Data Centers/World Locations Info from the LIVE Letter

[Antipika]

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1) Prime time issue.
> Most of MMOs on this planet works with localized servers and players do not complaint about this. Non-issue. Only issue if you have either an activity with a "non standard" schedule (working during the night etc.), or no activity at all and plays 16 hours a day. I work 9 to 6, I don't care about finding people online at 3am, just like many players in here. The life around you is organized around this. Why does school starts at ~8am and ends at ~6pm? Same for work. Same for everything. Do you watch the news at 3am? Do you watch sports (in your country) at 3am? Nope. Why would I play a MMO at 3am? Some may want to, but that's a minority, a global policy shouldn't be based on a minority.

2) Wipes
> No one ever said that speaking the same language prevents wiping. It does helps however to reduce misunderstanding and thus wiping.

3) Respect
> Doesn't matter where you go, you'll always find stupid people could they be JP, NA or EU. But when they speak JP (or French/German) and you don't understand them, obviously, you can't tell if you are being treated with respect or not.

Actually in XI, I remember not even being treated at all when I was in JP parties (day time in Europe/JP prime). Everyone was speaking JP, I would just listen to music and ignore the chat. Best social interaction ever. Using pre-constructed sentences. My cat expresses more feeling than a JP player just saying {Hello !}, {Congratulations !} every time someone levels up and {See you again!} when party disband.

(And don't get me wrong on this, I was in a LS with JP players, and some were trying to speak English and we were getting along fine, but in general, the language barrier would simply prevent social interaction. Auto-translate != social interaction.)

4) EU languages + time
> "16 languages" is a complete over statement, English/German/French will be dominant outside Guilds that specialize in a specific language. There are chances that you end up in a party where everyone speaks Russian, Italian or Novergian, but that will be very rare, unless you are in a group with players from the same Linkshells.

[Tiago]

Mhm i spent many years playing XI, and I'm from Austria (so i speak German) but i always prefered mixed LSs and even JP LSs (my HNM shell was JP). I don't really know alot ppl from Europe that can't speak english. Maybe few of the older ones but everyone learns english at school so they should be able to communicate enough for some gameplay.

On EU Server it won't be much different to an global server, english gonna be the language that everyone gonna use if you arent in a group where everyone speaks a certain language.

The language Problem actually should only exist with Japanese but not with english, if you have that much ppl that can't speak at least a bit it would be very sad....

If this response was to me, as mentioned, i played Aion/Runes of Magic on Eu servers and both were totally epic failures while doing certain stuff because either: 1) People are dumb and act stupid because they feel like it; 2) They didnt know exactly what i meant while explaining strategies; 3) They were there just to wipe the whole party.
Not everyone talks english, because i've seen people talking no-sense stuff alot, (because their sentence construction are possibly based on their own language or because they dont know how to spell stuff properly) and then doing a horrific job inside a dungeon and just droping the party without even saying sorry.

I see everywhere people that have english classes but rly dont like them or dont work towards developing them, and those will have trouble understanding english and even typing it. For myself, i think i'm not that bad at english (typed) but i suck at speaking it and sometimes at understanding it talked. So yeah, on EU servers, community will be divided by languages i bet.

[Tiago]

Reply to: Antipika, since i put reply and it didnt get a name up here.

As i already said, the community will be divided by language, so yeah, ls's will be mostly language linkshells, just like now there are JP Ls's French Ls's Geman Ls's and we havent moved to regional servers yet, so think about it on EU servers with so many languages.

I do play during my night-time. I start playing at around end of afternoon, start of night, and play till around 5-6am. That's a problem if i join EU servers unless i want to solo most of the stuff and not be able to enter 2+ members dungeons, etc.

Speaking the same language in a way of understanding rly well the strategy, prevents wipes, doesnt it? I think it does so people will expect what to find inside the dungeon/boss fight and know what to do about it.

Respect is something EU's will never have mostly, because if ppl want to talk trash about you, they'll do it in their language and mostly, if u ask what they are saying, they'll ignore and leave. Happened alot on my Aion play-time and will happen here too because XIV is no diferent from other MMO's community~wise. It wont change people.

So like u hated to not be understanded in those partys of JP's back in XI, and wasnt able to understand them at all, you figure we'll like to be in that boat almost everytime when friends of the same ls's put on exp groups and just pick-up 1-2 people because they need a full party for full buffs and more exp, and some ppl that actually wanted to exp but none on his ls wanted to, join that pre-made pt of that other ls and get's ignored all the time and doesnt understand shiz about what they are saying? (Being ls's mostly divided by language~wise i think its easy to expect them talking a total unknown language to some).

About the "dominant languages" you speak of, of those 3 i know english, but i also know Portuguese, which is my main language. Should i just say stuff in portuguese and hope them to understand me? I mean, if they dont know english, all i could do is try my luck in Portuguese.

[Antipika]

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Why would languages be an issue on an EU server and not on a Global Server? On a Global server as of now, I cannot understand half of the players straight up, yeah the JP players. Add to that all non-EN speaking players (luckily I can understand French on top of English). An EU server will never ever be made of more than 50% of non-EN speakers (yeah the average French or German player is more likely to speak enough English than the average JP player).

[ShellQ8]

I think the having regional servers is a great idea (when globally-labeled servers are included) because it will insure a fully english-speaking community in the globally-labeled servers. Maybe not fully but the community in the global servers will change and english-speaking players will be the majority.

It's a win win win.

People who don't care for multicultural communities can go to their regional servers, people who don't play with english-speaking players (or can't speak english) can play in their own regional servers too. And the community in the global servers will be better than it is now and more active because only the ones who want a multicultural community will remain.

