Can we have a server merger after fee take place ?

[Jennestia]

Still don't see why people think merging now would be a good idea, especially given knowledge we'll be transitioned over to new servers and client by Nov of next year.

If people are quitting now/when subs start, merging servers is just a temporary fix that would do absolutely nothing in the long run, all it does is paint even more of a picture to the media that XIV is suffering, since we all know, at least those of us who actually follow the MMO scene, that once an MMO announces a server merge, there's no going back how it's taken by the public and media, especially in XIV's situation already -- How it's taken? "They're merging servers so the MMO is pretty much done for, don't waste your time people, why not try x MMO that isn't merging servers?"

[Fensfield]

Still don't see why people think merging now would be a good idea, especially given knowledge we'll be transitioned over to new servers and client by Nov of next year.

If people are quitting now/when subs start, merging servers is just a temporary fix that would do absolutely nothing in the long run, all it does is paint even more of a picture to the media that XIV is suffering, since we all know, at least those of us who actually follow the MMO scene, that once an MMO announces a server merge, there's no going back how it's taken by the public and media, especially in XIV's situation already -- How it's taken? "They're merging servers so the MMO is pretty much done for, don't waste your time people, why not try x MMO that isn't merging servers?"

Exactly. Server mergers are something MMOs do to maintain a viable playerbase when they go into decline. Were Final Fantasy XIV operating as a normal MMO, then yes, at this point a server merge would probably be very wise. But right at the moment, even setting aside the negative media effect, merging the server databases and possibly beefing up the individual servers appropriately would be a waste of manpower could be better deployed elsewhere, and even then doesn't take into account the issues that still surround the servers themselves that might have to be resolved first at a further waste.

The player count, right now, barely matters; we're effectively in beta testing and screwing around with the servers in the face of the upcoming v2.0 isn't so much a waste as it is counter-productive, as it would just be one more thing had to be undone - if only in undoing the 'Oh they went through a server merge' media effect, assuming there would't be issues around unpicking the tangled databases when the new server architecture comes in.

Far better they just institute a world transfer service so people can go to another server if they're so bothered by their present one, but in that case, given the way progression currently works and everything, they might just as well just make a new character on a different server.

I don't like to make so iffy an argument, but to me, demanding a server merge is.. a little bit selfish. At least in the 'I don't want to go through the inconvenience of making a new character somewhere else and choosing between the friends and achievements I have on my server, and the fact that I want a different/larger playerbase. Therefore the developers should waste resources performing a server merger they'll either have to undo and play down in the media, or will simply be a waste in the face of the v2.0 server reconfigurations and media push anyway.' sense.

So.. yes, so far as my own vote goes? Please, don't merge the servers. If it's so terrible a bother being on a quiet server, right now is a time that you can make a character on a new server without too tremendously great a deal of inconvenience. And if that really is so terrible, why not push for them to enable a world transfer service, instead?

[Miliant]

I don't know if it happens in all time zones but Besaid is a true ghost town during the time of day I can play.

I'm not sure a server merge would be the best option but I'm tired of playing by myself. As a matter of fact, I was just telling my friend that unless they announce that they're merging or are letting people transfer to other servers, I'm not going to subscribe.

[AmyRae]

Still don't see why people think merging now would be a good idea, especially given knowledge we'll be transitioned over to new servers and client by Nov of next year.

If people are quitting now/when subs start, merging servers is just a temporary fix that would do absolutely nothing in the long run, all it does is paint even more of a picture to the media that XIV is suffering, since we all know, at least those of us who actually follow the MMO scene, that once an MMO announces a server merge, there's no going back how it's taken by the public and media, especially in XIV's situation already -- How it's taken? "They're merging servers so the MMO is pretty much done for, don't waste your time people, why not try x MMO that isn't merging servers?"

The damage in the media is already done. That ship has sailed.

Nevertheless, I think it's much worse to hear reports from players over the course of 2012 that the FFXIV servers are so dead than to learn about a one-time server merge shortly after they went from free to paid subscriptions (which you'd almost expect is going to happen, anyway).

