step that is a slightly longer term goal. As if you only have one then you will always have a mounting population of players and characters for that server. So even if SE could lower Balmung's population it would assuredly go to cap and should be locked again. Large server attracts friends and randoms, (almost) the sole RP server attracting even more friends and randoms - Balmung is getting it from both ends lol.

Besides just stability of the servers there is of course the issue of housing, so unless SE can make their housing unlimited (please god WS/Other great instanced housing examples, even if not that at least self generating wards like LotR). I suggest /every/ /single/ time that Balmung is near capacity that they lock it from all approach (including paying to get in), stability, balance*, and opportunity imo are paramount issues. *(not all systems work well in the mass that our larger servers provide)

Even separating people out, because people like to head to big servers (in my experience), won't be a perfect long term solution just a "longer-ish" term solution. Personally imagine that one of the best long term solutions would to create a mega-server sort of deal where an ever mounting population is not an issue (will temporarily fracture areas into other sub groups when need be, etc etc, but basically everyone is on the same cluster of servers as one big fat happy, maybe, family). There are issues on how friends lists and stuff are handled and it won't be a woosh over night deal, but once done right I think we should be fine even if Balmung becomes the size of all other servers combined lol. Part of that would also /require/ that SE get their housing issues out of the way, having a houseless FC is like having a legless racing horse.. have fun there losing, and you don't need one as a player but tbh having a home of your own in an MMORPG is an awesome feeling (also if everyone can have a house they can make it a more integral content, with more features, and will be a better gil sink, good for the market and personal customization / making a home for yourself).

That is not to say I don't feel bad that people can't invite their friends into the server and stuff like that, but just that as I said before the stability, balance, and opportunity of features/balance is a paramount issue. If you know your boat is leaking and the water is rising, imo, it would be logical to fix the holes and stop new people from getting on (some of the server issues are not unbearable but woo.. wait until the expansion comes out lol).


Talk of WoW RP reminded me of some of the really cool addons WoW had made for RPers. I've never really been an RPer but.. I remember a list of mods on a video for them and I was like "I want half of these, uwueuewuw!" lol. Language, create a quest, cinematic quest telling, lore/bestiary.. they were pretty cool. I want mods SE, please? :3

Honestly its time for companies in the mmo genre realize a server community is its strongest asset. Have volunteer seers open up dynamic plot lines with player interaction. Bring the world to life and designate an official RP server.

What I would like to know is what largely unpopulated servers do have growing RP communities? I skimmed over someone mention Siren. Any others?
With the idea of free server transfers popping up it would be nice to know places that some of the tired members of Balmung can perhaps move to.

Wouldnt it be easier to ad another server and make that the specified RP server.

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Originally Posted by Dustbunnie

What I would like to know is what largely unpopulated servers do have growing RP communities? I skimmed over someone mention Siren. Any others?
With the idea of free server transfers popping up it would be nice to know places that some of the tired members of Balmung can perhaps move to.

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Did you see this?

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Originally Posted by LordTiberiusRex

People already ahead of you here.

EDIT: Oh, how I don't miss you at all 1k character limit. How I don't miss you at all.

EDIT 2: Whoops. Forgot EU's doing something for a different server suggestion too.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Did you see this?

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YES!
Thank you.
I had just been browsing through the rest of the thread and saw it. But thank you for posting it again for me.
I am very thrilled with the initiative the RP community is taking.

Again, creating a new server, designating it as RP, and offering free transfers is the ideal solution, rather than flooding a pre-existing server with Balmung RPers.

1). A new server means that people should theoretically be able to keep their exact housing plot if they own one.

2). RPers don't have to compete with PVErs over limited content like housing, and vice versa.

3). Proper segregation of RPers and non-RPers with a designated RP server tag ensures stable population.

I think it is the community who have to choose a 2nd offical unoffical RP Server.
And if someone ask "I want to do RP but Balmung is locked, any idea which server?", then we all can say "go to <inset 2nd RP server>", until that server is also full like Balmung.

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Originally Posted by jameseoakes

Will the Balmung RP community move to the new server though?

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We are getting house moving feature. If that house moving feature is meant to be cross server. For SE issues and not so players can jump, but maybe in the future. The gil transfer seems to be an arbitrary number so SE could change that for a while.

If SE made a new server and called it Quick Sand Erp Central ( I kid sort of). Designated it RPing only, or probably just RP identifier.

Second allowed free transfer to Balmung onto the new empty rping server. With either house transfer or full refund on Balmung demolished houses.

Third opened this server up to the rest of the servers for free rp transfer. But probably not house transfer. Because that probably happens more technical side.

After a short period of time. Treat it like a normal server and hope that they balance out. The chance of the current Balmung rping to increase the amount of houses they have or where the houses they have might be to great to pass up.

Definitely would like a designated role play server. Recently came to Balmung and was surprised at the amount of roleplay happening all the time. I have a few friends who were going to follow me to do stormblood content together. Sadly we did not know the maintenance would close Balmung so now I have to make the decision of being in a server enriched with roleplay (A great place where I can learn to be a part of such a community as I'm not really outgoing or experienced in that kind of thing) or play with my friends.

I will have to give up roleplay opportunities for friends, even though they are all willing to transfer.

I have to stay, I tried to remain motivated after the Server-Ban on Balmung and thought about playing on a different Server, but in the end, with Balmung arround the other Servers simply don't feel satisfying. As someone who wants to play RP in the first place and then do the other stuff, I simply see no point to invest more money and time into the game right now. So, with me Square Enix has reached their goal of lowering their population as in this moment I think I'm not going to renew my subscription or buy Stormblood the next month.

I really hope the roleplay community doesn't decide to have a mass exodus out of balmung :(
I love the atmosphere that all the open roleplay brings to the server, and I don't think I could convince my non-roleplayer friends to transfer even if there was a free transfer option.

I'd like to reiterate that Balmung is full because it has two full servers' worth comprising of two broad demographics: RPers and non-RPers. I understand that demographics overlap heavily, but they are still meaningful in population. The easiest way to stabilise the population is to acknowledge the demographic and cater to one or the other, and the fact that RPers really only have a single specific condition makes facilitating the move of Balmung RPers the easiest and most beneficial way to stabilise server populations.

In the wake of things like megaservers and cross-realm zoning, roleplay is one of the only activities in an MMO that majorly depends on players sharing the same in-game space. Things like PVE are easy enough to facilitate with cross-server tech, the Duty Finder, and the prevalence of software like Discord. Creating a new server specifically to facilitate that need for roleplayers to share the same in-game space would alleviate the biggest issue with splitting the RP community.

Part of why the Balmung Housing Rush exists is because RPers and non-RPers are competing with one another. Remove that factor, and I'm willing to wager that the housing market and the serve as a whole would be a bit steadier.

I really wish they implement an "official RP" server, i'm in europe, and the "unofficial offical RP" server is in America, it would lag.
Besides, it's almost impossible to join without a transfer.

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Originally Posted by Marluxia

transfer and creation restrictions coming out of nowhere with no warning.

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Really? Really? The fact that each new character had to be made at 2am after a half dozen tries didn't tip you off that maybe the server was overcrowded?

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Originally Posted by Beckett

Really? Really? The fact that each new character had to be made at 2am after a half dozen tries didn't tip you off that maybe the server was overcrowded?

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This has been a long time coming, Balmung and to a less extent Gilgamesh have needed something doing to stabilise there numbers since about Heavansward so this shouldn't be a surprise.

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Originally Posted by jameseoakes

This has been a long time coming, Balmung and to a less extent Gilgamesh have needed something doing to stabilise there numbers since about Heavansward so this shouldn't be a surprise.

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It was already needed when I started playing the game in 2014. Probably before then but I can't comment on that.

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Originally Posted by Beckett

Really? Really? The fact that each new character had to be made at 2am after a half dozen tries didn't tip you off that maybe the server was overcrowded?

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I don't think that's really fair when Balmung was completely open to transfers for the past four years since ARR was launched, making the character creation restriction seem arbitrary. If anything, it seemed that Square Enix prioritised revenue from transfers over population stability and now it's biting everyone involved.

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Originally Posted by Marluxia

I don't think that's really fair when Balmung was completely open to transfers for the past four years since ARR was launched, making the character creation restriction seem arbitrary. If anything, it seemed that Square Enix prioritised revenue from transfers over population stability and now it's biting everyone involved.

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I find it disingenuous to blame Squeenix for people who purposely transferred into a server known to be overpopulated for years. The fee was obviously there to discourage transfer. Imagine the yelling if they had locked it down 2 years ago or longer? ...probably pretty similar to now. I really have little sympathy for people who actually paid for a lesser degree of stability.

