Suggestion: label servers and have a free transfer weekend

[DreadRabbit]

Please forgive the wall of text to follow, however I wanted to lay out the idea as clearly as I possibly could.

As early access has proved over the last few days, there is a lingering problem in regards to server population. Many players are sick of certain servers constantly being locked out of character creation and many others are agitated that their servers are too congested (or on the flip side of that, dead).

Even more still are frustrated that they can't seem to find player communities with similar interests (be they an end-game raider, a role-player, etc.). And while most would say "search Google" or look through the player forums, that doesn't really bear fruit for two reasons:

1. Go Google "FFXIV (FF14) which server should I join?". Chances are, at least for the NA player side of things you're only going to get two answers: Balmung and Gilgamesh. That's not to say that other players from different servers don't chime in, but these two servers' immense presence on the internet gives off the impression that they're the only two servers worth joining. Doesn't matter if it's for RP, just to be in an active server, or whatever. It's always those two.

2. On that same token, the separate server sections on these forums are well...dead. That's kind of why General discussion gets hit with everything. And the majority of posters are usually from Balmung, which only strengthens the image given in #1.

What kind of problem has this created?

Everyone and their brother tries to transfer to high populated servers because there's a much higher chance they're likely to find fellow players that share their interests. Simply because the crowd's so large it would be harder not to run into someone eventually. And since there are no labels (such as the Legacy label by legacy servers) players have to rely on word of mouth to decide where they go.

For example, many people interested in RP are given the impression that Balmung is the only server with RP in it. While that's far from the truth, it's represented that way. So anyone with interest in that tends to transfer to Balmung without question.

This causes intense server population congestion. People have been writing in threads that Balmung alone had around 1000 more players waiting in queue than any other server in Aether alone. And we already know the problems that come with that. It also causes player deserts in the lesser-known servers. While the more populated servers only deal with congestion issues when updates hit the game and are fine when hype dies down, all other servers become almost barren when hype is lowered.

Which causes people to want to transfer to the higher populated servers. Which causes the cycle to worsen and create an even greater disparity between the populated servers and the less populated ones.

As the game continues to grow, if nothing is done about this slowly but surely growing problem, we could be faced with severe fixes such as server merges. Which is why I think the sooner SE nips this problem while the player account size is manageable, the easier preventing these scenarios will become.

Why would labeling servers fix this?

By labeling the servers I mean marking them with titles similar to the ones legacy servers get: PvE, RP, PvP, new players, etc.

When MMOs label servers in this way they don't tell players what they can and can't do in a server. What these labels do is act like waymarkers to let players know where they're most likely to find other players with similar interests. The NA and EU have around 32 servers available to play on. Having monikers like "PvE server" allows players to narrow the field in deciding which servers they should play on. This also helps those looking to transfer to see where else might have similar communties but offer new opportunities.

Most importantly: if servers are given labels, (in the NA data centers example we'll say RP servers), then suddenly that takes a lot of pressure off Balmung and Gilgamesh. Players become more comfortable in starting communities in the lesser known servers because they already know that server is flagged for people with similar interests. As it stands now, many people are actually afraid of starting communities because they have no idea just how many others are interested in the same playstyle, and many actually get yelled at in chat for advertising such a thing.

Why a free transfer weekend?

Let's say this goes through and SE does label the servers. It doesn't matter if SE allowed the player base to vote or if they chose on their own, there will be people who will be unhappy with the label their current server got no matter what label it is. And a good number of them will want to move.

But more importantly, you have veteran players and legacy players on the higher populated servers with FCs and friends. Many who have voiced are more than willing to transfer, but they can't afford to lose either of those. If you allow free transfers for a weekend or two, then FCs and friends/family can move to new servers together in a similar environment without everyone having to worry about being left behind because they can't or don't want to cough up $18 a piece.

You could even do the transfers in phases. For the first weekend offer the free transfer to legacy players only. They don't have to transfer, but they're welcome to. Then that gives them a week to post here and on the internet which servers they're moving to. This creates more vocal presence for other servers, helping new players and other players alike get an idea of where they should go. The following weekend or two let everyone else do it.

In conclusion: The short version.

It is not the players' fault that there's an intense disparity between server populations and the issues that go with these population problems. If SE were to guide players to servers with simple labels, we would fix the population problems almost naturally with little intervention needed on SE's part.

In turn once the populations are settled in, the character creation restrictions could be lifted from the over populated servers and no transfer locks would need to be put in place. A majority of players wins and SE keeps a much happier paying fanbase.

What does everyone else think? Would you be for or against this sort of plan? Why?

[MageBlack]

I support this. I've actually brought this up in conjunction with the issues we are having around Personal/FC Housing not being available. I do hope they label the servers then give us a free transfer.

[Twilite]

Free transfer weekend = no one on Balmung will ever play the game, ever again.

[sciondar]

Very well said. I hope they read this and take it into consideration.

[DreadRabbit]

I support this. I've actually brought this up in conjunction with the issues we are having around Personal/FC Housing not being available. I do hope they label the servers then give us a free transfer.

I remember you quite well Seeing your post in one of those threads was what got me thinking about it as originally I was for server locking. So thanks for bringing the topic up in other discussions, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have tried to make it its own suggestion thread.

[Ryel]

There are two major issues to server transfers that still aren't being addressed however, Player gil and player housing.

Especially on legacy servers there are many players with tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of gil, and while it's possible to transfer the money via market and item manipulation it's often not worth the hassle for these players to up and leave their servers. The obvious reason for not allowing these players to keep their gil is to preserve the economies of the servers they would transfer to, but to many players this reason alone is enough for them not to bother.

In regards to housing, given the limited number of plots/wards etc and the fact that many players who invest in property would have to relinquish it with no guarantee of being able to purchase the same plot on another server, these types of players (or FC's full of those players) are also less likely to leave a high population server in favor of a smaller one, despite the congestion and login issues.

If the previous two issues were resolved in regards to server transfers i'm willing to bet you would see large numbers of people willing to move to smaller servers without fear of losing their investments.

[DreadRabbit]

housing and gil

I agree completely, though I admit I'm not entirely sure what potential fix there could be for that. In regards to gil raising the gil cap alone would be a good call, but until they figure out housing anywhere I'm not sure what could be done for that. Best idea I could think of would be open 1 or 2 wards in each housing district and limit it to only be bought by transfers. But I have no idea how that could be flagged.

[DreadRabbit]

Quick bump due to getting lost in all the expansion threads and because it seems the interest is still there.

[Terrini]

I move for Brynhildr to get an RP tag I think our community is already decent and I've been trying to promote it without being invasive, but the tag would help tremendously.

[seida]

How many people do you think would actually leave Balmung? Less than would join, I'm sure.

Also it would really suck if SE labelled your server as something you have no interest in...