Gridania is Dead (and other talk)

[Answa]

I find it really stupid that people complain about roleplay to begin with when they choose Besaid as their server. It's been known since even before the game launched a year ago that this was the unofficial RP server for FFXIV. It's like going to a restaurant and then complaining about the fact they serve nothing but a certain kind of food. Yet you knew it serves only that. Maybe not the best analogy, but my point still remains valid: You chose that server, quit whining about your decision. Many of us were there before you came along, many of us will still be there come 2.0 and most likely grow unless during server merges the RP community decides to travel to another server. May as well get used to us now, we've had to with the trolls. But these days I rarely ever see trolls anymore when I RP and if I do they're usually just ignored/blacklisted, life goes on.

What a stupid thing to say. Seriously.

I joined Besaid on day one. I never frequented the forums, I just chose that server because it had a cool name. I'm sure it was just as random for other people. The unofficial in unofficial RP server makes it pretty clear, it's a player-created thing and no one has to conform to you.

[YuriSan]

LOL!
Think about it man... who will posers pose for in Grid?
tsk tsk....

[Fensfield]

I find it really stupid that people complain about roleplay to begin with when they choose Besaid as their server. It's been known since even before the game launched a year ago that this was the unofficial RP server for FFXIV. It's like going to a restaurant and then complaining about the fact they serve nothing but a certain kind of food. Yet you knew it serves only that. Maybe not the best analogy, but my point still remains valid: You chose that server, quit whining about your decision. Many of us were there before you came along, many of us will still be there come 2.0 and most likely grow unless during server merges the RP community decides to travel to another server. May as well get used to us now, we've had to with the trolls. But these days I rarely ever see trolls anymore when I RP and if I do they're usually just ignored/blacklisted, life goes on.

But to make an attempt at being on subject here, it is kind of sad to see the other cities barely populated. There's roughly two reasons to this however: 1.) Ul'dah is the central city as it's been pointed out, so if you want to do something/need to do something, this is the place. 2.) Right now every server has a low population, so the emptiness in other cities is going to be noticed much more than it might have been earlier on. Everyone's going to flock to Ul'dah instead since this city sees the most interaction than the rest.

I just find it stupid people complain about roleplay full stop.

Setting aside the fact it's right there in the genre name, if a player is so offended by roleplayers' /say output, why the hell haven't they blacklisted the people doing it? If roleplayers are anything, they're consistent enough in their playing habits for a blacklist entry to be worthwhile.

That said, while Answa was a bit of a jerk about it, it is somewhat true that while we roleplayers have made it clear amongst ourselves and to each other that Besaid is where the roleplayers will gather by and large, people do have to have a passing interest in roleplay to bother looking up the RPC and finding that out.

Then again, you might think if people were so horribly offended by roleplay they might have the passing interest to make a quick check for that and all - seriously, '"Final Fantasy XIV" roleplay server' on Google and the information was right there without so much as a click further.

But, well, is Gridania dead? Ul'dah's crowded, sure, but Gridania's still seemed fairly active since I joined the Twin Adder and moved most of my activity there .. 'only thing it seems to lack are those oddballs stand around with weapons drawn forever and much in the market wards.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

I dislike how people pick on RP'ers. As others have said, blacklist the RP parties in question and move on. Don't stick around and harass them.

On-topic: Without cross city markets, folks still not using the search system for LFG/LFP purposes, and removal of guildmark gain and use, Gridania and Limsa Lominsa will likely remain dead until 2.0

[ObeiKinstar]

Thankyou everyone who has made a post that wasn't negative or hurtful to others' opinions.

Some good feedback going on. I agree with the fact that ul'dah is centralized and most convienient, that is about 80% of the reason I choose to start there. However being intersted in rp myself I try to follow the story and lore. Which put me into Gridania, because thats the Grand Company I liked best.

My problem is that Yoshi P said himself NOT to worry about anything just pick the one you like (gridania hint, hint), Thats not a direct quote but a paraphrase. Well... I listened to him and picked the one I liked and now my character suffers for it.

