Servers are fracturing communities

[AllOuttaEnemies]

So, I've seen this problem happen time and time again in MMO after MMO and I'd love if FF14 found a way to put a stop to it. Basically as the MMO grows, its because more people are playing. This is a great thing but it also screws over players when servers are involved, because of servers players are unable to play with their friends or new players. Players in overpopulated servers are forced to either switch servers to play with their friends (losing all their contacts from their previous server) or they force their friends to pay a fee to transfer to their server (it's a $20.00 fee in this game).

[AllOuttaEnemies]

Now this is already frustrating for a lot of players: new and old. Because this forces players to make a choice that will fracture communities, which is ultimately bad for the game. For example, a player get pissed off because of those reasons i stated above, so they stop playing. But now with the introduction of the "Suspension of World Transfers to High Population Worlds."
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...2360440abe9651
There is now no way for players to transfer their characters to some of these older players' servers (Legacy).

The developers (devs) are now forcing players to fracture their existing communities, just so players can play with their friends. It was already tough to get a new player to come play the game, really tough to get them to pay an extra $20.00 to transfer to your server, and now it's just straight up impossible to get them to come play with you beyond transferring to their server.

[AllOuttaEnemies]

This is getting beyond levels of anti-consumer. Because now the devs are not only hurting the new player, but the experienced player as well. And it feels like this is all being done so the devs can continue this outdated and lazy server formula. There are plenty of ways this can be fixed and done a lot more efficiently.

I'm not proposing any solutions, if you want them hire me lol. I'm simply trying to raise awareness of this.

tldr: u can no longer transfer into legacy servers wtf square!!!

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Well, this is the problem of everyone telling everyone else "join balmung or gilgamesh."

Its no ones fault but the players.

[Alestorm]

It's just for the launch of the new expansion. Give it about a month and it will likely reopen and you can go where you please.

I almost feel bad for Balmung players since the expansion launch will be hell for them.... then I remember most of them moved; so it was their choice to be on an overcrowded server.

[savageink]

It's just for the launch of the new expansion. Give it about a month and it will likely reopen and you can go where you please.

I almost feel bad for Balmung players since the expansion launch will be hell for them.... then I remember most of them moved; so it was their choice to be on an overcrowded server.

I doubt they will be allowing transfers anytime soon. The incentive program to get people off the servers doesn't even start until launch.

[Atlas-04]

Cause Balmung needs more players right? You know what also happens in MMOs? Small communities are forced to transfer or wait for server merges when places turn into ghost towns cause everyone went to "The" server to be on.

[AllOuttaEnemies]

Cause Balmung needs more players right? You know what also happens in MMOs? Small communities are forced to transfer or wait for server merges when places turn into ghost towns cause everyone went to "The" server to be on.

That's ultimately what I'm getting at. That the current server formula MMOs are using is flawed and needs to be redesigned. Because at this point transfer or not the player is damned if they do and damned if they don't. That's why I say it's anti-consumer.

[Belhi]

I can see why people would be concerned about this but there is a limit to what SE can actually do about it. Theoretically something like a Mega server might hold solutions but that can hold as many cons for community as it does pros and isn't a minor technical feat to convert to even if the game engine is capable of it.

In short there isn't much they can do to fix it. Just leaving things with transfers as they are will raise only more issues. Sometimes the none of the realistic options are ideal. The best that can be done is for the community to try and adapt to the changes.

[Beatrice]

ಠ_ಠ

But... the devs didn't do this all on purpose? The servers only have so much space and processing power. You say they can fix this but then offer no solutions with a claim of "LoL hire me if you wanna know~" as if you somehow have some magical quick fix that no one else in the world could know about. Even Blizzard has had to lock up servers that were too full. I've seen veteran players from Balmung complain about not only the stability issues with the server itself but the huge queues that happen because the server is overflowing.