EU Confirmed as 3rd Rate Customer

[Theodric]

-snip-

It's not the same at all, you're just deflecting and deliberately ignoring the very valid concerns raised. European servers were only added after a lot of European players decided to settle down on North American servers. You are literally expecting European players to sacrifice an incredible amount for very little in return. It would be a completely different scenario if European players were allowed to transfer from North American servers to European servers and not lose out on their in-game acquisition such as player housing and gil. That isn't the case, though - and that's without factoring in the social connections left behind.

So, yes, I will quite rightly call out anyone making it seem like European players are wholly to blame when the larger picture isn't even being taken into consideration. Bear in mind that European players were also treated as an afterthought in regards to the campaign associated with the maid/butler attire as well. So there are multiple reasons for European players to feel like they're not getting a fair deal.

What I will say, however, is that this thread could and should have been made to be more constructive. The OP does himself and his cause no favours by not expanding on the situation.

[Tint]

Why would you even expect to get a good ping on NA servers or even expect it to stay decent?

i am playing on an EU server since i started in 2.0.

however, it made no difference as a EU or NA player to play on an EU or NA server, before they moved the EU servers to europe, since both NA and EU servers were located in america. when they moved the EU servers to europe, they offered a free transfer for all the NA players who were playing on the EU servers because of the increased ping. however, EU players who were playing on NA servers didn't get a free transfer, since nothing changed for them. so it's likely they are playing since this day on the NA servers.

sure, it's their own fault to play on the NA servers, when there are labeled servers for EU players. but same could be said about the NA players who were playing on the EU servers. the NA players on EU servers maybe didn't deserved the free transfer in the first place, but they got one. and since the NA players who didn't deserved the free transfer got the free transfer, the EU players who don't deserve the free transfer deserve a free transfer too.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Yet the NA players who chose to be on Ragnarok back then for timezone or friendship reasons were bailed out by the free transfer. What about all of the people who joined after 2.0 hit, but before the mythical EU datacentre ever came to be? They were actively being advised to join NA servers 'because there's no real difference' on these official forums for a very long time, and no mods ever jumped in and said that was bad advice because until the EU datacentre was formally announced very few people believed that it was really coming. S-E has acknowledged that the lag will increase for players outside NA, therefore the decision to play on a NA server has a different meaning now than it did back then.

Not sure about players saying this, but SE said numerous times that the EU servers will offer better pings than NA and JP servers.

[Lexia]

European servers were only added after a lot of European players decided to settle down on North American servers.

There might of not been a EU data center but there was always servers designated as EU servers which those were the ones that where later moved to a actual data center in the EU. So actually most the blame does lay with the consumer for choosing which server they joined. Unless they were legacy but then again there still able to transfer to server of their choosing from 1.0 with in a certain time frame. I did it myself as one of my alts was placed a JP server which I used the free 1.0 to 2.0 transfer to move my alt to my mains NA server.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

i am playing on an EU server since i started in 2.0.

however, it made no difference as a EU or NA player to play on an EU or NA server, before they moved the EU servers to europe, since both NA and EU servers were located in america. when they moved the EU servers to europe, they offered a free transfer for all the NA players who were playing on the EU servers because of the increased ping. however, EU players who were playing on NA servers didn't get a free transfer, since nothing changed for them. so it's likely they are playing since this day on the NA servers.

EU server was located in Canada as far as I remember. I was on Sargantanas and here in the UK it made a big difference for me on fights like Titan,Lev etc. Only reason I remained on there after 1.0 is I missed out on the free 5 days and as others pointed out I too made friends on there.

Although due to family reasons I left the game for a year and a half and when I came back there was an EU data centre, so with most of my friends having left the game I decided to transfer to Ragnarok.

But those issues were my own fault not SE.

