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

[LitoOrigo]

To the powers that be,

I must congratulate you all. With this decision, you've managed to disappoint me in a way that I didn't think was possible. I'm finding it difficult to express my disappointment in a civil manner.

The web of bonds that the community has built over a year (longer for those of us that came from Finial Fantasy XI or different games) is being threaten with destruction. Bayohne posted a translation of Yoshida's reply to the community.

With that said, first let me say that our underlying feelings are in the same place.
Especially with this merge, we felt very strongly to make it so everyone from the EU region can play together in the same time zone.

To this, I must ask, why not dedicate servers for other regions/languages as well? Other players have asked for something like this. I'm not trying to be rude in any way, but what makes that region worthy of your attention to the point where you would suggest that they gather at X-Server and leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves?

The 4 plans that stayed prominent throughout the discussions are the 4 listed below.
(A=World with high population of players, B=World with low population of players, C=New World, X=Different World)

①A + B⇒A World to merge with B World
②A + B - X ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose a different World
③A + B - C ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose to go to C World
④Prepare 10 Worlds, set a limit, and give everyone the power to move their characters to a World of their choice.

I'm honestly baffled that option ④ was chosen. If the community had the option to choose the method, I wonder what percentage would have chosen option ④.

I may not be reading between the lines well enough or I might be trying too hard. I personally just feel that Yoshida, and the development team feel that the reasons "Why We Didn't Go With Option ①～③" (possible stress on the servers) are far more important than "The Cons of Option ④"

To the development team and community representatives:
I don't know how the other communities feel about Option ④. So, I must ask, have you seen the player-base this upset/disappointed since the initial release of this game or is this just the North America and English speaking player reaction?

I consider “community” to be the highest priority.

"Really" - <me>

Thank you all for your time.

Grammatical errors? {I'm sorry}