The character creation restriction is bad, bad, bad.

[TheUltimateSeph]

Idk if this is true but I'm told the main factor of a server being locked at a specific time is how many people are logged on at the time. If this is the case I think forcing auto log out after say, 30 minutes in afk status or just 30 minutes of no character action could be helpful. All these people who afk for multiple hours while their character dances in front of the MB and such are pretty much keeping the server creation locked and this just seems unfair. Again not sure if it really works that way but if it does plz consider this.

[worldofneil]

They need to offer special transfers *off* Balmung and Greg, rather than special transfers *into* them.

I agree it wouldn't be a bad thing to do, but would it actually help though? Or rather would anyone actually do it? What incentive is there for someone to leave the (very) populated server? "Free transfer to another server with a lot less people on it!" I'm not everyone, but it doesn't sound very appealing to me A lot of people (most?) will already be established with friends/free companies/linkshells, possibly even housing... any of those makes the decision to transfer away harder.

If this is the case I think forcing auto log out after say, 30 minutes in afk status or just 30 minutes of no character action could be helpful.

I agree completely, but the few times in the past they've temporarily implemented an AFK kick, a large part of the community seems to complain. Threads even pop up on places like Reddit with ways to get round the AFK kick.

For whatever reason a lot of people seem to think they get better value for money being permanently logged in than only logging when they want to play. Or they feel they paid a subscription, they have the right to stay logged in.

Or maybe none of them pay for electricity (or it's incredibly cheap) so it's just out of convenience that they save the 1 minute login/load time.

[Alahra]

I agree it wouldn't be a bad thing to do, but would it actually help though? Or rather would anyone actually do it? What incentive is there for someone to leave the (very) populated server?

While I don't know how successful this was for them, Blizzard did periodically allow free transfers to less populated worlds throughout WoW's lifespan. I'm not sure if they still do so as I haven't played in awhile, but they did so for several years which suggests at least to some degree that people will transfer. I suspect fewer would do so in FFXIV because of concerns about Housing, though.

[Atoli]

I suspect fewer would do so in FFXIV because of concerns about Housing, though.

The people who actually own housing beyond a FC room are incredibly few compared to the server population though. I can imagine some people actually would want to transfer because of housing, since low-pop servers still have free plots.

[Alahra]

The people who actually own housing beyond a FC room are incredibly few compared to the server population though. I can imagine some people actually would want to transfer because of housing, since low-pop servers still have free plots.

That's also true. I do think they're going to have to do something about the huge anchor servers in the long run, and I think offering free transfers to other worlds might have some effect. They definitely can't do mergers without significant changes to Housing infrastructure, at any rate, so something like this might be at least a small step they could take to make some changes.