[MTMT]

The MMO sites are already telling people not to waste there time with this game I'm pretty sure the media has already doomed this game , some sites are saying this game is going to die ,SE stated publicly that this game was a failure , but there going to fix it (thats about as negative as you can get media wise ). only positives you read about this game are 1 out of every 10-20 comments by players sticking up for FFXIV . Not many people are going to pay for what feels like a single player game at times . If they let a world transfer service happen , what do you think the out come would be ? IMO , one or two servers that are packed because nobody is gonna go from one dead server to the other . People could re-roll on a diffrent server , but chances are if they have multi 50's ( especially craft jobs ) that aint going to happen .And how is that fair to those people who have spent in some cases over a year getting their char to where it is ? People are complaining right now of low populated servers , whats going to happen on jan 6th ? I'd rather read about SE merging servers to accomadate currunt players opposed to SE shutting down servers because there isnt enough current subscribers to keep it afloat .

[AmbrosiaAmor]

I think Rent-A-Hamster and Jen pretty much hit the nail as to why there is a very slim chance that they will merge servers anytime soon(earliest possible merger would probably be 6-12 months after the version 2.0 and PS3 release). Most likely the first reason they are not going to is what several folks have already said, wasted resources/time to then having re-implement them for the PS3 release. The 2nd most likely reason is what Rent and Jen said. I know some folks don't care or very little of what happens outside of anything related to Square Enix (when it comes to MMOs). However, with that said if you look at the past 10 or 15 years in MMO history, it is almost impossible to re-establish closed servers once merges start to happen. Out of the 500 or so MMOs out there very few have been able to achieve that. As far as P2P models (whether triple-A MMOs or not) only a couple, in the past 7 years or so have been able to increase servers or increase their population by a considerable amount, while maintaining a strictly P2P model as well as maintaining a current healthy population for 2011-2012(healthy what is considered for the company, not the player). I say this because there are tons of MMOs out there that only have 1k-5k-10k-20k or so active and long term players that will vow without a second thought that their game is the best or really good. Sure for a small time company those numbers may be fine, but for larger companies I'm almost certain they would want the numbers to be substantially higher. It does not mean it has to be 12 million or 6 million, but definitely they would want something a bit higher than 30k for example.

Once the server merge start, there is almost a 99% chance that it becomes a vicious cycle. They start off with close to 20 30 or even 40 servers only to have a couple years later dwindle down to 5 or less (in most cases). EVE Online was able to pull it off after a really rock start and one other game as well that had somewhat of a rocky start. I might be missing a 3rd one but there are very few to speak off. That is out of 500 or so current MMOs which in an extremely saturated market. To be fair it is more roughly around 50+ MMOs that have the P2P model. If they do server merges from 18 to 9 or less how would that give any sort of positive vibe about the game? Most people run away from MMOs that are slowly ebbing away, they would ask what is the point in joining that game (excluding diehard fans of course, they don't care if the population drops to 100). Sure some may say it is a lost cause or that people on really low NA/EU population will have a much harder time finding a party of being able to complete "older" or what some people consider obsolete content such as the level 45 dungeon. But if they do that, there is "almost" a point of no return, and this is something they are trying to avoid at all costs.




As far as content is concerned from now till October/November 2012 we have the following as far as content is concerned, i am sure I missed a couple):

2 instanced raids (Hopefully level 50 content and not the usual skippity hop type)
Garlean battle content (Hopefully this is set up in several stages/areas and not just one arena/room)
Moogle battle
Garuda battle
Odin battle
Content surrounding the Twelve

Let's say for the sake of this discussion, they somehow put all or most of the primal battles like the ones from FFXI (in addition to the ones just listed).

For those folks that genuinely enjoy the game AND want to see the population grow steadily and hopefully reach 100k-200k or more players where Square-Enix can solidify the P2P option and therefore help with the creation of expansions etc... do you think that this is enough content to reach those numbers as well as maintain long-term subscriptions? If this is not enough, what do you think is needed past version 2.0 that would give them a really good chance to obtain and maintain those numbers or higher?




The thing is MMOs "age" at much faster rate than they did, say from 1996-2004. Sure before you could get X Y Z gear and have it last for half a decade or close to it. MMOs now mostly have stuff outdated within 6 months to a year most of the time, if not less is some cases. And with the leveling curve, they become much easier as the months go by. Back in the day experience point charts wouldn't budge for years on end. So you knew you would be ahead of the curve. Now? It's like every couple of months the leveling curve is softened. And when the changes are made you can get to the max level as well as getting most of the gear within days or weeks compared to months that it took to level just 1 class to max. Thank companies for shifting the focus towards casuals (not the only reason but certainly a major one). And there is nothing wrong with catering to casuals, it is just the way practically almost every MMO company has handled it in the past 6 years that have really hurt them one way or another.

