A humble request to Square Enix: please unlock Gilgamesh.

[Theodric]

There's nothing stopping people from socialising even if the server is locked. There's a significant number of people still playing on the server - far more than on some other worlds - and there's always someone online at any given time. The stagnation on servers such as Gilgamesh and Balmung isn't linked solely to the lack of new players, it's just a consequence of each server's culture. I remember when Gilgamesh was going to be the 'sister server' to Balmung yet many there decided to drive role-players away and mock them.

Role-players, incidentally, being the sort of players to play even during dry periods in between new patches. So to some extent it's a problem of the server's own design.

[Cozyguru]

I have been on Gilgamesh for a good year or so now, and since the lock was put into place I’ve seen many friends leave for the same reason, they want to play on a server where their friends can join in as well. Yes the cross-world party finder is a thing now, and you can add your friends cross-world now. But that is not the same as being in a Free Company with your friends, and doing more in game socially. Since Gilgamesh was locked, our very active FC slowly dwindled in numbers, as one after another, they transferred so they could play with their IRL friends. I know this is the same for more than just people I know game as well. I know the idea is to keep all worlds in mind when playing the game, but as people are leaving to other servers for the bonus incentives, we haven’t seen the lock lifted for Gilgamesh. Please consider at least lifting the lock for a set period of time, and if need be put it back in to place.

[Theodric]

Again, I played on Balmung myself and transferred off of the server about a month ago. The entire point of locking both servers was to encourage people to take their leave and settle elsewhere to balance out the population. It's just one of the downsides of choosing to play on such a bloated server. You can't have all the perks and none of the drawbacks. It doesn't solve the population issues, either, to allow those individuals to bring their friends along to the ride.

[Oscura]

Again, I played on Balmung myself and transferred off of the server about a month ago. The entire point of locking both servers was to encourage people to take their leave and settle elsewhere to balance out the population. It's just one of the downsides of choosing to play on such a bloated server. You can't have all the perks and none of the drawbacks. It doesn't solve the population issues, either, to allow those individuals to bring their friends along to the ride.

Can we stop comparing Balmung to Gilgamesh? I was on there before I transferred to Gilgamesh years ago and they're two different beasts in their entirety. The only similarity they have ever had is "lots of people." Except Balmung has far, far more.

I also hope one day people can stop pretending this was seriously about congestion or the interest of fairness or "balancing out the population" as SE kept prattling about. They did it purely for the initial rush for Stormblood so that those servers could actually be manageable without too many incoming connections during launch, and following weeks/months for stormblood. It failed miraculously. The same way that they specifically set up preferred servers and congested servers in an attempt to slowly weed out the population and even it out more for the inevitable housing war. SE knew that was the main incentive for many people to transfer off of a huge server, and many people took that offer if only just for the chance of getting a house. This ultimately failed spectacularly, just the same.

The fact of the matter is that people who aren't on Gilgamesh have no idea how Gilgamesh is, nor will they ever know, because the server is locked. The grand majority of the players on this server are raiders, the server was constantly pitched with a primary endgame focus. Now that cross-server party finder, and multitudes of other cross-server options are coming (or are already here, like friends lists) the main incentive for being in this server for a lot of people is pointless. That was the main "perk." People are simply addressing that right now, Gilgamesh is hollow if only because the main drawback is that despite having such an active playerbase, that the population is steadily getting smaller and will continue to get smaller. It is not like many other servers where if someone quits, transfers off or takes a break, one or two people, or more, will take their place.

As I have said in a previous post, I personally like that there has been less people on Gilgamesh and more importantly that the server definitely doesn't feel as crowded as before, but I'm just getting super tired of people who have never been on this server commentating like they've actually been there. Even more tired of people comparing it to Balmung, when that is almost literally comparing apples to oranges. "But Balmung," is not a valid argument. We are not talking about Balmung. Stop bringing it up.

[Excaliburnina]

It's just one of the downsides of choosing to play on such a bloated server. You can't have all the perks and none of the drawbacks. It doesn't solve the population issues, either, to allow those individuals to bring their friends along to the ride.

That's the thing, a server shouldn't have problems by being so populated in the first place. This could have been handled better. The current method they're using to "fix" this problem doesn't really remedy it, it's just causing more issues. I understand their intent, but the methods they used were very poor. Not everyone wants to settle with "you can't have all the perks and none of the drawbacks" as if a large server is some kind of enigma compared to other servers. It shouldn't be handled or treated any differently than a smaller server, and that difference in treatment is where the unfairness lies.

[UltimateAoe2]

There's nothing stopping people from socialising even if the server is locked. There's a significant number of people still playing on the server - far more than on some other worlds - and there's always someone online at any given time. The stagnation on servers such as Gilgamesh and Balmung isn't linked solely to the lack of new players, it's just a consequence of each server's culture. I remember when Gilgamesh was going to be the 'sister server' to Balmung yet many there decided to drive role-players away and mock them.

Role-players, incidentally, being the sort of players to play even during dry periods in between new patches. So to some extent it's a problem of the server's own design.

