About Global Servers / グローバルサーバーについて

[Frein]

The whole barely .5 ms you'd probably gain?

The whole 200 ms or so I'd gain.

[Tsukino]

As someone who speaks English and Japanese I'm greatly saddened by this news.

As the OP says, everyone in Japan will move to the Japanese-only servers. It's an inevitability. When that happens I will no longer be able to join random groups to do all kinds of content because NA players only do things with their own linkshells. I will no longer be able to engage in activities in Japanese prime time, because the "global" servers will be dead then. I will no longer be able to practice Japanese with people online while I play a video game I enjoy, despite living in America.

Beyond that, how will the support for the international features fare? Will they even bother updating the auto-translator if no one uses it? What's to stop them from closing down certain regional servers far into the future if the game is played mostly by people still in Japan?

I know this is hugely cliché, but as an "international" player, international servers played a big part in my sticking with FFXI for many years, and with nothing but English speakers on the "global" servers I may not stick with XIV. I'm sure the number of xenophobic Japanese players they'll gain/keep far outweighs the number of people like me though, so it's probably a fine decision for them.

And to everyone saying it will be a choice: you're wrong. You're just wrong. The vast majority of Japanese players will play on Japanese-only servers if given the choice, which will remove the choice for us to play on a truly global server.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

guys, is there even a saying of REGIONAL SERVERS?

all i heard is LANGUAGE SPECIFIC SERVERS, not REGIONAL SERVERS.

[AdvancedWind]

man its awfully weeaboo in here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIP6EwqMEoE

[Baxta]

As someone who speaks English and Japanese I'm greatly saddened by this news.

As the OP says, everyone in Japan will move to the Japanese-only servers. It's an inevitability. When that happens I will no longer be able to join random groups to do all kinds of content because NA players only do things with their own linkshells. I will no longer be able to engage in activities in Japanese prime time, because the "global" servers will be dead then. I will no longer be able to practice Japanese with people online while I play a video game I enjoy, despite living in America.

Beyond that, how will the support for the international features fare? Will they even bother updating the auto-translator if no one uses it? What's to stop them from closing down certain regional servers far into the future if the game is played mostly by people still in Japan?

I know this is hugely cliché, but as an "international" player, international servers played a big part in my sticking with FFXI for many years, and with nothing but English speakers on the "global" servers I may not stick with XIV. I'm sure the number of xenophobic Japanese players they'll gain/keep far outweighs the number of people like me though, so it's probably a fine decision for them.

And to everyone saying it will be a choice: you're wrong. You're just wrong. The vast majority of Japanese players will play on Japanese-only servers if given the choice, which will remove the choice for us to play on a truly global server.

Pretty much this, I enjoy playing with JPs during the morning. First thing I thought when I read that was "oh well, there go the JPs". I was pretty disappointed whe I read that to be honest. I speak Japanese pretty well and it's quite a large selling point for me to be able to play with English speakers in the evening and JPs in the morning. I'll wait and see what happens, but it's honestly a huge chunk of the enjoyment gone for me if everyone migrates to their own little xenophobic corners of FFXIV. Language is only a barrier if you let it become one, the joy of interacting on global servers far outwieghs the negatives to me, that includes JPs, Germans, Americans, whatever...

[DNO]

I've never once had this happen to me, i always use auto translate and things work out

Have u played ff11? if so then your not telling the truth

[DNO]

@ DNO..

You still have a choice in global servers. The only difference is that it is full of more varieties. I'm positive in the future the search functions for party making and seeking will allow players to set their language of choice, or set multiple languages as a matter of fact when seeking.

Thats not the "choice" im talking about. have gobal servers and single speaking servers like SE is currently doing.

[Isanien]

I like playing on global servers. It'd be very sad to see them empty because people want to stay within one language community.
I've never had issues with parties in languages I couldn't understand. Auto-translate worked just fine

Can't we all just get along..? XD

[Tsukino]

This whole concept of regional servers ruining the game is nonsense. First of all, I'd like to play with people I can communicate with on a very fast and efficient basis. I can't do that with the auto translate because it rarely has the phrases I want, nor does it have the ability to pick out the phrases in a timely manner.

I'd like to respond separately to this, because I see this as one of the most common justifications for segregated servers among English speakers and it has a severe flaw.

People speaking other languages on the same server does not in any way reduce the number of people you can interact with. Just because there are some people you can't converse freely with does not mean the number of people you can speak with is reduced. This is especially true for a language like Japanese, where 90% or more of the people are from a specific region and therefore time zone. The majority of them aren't even playing at the same time you are.

What it does do, however, is keep the game world populated at all times of the day. If you've ever played a game that has regional servers at an odd hour, you'd notice the game is practically dead when people from that region are largely either sleeping or at work. People who keep an unusual schedule may not be able to go fight Ifrit with others using the auto-translate function, but at least they can try and do something with those people, rather than being limited to just the few others from their own region up at a weird time.

There was a neat chart put out by the FFXI team that showed how global servers allow there to be more people for you to play with due to the difference in peak times, not less. You're making the mistake of thinking that for every person who you can't communicate with, there is a reduction in the number of people you can communicate with and that's just not the case.

[Reverser]

I don't really care so much about servers separated by language, but I'm all for the ping reduction you can get with regional servers.

I have a strong feeling all the servers will still be hosted in Japan.