SE, please designate a Role Play friendly server!

[Majidah]

I kind of wish SE would acknowledge besaid as the role playing server somewhere. To inform people when joining.

[Fensfield]

I kind of wish SE would acknowledge besaid as the role playing server somewhere. To inform people when joining.

In many ways, that kind of would be the best case scenario - not least because it would completely neutralise the risk of future roleplayers being mislead by past news pieces about Besaid and the roleplayers being there.

[Mychael]

In many ways, that kind of would be the best case scenario - not least because it would completely neutralise the risk of future roleplayers being mislead by past news pieces about Besaid and the roleplayers being there.

If SE chooses Option 2, which I hope they do, there will be no need to change anything, one would hope. I seriously doubt Besaid will be merging into a smaller server, and if they take the idea of creating new server names, there will be no Besaid to accidentally choose; it might confuse a new player until they do another Google search, but it won't be the end of the world.

In any case, I'm going to stick with (and reiterate) what I said before, that there are not yet enough RPers to make a server. While I understand you are not asking for a dedicated server, I still believe that the general population would choose to avoid a server that SE even joked about as the RP server. Not because they're afraid of you or angered by you (though some are), but simply because they're afraid they'll feel out of place.

It could be said that you feel out of place right now, and I'm sure at least some of you do. However, I think several of you have vastly overestimated the number of people who actually oppose you, which I can understand. People who are indifferent won't make a point to tell you their indifference; however, those with problems are more than happy to bring them up. And something that is good about this 4-2 hybrid plan that we've heard of is that these players who absolute cannot bear another day with you are able to move away. No one is going in blind; they'll know where to avoid as soon as SE announces the new Merge outline, and the RP community decides their home. Believe me, those that actually dislike you enough to dampen your experience will be looking out for the server to avoid. Just look at the "tell me where not to go" posts--this applies to your decision regardless of whether you make it or SE makes it for you. And then, someone has already made the point that the only changes to the rules would/could be naming policies; harassment is already an offense in XIV, and if someone is bothering you about your playstyle, I'm sure a GM would be happy to assist you whether it was an official RP server or not.

Though it's of course based solely off my opinions and predictions, I think the ideal world for you would be a world split between RP-friendly casual players and RPers. If SE announces an RP-friendly server, however, the casual playerbase will fear that there will be such a minority of people for them to play with, they'll never try it out long enough to feel otherwise.

As to the assertion that people would be more likely to see the "simple edit to HTML," if someone is not going to notice the decision posted to the RPC and these forums, or hear from a fellow RPer, there's a very good chance they wouldn't know about the official announcement, either. The risk of isolating the RPers to their own server is greater than the risk of losing one or two people who do not have the drive to locate the new RP server.

[TheVedis]

I kind of wish SE would acknowledge besaid as the role playing server somewhere. To inform people when joining.

They cant unless the server becomes a role play server in itself

there is more to it then just saying its a role play server, by designating it one, it creates a new set of rules for a server which people have to follow

a server in which butt hurt RPists can report you for being out of character and ruining their immersion and actualy being able to have something done about it

no thanks, dont want that, they can go the unofficial route just fine

[Fensfield]

there is more to it then just saying its a role play server, by designating it one, it creates a new set of rules for a server which people have to follow

a server in which butt hurt RPists can report you for being out of character and ruining their immersion and actualy being able to have something done about it

Since when would simply, officially suggesting a server for roleplayers (present and future) to congregate on have any effect on the current rules? And since when were we asking for that?

Did the developers suggesting a server for European players generate spontaneous change to the rules of which I've somehow remained ignorant? Will I be able to go there and demand the GMs kick people for using American spelling? Because 'defense' totally ruins my immersion; I've dreamed of the day I can get back at all those uncouth yanks 'keep defiling the Queen's English.

Unless the developers specifically state 'The suggested roleplay server is for roleplay and roleplay only, excessive Out of Character is forbidden' or something to a similar effect, then the EULA and ToS remain unchanged with regard to that server. As far as I can tell, nobody in the roleplay community asking for an officially-suggested RP server wants such a rule, either; it'd be stupid and counter-productive and far, far too open to interpretation, difficult to enforce, and abusable.

As such, 'butt hurt' roleplayers can report you however much they want, it won't achieve anything. Saying otherwise in the face of anything but an openly suggested modification to the game rules is nothing but baseless scaremongering.

I'll point once again to successful mainstream MMORPG's which already have roleplay servers: I know damn well World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 don't have such a rule on their RP servers nor any parts of their End User License Agreement or Terms of Service specific to those servers. Largely because they realise it'd be a stupid idea and put off the vast majority of people would even be interested in playing on a roleplay server.


EDIT:
Curiously, and some research later, it seems WoW does in fact have rules specifically for it's RP servers. However, the point above stands - the rules merely allow GM's to replace improbable character names and penalise players who harass roleplayers for their chosen way of playing. FF XIV's rules actually contain similar, if somewhat more general clauses already, although targetted character names are either copyrighted or rude. They do not let 'butt hurt' roleplayers demand GM action for any perceived lack of in-character behaviour. I'll have to double-check if the same is true of EQ2 after all.

And again, I would reinforce: we are not asking for any server-specific rules.