Transfer Restrictions and Roleplayers

[Marluxia]

Final Fantasy XIV has a thriving roleplaying community, and Balmung is its (unofficial) hub. A hub that just got neutered due to these transfer and creation restrictions coming out of nowhere with no warning.

With the new transfer restrictions in place, any new players who wanted to roleplay on the largest server now don't have any options, and part of the problem is that there's no officially designated RP server.

With these restrictions in place and the RP community now too large and too sedentary to coordinate the growth of another server, it'll be very difficult for roleplayers to find a community. And honestly, I don't think roleplayers want to flood an unsuspecting server's PvErs with another "unofficial" RP server.

Some background: The RP community consolidated on Besaid in 1.0, and remained there when Besaid and Fabul got merged to create Balmung. Besaid was more or less picked out arbitrarily by community vote as the unofficial RP server.

Balmung is saturated, both with RPers and non-RPers, hence the population problem.

The solution to this is very simple though: create and designate an official RP server, and offer free transfers to that server with no loss of assets.

It's important to designate an official RP server because one of the core causes of Balmung's overpopulation is the lack of segregation between RPers and non-RPers. RPers really only want to be on a server with other RPers, and I'm inclined to think that non-RPers don't want to be on a server with a bunch of RPers, generally speaking.

--

TL;DR

1). One of the main reasons why Balmung is overpopulated is because it has two servers' worth of players in two broad demographics. Balmung has been host to both RPers and non-RPers ever since Besaid and Fabul were merged.

2). Providing incentive for the RP community to move is the easiest way to lower Balmung's population. Non-RPers generally don't have many reasons to transfer, whereas RPers will transfer to be with other RPers, especially if that transfer is free.

3). A new server that is designated with an "RP" tag is the ideal solution. A new server means that players and Free Companies who transfer can keep the exact plot that they own and all of their assets such as airships. It also means that an unsuspecting server's PVErs don't have to be flooded with RPers.

4). The restriction should last until sufficient people (in this case, mostly RPers) have transferred off. I know this is controversial, but after further thought, I don't think the New Server Solution would work without this. Keeping the restriction is key in removing Balmung's reputation as the "RP hub". Otherwise, RPers will keep transferring to Balmung and keep making characters on Balmung indefinitely and we end up with a pretty bad cycle.