Quote Originally Posted by Tsukino View Post
As someone who speaks English and Japanese I'm greatly saddened by this news.

As the OP says, everyone in Japan will move to the Japanese-only servers. It's an inevitability. When that happens I will no longer be able to join random groups to do all kinds of content because NA players only do things with their own linkshells. I will no longer be able to engage in activities in Japanese prime time, because the "global" servers will be dead then. I will no longer be able to practice Japanese with people online while I play a video game I enjoy, despite living in America.

Beyond that, how will the support for the international features fare? Will they even bother updating the auto-translator if no one uses it? What's to stop them from closing down certain regional servers far into the future if the game is played mostly by people still in Japan?

I know this is hugely cliché, but as an "international" player, international servers played a big part in my sticking with FFXI for many years, and with nothing but English speakers on the "global" servers I may not stick with XIV. I'm sure the number of xenophobic Japanese players they'll gain/keep far outweighs the number of people like me though, so it's probably a fine decision for them.

And to everyone saying it will be a choice: you're wrong. You're just wrong. The vast majority of Japanese players will play on Japanese-only servers if given the choice, which will remove the choice for us to play on a truly global server.
Pretty much this, I enjoy playing with JPs during the morning. First thing I thought when I read that was "oh well, there go the JPs". I was pretty disappointed whe I read that to be honest. I speak Japanese pretty well and it's quite a large selling point for me to be able to play with English speakers in the evening and JPs in the morning. I'll wait and see what happens, but it's honestly a huge chunk of the enjoyment gone for me if everyone migrates to their own little xenophobic corners of FFXIV. Language is only a barrier if you let it become one, the joy of interacting on global servers far outwieghs the negatives to me, that includes JPs, Germans, Americans, whatever...