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Originally Posted by savageink

I find it disingenuous to blame Squeenix for people who purposely transferred into a server known to be overpopulated for years. The fee was obviously there to discourage transfer. Imagine the yelling if they had locked it down 2 years ago or longer? ...probably pretty similar to now. I really have little sympathy for people who actually paid for a lesser degree of stability.

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Had SE disabled it like the lodestone posts about character creation seemed to imply, I don't think we'd be running into this issue here and now. While I never had issues getting into Balmung as a legacy character, a number of my friends did have to do the silly "wake up at 3am and hope enough people logged out for creation to be open" thing to get in. ...and then it hit the point of "you have to transfer in if we want to play together." Now, that's not too big of a deal if we're just doing PVE content. A cross-world party in the same datacenter fixes that. ...but for RPers, it doesn't really work out as well. We can't all just RP in dungeons or something for a large event. (Since even if that was viable, it's 4 or 8 people at best. One of the longest running events on Balmung that happens every week averages around 70 people, and it's spiked up higher. And gone anywhere from 3-8 hours.)

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Originally Posted by savageink

I find it disingenuous to blame Squeenix for people who purposely transferred into a server known to be overpopulated for years. The fee was obviously there to discourage transfer. Imagine the yelling if they had locked it down 2 years ago or longer? ...probably pretty similar to now. I really have little sympathy for people who actually paid for a lesser degree of stability.

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Server's not that unstable actually. A few times it has gone down on its own because of the sheer amount of people, but for the most part it's fine. I am kind of surprised they don't merge all the baby servers together to make one or two large servers like Balmung just because running around in a MMO absolutely alone is.. sad.

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Originally Posted by Acilith

Server's not that unstable actually. A few times it has gone down on its own because of the sheer amount of people, but for the most part it's fine. I am kind of surprised they don't merge all the baby servers together to make one or two large servers like Balmung just because running around in a MMO absolutely alone is.. sad.

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No. Server merges are terrible.

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Originally Posted by Acilith

Server's not that unstable actually. A few times it has gone down on its own because of the sheer amount of people, but for the most part it's fine. I am kind of surprised they don't merge all the baby servers together to make one or two large servers like Balmung just because running around in a MMO absolutely alone is.. sad.

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I have alts on Gilgamesh. I never transfer, I just make a new character when I switch servers. Peak time in town is like swimming through tar from the lag... I don't play them much, usually late at night. I really don't know how people stand it on their mains on a regular basis. And during expansion launch? Forget it. So, yeah. I am fully aware of the server issues whether people who deal with them every time they log in do, is another question.

And no, smaller servers aren't empty. Some more than others at 3 am but whatever.

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Originally Posted by Acilith

running around in a MMO absolutely alone is.. sad.

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What's not sad is being able to play without lag spikes from all the AFKs or whatever. Small servers are probably a great boon to players with sub-optimal machines. I know I can feel mine chug just a little bit harder when big hunts draw in a crowd. I'd hate trying to play if that was normal everywhere all the time. (plus being able to actually get to/participate in hunts)

I've also heard old stories of certain enemies being constantly farmed for materials (such as Diremite) causing some frustration among players struggling to compete. Idunno if that was ever a thing in early HW or whatever, but I'd consider it a potential/minor benefit to staying small.

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Originally Posted by savageink

I find it disingenuous to blame Squeenix for people who purposely transferred into a server known to be overpopulated for years. The fee was obviously there to discourage transfer. Imagine the yelling if they had locked it down 2 years ago or longer? ...probably pretty similar to now. I really have little sympathy for people who actually paid for a lesser degree of stability.

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Uhm. No. Square Enix has the responsibility for this. Not the player base. It is rather entitled and arrogant you try to blame people for this. Don't try to shift the blame on the community. It makes you look extremely dim-witted and uninformed. Square Enix are the ones who hold the end responsibility. Not their customers.

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Originally Posted by Velynea

Uhm. No. Square Enix has the responsibility for this. Not the player base. It is rather entitled and arrogant you try to blame people for this. Don't try to shift the blame on the community. It makes you look extremely dim-witted and uninformed. Square Enix are the ones who hold the end responsibility. Not their customers.

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Actually, you come across as one of the most entitled people in this thread. You see the writing on the wall but for some reason refuse to believe that it applies to you.

