Balmung has been locked half a year. Enough is enough please.

[Theodric]

I would argue that it’s their clients that take the most priority. Without us XIV would of died, or gone free to play, because of lack of subscriptions.

You're absolutely right! The players themselves are a very high priority for the developers. Which means that preventing Balmung from being so overpopulated that it crashes the entire datacentre is far more important than appeasing players who cannot be objective and recognise that something needed to be done to prevent that from happening. Balmung is still a very large server. What, exactly, is stopping you from seeking out and interacting with new faces if you desire to expand your social circle?

[Vladmiere]

You can't expect to have all the perks of a large server and absolutely none of the drawbacks. It's not rocket science - and one of the best things to have happened as a consequence of Balmung being locked is that not one but two other servers became unofficial role-playing servers in the eyes of the community. I speak, of course, of Mateus and Omega.



Nothing is stopping you from adding them to Discord or Skype and making an active effort to keep in touch with them. There's also the cross server friend's list now, too. If they're unwilling to do that then that's a sign they weren't particularly great friends to begin with.

I think you misunderstand his meaning. An entire community being splintered cannot just be dumped into a discord...

[Rakiria]

I would argue that it’s their clients that take the most priority. Without us XIV would of died, or gone free to play, because of lack of subscriptions.

This is the base mentality of players complaining about basically everything. First of all, SE knows their stuff and I am absolutely sure they do think about how the players will react to something and then think about if it's worth it, and second of all, this is not about the whole playerbase. This is about some people from one specific server. One they are actually hoping to at least get players to move from.

[DamianFatale]

You're absolutely right! The players themselves are a very high priority for the developers. Which means that preventing Balmung from being so overpopulated that it crashes the entire datacentre is far more important than appeasing players who cannot be objective and recognise that something needed to be done to prevent that from happening. Balmung is still a very large server. What, exactly, is stopping you from seeking out and interacting with new faces if you desire to expand your social circle?

We the players have power. If we wish, we can cancel our subscriptions, and demand to be heard. Every subscription is power. Now I’m not saying to be mean to the developers, but we are paying customers, and yes our voices matter, especially on such a complex issue. Balmung isn’t just some overpopulated place, it is a home to many player characters, and you can’t blame them for caring about it, and not wanting to leave it behind.

[Rakiria]

I think you misunderstand his meaning. An entire community being splintered cannot just be dumped into a discord...

Do you know every single person on your server? I don't think so. You know circles of people that can perfectly fit into a discord. And with the new cross-server friends lists, you don't even need to use out of game resources to keep in touch. You don't actually loose everyone you ever knew if you switch server.

[Rinuko]

2. Since so many roleplayers are leaving for Mateus, we’re losing our community.

Lol.

I know Balmung is famous for RP but I'm pretty sure you have a community even if some leave for another NA server.

[DamianFatale]

Do you know every single person on your server? I don't think so. You know circles of people that can perfectly fit into a discord. And with the new cross-server friends lists, you don't even need to use out of game resources to keep in touch. You don't actually loose everyone you ever knew if you switch server.

Cross server friend lists are nice, but it doesn’t beat actually being able to sit with your friends in the games world. It is not a good enough incentive for me to move servers. Asking people to just eject something they care about is insensitive, and mean. It’s not just a place with people we don’t know, it’s about opportunity. Most of us want to play in a world that isn’t empty. We want to play in a world that feels like it’s crowded, and breathing. That’s just the way we are, and if you want to get us to leave, you’re gonna have to drag us. Problems aside, this is our home, and we love it here.

[Vladmiere]

Do you know every single person on your server? I don't think so. You know circles of people that can perfectly fit into a discord. And with the new cross-server friends lists, you don't even need to use out of game resources to keep in touch. You don't actually loose everyone you ever knew if you switch server.

What does that have to do with anything? I do not think you even understand his point. A server community. Not a group of friends. And the new cross server friend list has nothing to do with this issue. Its about a realm as a whole. Balmung has been the reason I have been in the game for years. UO had excellent roleplaying and Everquest as well. In the early days of MMO's people actually formed bonds with a server as a whole along with having their normal group of friends. I met the same 100-200 people for the first 6 months every few days when UO was first new.

It was the same with Everquest. People actually sought out a thriving community to be a part of that included hundreds of people to even thousands. People were not scattered into small groups as much back then and would proactively meet and greet most players they ran across. The community is what made the MMO in its heyday and people played the game to just enjoy a video game. Its now either a numbers game with people now and day or a form of competition. There are technologies that can be employed to solve this situation and SE is limiting themselves in that regard.

[Rakiria]

I do get that you wish to be on a server where everyone is more likely to share your interest in meeting people, and where there is many more people who wish that. But the complaint I hear mostly is leaving behind your friends, which you can still keep in contact with. And there being so many people that make the server feel so alive is exactly the problem and reason why SE is locking it. And it's not like you can't ever get along with anyone on another server. It may take effort, and it hopefully will never be the same as balmung as that would just replicate it's problems, but you don't suddenly loose all sense of comunity from switching. Trust me, I thought it would be vastly different when I left ragnarok, a server I knew many people and recognised many names on, where I was also able to just start a conversation with people, to go to omega. But in the end, it really isn't. It's still a lot of people I don't know, that could be just as much potential friends as the ones on ragnrok. Of course I didn't leave the inofficial roleplay server, but even for that you have alternatives, see Mateus, as long as you don't all flood that and just go build up more healthily sized communities spread out on all servers.
Also, I apologize for getting rude. The whole topic is dragged out so far by now, it seems rather childish to me by now to cling to one server against the will of the devs, instead of actually trying to work with them for a solution, but i do get your concers. I do still think however that there needs to be a change and everyone refusing to help with that in any way is simply dragging out the problem.

[Vladmiere]

There is a kernel of truth in your statement. It has dragged out long enough and its apparent the devs will have to force its hand. The current process has had more than long enough to be given time to do its job and it may have had some success SE has deemed it still critical. Forcing a solution even if its an outcome I will dislike has to be better then this stalemate in the long run. I am unwilling to move because I did make an alt on the other realms and found it not to my liking as my current home and I am sure that is a case for the majority of Balmung still around after this 6 month lock.