SE, please designate a Role Play friendly server!

[Jinko]

I'm not a roleplayer but agree with this thread, a RP server would definately benefit those who swing that way..

[DeirdreTaea]

I defiantly think there are enough roleplayers to fill a server, or to at least take up a decent chunk. Of course we are outnumbered by those who do not RP, but even so we are not a small base.
In Besaid alone we attempted to make a pearl for all RPers to use. This pearl filled up much too quickly and cannot hold the new players who have joined us, plus many existing RPers. (Not to mention those who decided not to take up the pearl). And this is of course just one server. I know there's also a population on Lindblum, and a few other severs to boot.

Give us a server, let us mesh now. It will not go to waste when 2.0 comes around, and more come out of the woodwork.

[Rhomagus]

There doesn't have to be enough RPers to create a suggested RP server.

One would literally only have to edit in some html in the four languages to suggest an RP friendly server.

I don't think the population is large enough to create an "in character" ruleset for the server that includes naming mechanics and the like, but that doesn't bar the simple action of creating a suggested server.

[Majidah]

I kind of wish SE would acknowledge besaid as the role playing server somewhere. To inform people when joining.

[Fensfield]

I kind of wish SE would acknowledge besaid as the role playing server somewhere. To inform people when joining.

In many ways, that kind of would be the best case scenario - not least because it would completely neutralise the risk of future roleplayers being mislead by past news pieces about Besaid and the roleplayers being there.

[Mychael]

In many ways, that kind of would be the best case scenario - not least because it would completely neutralise the risk of future roleplayers being mislead by past news pieces about Besaid and the roleplayers being there.

If SE chooses Option 2, which I hope they do, there will be no need to change anything, one would hope. I seriously doubt Besaid will be merging into a smaller server, and if they take the idea of creating new server names, there will be no Besaid to accidentally choose; it might confuse a new player until they do another Google search, but it won't be the end of the world.

In any case, I'm going to stick with (and reiterate) what I said before, that there are not yet enough RPers to make a server. While I understand you are not asking for a dedicated server, I still believe that the general population would choose to avoid a server that SE even joked about as the RP server. Not because they're afraid of you or angered by you (though some are), but simply because they're afraid they'll feel out of place.

It could be said that you feel out of place right now, and I'm sure at least some of you do. However, I think several of you have vastly overestimated the number of people who actually oppose you, which I can understand. People who are indifferent won't make a point to tell you their indifference; however, those with problems are more than happy to bring them up. And something that is good about this 4-2 hybrid plan that we've heard of is that these players who absolute cannot bear another day with you are able to move away. No one is going in blind; they'll know where to avoid as soon as SE announces the new Merge outline, and the RP community decides their home. Believe me, those that actually dislike you enough to dampen your experience will be looking out for the server to avoid. Just look at the "tell me where not to go" posts--this applies to your decision regardless of whether you make it or SE makes it for you. And then, someone has already made the point that the only changes to the rules would/could be naming policies; harassment is already an offense in XIV, and if someone is bothering you about your playstyle, I'm sure a GM would be happy to assist you whether it was an official RP server or not.

Though it's of course based solely off my opinions and predictions, I think the ideal world for you would be a world split between RP-friendly casual players and RPers. If SE announces an RP-friendly server, however, the casual playerbase will fear that there will be such a minority of people for them to play with, they'll never try it out long enough to feel otherwise.

As to the assertion that people would be more likely to see the "simple edit to HTML," if someone is not going to notice the decision posted to the RPC and these forums, or hear from a fellow RPer, there's a very good chance they wouldn't know about the official announcement, either. The risk of isolating the RPers to their own server is greater than the risk of losing one or two people who do not have the drive to locate the new RP server.

[TheVedis]

I kind of wish SE would acknowledge besaid as the role playing server somewhere. To inform people when joining.

They cant unless the server becomes a role play server in itself

there is more to it then just saying its a role play server, by designating it one, it creates a new set of rules for a server which people have to follow

a server in which butt hurt RPists can report you for being out of character and ruining their immersion and actualy being able to have something done about it

no thanks, dont want that, they can go the unofficial route just fine

[Fensfield]

there is more to it then just saying its a role play server, by designating it one, it creates a new set of rules for a server which people have to follow

a server in which butt hurt RPists can report you for being out of character and ruining their immersion and actualy being able to have something done about it

Since when would simply, officially suggesting a server for roleplayers (present and future) to congregate on have any effect on the current rules? And since when were we asking for that?

Did the developers suggesting a server for European players generate spontaneous change to the rules of which I've somehow remained ignorant? Will I be able to go there and demand the GMs kick people for using American spelling? Because 'defense' totally ruins my immersion; I've dreamed of the day I can get back at all those uncouth yanks 'keep defiling the Queen's English.

Unless the developers specifically state 'The suggested roleplay server is for roleplay and roleplay only, excessive Out of Character is forbidden' or something to a similar effect, then the EULA and ToS remain unchanged with regard to that server. As far as I can tell, nobody in the roleplay community asking for an officially-suggested RP server wants such a rule, either; it'd be stupid and counter-productive and far, far too open to interpretation, difficult to enforce, and abusable.

As such, 'butt hurt' roleplayers can report you however much they want, it won't achieve anything. Saying otherwise in the face of anything but an openly suggested modification to the game rules is nothing but baseless scaremongering.

