A history in server merging - Why SE is creating an overcomplicated mess.

[AngryNixon]

...and the difference seems to stem from the fact that the company apparently has no intention to preserve already defined communities (not only linkshells) together. [...]

If you are currently playing the game and at least a portion of the like-minded people you play with are capable of comprehending numbers ranging from 1 to 10 and are also capable of communicating said numbers to each other, I'm fairly certain you can come to some arrangement whereby you pick the same number. Is this perfect? No. Some will pick different numbers. You will make new friends and lose old ones. That is true of life as it is true of this process.

[...] I have friends that left the game and won't be back till after version 2.0. I have no way of talking to them in real life, do not know their real names and or contact data, and most likely will lose all contact with them during this process.

I doubt they're planning is centered on the possible desires of those who don't even play that you don't know well enough to have any other means of contacting.

I have trouble believing that the complicated multi-step--and community-breaking--process proposed is the result of technical limitations. For sure the very process of server structuring and design was conducted by people mindful of the complications and implications of server merges... Or wasn't it?

Again, "complicated" is an exageration. You do not like their plan for server merges. Things that you do not like are not equal to things that are complicated. I do not like vegetables. This does not make vegetables complicated.

You are correct, it changes the current community by reforming it into new social arrangements on new servers. This is known as "change". Change is not always welcome. Despite change not always being welcome, it does not imply that the thing being changed is broken after the change. Things that you do not like because they have been changed are not equal to things that are broken. I do not like vegetables that are then steamed. This does not make steamed vegetables broken.

The process proposed does not fall into the category of something that is a bi-product of technical limitations. They chose to do it this way because they felt it was the best way to go about implimenting a server transfer.

[Gramul]

If you are currently playing the game and at least a portion of the like-minded people you play with are capable of comprehending numbers ranging from 1 to 10 and are also capable of communicating said numbers to each other, I'm fairly certain you can come to some arrangement whereby you pick the same number. Is this perfect? No. Some will pick different numbers. You will make new friends and lose old ones. That is true of life as it is true of this process.

But what's the point? Why, when there is a perfectly reasonable style of merging available, do you need to so something so drastic? Why not do it like rift? Why not do it like a normal MMO server merge? Why go through all this trouble forcing us to make plans and arrangements with all our linkshells and friends?

[Rutelor]

If you are currently playing the game and at least a portion of the like-minded people you play with are capable of comprehending numbers ranging from 1 to 10 and are also capable of communicating said numbers to each other, I'm fairly certain you can come to some arrangement whereby you pick the same number. Is this perfect? No. Some will pick different numbers. You will make new friends and lose old ones. That is true of life as it is true of this process.



I doubt they're planning is centered on the possible desires of those who don't even play that you don't know well enough to have any other means of contacting.



Again, "complicated" is an exageration. You do not like their plan for server merges. Things that you do not like are not equal to things that are complicated. I do not like vegetables. This does not make vegetables complicated.

You are correct, it changes the current community by reforming it into new social arrangements on new servers. This is known as "change". Change is not always welcome. Despite change not always being welcome, it does not imply that the thing being changed is broken after the change. Things that you do not like because they have been changed are not equal to things that are broken. I do not like vegetables that are then steamed. This does not make steamed vegetables broken.

The process proposed does not fall into the category of something that is a bi-product of technical limitations. They chose to do it this way because they felt it was the best way to go about implimenting a server transfer.

I cannot help but feel that every single one of your correctly quoted, paragraphed, and indented comments carries more than just a modicum of condescension which makes it almost worthless to try to argue with them. They seem elicited (please do allow me the judgement) by the incorrect stimulus.

Our visions (yours and mine) about how this process should be enacted are evidently different. I just don't like the fact that the the members of the development team (and you) think that the only structure worth preserving, among the many that will be affected, is the linkshell. I have started characters in several servers, but only ended up pursuing the development of those in which I found, not only friends, but a congenial world-culture and a certain vibe, which at its time becomes more difficult to describe and define. It is--indeed you are right in that--SE's prerogative to break said, less tangible community identities for the convenience and expeditiousness of the process. But I lament the fact that many of the worlds, where societal chemistry had already created links and established feels, will be uprooted and changed for the sake of nothing.

It certainly does not behoove them (and you even less) to determine the worth and importance of said relationships based only on the few quantifiable aspects that both of you have cared to quantify, or empathize with. I'm still shaking my head at your disparaging comment about the importance and value of relationships for whom I don't possess real-life contact data. This is an online game, and it is the relationships established within this conceit that count. There is no obligation stipulated anywhere that determined I should've gotten phone numbers for the people and alliances I made. I hope the company is planning whatever they are planning bearing in mind the preferences of those currently playing (that includes me) and those most likely to come back (for just one example, legacy FF players that just couldn't deal with server lag...)

Believe me, if I saw even one advantage in the proposed process, as opposed to the many alternatively proposed by members of this forum, I would not be raising this issue. The fact is, I still don't see it. It might be my own shortsightedness, you are right, but next time, just try to illuminate my dark acumen without the condescension, thank you very much... ah! and the fallaciously drawn similes (vegetables do not adequately parallel what I don't like about this situation, you know that. One cannot reason one's like or dislike of vegetables, in the manner you're depicting said premise in your parallel.) Give me some respect and real logic, and you will find me more than willing to reason with you and change my mind.

R