Incentive to transfer must be increased

[NanaWiloh]

The reason RPers are hesitant to move is because an unofficial, fledgeling RP community is incredibly hard to sustain. An "official" designation means that anyone who wants to RP will create a character on that server, guaranteeing some measure of new community members, which is helped by Balmung being closed. The additional acknowledgement and stratification also makes an officially designated server quite appealing to RPers, since Balmung's population problems are because of the lack of organization to begin with, having been created via server merge.

The premise that this is solely the community's responsibility makes the assumption that the community has given the proper tools to enact a smooth transition between worlds, which has been blatantly untrue since people started roleplaying on this game in 1.0.

Making a new character has the same issues as not moving. People won't stay or play long if their friends and connections don't follow. What does the RP community value more a Tag or the Community? A tag is appealing but a already strong community is more appealing. A dedicated RP tag will relieve some of Balmung stress but it is forever the goto RP server no Tag will change that. I played WoW for 6 years and watched Blizzard open new RP servers people still flocked mainly too the most established RP server. I am not againt putting tags on servers just don't expect a mind blowing population shift.

[AxlStream]

I think after all of this it's safe to assume that Balmung players care more about the community than the actual game itself. If it was the other way around, pretty sure they would of bailed when the queues hit 1K+.

[Reaperking386]

Changing a servers tag won't change anything. A server is made by its community, not the tag it has been given. My point, changing a server into a Rp server is not going to have people flock to it. Why would I leave when the community is already here?

Further more... I agree with the majority. You don't have a right to an incentive, but you do have a right to stay if you like. It's either move or wait in line. You know the consequences, there is no hidden secrets. You are fully aware of your choice. If you choose to stay than deal with it.

[Clover_Blake]

I don't want to lose my house, or all the people I've known in Balmung. Unless I can be guaranteed that all the RPers and my house will be in the new server, I'm not moving, no matter how awful it is to be in a server that my new friends can't join >_<

[Colt47]

I'm not sure where people are getting that RPers are the ones who don't want to move. The people who don't want to move are the ones who want the benefits of the bigger metropolitan server environment that doesn't exist elsewhere. Easy access to just about all the different cosmetic items even if the prices can get high, tons of easy access to materials, huge selection of LS's for hunts and other activities, etc.

[ReplicaX]

Correct, but i was on Besaid which got merged in. Unless you played 1.0, you wouldn't know this, so for all intents and purposes, i joined Balmung in 2010. I was making a point that years on a server mattered little lol.

I was on Fabul in 2010, even though we were both merged into Balmung. Yes, years on a server don't matter much nowadays. I doubt it would even hold weight if SE decided to force transfer players if it got to that point.

[Dianoia]

It would be a BIG help if they restarted the server twice a day, for example once at noon and once at midnight. I'm not sure the costs or complexity, but kicking all the AFKers would reduce the que's tremendously. Except for the peakiest of peak times.

[Marluxia]

Making a new character has the same issues as not moving. People won't stay or play long if their friends and connections don't follow. What does the RP community value more a Tag or the Community? A tag is appealing but a already strong community is more appealing. A dedicated RP tag will relieve some of Balmung stress but it is forever the goto RP server no Tag will change that. I played WoW for 6 years and watched Blizzard open new RP servers people still flocked mainly too the most established RP server. I am not againt putting tags on servers just don't expect a mind blowing population shift.

I've thought of that, which is why part of the proposal to make a new RP server is to keep the transfer-character creation restriction on Balmung for an extended period of time.

As long as the restriction exists, Balmung's RP community is guaranteed to get smaller over time, not bigger, because anyone who leaves Balmung can't return, and new people can't transfer or make characters on Balmung. While this will certainly drive some people to plant their feet and stay on Balmung no matter what, I think most people will gravitate to an open server that doesn't have the restriction. People who feel that Balmung has nothing to offer them or who want to recruit new blood for their FC or group are hamstrung by the restriction, so it would be in their best interests to move to an officially designated RP-server that does not have this restriction.

The purpose of the increased incentives (housing, gil, whatever etc.) is to convince people to move so they don't have to suffer the Balmung Land Rush and 3-hour queue times. The RP-designated tag provides some measure of guarantee that RPers will be on the server, which is a security that people don't have when they think about transferring to Mateus and stuff.

The purpose of the restriction is to make sure the population sticks, by forcing a siphoning Balmung's RP population until Balmung is no longer seen as an accessible RP hub, thus evening out the populations to a more acceptable degree.

[Mikhaill]

Then you have zero right to complain. None of anything you just said in your comments means ANYTHING other than the very first sentence. All you care about is you and your friends. That selfish attitude is the reason why Balmung is the way it is. I've played MMO's for 15 years and have been in a total of 3(4 now since I made one on Omega) guild/linkshells/free companies in that time span. How about you don't generalize people that you know absolutely nothing about and worry about actually becoming part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

You need a time out, like seriously. That guy actually gives a damn about his friends and his community and that's okay.
Many people on here, and any other server have the feeling of their "home" server, mine being Balmung. I have left Leviathan twice, and returned
to Balmung because I enjoyed the environment, community and everything else and met awesome people and I don't wanna go.
Sorry you don't feel that way, but don't go bashing that guys face in on how he feels about his friends.
People give a lot of crap about Balmung but for me, I can't leave it even if I'm pissed off with the God damn waiting 3-4hrs to log in.

[Zeirnaton]

The incentive to transfer is there and its fine its just you guys aren't all that bothered by the long queue times, in which case ur complaints are falling on deaf ears.

just wait a month after this expansion and a majority of the player base will shrink and things will become more stable, this happens to every new big expansion for a popular game

this talk of giving ppl exclusive rewards for transferring is silly....incentives is one thing but an exclusive incentive reward oh pls