Character Creation Restrictions prevent growth of RP community

[Inoxe]

In the US, the two "unofficially official" RP servers are Balmung and Gilgamesh (see http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=2632), so nominated by the most active RP-oriented FFXIV website.

However, both servers are perpetually locked for new character creation. I've checked almost daily for a month. I have NEVER seen either server open.

There is a work-around. If you create another character on a different server, wait three days, and then spend $18 to transfer the character, you get into a locked server. Your website says this isn't allowed, but it is commonly done. See http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...nsfer_service/ which has the statement "* Characters cannot be transferred to a World which has already reached the limit for character creation."

Therefore, as it stands right now, there is a $18 "RP Tax" in effect for North Americans who want to transfer to servers with an active RP community. I suspect this is a useful secondary income for Square Enix. Check your metrics - what proportion of the North American server transfers are going into Balmung or Gilgamesh?

I believe the reason why Balmung and Gilgamesh are perpetually closed is a bug in your server-closing logic. Role-players tend to congregate at certain locations for conversation - typically the Adventurers' Guild buildings in the major cities. These regions may look "overpopulated," but in fact a large part of the player population is just using chat. In fact, your server closing logic could have other bugs, such as not recognizing various categories of inactive players.

Yes, you could argue that players should nominate another RP server. However, the existing RPers on Balmung and Gilgamesh resist this. They constantly recommend that players pay for transfers, to insure their own servers get as many new RPers as possible (to replace the inevitable attrition of players, or "churn").

As it stands, it is easy to believe that Square Enix is simply enjoying the income from the "RP tax." To dispel this impression, either enforce your own rules about no transfers to closed servers, or update your closed server code to be RP-aware, or both. This will sooner or later force RPers to expand to other servers, as they should, rather than Square Enix profiting from this hidden cost foisted upon a subgroup of players.

[PetiteMalFleur]

Your are wrong.

Both servers operate at max capacity 24/7. There is always a lobby queue to log in. Once a certain number of players are online the system flags the server as full and automatically restricts new players from joining the server.

Allowing new player creation would overload the servers and cause crashes. The only way around this is to create multiple instances per zone like they did at heavensward release to handle the congestion. This was massively inconvenient and many players would be very angry if they implemented this again just to allow new players to join an already heavily populated server.

At the same time statics and free companies shouldn't be barred from recruiting off server if they are trying to fill their roster. Allowing character transfers discourages an influx of new players while not stagnating the progress of the community.

There is no conspiracy "RP tax". How ridiculous to even suggest that.

[JillyBean]

I was not aware Gilgamesh was an RP server. I had thought it was a hardcore/end-game community.

[Inoxe]

My technical points are twofold.

First is that Square Enix allows transfers into the server. I could create 8 characters on another server, wait 3 days, and pay the $18 "RP tax" to transfer all eight onto one of the RP servers. Players on these servers urge all RPers to do this.

Second is that I'm not sure Square Enix's computation of "too many players" applies as much to RP-oriented communities as communities more oriented to combat, end-game play etc. In RP communities, there is more chat and less fighting than other communities.

[AnthonyValron]

I'm sorry, but that's a crazy thing to say. You either accept that Balmung is a popular server that is past capacity and that you MUST transfer there or you stay on a third-world server.

I assume part of the reasoning for charging for character transfers is to eventually expand server capacity.

e: sincerely, Balmung transfer.

[Natandalus]

I have been playing since 2.0 launch and all my friends wanted to be on Balmung, I had to transfer. The idea of having to transfer is not a new thing it has been in place for a long time and for actual legitimate reasons such as server congestion. Your comments about "RP Tax" is completely laughable as well as it, being in place for other servers does not make it in place for "taxing" RPers. The thing also to consider i was on Balmung for along time before i transferred to Faerie. The economy blows on Balmung i don't know why anyone would want to be there. I know it can be frustrating not being able to play the way you want but if you want to be on Balmung you are just going to have to suck it up and pay your so called tax.

[PetiteMalFleur]

If they allow new character creation on full servers it will crash the server. Paid transfers allow players to openly recruit off server and promote legitimate growth of commumities while discouraging a huge influx of players the servers are incapable of handling.

Unfortunately the biggest issue with new character creation on high pop servers is RMT. When they open the server to new characters they get a massive influx of RMT level 1 bots. It's unfortunate but seeing 100 level 1 trial account bots join an already full server is physically impossible for these worlds to handle without random crashes and 90k errors.

I know it sucks but you can either try to start a new RP community on another world or suck it up and pay the $18 to transfer.

Tuesday morning is also maintenence. You can try to join the server then. Since they will be offline there willl be a small window when you can create a new character.

[Syanis]

So whats the solution? To overpopulate the server? FC's can't get enough members also so time to overpopulate the server also? RPer's feel they *must* go there even though their isn't an official RP server to enjoy the game so they should be allowed to overpopulate the server? Had the same sort of annoyance not having an official Aussie server where Aussies had to either go to NA servers and deal with mostly Americans when the times Aussies are actives the server is far less active or go to a JP server and have a major language barrier and feel an outcast.

There is no solution to the issue and when a server is full its full for a reason. Its not fair to those who have been on the server for a a long time to get overcrowded for the sake of a few newer or those who want to change to that server for whatever reason. People have to learn that they need to make a home for themselves with whats available and be content with that. Those of us NOT on the US timezones who are English speakers have had to do that for many years on many many games.