About the World Merge and Character Transfers (02/09/2012)

[NoctisUmbra]

Sine it's first come first serve the servers have a decent probability of filling and those who are on break or don't have the current means to play are left to chance....

People not currently playing and paying subscription are clearly not a priority. I have friends in this category too. I will do my best to reach them and make sure they are aware.

[KumaAkuma]

only if you tell me what prevents everyone on the same server from just choosing the same server to go to so that they all end up together anyway

Communication. There is no way to pull this off. The differences in languages, the "sleepers" who are away or don't want to pay right now. Not to mention the size will probably not even be still available if by some miracle it does get set up eventually.

[NoctisUmbra]

The general opinion seems to disagree with your assessment that this will please more people. In fact, nothing about this system is likely to please the majority. It makes no sense to "help the community" by forcing it to splinter in this manner. Forcing Linkshells to break apart is not in the communities best interest, and it is completely unnecessary.

Sure, nothing will please everyone, but this method doesn't seem to please the majority, nor does it help them.

It's not about pleasing the majority. That can't even be determined so easily with something like this. It's about not forcing something on a subset of players while others remain unaffected. It's about a system that gives the community the most control over how they migrate.

[AlexNiculaie]

It is many things. Unfair isn't one of them. It effects every subscriber the same way. Many other suggested procedures however cannot make the same claim.

Just because everyone is subject to the same treatment does not make it fair. Many people seem to belong to multiple linkshells, it is not fair to force players to choice between them. And I am sorry, but thinking that somehow this is something which can just be "talked out" is ridiculous. The idea that every linkshell connected through degrees of separation are going to make unilateral choices is absurd.

I don't even have to make that kind of choice as I am in only one linkshell, but even I can tell this isn't fair to others. This is an overly complicated method to achieve something when there is a far easier, and less dramatic method available.

[Gramul]

It's not about pleasing the majority. That can't even be determined so easily with something like this. It's about not forcing something on a subset of players while others remain unaffected. It's about a system that gives the community the most control over how they migrate.

I'm okay with control, but could we at least have directed control?
Even a simple recommended server system would prevent a lot of in game drama.

And while we're on it, why are we given the choice between 10 random servers anyway?
It seems pointless.

[Biggs]

The general opinion seems to disagree with your assessment that this will please more people. In fact, nothing about this system is likely to please the majority. It makes no sense to "help the community" by forcing it to splinter in this manner. Forcing Linkshells to break apart is not in the communities best interest, and it is completely unnecessary.

Sure, nothing will please everyone, but this method doesn't seem to please the majority, nor does it help them.

They are giving everyone a choice where to go, so I fail to see how this system is forcing anyone? If anything, forcing the 12 french players on Kashuan to join the 10 French players on Mysidia by doing a server merge seems to be way more unfair than what is proposed here. If you really want to take as many people with you from your server as you can (friends list folks AND linkshell folks) you have amonth to start talking with one another and forming a game plan. Seems to me like thats way more fair than assuming everyone wants a server merge.

[neorei]

IMO they should let people choose their destination if they're active, the inactive people should choose once they activate their character again.

[Kyri]

I am going to look at my new strange ham sandwich with mustard and go hey, this looks neat and give it a try I think. On that note im picking server 7, its my lucky number^^ (however with my luck it will be named something absolutely horrid im sure ;P)

[Jinrya-Geki]

I would like to offer some insight into why we decided not to display the World names.

The operations and development teams held many internal discussions regarding how the Worlds were going to be merged. We discussed displaying the World names and allowing players to choose their destination and we also considered having some Worlds dissolved and merged into other existing worlds.

We did consider deciding on the World names beforehand, but the problem is that players often choose which World to go to based on its name (to be more specific, currently both Selbina and Gysahl are highly populated due to the popularity of the World names).

Therefore, when merging 18 servers into 10, you can imagine that there will be a rush to choose the Worlds that have popular names. These would fill up quickly and we would have to stop letting people in, and then it would end up being something of a lottery. Taking into consideration the time difference and what day etc, it was really hard to decide, but as we are making playing together as a community a priority, we have decided to hold back the World names and let people choose this way.

We are aware that some players may be frustrated at this, and we apologize for that but please try to understand our reasoning. We haven’t decided which World will get what name yet. For, things like drawing lots and other methods, we want to think about this separately.

Here is this from another thread.

Personally to me, doesn't this bring up the problem that Server 1 & 2, possibly3 will be filled almost instantly. Leaving the other servers have a medium to low population still?

[KumaAkuma]

I don't really understand the fairness arguement that it has to suck for everyone. I thought the reason for the server merger was that we needed servers with an increased population. By merging whole servers this is accompliced without touching the already exsisting communities. Why is this method unfair accoording to some people? Who is being treated unfair in this situation?