So, are you comparing your horrible experiences that may have occurred probably years ago on a post that literally explains what is /actually/ occurring as of right now?

I remember when Gilgamesh was going to be the 'sister server' to Balmung yet many there decided to drive role-players away and mock them.

Seems to be your own experiences. I dunno, bud.

Role-players, incidentally, being the sort of players to play even during dry periods in between new patches. So to some extent it's a problem of the server's own design.

Are you directly blaming Gilgamesh for the cause?


Dude, step back for once and leave your past behind you before commenting. Balmung vs. Gilgamesh isn't a valid argument.
This isn't bout congestion or to keep interest with other servers. It's about how dumb the servers are being utilized. Are you going to say it's still the player's fault for playing on a server that -constantly- crashes? It's SE's fault for not keeping the population healthy. Gilgamesh is stale, at best. Some may be playing, but it's fallen from the ranks that it used to be before Stormblood. Gilgamesh is stupid quiet, and I can confirm this. (Sure, I may play on Balmung. But I've still got a alt I raid on there, and oh boy it's stupid. It's nothing near back before the locks.)

Again, I played on Balmung myself and transferred off of the server about a month ago. The entire point of locking both servers was to encourage people to take their leave and settle elsewhere to balance out the population. It's just one of the downsides of choosing to play on such a bloated server. You can't have all the perks and none of the drawbacks. It doesn't solve the population issues, either, to allow those individuals to bring their friends along to the ride.

Again, Please read the thread and see if we're comparing it against Balmung or not. Thanks.

[CostiaRose]

It blows my mind that anyone can support the idea of keeping our world locked. I'm sorry that you think Gilgamesh is some land of milk and honey and we're getting our due dosage of suffering now, but at the end of the day, Gilgamesh was just another world on Aether that worked its way up into being a very lively, active end-game focused community.

In all honesty, I was initially alright with this idea, thinking "Yeah, okay, this will be good for population balancing". Players who weren't entirely committed to Gilgamesh left, which was probably for the ultimate better and I was okay with that. But it's gone on long enough.

Like can ya'll just not imagine what it would be like if this happened to your server, or do you just not care because it doesn't affect you, yet?

[Theodric]

The comparison is fair as both Balmung and Gilgamesh are large servers. For what it's worth, I also played on Gilgamesh for a while.

Again, Gilgamesh cannot expect to have all the perks of a large server and none of the drawbacks. Why do you believe that it should be different? One of the best things to happen to this game has been for Balmung and Gilgamesh to be locked. It has led to other servers gaining momentum and healthier population levels. Gilgamesh is still a very large server - there's plenty of players to be found there at any hour of the day. It's simply approaching a more reasonable level of population that serves to equalise it with some of the other servers. It's not dying, not in the slightest.

[Oscura]

The comparison is fair as both Balmung and Gilgamesh are large servers. For what it's worth, I also played on Gilgamesh for a while.

Again, Gilgamesh cannot expect to have all the perks of a large server and none of the drawbacks. Why do you believe that it should be different? One of the best things to happen to this game has been for Balmung and Gilgamesh to be locked. It has led to other servers gaining momentum and healthier population levels. Gilgamesh is still a very large server - there's plenty of players to be found there at any hour of the day. It's simply approaching a more reasonable level of population that serves to equalise it with some of the other servers. It's not dying, not in the slightest.

The emphasis is on "played." You no longer play here. We are talking present tense.

Gilgamesh no longer has "all the perks of a large server." That is the point. Current-day Gilgamesh is a shadow of its former self. Far less players can be found at any hour, and not "far less than congested and I don't like it," but "hardly any compared to congested servers, so it's okay now" I'm not saying Gilgamesh is dying, it just seems people like you and others keep insisting that until it is actually dying or dead, that it's getting its just desserts and should remained locked. The fact of the matter is that if people seriously encourage that mindset it means the server eventually will die. Eventually it will have such a stigma that people will avoid transferring here entirely even after it's unlocked, because there's "nothing there" or "no one plays there anymore." Servers literally have died to this in other games.

Fact of the matter is that in terms of sheer community and actual interaction, Gilgamesh's congestion is highly overblown by people who aren't even here. We used to get 50~ people queues almost every day before Stormblood's launch and a little after, but since then I've never seen one aside from Shirogane. Not even during when the All Saint's Wake started, whereas last year I had to sit in a queue for it.

[Excaliburnina]

The comparison is fair as both Balmung and Gilgamesh are large servers.

No, it isn't. It's impossible for you to judge a server's life just based on numbers. You're forgetting that people raidlogging and simply existing on a server has nothing to do with how alive it actually is. Only the people on the server presently have the ability to make opinions on the server's vitality, and plenty of them in this thread have made statements, much more than the people opposing the problem (none of which are actually on Gilgamesh, seems like a trend). The people opposing Gilgamesh being unlocked have all had reasons that stem from anything but actually being present on the server; just faulty comparisons to Balmung and looking at statistics that don't indicate much at all. I trust the players of Gilgamesh much more than those not on Gilgamesh opposing its unlocking.