[DISCUSSION/DEBATE] Offering a free transfer campaign for the most populated servers

[molzilla]

So I've seen a couple of suggestions vaguely similar to this dotted around on the forums lately but I thought I'd open it up for discussion.

So servers like Balamung for NA and Odin for EU are grossly overpopulated at the moment. It's causing housing and MB issues and is generally just becoming pretty oversaturated.

So what if a campaign was offered for a limited period of time where players from frequently restricted servers were given the choice to transfer to a certain list of servers for free?

I can see both sides to this. On the one hand, it would be a great incentive for players (probably solo players in particular) to transfer to quieter servers. But on the other hand, the campaign probably won't fix issues such as housing as the people who likely wouldn't want to transfer would be the ones who already have a house/FC etc.

So what do you guys think? Keep it friendly please ^^

[ADVSS]

So I've seen a couple of suggestions vaguely similar to this dotted around on the forums lately but I thought I'd open it up for discussion.

So servers like Balamung for NA and Odin for EU are grossly overpopulated at the moment. It's causing housing and MB issues and is generally just becoming pretty oversaturated.

So what if a campaign was offered for a limited period of time where players from frequently restricted servers were given the choice to transfer to a certain list of servers for free?

I can see both sides to this. On the one hand, it would be a great incentive for players (probably solo players in particular) to transfer to quieter servers. But on the other hand, the campaign probably won't fix issues such as housing as the people who likely wouldn't want to transfer would be the ones who already have a house/FC etc.

So what do you guys think? Keep it friendly please ^^

works for me overpopulated is overrated

[Tsumdere]

It's a nice idea in theory, but it begs the question - how many people would use it?

I sure wouldn't. I like Balmung and have encountered very little problems with the overcrowding. I even got an apartment within the first month of me playing here.
When I first played on Adamantoise, I was actually going to quit and not give FFXIV a chance because the world was so lonely and I felt like I was playing a solo game when I signed up for an MMO.

This reminds me when they did something similar on TERA, even introducting a new server for it as well. A lot of people I knew got excited to get away from the "crowd" and moved in droves from the most populated servers Celestial Hills and Mount Tyrannas but within a month they all went back to their high population servers, leaving the new server dead in the water. I feel like the same thing would happen here.

[LunaFaye]

People that are playing on the over populated servers don't have any issues. Players that can't make an alt on these servers are mostly the ones that arguing about it. If someone wants to transfer off or on servers such as Balmung, Gilgamesh, Hyperion, Tonberry (at least in 2x it was a pop server), Excalibur, Levi, Sargatanas and whatever the names of the other popular EU/JP servers are, pay the $18 and call it a day. Why would we need free transfers now? I don't get it lol.

[Kazrah]

I used to be on Balmung. Leaving that server was the best thing I've ever done in this game. Would've been nice if it was a free deal, but I still felt like that transfer was worth every penny.

[Theodric]

I don't think it'd make much difference. Most of the people who are on Balmung at present are there because they want to be there. Established friendships, role-play opportunities and a fairly healthy PvE scene makes the overall package very enticing. I could only see people wanting to leave if they really, really want a house as quickly as possible or they dislike being on a busy server (but if that's the case, surely they'd have committed to one that wasn't listed as 'full' most of the time, anyway?)

Still, it could be worth a try - you never know for sure how these things will turn out.

[Knahli]

I'm not sure if it would have any effect but I'd be willing to support it since I can't think of any drawbacks, personally.

[Xieveral]

They'd have to do away with the gil limitations to make it worthwhile.

[Nixxe]

I'm actually enjoying Balmung the way it is for the most part, though I'm somewhat new here. That I probably won't be getting a house anytime soon is a bit annoying, but that was the case even on Malboro, which had far fewer people, because there are simply far too few houses to go around. Perhaps my view is what it is simply because I played WoW for years and therefore am used to how Blizzard works, but in my view free transfers are only to alleviate server queue times when they get particularly bad. Balmung has one, and perhaps it will be worse when Stormblood comes out, but the queue is usually extremely short, if there even is one.

They'd have to do away with the gil limitations to make it worthwhile.

Going from Balmung to almost anywhere will allow you to turn a profit simply by buying up items and selling them on the new server for 2x-3x what you paid for them.

[Vexander]

If you could convince the entire RP community to move from Balmung to another server, I'd join the migration. Somehow, I don't think you will. Even if the transfer was free, and -0- houses were taken on this new server, players can still only transfer up to 1,000,000 gil. Not enough to start over.