Free Company Alliances are necessary to save the social state of this game

[PintyMcEars]

With the increase in available FC housing, many who have not been able to secure a house has turned to running 1-9 person FCs to get one of these easy plots.

Before I continue, this is NOT an issue with 1-4 people FCs or house 'hoarding'. So, please do not comment that in this thread, there are plenty of threads to be upset about that.

The issue is that the number of tiny FCs being used to hold housing are splintering the community. Rather than people congregating to larger FCs, they are all off in their own tiny, tiny islands. There is little incentive to leave a small FC, as housing is very valuable. The state of the game has changed tremendously since 2.x-4.x.

I felt like the average FC size back then was 30-90 people, and now that is quite rare with maybe a handful of FCs on each server having that many members. (and of those, the number of active members is usually low)

If you take a look at the FCs in any housing ward, you will see a majority are tiny (under 9 people).

FC alliances, the ability for FCs to formally share a chat, roster, and other social resources, would breathe new life into the community. These small, fragmented companies will be able to keep their personal gil-related resources (housing, subs, whatever), but benefit from the social environment of more friends and peers.

I believe that FCs should be able to ally with up to 4 other FCs if they so chose to. This would provide more of a social aspect in the game without pressuring anyone into giving up their own personal resources.

Of course, solo players or those who wish to play alone or with a tiny group of friends need not ally their FC with anyone. It would be optional, not forced.

Can you provide evidence of your findings?

[Renalt]

In my experiences the bigger the FC then the less social they are. I've been in numerous FC/Guilds in multiple MMOs and they usually share that one exact trait. Smaller ones are ideal if you want social. I've been successful being social not being in a real FC (My FC is one I created because I just wanted the name and the FC Chest ). I talk to everyone in whatever zone or group I happen to be with regardless how brief. My most social is just standing in Uldah in Balmung. Conversation will either find you or go on without you there. It's rare to have a moment in which no one is saying anything.

[Nav_Fae]

In my experiences the bigger the FC then the less social they are. I've been in numerous FC/Guilds in multiple MMOs and they usually share that one exact trait. Smaller ones are ideal if you want social. I've been successful being social not being in a real FC (My FC is one I created because I just wanted the name and the FC Chest ). I talk to everyone in whatever zone or group I happen to be with regardless how brief. My most social is just standing in Uldah in Balmung. Conversation will either find you or go on without you there. It's rare to have a moment in which no one is saying anything.

I mostly agree with this. I'd also like to add that FCs on particularly Balmung feels like an entirely different ball game than other servers. At least it has felt that wsy to me in my personal experiences. Balmung is prone to having to deal with problems that are less common else where. Like the constant influx of rarely logging in alts. A constant desire for story progressive RP, rampant ERP. I have seen people leave FCs just cause nobody would do the dirty with them. I feel like an FC owning a house is much more important towards recruitment on Balmung as well. With no vacant houses or apartments, the demand for a private room is higher on Balmung. I could be wrong but these are just my observations.

[Titor]

I mostly agree with this. I'd also like to add that FCs on particularly Balmung feels like an entirely different ball game than other servers. At least it has felt that wsy to me in my personal experiences. Balmung is prone to having to deal with problems that are less common else where. Like the constant influx of rarely logging in alts. A constant desire for story progressive RP, rampant ERP. I have seen people leave FCs just cause nobody would do the dirty with them. I feel like an FC owning a house is much more important towards recruitment on Balmung as well. With no vacant houses or apartments, the demand for a private room is higher on Balmung. I could be wrong but these are just my observations.

Maybe Balmung is the problem then. I feel like every FC I look at is either 1-5 people. I've been joining a bunch of smaller FCs in an attempt to make friends and such, but they end up being quite dead. Most have disbanded due to inactivity from both the FC lead and the members. There's a lot of alts, so most of the time I'm the only person online, and recruiting is a nightmare so FC leads end up giving up after about a month. It's hard to get any hits. I don't want to be a number in a sea of 400 (I think there's only 2 really large FCs on balmung that I know of anyway). But I don't want to be the only person online most of the time... I want a middle ground, which is what this post is about.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

This is your yearly reminder that Fellowships exist.

Ive tried to use that feature without much success, personally.

[Titor]

Ive tried to use that feature without much success, personally.

As have I. They don't have a chat channel which really hurts the feature IMO.

[Renalt]

I mostly agree with this. I'd also like to add that FCs on particularly Balmung feels like an entirely different ball game than other servers. At least it has felt that wsy to me in my personal experiences. Balmung is prone to having to deal with problems that are less common else where. Like the constant influx of rarely logging in alts. A constant desire for story progressive RP, rampant ERP. I have seen people leave FCs just cause nobody would do the dirty with them. I feel like an FC owning a house is much more important towards recruitment on Balmung as well. With no vacant houses or apartments, the demand for a private room is higher on Balmung. I could be wrong but these are just my observations.

I've actually never been in an FC in Balmung. I was on...I wanna say 3 different servers before I settled into Balmung. So that's where my experiences lie.

However if even half of what you say is true and I'm actually likely to believe you...FCs in Balmung seem super lousy.

[Titor]

I've actually never been in an FC in Balmung. I was on...I wanna say 3 different servers before I settled into Balmung. So that's where my experiences lie.

However if even half of what you say is true and I'm actually likely to believe you...FCs in Balmung seem super lousy.

I've been on Balmung since the game started. It's been progressively getting worse, to the point over the last year and a half or so I'm feeling really discouraged. A lot of those problems are true. I don't want to ERP, I just want people to hang out with. Maybe non-ERP RP. But if anything, I just don't want the chat to feel so dead. My LS are full, but no one talks.

[Bunnycake]

This is your yearly reminder that Fellowships exist.

Fellowship, wut dat

[Final-Fantasy]

With the increase in available FC housing

It is just like in real life, do you want to live in a house with 400 randoms or only people who matter to you?

Do you want to share the bathroom and kitchen with even 30 randoms, no you don't.

Do you want to listen to their political views, nope.

That is why now, small FC's are a thing.

Let the Novice Network lead by example, I simply can't stand to be a Mentor in it for too long as the idle chat is extremely annoying, and every so often someone has to be a troll.
Large FC's suffered from this exact same issue, people would leave because of other people they grow to not like or get annoyed by.

FC Alliances would in turn create a new issue where people will leave because of too many people.