Server merge: Hidden server names.

[Velhart]

I would prefer it if we could see the world names before the merge, if for example I end up on one with a name based on FFXIII I will be really unhappy because that was by far the FF I least enjoyed, as people have said I see the server name as an extension of my character name. From what has been said by Rainhart (sp?) I believe the Japanese side also agree.

There will be the possibility of numbered servers filling up when we choose for people that are too lazy to go down the list, and if I cant play with my ls because of it I will be very annoyed.

At the very least take this feedback into consideration. Asking alot of people to choose thier server based on a number is like asking them to choose thier character name based on a random number.

I think this is the exact reason they decided not to show the world names. It is just as "name".

[Elune]

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

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).
[...]
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.

Pardon if I sound agitaded, but when I go to a restaurant, I don't expect to be told what to eat because it's for my own good, because the dish I order may be a problem. While I understand the intentions, I fail to understand how SE do not understand this is a definite move to displace a community already established and scatter it over a larger area.
Am I going to have to coordinate with the 200 on my friendslist (technically speaking ofc, I'm not that popular... yet...) to go to the same server as my LS is? No. most of their LS' will want to go to another server. And that's that for playing with those people on my friendslist ever again. The logical decision, in this case, would have been to keep the names of the servers that will be staying, allowing those already playing on it to chose to Stay, or leave for another. And what if the damn server "number" we chose gets flooded so fast our members/friends got locked out by the cap? Then the keeping of playing as a community argument died right there.

The issue would still linger on with those losing their server will, eventually, lose all this regardless. I guess the concept is to not make this unfair to them, and heaving it upon the Whole playerbase in order to minimise... Idk... Envy?

We are aware that some players may be frustrated at this...

Understatement of the year. This will probably blow over, and I'll keep playing the game, but at least I got to voice my opinion. But if it's going to be a norm, that opinions of this insane magnitude are not heeded, I fear I will lose alot of people in my immediate virtual surroundings pretty darn quick.

[Narfalicious]

And what if the damn server "number" we chose gets flooded so fast our members/friends got locked out by the cap? Then the keeping of playing as a community argument died right there.

When I read it, I thought it said you can freely shift your choice between the 1st and 12th, so if it turns out you can't all fit, you can decide on another.

[Keith_Dragoon]

I sorta see the reasoning behind that; if they keep the current names, people will simply flock to their servers again and lock it, completely ruining the whole point behind the transfer. I know, the idea to going to a town like lol Bodhum does suck, but this is needed.

Or else everyone in besaid will move to besaid, lindblum to lindblum, and those from Karnak or Istory will get screwed over once again.

That would make sense if it was just a simple transfer but its not there will be 8 servers worth of people without a home meaning that the 10 remaining servers will have to accomodate for 1 server plus a bunch(if not all) from another. Not just enough so that if everyone on Besaid flocked to server 1 its now locked. THAT would defeat the whole purpose of merging the servers.

[MeowyWowie]

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.

I understand why this decision was made, but I still feel that this won't solve the problem you're trying to prevent. Why give us the option to choose our own servers if we can't even tell which servers we're moving to? Since when is choosing our server by name a bad thing?

And for those of you who are saying names don't matter, why are you even opposing visible names then? If names didn't matter, then they wouldn't affect your decision anyways. So what's the difference if they show them or not? For those that do care, it does matter. If you can't understand that, fine. But don't act like showing the names will cause people to pick favorites then contradict yourselves by saying server names make no difference.

[Kyri]

I think numbers can pick favorites just as well as names. you have the ones going: i wanna be in server one cause its #1 and others like me going ooo 7 is my lucky number! maybe ill get lucky<3 Id like names, my day won't be ruined however if it doesn't become a option. it would be nice though ^^

[Niqote]

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.

Thank you for an official response. However the problem remains where people are going to flood the servers based on numbers.
1, 2 and 3 will obviously fill up fast and first. 7 will as well. Officially 10 is recommended for certain language groups... what difference does it make to give us our names except to give us back a pleasure we are crying out for?
In the end it's the same result but with happier people...

[Davorok]

Next time, try an example that is at least similar in situation.

Ok...here's another story...a long time ago there were 3 Elementary Schools in my town. The oldest and least populated school was closed. Most of the kids went to 1 of the remaining 2 schools but some went to the other school.

There were the usual problems. Some kids hated the new school. Some kids wished they went to the other new school with their old friends. Some of the kids made fun of the "transfers" (they came from Alvin Dunn aka Alvin Dump), etc.

After not too long things settled down though and new friendships were formed. Kids played together at recess and hung out after school. One of my best friends through High School was one of those transfers.

And then a mere 1 year later none of it mattered because we all moved on to Junior High and were all mixed together anyway. Old friends were reunited and many new friends were made.

Is that analogy any better? ;>)

[Kyri]

Ok...here's another story...a long time ago there were 3 Elementary Schools in my town. The oldest and least populated school was closed. Most of the kids went to 1 of the remaining 2 schools but some went to the other school.

There were the usual problems. Some kids hated the new school. Some kids wished they went to the other new school with their old friends. Some of the kids made fun of the "transfers" (they came from Alvin Dunn aka Alvin Dump), etc.

After not too long things settled down though and new friendships were formed. Kids played together at recess and hung out after school. One of my best friends through High School was one of those transfers.

And then a mere 1 year later none of it mattered because we all moved on to Junior High and were all mixed together anyway. Old friends were reunited and many new friends were made.

Is that analogy any better? ;>)

This is a good point. Our whole lives are filled with change, so are our game time/concepts and game choices. We may not always agree or feel we could have done things better but in the end its just how things roll<3

[Aion]

Hey dude, I'm not sure when you started playing yourself, but me and many others have been building a community since September 2010, and seeing all of that disintegrate and break up because SE is to lazy (or just down right idiotic, pardon the language but this is seriously inalterating) to set up a standardized merge which has been done hundreds of times in other games including their very own FINAL FANTASY XI is just beyond ridicolous.

It's NOT THAT HARD SE, you don't need to do it differently for the sake of being different, cool and edgey. Sometimes different isn't cool, sometimes it's just fucking stupid.

I am curious, what thing that holding your community to move up into same world?