[Fyce]

There was no free transfer from NA to EU servers because EU players who were currently playing on a NA server would see absolutly no change. Chaos servers moving to Germany absolutly didn't affect them whatsoever. Sure, if they actually moved to Chaos, their ping would likely be reduced, but that's not a reason for SE to offer them a free transfer. The goal of the server relocation was to improve the experience of EU players playing on "EU" servers already. EU players who choose to play on NA servers weren't the target of that relocation. Besides, it was their choice not to follow official recommendation, and their choice to ignore the future possibility of server moving (it's not the fault of SE if people had poor forseeing abilities and didn't know that server merging, relocating and whatnot are pretty common in MMOs).
Anyway, EU players playing on NA servers didn't see anything changing for them, so no free transfer for that way.
However, NA players on EU servers would see a significant ping increase because of EU servers relocation. So a free transfer was put in place.

Now, NA servers are being relocated somewhere in NA. The ping increase that some people may see is balanced with the ping reduction others will get. Besides, -except if a large portion of NA players get an awful route which leads to big ping increase,- the change shouldn't be as significant as relocating a datacenter to the other side of the planet. So, a free transfer is completly useless in this case.

[Nezerius]

There might of not been a EU data center but there was always servers designated as EU servers which those were the ones that where later moved to a actual data center in the EU. So actually most the blame does lay with the consumer for choosing which server they joined.

At launch, there was no indication that the servers located on the EU "datacenter" would ever be moved to an actual datacenter located in the EU. There was no reason for me to create a character on the "EU" servers.
Since I moved to XIV from playing another MMO on its NA servers (TERA, playing on NA since the EU publishers were absolutely trash), I decided to make a character on Sargatanas, along with a few people I played TERA with.

At some point before 2.2, I found out that Balmung ended up being the unofficial RP server. Since I used to play on an RP server in WoW, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere of a busy RP server (Balmung had not yet reached its current popularity, back then), I decided to create a character there. Eventually moving my main there, since there was still no indication that the EU servers were going anywhere.
The announcement of the physical datacenter didn't come until 1.5 years after that. Note: this was also a year after the introduction of privately owned housing.

If a EU player decided to start on a NA server right now, then yes, most of the blame lays with them. However, you can't lay the blame on any EU players that started out way before there was even a hint of a physical EU datacenter.

That said, ping for EU players will only noticeably increase if they decide to move the NA datacenter to the west coast, and SE has been pretty hush-hush when it comes to where their new NA datacenter will be.

[Lexia]

At launch, there was no indication that the servers located on the EU "datacenter" would ever be moved to an actual datacenter located in the EU. There was no reason for me to create a character on the "EU" servers.

This person said it pretty well

EU players who choose to play on NA servers weren't the target of that relocation. Besides, it was their choice not to follow official recommendation, and their choice to ignore the future possibility of server moving (it's not the fault of SE if people had poor forseeing abilities and didn't know that server merging, relocating and whatnot are pretty common in MMOs).

[Nezerius]

This person said it pretty well

Can you show me how many big MMOs have moved a datacenter to a different continent, post-launch?

It's not nearly as common as the quoted person seems to imply. XIV is probably one of the first that I've seen doing this, since other MMOs generally just open up new servers in a different area. So for example, a different company wouldn't move Chaos to the EU, they'd just make an entire new set of servers located in the EU, with a new name. There's no such thing as "poor foreseeing abilities" when it comes to something as uncommon as a server relocation.

[Fyce]

Can you show me how many big MMOs have moved a datacenter to a different continent, post-launch?

It's not nearly as common as the quoted person seems to imply. XIV is probably one of the first that I've seen doing this, since other MMOs generally just open up new servers in a different area. So for example, a different company wouldn't move Chaos to the EU, they'd just make an entire new set of servers located in the EU, with a new name. There's no such thing as "poor foreseeing abilities" when it comes to something as uncommon as a server relocation.

It doesn't change the fact that you had absolutly no reason to choose a NA recommended server instead of a EU labeled one.
In fact, timezones alone are a good enough argument to join the officially recommended servers.

Don't put that one on SE. It's your decision only.