For instance when trying to do content, lil ifrit run, chocobo supply mission, etc, it seems much harder to find fellow serpents to do this content with. Im not trying to QQ or w/e, it is what it is. I guess I am just wondering what Yoshi P was thinking when he said not to worry about it, I know they are making the intra city travel and are going to connect the market wards, but are these the only fixes that are going to come pre 2.0??

[Coglin]

The way I see it. When we lost the need to do leves is the town of the class' guild, and no more need of guild marks, they lost the last chance for a while to have any population in the other 2 cities.

Linking the market wards, as I see it, is the first step in allowing players to spread out.

Not to mention, Ul'Dah is set up as a city that is much more easy to navigate then the others.

Those are the 2 main issues in my personal opinion.

As far as the RP goes, I never see them around anymore, but when I did, they were never less the nice and cordial to me and others that I could see. They never bothred anyone else, and they played the game just like the rest of us.

[Fensfield]

For instance when trying to do content, lil ifrit run, chocobo supply mission, etc, it seems much harder to find fellow serpents to do this content with. Im not trying to QQ or w/e, it is what it is. I guess I am just wondering what Yoshi P was thinking when he said not to worry about it, I know they are making the intra city travel and are going to connect the market wards, but are these the only fixes that are going to come pre 2.0??

I'm not sure about that..

In my experience it's the Flames that get shafted, with the Twin Adder coming in second while the Maelstrom seems to have the most members by a small margin, despite Ul'dah's popularity. Maybe I'm just biased because they have a spear I wanted >.>

But really, I swear I've seen more Flames characters bemoaning their lack of company than Adders..

As for what Naoki Yoshida said.. wasn't he talking more in terms of available rewards? It is fairly true that aside from weapon availability (and even there a little), the developers have been making sure that the Grand Companies' kit does even out - over time if not immediately.

[Croy]

The cities are dead because of several reasons.

1) Central hub of Ul'Dah, its a broken record but Gridania and Limsa are on the out skirts of the games map and have limited routes to anything of consequence, meanwhile Ul'Dah has easy access to just about any territory other then Coerthas, and there just isn't enough content yet in this area to make people care about having quick and painless access to it, which you don't get anyways as its not exactly a straight shot to it from Gridania anyways.

2) Content, Content, Content. There is nothing to do outside of company related stuff these days that requires you to be in the other cities, and that's only if you sign up for those companies. You used to have a reason with Guild Marks and leves, but now that they are gone, you don't need to stick around in a non-uldah city for basically any day to day activities.

3) You need a central hub when you don't have a global chat channel, this means when one is picked, all the rest become close to ghost towns unless you are there for a specific purpose.

4) This is probably the "Biggest" reason for the other cities being dead and that is economy. When the market wards are not connected, it forces the central hub to also be the economic center of the game which in turn keeps the other cities from flourishing. Once the wards are spliced together in 2.0, this should alleviate a good deal of inconvenience and make it possible for people to just craft away, or setup an adventure in a city other then Ul'Dah. In FFXI the hub changed all the time but the one thing the main hub always had in common was the Jueno Linked AH. Now that all the AH's are linked in FFXI, people did spread out a bit more, but then I return to point #2, the content (Abyssea) main hub was in port Jueno, and as such it became the hub for shouters and that is where everyone stayed at.

But if I had to break it down simply, its all about convenience, the place with the best travel options, the place that gives you the most or best tools will be the place sought after, and the more you spread the 'love' around and make each city just as convenient, the more spread out the population will get.

[Dragon]

Gridania is dead because of all the lalafells stinking it up.

[Quesse]

Even with the addition of Whitegate, I always found Windhurst to be full of plenty of people in FFXI. What were they doing?

-- Using local auction houses for silk and other windhurstian items.
-- Making use of guild support and turning in guild items
-- Fishing
-- Using the Mog House and convenient OP warp (WG Warp later on)
-- Quests, Specific Area Vendors, Conquest
-- Toraimarai Canal Access (great BST camps among other things)

Things may have changed with the last 8 months or so.... but there was always plenty of people running around. Its like with FFXIV they forgot to make the individual towns interesting enough. I guess this all just points back to complete lack of starting content. They were (and are) just shells. You can't go in 75% of the houses you see, there's no fun in-town dungeon/tunnel, no local auction house (no reason for them), guilds don't really give anything very useful. No local residence. No reason for you to really stay there.