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Originally Posted by Velynea

Uhm. No. Square Enix has the responsibility for this. Not the player base. It is rather entitled and arrogant you try to blame people for this. Don't try to shift the blame on the community. It makes you look extremely dim-witted and uninformed. Square Enix are the ones who hold the end responsibility. Not their customers.

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Funny coming from someone who wants everyone to go onto a single server instead of spreading out.

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Originally Posted by savageink

Actually, you come across as one of the most entitled people in this thread. You see the writing on the wall but for some reason refuse to believe that it applies to you.

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And you are entitled to have that opinion. By all means, continue to make yourself look like an abhorrent, uninformed dolt with zero sympathy towards people who happen to enjoy another aspect of a game.

Darn those raiders as well on Gilgamesh. Shouldn't have transferred there to play with their friends. They knew how full it was after all! Gosh, lets just ignore those people who have a desire to play with their friends. They should just start over on a new server, problem solved? Right? Oh their community they enjoy? Nah, clearly they need to sacrifice that. - Did that perhaps make it easier for you to understand our situation, of are you continue to stay that dense?

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Funny coming from someone who wants everyone to go onto a single server instead of spreading out.

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Laughable from someone who does not appear to wish to understand, despite several roleplayers having tried to explain our situation. Roleplayers, beyond a handful of individuals, like to stick in sizeable groups. We tried to explain this several times over and over now. Alas, intelligence is a rare trait to be found in some people, but cherry picking posts is something a trait you can pride yourself onto though.

Everyone complaining in this thread is ridiculous. They did this for HW and just didn't tell you and no one batted an eye. Now they tell you this time and everyone freaks out. The servers will reopen a few weeks after launch. Chill the hell out.

Look, if you want everyone to go onto a single server, that's fine. But if you do that, you're going to have to deal with the consequences. The consequences of the actions the players themselves took.

So yes, this is the fault of the players. Players like you.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Look, if you want everyone to go onto a single server, that's fine. But if you do that, you're going to have to deal with the consequences. The consequences of the actions the players themselves took.

So yes, this is the fault of the players. Players like you.

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Of course it is. Fault of the community. Fault of people who desire to join their friends. Not that of the people running the game who should have came up with more graceful solutions. I don't get this absurd whiteknighting and trying to proclaim Square Enix has no blame in it. They are running this game. They have the end responsibility.

As far as I know neither I, or other roleplayers, are on the board of directors over at Square Enix's office.

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Originally Posted by Velynea

And you are entitled to have that opinion. By all means, continue to make yourself look like an abhorrent, uninformed dolt with zero sympathy towards people who happen to enjoy another aspect of a game.

Darn those raiders as well on Gilgamesh. Shouldn't have transferred there to play with their friends. They knew how full it was after all! Gosh, lets just ignore those people who have a desire to play with their friends. They should just start over on a new server, problem solved? Right? - Did that perhaps make it easier for you to understand our situation, of are you continue to stay that dense?



Laughable from someone who does not appear to wish to understand, despite several roleplayers having tried to explain our situation. Alas, intelligence is a rare trait to be found in some people.

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Yadda yadda...lets try again.
Too many people make server break. Adding more people make server break more. Do nothing server not work good. Expansion coming server screwed...

Is everybody friends with everybody on the server? No, no I doubt it. Squeenix IS doing what they can. They are telling you that this situation is untenable. You now have to deal with it. Saying you will do absolutely nothing and complaining about it when everybody has known for years there were too many people going in to those servers and you had to go to extraordinary measures to get around the restrictions imposed is definitely your community's fault...and I suppose the raiders too. The rest is martyrdom plain and simple.

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Originally Posted by Velynea

Of course it is. Fault of the community. Fault of people who desire to join their friends. Not that of the people running the game who should have came up with more graceful solutions. I don't get this absurd whiteknighting and trying to proclaim Square Enix has no blame in it. They are running this game. They have the end responsibility.

As far as I know neither I, or other roleplayers, are on the board of directors over at Square Enix's office.

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I didn't say they have no blame. I said that you are to blame. You for doing it and them for allowing it to be done.

At least some people in the RP community realize it.

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Balmung's predicament is, essentially, a problem at least partially of the RP community's own making. And I think it's one we should - and can - work together to equally partially solve

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A quote from someone from the RP forum, from a Balmungian. So you can disagree with me all you want. But don't do it because I'm not part of Balmung's RP community.

