Ragnarok: Only EU?

[Jinko]

I don't think its so much me being sensitive than you being caustic, as I have said before though I really have no desire to argue over this with you.

[Vackashken]

I don't think its so much me being sensitive than you being caustic, as I have said before though I really have no desire to argue over this with you.

Then its fortunate we're not arguing.

[Rhianu]

Yea I already said that its extremely limited, you can't seem to help yourself eh

It still needed to be explicitly stated. As of now, any estimates of how many EU players will move to Ragnarok are pure guesses and shots in the dark. There's no way of knowing for sure until after the server is up and running.

[Jinko]

It still needed to be explicitly stated. As of now, any estimates of how many EU players will move to Ragnarok are pure guesses and shots in the dark. There's no way of knowing for sure until after the server is up and running.

Goes without saying.

[Antipika]

The point of the entire series? Uh, no. There are like 30 games in the FF series, and only five of them even have multiplayer, and only two of those are online. So interacting with people from all over the world can't possibly be the point of the entire series.

Anyway, I think a special regional server is a good idea. However, if it were up to me, I would segregate the severs based on language rather than location. That way instead of having just a European server, we would have a French server for French players, a German server for German players, and English speaking Europeans could just go on the same servers as everyone else.

Also, Japanese players could have their own servers as well.

FR/DE population is probably way too low for them to have their own server, at best it would be from 2.0 and onward, especially when a brand new audience will join XIV, an audience that may not be used to MMORPG and speak only French or German.

Also, (talking for the FR community since I'm also French), a good part of the FR community is attached to the "melting pot" that exists in XI & XIV (JP/NA/EU all together on the same World). Most of them speak decent English, good enough for basic gameplay things. And because of that, the idea of having a FR only World is not really appealing to them.

However, if you take the future 2.0 average customer profile, that could be different. Let's say you have someone like :

- Not a former XI player
- First MMORPG or used to others mainstream products which have servers separated by language
- Too young to be proficient in English

Well then, this type of customers will be interested in a FR only server and won't probably like to play with JP/NA/EU people all together.

It can be really hard to explain to someone not familiar with FF Online that "over 80% of the population you will play with do not speak your own language" and "half of that 80% speaks Japanese only", which is completely out of reach for 99.99% of French people. Try and sell them a product like that, good luck.

[Rhianu]

Goes without saying.

Except when you make a poll which you try to hold up as evidence. Then it has to be said.

It can be really hard to explain to someone not familiar with FF Online that "over 80% of the population you will play with do not speak your own language" and "half of that 80% speaks Japanese only", which is completely out of reach for 99.99% of French people. Try and sell them a product like that, good luck.

I agree completely. In fact I think one of the biggest reasons WHY the European community is such a small minority in FFXIV is precisely because of that reason. If SE wants FFXIV to be successful in countries that don't speak English or Japanese, they're going to need to make it easier for players to find other people who speak their same language.

[MaxWinter]

yeah the origonal world notes mentioned a french only server before they changed everything to an eu one, is this because they feel more people speak english as well as their own language?
In past i have been between the japanese when they in late hours and the us when they wake up or in the us day time
Uk is about 5-7 hour from each coast of us i think and they have large number people but in ff14 i think japanese players are biggest userbase atm.

I think it all depends on how 2.0 goes and what usebase will be like after it.
Maybe they could consider another transfer in future if the population of the game changes.

Another option but i doubt this would happen is has anyone played the first guild wars game and seen how they did words , you could jump between region and each region had 4 areas ( worlds)

[Felis]

yeah the origonal world notes mentioned a french only server before they changed everything to an eu one, is this because they feel more people speak english as well as their own language?

It was a translation mistake. It was always EU server on the german, france and japanese page. Only the english page got FR/DE.

[Antipika]

I agree completely. In fact I think one of the biggest reasons WHY the European community is such a small minority in FFXIV is precisely because of that reason. If SE wants FFXIV to be successful in countries that don't speak English or Japanese, they're going to need to make it easier for players to find other people who speak their same language.

I think SE is stuck on the past on that. The average French MMO player pre-WoW era was more "a gamer" than anything else. Usually used to speak English etc. Whoever started to play MMO early is used to English games, only few were fully localized in French and even when they were, French localization was always late (patch / expansion would come after in Europe) so players would often use resources found on NA forums.

Nowadays, your average consumer wants immediate fun. Wants to play a game and not fight with a dictionary to try and be understood. When you jump in a MMO, you want to be able to talk to whoever surrounds you, asking stupid questions at first like "how I do this or that" > get your answer > move on.

When you start XIV at the moment, as a French player, you're not even explained how to make a good use of auto-translate... People around you? Half of them are JP, the rest speaks English. You may find a French guy around only if you're lucky... Check the shout channel? Great! Kanjis everywhere. (early evening EU = end of JP prime).

It really doesn't encourage new players to stay in. Sure once you manage to get a French Linkshell, get people to help you, the game experience can be really amazing. Sadly not everyone will go on a forum first to try and find French linkshells around. Neither will have the luck to encounter someone speaking their own language, during their first hours of gameplay.

Now the main problem are some of the current FR players who still think about themselves more about future players. Since -they- like being mixed all together, they would be willing to go on strike if SE would introduce localized Worlds... To me, I'd be fine if localized servers were introduced, as long as international worlds remain. In a MMO where the population is high, there wouldn't be any issue to have FR/DE/UK/JP/NA only + international server.

Now let's be honest, if something like that happen, we all know how it would end up. Almost all new comers would choose a localized server and pretty certain that lot of JP players would just head over JP only servers as well. It doesn't mean that they are NOT willing to play with other people, but if you can play with someone speaking your own language, playing during your time zone and so on, then you'd just head for whatever is the easiest for you, after all it's a game...

Some company already understood that. SEGA has been separating JP and EU/NA players with PSO/PSU for a decade now. And it works just fine. It also enabled them to have different policies across regions, different business models, etc.

[Jinko]

Yup, most p2p mmos have region based servers, FFXIV and FFXI are about the only two that don't.

I would love to see region specific servers, and as you say new people would most likely join the server that is designed for their region.

If the game had been like this from day one I doubt many would have had a problem except a few, now because everyone is settled into their own environment they don't want to leave the friends they've made etc.

Personally If I was Yoshida I would grow a pair and make recommended region/time zone specific servers.