Without sugar coating, at the current time the only 2 "endgame" contents for level 50 really is either Batraal's room(dungeon does not count since you just skippity hop it) and Ifrit's arena of fire. So after almost 15 months that the game has been out... we pretty much have 2 rooms that are currently considered "endgame" The NM's that pop out are barely noting as endgame, such as Dodore... you just stand there and wail away. Same thing with the gold chests in the stronghold areas. For example the Kobold stronghold, just kill the main boss, wait for the right time when it uses its only 1 special move(as it is with most mobs in the game) in this case calling out the golems, shoot off sentinel and win. And considering that most if not all the gear got replaced with the use of materia, then the only "endgame" spot that most people go for these days is Ifrit. So after 15 months there is 1 popular room to fight an easy boss that takes less than 10 minutes to kill, and if you are good at it less than 5. Which still shocks me that the official forums still hail this as a challenging fight (considering I got down the patterns after my 3rd fight). Bad connection non-withstanding, I know quite a few people who have lag problems and have left the game frustrated over this. Outside of Ifrit there is very little if anything that poses a serious challenge of any sort. As far as higher level content from level 41-49 is concerned you have the 2 non repeatable main mission storyline, you have the 2 non repeatable quests that are rank 45(outside dungeon quests). Company quests you have 2 NPC's for each region which pretty much give you 2 types of quests, either stand there next to a helpless NPC and protect it for 15 minutes or kill as many mobs as you can within a certain amount of time. Everything else got replaced by materia socketed gear to make it even remotely worthwhile.

And practically if it hadn't been for the 1.19a update, chances are I would of given up on the game entirely. Before 1.19a I would play roughly an hour a week or two, and in some cases not log in at all for several weeks. Thanks to Mr. Yioshi I was able to cap out on all 7 jobs(I don't count sentinel as a class) in roughly less than 2.5 weeks and "experience" the endgame stuff that he wanted us to experience, or like he said to "get involved in the game quicker." Pretty much before Ifrit was implemented it felt like and I quote “For now in XIV, it seems that you're advancing toward... a higher level. There's no reason to advance in the game except for the sake of advancing. That's definitely one of the gaping holes in the game right now.”

[EmeraldHill]

Not this again....

No, you can't. It would be incredibly idiotic to merge servers when you're only going to create new ones again a year later once 2.0 and PS3 comes out.

Lineage 2 did, it's doing fine. In fact, it had to open 2 servers after it went F2P a week ago and they're all almost full now. Also, Lineage 2 has been in development for over 7 years now and never once sold an expansion or update while it was P2P.

I tried to play FFXI again a while ago and saw these mini-expansion things you have to buy, laughed my ass off, and canceled the download.

Hopefully FFXIV will jump on the F2P train before it's too late.

[Armok]

I would agree with a server merge, but it's a hard thing to do in an already un-balanced game. It's a takes a lot of thought.

You can't just go around throwing servers together.

[AmyRae]

Once the server merge start, there is almost a 99% chance that it becomes a vicious cycle.

It's a good thing they took videos away because I'd be sorely tempted to play a rendition of The Neverending Story after all that.

j/k

But, if I may point out the flaw with the argument here, it's that the 1.0 servers are all getting tossed anyway (I mean, not literally, I'm sure the hardware can be re-purposed, etc.). We know the hardware and software are being completely redone for 2.0. Therefore, there's no future consideration for the 1.0 servers to worry about because they'll cease to function once 2.0 comes out.

When 2.0 arrives, it's going to be a clean slate except for whatever the 1.0 characters carry over with them when they're transferred over. So really, a server merger now makes sense to make the 1.0 experience as good as it can be for the 1 year left it has to exist. There's no need to worry about 1.0's future beyond that.

[EmeraldHill]

I would agree with a server merge, but it's a hard thing to do in an already un-balanced game. It's a takes a lot of thought.

You can't just go around throwing servers together.

Like they totally thought through the game mechanics they're throwing out the window and are so ashamed of that they apologized for it and made the game F2P, right?