[Balmung] Server Issues, safety, and overcrowding

[Laerune]

I dont think SE can do much, but give free server transfers and lets be honest here, why would alot of players want to leave the most populated and popular server of FFXIV? I understand where you are comming from, OP, but this is part of hype and people flocking towards the biggest server, it happend in other games aswell. I remember in WoW there was a server where the most popular guilds were on, people started to transfer to this server, the newcomers were adviced to go there and it turned into a cesspool of a server, because of its popularity.

I dont think they will close the server, since this would be unfair towards those that want to join their friends in 4.0 and beyond. SE should have locked Balmung, but Balmung is the fault of the community and I sadly think that this is an issue that will not be solved, unless they take drastic measures, like locking the server untill other servers are full or forced transfers.

I guess you could always transfer to another server? I mean it sucks to lose a house and find new friends, free companies, but if this bothers you so much, maybe you should transfer?

[Voltyblast]

As someone who played in Balmung since 2.0 onward (and not for RP: I just liked .hack and Balmung was gorgeous in his armor), we can't do anything about it to fix it really: it's all up to the devs to care and fix this issue and considering that the player base is on becoming smaller and smaller (we did have around 1m players during ARR), it might even get worse when SB hits. But that's just speculation for now.

You say that there are servers to spread the population but realistically speaking why would I want to go to a legit inferior server (in terms of numbers) when I can stay here and be able to do (that little) content with ease? To make sure the server is more open? Okay, why do I get out of it? Why should I bother? Why should I be the one? There are many "whys" in this and unfortunately, there's no real fix EXCEPT for merging servers into bigger ones. This might be a Final Fantasy but I'm no hero mate!

PS: about the ERP stuff, I don't even care as long as they don't bother me. They don't bother me, I don't bother them: rule of life.

[Risvertasashi]

[Masekase_Hurricane]

There is a T rating yes, But T rating means for Teens and above. Last time I checked being a teenager included age groups of 13-17 which is the age of minors. Not just 18+. I see people advertising for events on our party finder detailing strip clubs and other lewd activities that involves parties requiring to be 18+ to participate. The problem here is you cannot enforce that properly. You cannot stop everyone at the door and ask for a scan of their ID. It is something out of your control and people should be respectful of this games rating and not turn it into their own take of a personal Final Fantasy Porno.

This isn't all on SE as the above post points out parents are warned. So it is now up to the parents to take responsibility for what they let their kids on.

[Risvertasashi]

...And re: overcrowding. SE is finally starting to slowly roll out instancing and cross server technology. Since the game wasn't designed with it in mind (bad decision but it wasn't Yoshi's), it'll probably take a while before it's fully realized, but it does seem like SE it working on a long term solution.

Even the cross server PF means you can still play together somewhat without being on the same server. It's not the same, but it's a big step up from where we've been.

[Rydian]

Used to be on Balmung but i left when more plots opened up. I knew i wouldn't have had a chance of getting one. Some friends of mine told me that it was really difficult to get hold of a house, hearing horror stories of "housing mafias" and People blackmailing each other. I decided not to risk it. Found a house on a medium populated server. Active enough but not so overpopulated as Balmung was.

Hopefully one day SE will add some sort of solution for busy servers. (Free Transfers hopefully) Merging small servers might be problematic after hearing what happened to the Korean players.

[Kazrah]

I used to be on Balmung. Met some good people, avoided the worse parts of Ul'dah, ignored shout chat in any city-type area; honestly not a bad server compared to some other servers I've been on in other MMORPGs, especially when there were almost no signs of gil spammers most of the year.

Really the two biggest issues I had with Balmung were the housing and the population cap. As much as I'd love bringing more friends into this game, I honestly could not (and still cannot) find it in myself to coerce them into either paying $18 for a transfer or waking up before the crack of dawn on a specific day just to make a character. The other one was that I really wanted a house, and that simply wasn't going to happen on a server with that many people.

If you don't like Balmung, then move. It's that simple. For me, leaving Balmung and going to a server that I could actually get a house and a good handle on the economy has probably been the best thing I've ever done in this game.

[CatStarPrime]

I like Balmung a lot.

I've been on Mateus, Faerie, Cactuar, Sargatanas, and Gilgamesh.

Only Balmung ang Gilgamesh have the level of social interaction I need. It's great to stroll down the "ring road" in Ul'dah, seeing the small groups of people actually stopped, doing nothing but talking to each other, emoting at each other, rather than, say, Mateus, where seeing other players in Ul'dah, especially in the wee hours, is an Event.

Nasty chat? I've experienced a lot of facile, immature, out of character shout chat; but that's what the Blacklist is for - and on Balmung, my blacklist isn't filled up with RMT characters!

Housing? Never understood the appeal; don't understand people who think it's important or desirable; more power to them, but care not I.

[ErikMynhier]

On population: Most people come to Balmung (pay the fee) for the RP. Let's be honest, FFXIV has probably the most vibrant RP population of any mmo, at least any I have seen. Yes RP happens on other servers but with Balmung's large old rp community and equally good content players, it attracts all kinds. Its like real life, you live in a 5000 population town in Wyoming you won't see stuff like that. But if you want all the life and amenities of say New York City, you're going to have to realize sin and depravity are part of the package.

On morality: I don't want to see, and I don't think SE has the resources to act as moral police (morality is relative by the way). Use your BLIST OP, you don't need SE to make a safe-space for you, you're a big boy/girl.

[Lexia]

There is a T rating yes, But T rating means for Teens and above. Last time I checked being a teenager included age groups of 13-17 which is the age of minors. Not just 18+. I see people advertising for events on our party finder detailing strip clubs and other lewd activities that involves parties requiring to be 18+ to participate. The problem here is you cannot enforce that properly. You cannot stop everyone at the door and ask for a scan of their ID. It is something out of your control and people should be respectful of this games rating and not turn it into their own take of a personal Final Fantasy Porno.

Well they don't have to enforce a rating on the game only the actual game content developed by the devs are rated T for Teens everything is is fair play. The ESRB even states this.

Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB