Locking Balmung/Gilgamesh is not working

[Zojha]

A realm can have the highest activity but does not mean it has the highest population.

Yes. And in their lodestone surveys, people have counted INACTIVE characters as well and I've just told you that in terms of population, Balmung actually has a very small population. In fact, it has THE SMALLEST total population. Zalera has twice as many characters. At the same time, Zalera has (or had) the least amount of active characters (among NA realms), because most of them are dead toons, banned RMT accounts, dead trial accounts etc.
IF your theory held merit and they'd look at the total population, they'd lock Zalera but not Balmung. That's ridiculous. Only active characters that actually strain the servers by logging in count.

[NanaWiloh]

Yes. And in their lodestone surveys, people have counted INACTIVE characters as well and I've just told you that in terms of population, Balmung actually has a very small population. In fact, it has THE SMALLEST total population. Zalera has twice as many characters. At the same time, Zalera has (or had) the least amount of active characters (among NA realms), because most of them are dead toons, banned RMT accounts, dead trial accounts etc.
IF your theory held merit and they'd look at the total population, they'd lock Zalera but not Balmung. That's ridiculous. Only active characters that actually strain the servers by logging in count.

Well then I stand corrected.

[Tevatron]

I was really tempted to edit this into my original post because there's a fundamental flaw in logic I've seen in a lot of responses that needs to be addressed, but I'm going to risk it being lost and just post it here.

The idea that closing off a system necessarily makes it unstable is just an assumption you can make about systems. That's just a rule of how things work. Nothing in day-to-day life is put into a stable configuration by isolating it from outside influences. It is axiomatic in the same way that it's an axiom to say, "Two lines that are parallel on a flat plane don't intersect." You can argue whether or not it's unfair to make Balmung and Gilgamesh unstable (or metastable if you prefer) for the sake of other servers. You can easily guess where I'd come down in that argument. You can't, however, argue isolating Balmung and Gilgamesh makes them broadly healthier. That's not how things work.

I will totally accept the idea long queues and people using exploits to stay logged in during content releases are a problem, but those are problems with potential solutions that don't involve creating additional systemic problems that affect one hundred per cent of those communities' playerbases. You cannot convince me it is technically impossible to add more wards to Balmung and you certainly can't convince me making automatic logouts a standard part of content releases so people don't idle for eight hours a day is an inferior option compared to isolating two communities and their respective economies.

I hate to bust out some economics here because it sounds really hoity toity, but it is a true and simple fact to say it is VERY HARD to convince people to do something by making something they're already doing less attractive. That's how utility works. That's how agents make choices. There is literally a recent Nobel Prize about this exact thing. If Square Enix wants people to make better choices in regards to what servers they play on, the objectively better option is to provide a positive incentive to make those choices.


(Technical note for the pedantic types out there. Obviously, I'm talking about dynamic systems. Systems with high entropy can be isolated, but at that point you're talking about thermodynamics and comparing a server of living, interacting people to a hypothetical, high-entropy system is silly.)

[TaleraRistain]

They should split Balmung and Gilgamesh up into new servers. Then, allow free transfers for a period in case people have gotten split up from friends/family. But keep an eye to make sure none of the new servers get too overloaded. People aren't going to leave these overcrowded servers, so SE needs to do something to handle the effect they have on the rest of the data center.

[D-chan]

lmao at requesting cannibalizing small servers to make another rp server. How entitled can you be? How about instead SE smash balmung into 3 servers, and label 2 of them rp? How would that make you feel then?

Seriously think about what you're requesting and the people it affects

If it meant we'd have two officially labeled RP servers and two new servers in general, and that no servers were indefinitely locked anymore, I'd be pretty happy! That is... exactly what we're hoping for??? After all, we were asking for additional servers when someone complained about all the "empty" servers already in the game, hence why server merges to supplement the addition of an RP server was brought up to begin with??

I don't understand how people are calling a request as simple as wishing to play on a server the same as any other or have a designated place for RPers when people are showing such obvious disdain for us here in this very thread is "entitled" and "stupid" yet the same people are getting so offended by the idea of us wanting, well, to play like on any other server like it's not a whole level past entitlement to get furious at the idea of other people wanting the same experience as you with no expense to yourself.

(Also, in regards to another post, a lack of gold sellers does not denote a good economy, all it means is that the server is, in fact, closed. The economy is abysmal right now.)

[347SPECTRE]

They should split Balmung and Gilgamesh up into new servers. Then, allow free transfers for a period in case people have gotten split up from friends/family. But keep an eye to make sure none of the new servers get too overloaded. People aren't going to leave these overcrowded servers, so SE needs to do something to handle the effect they have on the rest of the data center.

All this would do is cause FFXIV to a lose massive amount of subs.

[Moonlite]

(Also, in regards to another post, a lack of gold sellers does not denote a good economy, all it means is that the server is, in fact, closed. The economy is abysmal right now.)

That is probably more a design issue. A large percentage of players that are more then casual and not enough gil leaving the game. Also the fact that a lot of items can be produced by the game/server in an unlimited quantity.

The other servers should fear the day Balmung is allowed a cross server AH. You think we see complaint threads about aggressive pricing now.

[BubblyBoar]

All this would do is cause FFXIV to a lose massive amount of subs.

Which is funny, cause earlier suggestions in this topic by other people about merging servers to make room for RP servers would do the same thing.

In all honesty, what SE is doing now is working perfectly. And with topics like these, you know the whole thing is working. The stubborn are slowly becoming less stubborn and those less stubborn than others will start to leave the server and free them up. People are kicking and screaming harder than ever because they are close to their breaking point and about to give in to exactly what SE wants. And as long as SE keeps it up, the war of attrition will win and people will either leave, or watch their friends leave until the population have calmed down.

Keep it up SE!

[Milesian]

I play with plenty of non-rpers and have had friends join who aren't rpers. My desire for an official rp server is very very low, especially given how bad the communities of other game's 'official rp servers' have been. The devs explained exactly what my problem is with the whole thing and I'm glad their decision seems to be leaving the servers without 'tags' attached. There is no need for them - and the argument that we have to use outside resources is hardly going to change anything. Any MMO with or without an official rp server tends to use outside sites and resources to bring its rp community together.

[D-chan]

Which is funny, cause earlier suggestions in this topic by other people about merging servers to make room for RP servers would do the same thing.

In all honesty, what SE is doing now is working perfectly. And with topics like these, you know the whole thing is working. The stubborn are slowly becoming less stubborn and those less stubborn than others will start to leave the server and free them up. People are kicking and screaming harder than ever because they are close to their breaking point and about to give in to exactly what SE wants. And as long as SE keeps it up, the war of attrition will win and people will either leave, or watch their friends leave until the population have calmed down.

Keep it up SE!

Your idea is basically for SE to make people so frustrated and unhappy that they quit and you don't see how ultimately that is neither in the best interests of SE nor the players?