Any Korean or Chinese readers here that can shed some light on their FFXIV versions?

Earlier today, I've learned offhand from friends who play another MMO developed by the same company that manages FFXIV in those regions, that FFXIV is actually in pretty big trouble in those regions, or at least in Korea. Of course, they're of the opinion that actually kind of want FFXIV to shut down in those regions so the host can get back to focusing all efforts on their original MMO (they only found out about the FFXIV situation because they were searching to find out if the company's ill-fated mobile branch even still exists, which apparently doesn't, good riddance), which is also in dire straits.

Specifically, they mentioned that the Korean service region recently had a server merge that left a lot of players upset - because (note that said friend had no former knowledge on how FFXIV servers/data are structured) 'the game apparently wasn't designed for server merges, a lot had to be destroyed to accommodate them, including housing data'. It does have interesting implications if true, notably that we shouldn't really expect merges here in the international client if they already outright failed in the Korean and Chinese versions.

I think it'd be worth a research trip to validate those claims, if we have some Chinese or Korean readers among us.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Server-Merges

That should explain the mergers a bit.

Which language voice acting do Chinese and Korean region players prefer?

I can't really speak for the side of the developer in Korea, which I understand is Actoz Games? I never heard of them up until a fast Google search, so I don't know their other games and such. All I hear about the Korean version in pertaining to why its not doing so well, revolves around two things.

The first being the way billing is done in Korea. I think billing there is done by the hour? Which makes sense since FFXIV is not a "get in and get out" type of game. Where it could take hours for the player to accomplish a goal, VS the other games offered which players could play for an hour or two and accomplish a lot.

The second being is FFXIV is very much not a competitive game by default. Whenever I read about gaming culture in Korea the big games that everyone talks about are very E-Sports centric. One big element that FFXIV lacks.

The server merger is news to me really but if that's the case where data was destroyed and players did lose houses and other stuff. Yeah that would deffo make players already invested bitter I would think.

Compare an average Korean/Chinease MMO to FFXIV and you will notice that they don't have anything in common. Games there are focused around grind with average PVE and big gear gaps, if PvP is preset those gear gaps carry over.

I am a Korean player on global server (JP) and I was told there was a lot of issue while merging servers.
Apparently, it's their 2nd server merging, since Feb 2016 and They merged 6 servers (Sabotender/Leviathan/Odin/Behemoth/Shiva/Ultima) into 3 (Carbuncle/Chocobo/Moogle). They did not create a new server but rather they just renamed the existing major server and add a minority server on top of it. Quite obviously, they ran into two issue, Character Name (in Korean letter) and housing area.

http://static.ff14.co.kr/Contents/20...0200234287.jpg
http://static.ff14.co.kr/Contents/20...0203126584.jpg
http://static.ff14.co.kr/Contents/20...0204867389.jpg

According to detailed information, FF14 system only support up to 36 wards [Max] for personal housing system due to their system restriction (PS3 limitation perhaps?) and they could not fit all 24 wards from each server into one. Those player who were in ward number greater than 18 lost their property upon merging. They said they compensated in Gil but obviously that did not take all the housing item + airship into consideration when they calculated compensation amount in Gil. This also lead to huge inflation in economy and encouraged RMT and it wasn't too difficult to find a house in online auction site in Korea. Apparently Large house in Mist was listed on auction went up to US$550.

REF: http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=170530

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skyfox

According to detailed information, FF14 system only support up to 36 wards [Max] for personal housing system due to their system restriction (PS3 limitation perhaps?) and they could not fit all 24 wards from each server into one.

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Well since PS3 support got dropped then maybe they could have used that to make the new area instanced housing. But it seems they did the same ward thing. They had the perfect chance to sort it out with Stormblood and the new area, and they to use a term, screwed the pooch.