Petition to Terminate Restrictions on Transfer to “High Population” Servers

[Oaken]

I encourage everyone who requests that SE terminate its unannounced restriction prohibiting transfers to “high populations servers” to post a short comment on this thread (i.e. – sign the petition). Please post additional reasons supporting terminating the prohibition, and I will add them to the original post as I am able.

First, I want to thank SE for providing the best MMORPG on the market and for all the hard work that goes into making the game great. Unfortunately, SE has committed an egregious error by restricting transfers to high-population servers.
SE appears to not understand the importance of promoting large and vibrant social communities concentrated on as few servers as possible. Server selection should not divide people; nor should it impose an artificial limitation on the scope of a gaming community. MMORPGs are social games kept alive largely by the vibrancy of their player communities and social interaction. FFXIV is no exception, and restricting the ability of players to choose their location of play will be disastrous for the long-term health of the game.
Large server populations and the ability to move between servers is vital to retaining subscribers in the long-term. The ability to transfer among servers allows players to select which communities are most compatible with their preferences and to invite their friends to play alongside them. Below I have highlighted some of the key reasons why SE should immediately terminate the restriction on server transfers:

1. Prohibiting transfers to high population servers divides friends, gaming communities, families, and discourages potential subscribers from purchasing the game to play with their friends.

There are no doubt dozens (if not hundreds) of players who recently purchased or considered purchasing FFXIV for the reason of playing with a friend. If friends happen to be located on a high population server where transfers are prohibited, the potential subscriber will be unable to join their friends and likely have little interest in purchasing the game. Prohibiting transferring also creates rifts in pre-established gaming communities, free companies, and contacts. Players are forced to pick and choose between groups to accommodate server transfers. This causes communities to become fragmented and increases the risk that players will grow disinterested in the game as others discontinue playing.

2. High population servers keep players subscribing and playing longer.

Subscribers loathe “ghost-town” servers and are more likely to perceive of the game as “dead” if they are forced to play on those servers. Larger servers allow players to meet new friends and have an enormous range of individuals around (at virtually all hours) to converse and play with. This helps promote a sense of community and greatly enhances the gameplay experience. Large communities help players foster relationships and are critical to retaining subscribers (especially between major patches and after expansions).

3. Prohibiting transfers to high population servers is devastating on the long-term viability and health of FFXIV’s large roleplay community.

Roleplayers depend on the ability to access a centralized, large community of individuals interested in roleplay. The transfer prohibition threatens to stagnate the Balmung RP community and divide roleplayers among dwindling populations on small servers. Unlike PVE communities, RP communities are far more entrenched in their server communities, and it takes a tremendous amount of work and planning to orechestrate RP activities. Roleplayers are among some of SE’s most loyal and long-term subscribers (and expect considerably less in terms of new content because roleplayers create their own content). If SE does not reverse the prohibition, the FFXIV roleplay community faces a substantial risk of dwindling populations and disinterest in the game.

4. High population severs have greater economic health, more player-run events, and generate more user-content, which increases subscription retention rates.

Large servers enjoy healthy economics due to the number of crafters that play. Housing is the only economic drawback; however, this issue could be addressed by increasing housing wards and other less intrusive measures.

5. The problems associated with server overpopulation are greatly exaggerated and do not adversely impact gameplay.

The high population of Balmung and other high-population servers has only been a detriment to gameplay on rare occasions (i.e. – after the release of new housing wards, posing ranger event, first two weeks of Heavensward, etc.). Most of the time, the high population of these severs is a great asset and benefit that encourages players to retain their subscriptions.

6. There are numerous alternatives to reduce server overpopulation that fall short of SE’s heavy-handed prohibition on transfers.

For example, SE could: (1) assess a higher server transfer fee for high-population servers; (2) provide additional in-game incentives to encourage players to transfer from high-population servers; (3) devote additional resources to banning bots and RMT schemes; (4) raise monthly subscription rates to compensate for the cost of maintaining high population servers; (5) designate official roleplay, hardcore raiding, and special interest servers to encourage certain player groups to transfer from over-populated worlds; (6) implement anti-idling features that disconnect players who idle for extended amounts of time.

Conclusion: These are only a few reasons why prohibiting transfers to high population servers is damaging to the FFXIV community and should be terminated immediately. If SE will not terminate this policy, it should at least disclose a firm date when the prohibitions will be lifted, so players can plan and play accordingly.

[ExKage]

You can bypass the character restrictions by editing.

[technole]

*Player from Balmung wants more friends in*

Check

[Moonlite]

NO NO NO. This game has limited assets. The server should be closed and not open till they can balance those assets. Other games lock servers I have never seen whining like this on those forums.

[Driavna]

And if they do, when you end in a que with a wait time of 12 hours because people don't disconnect from the server due to ques you will come here to complain about "I pay for this and I can't play when I want". Nope, the server is full, if you want to play with your friends use one of those future free transfers.

[Istaru]

Where is the petition to ensure this policy does not change?

[Zelas]

2. High population servers keep players subscribing and playing longer.

Subscribers loathe “ghost-town” servers and are more likely to perceive of the game as “dead” if they are forced to play on those servers. Larger servers allow players to meet new friends and have an enormous range of individuals around (at virtually all hours) to converse and play with. This helps promote a sense of community and greatly enhances the gameplay experience. Large communities help players foster relationships and are critical to retaining subscribers (especially between major patches and after expansions).

They wouldn't be "ghost towns" if people didn't always go for Balmung as soon as they join. smh

Let smaller servers thrive!

P.S.: Before anyone says I'm being hypocritical, I've been on Balmung from day one. I didn't transfer there from a smaller-populated server.

[Oaken]

I challenge anyone who actually wants this policy to remain in place to cite, with specific examples, how the high population of a server has adversely impacted your gameplay. In my two years on Balmung, the only time I /ever/ recall the population causing a problem was when new housing wards were released. The amount of speculation, fear-mongering about "monster queues," and other unfounded, speculative concerns about population woes are completely baseless and exaggerated.

[Rokke]

I thought the restrictions were implied to be temporary. With 4.0 right around the corner I can see why they locked it- give the other servers a pop boost.

[technole]

Login queues are not unfounded during early access and launch periods. I have a Gilgamesh toon.

The swamps need to be drained. It's much easier cause we have XPF now, more incentives coming, along with more cross-server features like friends lists coming in 4.0.