Locking Balmung/Gilgamesh is not working

[ArmachiA]

I rped in FFXI - a lot of people did - which if you look, was released 2/3 years before youtube. World of Warcraft launched with RP servers in 2004 - one year before YouTube. so what even is that argument.

People aren't making sense in this thread and I'm rightfully confused.

[SaitoHikari]

Wait, I'm so confused. I haven't heard any "rper" make the argument that Balmung needs to open but all I'm seeing is a bunch of people going "Balmung needs to stay locked!". Where is this argument?

Rpers seem to want a new server with an RP tag so they can get OFF Balmung, which would basically be a server split - which some people said needs to happen while making fun of RPers for wanting a new server? What even is this thread.

The way I see it, people want Balmung to shrink, but they also don't want the RPers in their backyards (server). Or something.

[Lewtskie]

The way I see it, people want Balmung to shrink, but they also don't want the RPers in their backyards (server). Or something.

People probably cringe at the thought of a Mateus 'horror story' happening on their server, or a small batch of bigots with a preternatural hate for RP are those with a "beef" against people from Balmung being migrated to other servers. The justified hate is coming in response to people saying that other servers should be merged, ones that had no relation to Balmung or its sister servers, to make way for a new RP server.

[Senliten]

Heh. I laugh when I read this.

EverQuest 2 made a server for RPing .. Antonia Bayle. Even set it up as one. RP preferred they labeled it. And it grew. With both RPers and non-RPers. And guess what? There is more griefing from the NON-RPers than anyone else.

Why would non-RPers come to AB then if it's RP preferred? Because of the server numbers. People go where there are lots of people.

So I have to dismiss such a silly thought from Squeenix. Anyone can be a jerk, whether you RP or not. Makes zero difference.

This, a thousand times this.
Hell, even on FV in EQ there was this issue, but the exception was not the norm. SE is letting the problem boil over when the solution is right in front of them. Plus the fact that people continue to try and make unofficial RP servers shows that there is a heavy emphasis on RPing for this game, and given it's franchise history, that is to be expected. Their fear of 'labeling' is one that is heavily unbased and only on 'fringe' level circumstances, that if they honestly were that worried, they wouldn't have given us the option to flag up for RPing via the character status page in game.

[ExKage]

Wait, I'm so confused. I haven't heard any "rper" make the argument that Balmung needs to open but all I'm seeing is a bunch of people going "Balmung needs to stay locked!". Where is this argument?

Rpers seem to want a new server with an RP tag so they can get OFF Balmung, which would basically be a server split - which some people said needs to happen while making fun of RPers for wanting a new server? What even is this thread.

RPers also want housing relocation and/or guaranteed housing on these new servers as well. I'm pretty damned sure that's a huge caveat to even having an RP tagged new server.

[Tevatron]

RPers also want housing relocation and/or guaranteed housing on these new servers as well. I'm pretty damned sure that's a huge caveat to even having an RP tagged new server.

I mean the first half of that makes sense. The second half of that is bonkers and isn't a demand I've seen made literally anywhere.

I think part of the reason the campaign to get people to move off of Balmung and Gilgamesh hasn't been successful, not just with roleplayers but players in general (as evidenced by the continued closure) is that there's not a strong incentive for people to surrender the sunk costs they've made on their home servers. You can talk about the immeasurable value of social groups, but there are ways around that and a lot of those solutions are player-side.

What isn't solvable player-side and what is very measurable is the value of a house someone has right now versus a house they might have on another server. A good case has not been made for people who've established roots of measurable value on these servers to leave and divest themselves of something of value they have right now in hopes of potentially getting something of lesser value later.

You can say they don't necessarily need to move, but I think there's a good argument to be made for the idea that people and free companies sufficiently motivated to obtain housing in Gilgamesh's and Balmung's incredibly competitive markets are probably also more likely (but not universally) to be people prone to high levels of social interaction which means they would have a certain magnetism as entities to encourage other players to remain on-server.

[BubblyBoar]

It would be hilarious if SE tagged a server as RP so all that RPers could go to that server. The one they tagged? Balmung :^ )

That aside, the answer is not server merging (aether server are too big to merge) and not tagging a server (it'll just move all the people on balmung to the new server and making that one have the same issue as Balmung now). The best option is what they are doing now, getting people to transfer off or quit. Balmung is literally breaking the whole datacenter.

[BillyKaplan]

it'll just move all the people on balmung to the new server

Balmung is already effectively an RP server so I don't see why the population, many of whom own houses and apartments on top of having social networks, should move. Just because you tag a server as RP doesn't mean all the existing rpers will flock there in droves, while it makes it easier for new rpers to find a place.

[Tevatron]

Balmung is already effectively an RP server so I don't see why the population, many of whom own houses and apartments on top of having social networks, should move. Just because you tag a server as RP doesn't mean all the existing rpers will flock there in droves, while it makes it easier for new rpers to find a place.

Hi, yes, this is my point, and thank you for illustrating it so clearly. That's not sarcasm, I am genuinely grateful to see someone encapsulate the point so clearly.

The intent behind the argument I'm making is not that this will 100% alleviate the server population problem or that it will move all roleplayers. The point is that it will provide a positive incentive other than "your server is increasingly awful to be on", a strategy that is absolutely ineffective in the context of how groups of humans make decisions.

Balmung has a sizeable population of a specific subset of the playerbase. Telling those people they can go to a specific server and have a higher-than-even odds of finding an equal or better experience of the community experience they're looking for is one way you can add value to that choice instead of removing value from the default choice of not moving.

I cannot stress it enough: The least effective way to make people make a certain choice is to punish them for making the default choice. That is not how humans work.

[ArmachiA]

Balmung is already effectively an RP server so I don't see why the population, many of whom own houses and apartments on top of having social networks, should move. Just because you tag a server as RP doesn't mean all the existing rpers will flock there in droves, while it makes it easier for new rpers to find a place.

This is untrue, of the 12-15k people on the server maybe MAYBE 2-3k are RPers. Balmung has a very diverse community. Would SE open a new server, it would split the server fairly well (Which is what everyone wants so I don't understand the pushback) the issue with some Rpers is the incentives with housing aren't very good. Maybe with the changes they plan on making with housing will change things, but we don't know till they announce.