Concerns about the Chaos datacenter decisions

[TriColors]

Hello,
I rarely post in this forum let alone start a new thread, however I am doing this now at the request of various friends, and I am posting it in a new "snowflake" thread as other threads discussing same issue have gone astray already.

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The first part of this post mainly concerns legacy players from 1.0 version of the game but doesn’t exclude anyone else, EU or NA. This does not include JP player base simply because for them it was clear which worlds are staying in their region.

Since all worlds in version 1.0 of the game were physically located in Japan and FFXIV: ARR required a more stable connection for enjoyable experience it was decided to redistribute said servers across two regional data centers (Japan and North America), not mentioning third for Europe.

To guarantee characters were placed in the appropriate region, it was recommend to submit a World transfer application which became available before the fourth phase of beta test of FFXIV: ARR.

http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/na/ne..._na/index.html
As stated in above linked newsletter, Ragnarok world was simply a recommendation for players from European time zones, while worlds Sargatanas, Balmung, Hyperion, Excalibur and Rangarok included were all labeled same, as servers for both NA and EU players.

Back on beta forums (which were sadly wiped out with all the information) it was also stated in several official responses that there are no plans for EU data center physically located in Europe and that there are no differences between above mentioned servers, also mentioning not to worry about our choices.



Above image shows the official world transfer application site where all above mentioned worlds were labeled as for both NA and EU players. Since there were no location differences between any of five worlds in the NA/EU region we were free to choose where to transfer our 1.0 character data.

As an EU legacy player it was safe to choose any of the five worlds as all five were for both NA and EU legacy players, with Ragnarok being simply a recommendation to EU player base to easier create a community of players from European time zones.

It was never mentioned that Ragnarok would be transferred to Europe until about two years after the release of the game when it was finally decided to host a data center physically located in Europe. It is now unfair to all EU players that will be left behind on any of the four worlds (Sargatanas, Balmung, Hyperion and Excalibur) unless they pay for a world transfer, while any NA player that chose Ragnarok as their destination during the beta phase four gets a free transfer to any world within any available data center.

Due to misleading directions during the beta phase 4 world transfer period for legacy (1.0) players and later through nearly two years of game service for all new players, there are many EU players on NA recommended worlds and many NA players on EU recommended worlds. Because there were simply no differences other than community recommendations.

While some may say it is simply player’s fault of choosing “wrong” world it can also be said it is developer’s fault of keeping information about EU data center as secret for nearly two years of game service.

The only fair solution is to now treat everyone the same way whether everyone gets an option of one-time free transfer or no free transfer at all.

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TL;DR: EU players on NA recommended worlds should be treated the same way NA players on EU recommended worlds are. The only fair solution: One-time free transfer for both EU players from NA data center and NA players from EU data center towards appropriate region data center or no free transfer at all.

[SasukeUchiha81]

You may want to state your concerns, as of right now I am totally unaware of what they are.. Im sry. lol

[Saccharin]

They didn't keep anything for a secret. There have been plans for a Europe datacentre for well over a year, and it was suggested well before that they wanted to have one too.

You chose to ignore the recombined status of the Chaos grouping so it's your responsibility. I do however think they should also offer transfers from NA to chaos though but it's not their fault.

[TriColors]

They didn't keep anything for a secret. There have been plans for a Europe datacentre for well over a year, and it was suggested well before that they wanted to have one too.

You chose to ignore the recombined status of the Chaos grouping so it's your responsibility. I do however think they should also offer transfers from NA to chaos though but it's not their fault.

And as legacy players, we had to move our characters before beta phase 4, before any of this EU data center stuff even came up, we were only allowed a choice of 5 servers to keep the segregation between us and fresh players as well.
Also, this doesn't exclude any players who joined the game later on as fresh ones while SE still didn't have those servers planned, wasn't even a "look forward to it" thing with them on their stance on this.

[Natashio]

Unfortunately S.E. has already stated their piece as to what/who is going to get the free ride in terms of server transfers. Whether they change it and extend the free service to players outside of the E.U. data center is something I would not bank on.

[Nekodar]

People get a free transfer OFF Chaos after the datacenter move because their connections to the datacenter may get negatively impacted.
EU players staying on NA datacenters are not affected by the datacenter move.

Prior to beta phase 4, Ragnarok was designated as an EU world for the purpose of the transfer before launch... As I recall it, there was also a free transfer after that, where legacy players were just locked to legacy worlds.

[BreathlessTao]

EU players staying on NA datacenters are not affected by the datacenter move.

EU players on NA worlds are affected by the datacenter move, since there'll be a better, more "desirable" if you like, option for them afterwards.
Not to mention having a server cluster physically in Europe (that, for all intents and purposes, should have been done right at the start) is something they're doing for the European players. Forcing them to pay extra to benefit from it is a very infuriating move. Because if NA players aren't held responsible for rolling on a "recommended" EU server, when it made no difference with only a hint of an uncertain change sometime in the future, and get a free ticket out of it - neither should EU players having rolled on NA worlds back then be held responsible for their decisions.

Seriously, stop with the double standards for NA and EU, it's completely maddening.

[Bhuni]

You may want to state your concerns, as of right now I am totally unaware of what they are.. Im sry. lol

Reading is hard pls nerf.

[Trotsky]

The whole situation is ridiculous. It defies logic and reason. So it's possible somehow that enough NA players ended up on EU servers that they're giving them a free transfer, but EU players on NA servers - noooooo, not possible at all. It's ancient history now, and a lot of people tend to forget, but Ragnarok was pretty boring in 1.x era, which is why people weren't so eager to move. That single star in OP's screenshot is a proof of that. Also on that screenshot you can see that all of the NA servers were recommended for EU players, not just Ragnarok. All of them. Which is why free transfer from NA to EU should be pretty much a given. It's bewildering how they managed to screw this up.

[Michael]

They didn't keep anything for a secret. There have been plans for a Europe datacentre for well over a year, and it was suggested well before that they wanted to have one too.

You chose to ignore the recombined status of the Chaos grouping so it's your responsibility. I do however think they should also offer transfers from NA to chaos though but it's not their fault.

Yep, we knew about those plans for a year, but players had options to move to a single EU server more than 2 years ago.