I'll point once again to successful mainstream MMORPG's which already have roleplay servers: I know damn well World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 don't have such a rule on their RP servers nor any parts of their End User License Agreement or Terms of Service specific to those servers. Largely because they realise it'd be a stupid idea and put off the vast majority of people would even be interested in playing on a roleplay server.


EDIT:
Curiously, and some research later, it seems WoW does in fact have rules specifically for it's RP servers. However, the point above stands - the rules merely allow GM's to replace improbable character names and penalise players who harass roleplayers for their chosen way of playing. FF XIV's rules actually contain similar, if somewhat more general clauses already, although targetted character names are either copyrighted or rude. They do not let 'butt hurt' roleplayers demand GM action for any perceived lack of in-character behaviour. I'll have to double-check if the same is true of EQ2 after all.

And again, I would reinforce: we are not asking for any server-specific rules.

[Kyri]

I know my dream of a actual RP server where even the gms would ask you to "be in character" isn't going to happen (/sadface) and no other MMO seems to wanna run like RP MuD's, but just as people would choose not to go somewhere due to RP there are many people who hear of it and decide to give it a try. People who have never really roleplayed before will indeed join to try and learn as they have in other games. I know I did. Before comming to XIV the most RP I had done was dabbling on MuD's and D&D. I originally started off in Saronia but left a week later after learning of this mysterious "Unofficial Roleplay server" and have been here since (minus a bit of dabbling in some higher populated areas to see what they were like).

So yes, some people might avoid such a thing as a unofficial RP server, but some will flock to it as well.

[Rowyne]

I'll point once again to successful mainstream MMORPG's which already have roleplay servers: I know damn well World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 don't have such a rule on their RP servers nor any parts of their End User License Agreement or Terms of Service specific to those servers. Largely because they realise it'd be a stupid idea and put off the vast majority of people would even be interested in playing on a roleplay server.

EDIT:
Curiously, and some research later, it seems WoW does in fact have rules specifically for it's RP servers. However, the point above stands - the rules merely allow GM's to replace improbable character names and penalise players who harass roleplayers for their chosen way of playing. FF XIV's rules actually contain similar, if somewhat more general clauses already, although targetted character names are either copyrighted or rude. They do not let 'butt hurt' roleplayers demand GM action for any perceived lack of in-character behaviour. I'll have to double-check if the same is true of EQ2 after all.

And again, I would reinforce: we are not asking for any server-specific rules.

As an avid roleplayer in World of Warcraft for four years, perhaps I can soothe some concerns here.

I played on Scarlet Crusade, one of WoW's 17 officially designated RP servers.

There are a couple guidelines for RP servers in WoW, but they honestly aren't really much different than regular servers (in fact, as you stated, they're not all that different from some of FFXIV's rules). Naming conventions is one. One misconception about RP servers is that people are expected to name their characters something super serious. Not at all. I see all kinds of silly names on RP servers nowadays, so I'd say you can probably name your character pretty much whatever you want anymore within reason (heck, my husband had a gnome named Phabulass for years and was never asked to change it). You will only run into problems if you choose a name that is vulgar, offensive, celebrity-owned or copyrighted (a guildie of mine named his char Lukeskywalker and was forced into a name change). Another is not harassing those who roleplay. Well, I don't want to see harassment on any server for any reason, so I don't see the problem there, either. Regular chat is the norm. I've never seen anyone get bent out of shape for people talking OOC (out of character). Again, not everyone who plays on a RP server is a RPer nor are they required to be, so you are not expected to walk around IC (in character), you are just merely expected to respect those who do.

In short, those rules are really just common courtesy guidelines and something you don't even notice. And I don't think anyone here is asking for a specific RP server ruleset in FFXIV so our non-roleplay friends will feel just as welcome as they ever did.

In EQ2, Antonia Bayle is the designated RP server. It has and always is the most popular server, and at one time was always the leader for Server-wide Firsts for raid content...which, by the way, among those guilds that was doing it was a huge RP guild. Currently, most requests for transfers go to AB. Unfortunately, most of the raid guilds have toppled in the server, so there's only a handful of guilds, and while they're close to beating everything, the smaller servers with the hard core raid guilds are in the lead.

I don't know how anyone got the idea a RP server is exclusively RP-Only and the like, considering that there is no other game out there where people think this. RPers are harmless, anyways, as long as they don't RP in public chats. We have our own channels and guilds, so the only time you'd see us would be in the game's natural social scenes.

That sounds similar to my experience in WoW (at least on Scarlet Crusade). There were many things that were no different than playing on a regular server. People busily ran around town, getting ready for PvE raids and PvP battlegrounds. They talked normally (out of character). People made Chuck Norris jokes in general chat. But what you found to be different was the lack of trolling. If people roleplayed in a public place they weren't ostracized for it (usually they would take it to a more out of the way place so as not to disturb others, anyway). No one ever expected you to roleplay (in fact, some people weren't RPers, they just liked the atmosphere), but if you did, it was welcome. The community was generally more mature and helpful.

We like to raid, we like gear and shineys and to progress through epic story just as much as any other hardcore raider. Back in the day, everyone who was anyone was in a raiding guild, and they stood around in Ironforge showing off their raiding gear. But we also occasionally like to sit around, drink some ale, and tell the tales of how we got it.