[Tiago]

Why would languages be an issue on an EU server and not on a Global Server? On a Global server as of now, I cannot understand half of the players straight up, yeah the JP players. Add to that all non-EN speaking players (luckily I can understand French on top of English). An EU server will never ever be made of more than 50% of non-EN speakers (yeah the average French or German player is more likely to speak enough English than the average JP player).

Did i said Language is not an issue on the global servers? Altho the main language every1 else speaks is mostly English (some do not speak it too well but still). In EU servers it will be a much more bigger mix of languages, and you understand french, but i dont. You're being selfish when your comparing World-wide servers to EU only servers, the community that speaks english well enough to do stuff will be less than it is right now, and you only want ur NA servers because everyone will speak english and tehre wont be any JP. As i said that's being selfish because you want ur language issues to be solved but they will be bigger on another regional servers such as EU's.

[ZakarnRosewood]

I thought the dungeon finder they were implementing was supposed to be cross server. IF it is then "prime time" shouldnt matter for instances. if i am wrong feel free to flame the crap out of me.

[Antipika]

Did i said Language is not an issue on the global servers? Altho the main language every1 else speaks is mostly English (some do not speak it too well but still). In EU servers it will be a much more bigger mix of languages, and you understand french, but i dont. You're being selfish when your comparing World-wide servers to EU only servers, the community that speaks english well enough to do stuff will be less than it is right now, and you only want ur NA servers because everyone will speak english and tehre wont be any JP. As i said that's being selfish because you want ur language issues to be solved but they will be bigger on another regional servers such as EU's.

It's not about being selfish, it's about being rational. What you have a hard time to understand are the two following statement:

- If I can speak English, I have more chance to find players who speaks English on an EU server than on a Global Server.

- If I cannot speak English or Japanese, I have more chance to find people speaking my language on an EU server than a Global Server.

It's all about the population breakdown. On a Global Server, half of players doesn't even speak EN. It's easy, if that server have 10 000 players, you already exclude 5 000 of them...

That would not happen on an EU server. The proportion (again that's the -only- thing that matters) of players speaking EN will always be higher than on a global server. Bonus, for minorities (like Russian, Italian etc.), they have actually a chance to build a small community on an EU server, while if all Italian or Russian are located on different Global Servers, there won't be enough of them per server (again, % of players) in order to make a Linkshell.

[Tiago]

It's not about being selfish, it's about being rational. What you have a hard time to understand are the two following statement:

- If I can speak English, I have more chance to find players who speaks English on an EU server than on a Global Server.

- If I cannot speak English or Japanese, I have more chance to find people speaking my language on an EU server than a Global Server.

It's all about the population breakdown. On a Global Server, half of players doesn't even speak EN. It's easy, if that server have 10 000 players, you already exclude 5 000 of them...

That would not happen on an EU server. The proportion (again that's the -only- thing that matters) of players speaking EN will always be higher than on a global server. Bonus, for minorities (like Russian, Italian etc.), they have actually a chance to build a small community on an EU server, while if all Italian or Russian are located on different Global Servers, there won't be enough of them per server (again, % of players) in order to make a Linkshell.

So you are telling me, the chance of finding people that speaks english on an EU server is higher than on a global server? You know that like JP players, there are people from other EU countries that doesnt speak english nor care to do so right? Most will be speaking their own language with friends, and use google translater to find partys in other languages. About the chance of finding people on EU server that knows english cant even be compared, JP's are as human as other regions to learn English or not and i know alot of Japanese that knows english better than some of the english ppl i found. Your point isnt valid because "If i speak english" it wont make other speak english. If you dont know a language, u start to guess stuff out and saying it? You'll prob try to find a translater or tell it in your main language in hopes someone does understand you and maybe can fix you some translated way to say it so others can actually understand. And auto-translate function does work between people who speak English/German/French, altho it does also work for Japanese.

Oh and you cant point out half a server cant speak english because it doesnt have a limited number for people of each language to join in, so its all random. Can you guess the random? Yes, you can try to guess but that doesnt mean the total value will be it. It can be random.

[Jaimie]

I am happy and kinda frowning at this. I am not sure I am frowning at the community or just the stupidity of.

It seems majority of you wonderful /english/ speaking, fellow Americans (and those who are not, forgive me for lumping you in with us), is that we have the CHOICE. I get VERY little lag even now, and right now the servers are in Japan. Maybe this has to do with the fact I am in Arizona, so I am rather close to the ocean that separates Japan and my state.

But I don't get it.
They are giving a choice. A simple choice. They are NOT forcing you, like some MMORPGs do, and yes a ton of a MMOs FORCE you to be on whatever server is in your area. These guys are not.

So really, what is the big deal? They are trying to satisfy everyone here with the best possible means they can and really, the best means is what they are doing. Deal and stop crying over it, because this is the making of some players complaining about dealing with "Non-speaking" players, AT LEAST we are not being forced.

No lag eh

Well today on Balmung, my party was teleported. From the time I saw the message on screen to the time I saw the teleport animation was at least 20 seconds. Every time I swap stuff with my retainer, it takes a minimum of 4 seconds. Every time I zone into a new area, or even an area 200 feet away from where I was, I have to count to 10 before characters start showing up. Maybe this isn't due to lag, maybe there are other factors, but for now, I want regional servers to reduce the lag as well as provide other benefits.

I have yet to play a MMO that FORCED me onto a specific server. Name me some games. I have played a few games that FORCED me to trudge thru some auto translation dictionary in order to be respectful and helpful to other players. I'm not bashing the ATD, it is nice, but it aint perfect, and it does add delays sometimes.


If you ever see me online, let's start a party. I'll show you how mixed language parties are from my point of view.

P.S. In party when I /p roll call <level> <class> I'd appreciate a response.

I'll bet you 20,000gil you don't last 10 minutes, before I kick you for not being a TEAM player.