If you complain about it and refuse to transfer off with your friends, you have no room to complain. Period. Play on high pop servers, win high pop prizes. Move if its such a first world problem that you're gonna be locked out for an indeterminate amount of time. Which, by the way, will shorten if people leave.

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Originally Posted by Velynea

Gosh, lets just ignore those people who have a desire to play with their friends. They should just start over on a new server, problem solved? Right?

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I mean... which is the priority here? Playing with a friend, or playing on a mega server? Honestly why would starting over on a server with a friend who is also starting fresh be a bad thing? You literally get to run the whole game together.

Idunno about you, but I wouldn't tell my friends "Hey come play this with me. But also have extra cash so we can play together. No I won't pay you back, just pay for the transfer so I don't have to make an alt."

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

I didn't say they have no blame. I said that you are to blame. You for doing it and them for allowing it to be done.

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So I am to blame for those servers being locked. Well. I shall go directly punish myself for this with a few hard lashes on my back, and hope the Twelve and the community of all those people will forgive me.

The only thing I see here are poor attempt of guilt tripping people into expressing the enjoy their community and hate to shut (new) people out from it. Quite abhorrent, truly. Just because we have our seats warm does not mean we should be snobbish and go by an attitude of 'tough luck' of those people wishing to join Balmung.

I'd welcome another roleplay server. Many do. But once more, choice is what I want for people. Not a force to one server or the other. But alas, that flies past people's ears as well.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

I mean... which is the priority here? Playing with a friend, or playing on a mega server? Honestly why would starting over on a server with a friend who is also starting fresh be a bad thing? You literally get to run the whole game together.

Idunno about you, but I wouldn't tell my friends "Hey come play this with me. But also have extra cash so we can play together. No I won't pay you back, just pay for the transfer so I don't have to make an alt."

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Roleplayers are extremely different. We like a lot of options in terms of people we get to interact with. It's vital to our community.There's plenty of posts on how and what we are not like the communities you are used to. On page 6 and 7 you can find better explanations I've given. I invite you to look over those and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

I would just suggest my friend to seek out another MMO at this point. At least until Balmung unlocks. I'd play other games with them though! But most of my online friends these days are on Balmung. They also don't want to leave. I'd rather not leave the majority of my friends and many feel the same.

I feel for the RP community, I really do. It's a nifty pastime and I get why you'd want to stick together and foster a server RP atmosphere. The problem is ever server has limits and you folks have hit yours. Should SE have made a dedicated RP server from the outset, absolutely. However, I know for a fact RP isn't exclusive to Balmung, those other folks are working hard to build communities and attract people. They even have a good chance of succeeding now that Balmung isn't going to suck new roleplayers in thanks to it's sheer mass size. With the upcoming changes to server transfers and added benefits, you folks should start petitioning for one of the worlds receiving all those benefits to be designated the official 'RP' server. Now would be the time to do it (considering they're adding new EU servers). Moving would suck but wouldn't the benefits be worth it in this case?

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Originally Posted by Velynea

Of course it is. Fault of the community. Fault of people who desire to join their friends. Not that of the people running the game who should have came up with more graceful solutions. I don't get this absurd whiteknighting and trying to proclaim Square Enix has no blame in it. They are running this game. They have the end responsibility.

As far as I know neither I, or other roleplayers, are on the board of directors over at Square Enix's office.

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Thank you (again) for your well reasoned posts, and I agree with them completely.

Unfortunately, the majority of the PVE community does not understand (or care) about the intricacies of the RP community, and no one will be able to convince them to do anything other than eat out of SE's silver spoon. They blissfully consume whatever is given and forget that they are consumers who ultimately hold the power. As such, they cannot see other potentialities, ignore problems impacting others, are oblivious to long-term risks to the health of the game, and fail to consider reasonable alternatives. So long as they can devour PVE content with small groups of like-minded friends, they do not care about things like community, creativity, or user-created content. It is pointless to try to convince them otherwise.

MMORPGS are social games. We should be encouraging SE to consolidate server populations onto as few severs as possible and devote sufficient resources to alleviate technical issues with those servers. Artificial barriers - like server selection - should not divide communities and limit the game play experience. If a person is unable to understand this extremely simple concept, I apologize and feel great sympathy for that person.