Splitting up friends defeats the spirit of an MMO. Please reverse this server mess.

[Azurymber]

Part of the fun of an MMO is making friends. And sure, some people switch servers or quit the game. But most of us have numerous linkshells, and an FC, and many of us have cross-server friends or raid groups.

But this server shuffle is legitimately defeating the entire point of playing a social game. Having friends.

Almost anyone switching data centers is going to have to choose some friends over others. Or lose out on seeing familiar faces they have seen for years.

Additionally, many people have spent months getting a house. And getting your money back is not helpful, when you likely won't be able to land a house on another server, because of a poorly designed housing system.

No one wins with this server reshuffle.
And no one asked for this.

Many people will likely lose any motivation to play this game once their social circles get split up.

Please stop this server disaster from happening.

[Rangar]

One can only hope the community's response will not fall on deaf ears, but I'm afraid SE neither cares nor listens to the community. They're gonna do whatever is the cheapest solution to the ongoing problems with server stability; and this is it. But as I said in another thread, I also see this backfiring greatly, as many will flee the Crystal DC in order to keep with current raiding groups. Raid groups are already figuring the logistics on moving. The players will always outsmart any of SE's ideas to "balance" the servers; and SE will be forced to lock Aether, IMO.

[Wobi]

So let’s say they don’t shuffle servers around, how do you propose they fix the existing problem without adding any new servers? They are likely at or nearing capacity for the ones they already have. People were upset at server mergers in FFXI days but sometimes things have to be done for the game as a whole and unfortunately there will be players negatively affected. The alternative is to do nothing and let things break which makes everyone unhappy.

[Azurymber]

So let’s say they don’t shuffle servers around, how do you propose they fix the existing problem without adding any new servers? They are likely at or nearing capacity for the ones they already have. People were upset at server mergers in FFXI days but sometimes things have to be done for the game as a whole and unfortunately there will be players negatively affected. The alternative is to do nothing and let things break which makes everyone unhappy.

add new servers?
increase the capacity of servers?
make cross-world play manageable through the creation of an existing raid-only server?

why make excuses for bad server management?

we pay to play a social game.
the social aspect of that is being screwed up for countless people

even from a profit standpoint this move is bad. lots of people will pick up the game again for the expansion, realize all their friends and social circles are gone, and unsub.

[NanaWiloh]

One can only hope the community's response will not fall on deaf ears, but I'm afraid SE neither cares nor listens to the community. They're gonna do whatever is the cheapest solution to the ongoing problems with server stability; and this is it. But as I said in another thread, I also see this backfiring greatly, as many will flee the Crystal DC in order to keep with current raiding groups. Raid groups are already figuring the logistics on moving. The players will always outsmart any of SE's ideas to "balance" the servers; and SE will be forced to lock Aether, IMO.

You got two choices server split or them taking more drastic measures which would more then likely involve the servers coming down for several months. The infrastructure needs work they are taking this route so you can continue to play and they do care or you would not be getting free transfers. They have tried to get people to move, increasing server pop is not going to solve the problem either their hand has been forced. If this does not work they may very well take a route that people will hate even more..

[Wobi]

add new servers?
increase the capacity of servers?

They are adding new servers (for data) though, but of course they have to move worlds onto them or it’s not going to do any good; if you mean add more worlds that just contributes the the problem as you still end up with instance issues. They are likely close to capacity on the servers they have. It’s possible they could migrate all of the existing ones to some beefier hardware, but it can be costly. While several people will be negatively impacted this is also an improvement for many others. But everyone seems to care only about how they are being personally affected and not whether this is better for the game overall. Yes it sucks, but it’s better than ignoring the current server issues until things hit the breaking point.

[NanaWiloh]

add new servers?
increase the capacity of servers?
make cross-world play manageable through the creation of an existing raid-only server?

why make excuses for bad server management?

we pay to play a social game.
the social aspect of that is being screwed up for countless people

even from a profit standpoint this move is bad. lots of people will pick up the game again for the expansion, realize all their friends and social circles are gone, and unsub.

Add new servers wont work as people are stubborn and dont move. Your on Balmung look how stubborn your own world community is about moving. Also they have add new servers or have we forgotten about that!! As for the upcoming transfers expect worlds like Balmung to be blocked against incoming transfers..

[WellFooled]

So let’s say they don’t shuffle servers around, how do you propose they fix the existing problem without adding any new servers? They are likely at or nearing capacity for the ones they already have. People were upset at server mergers in FFXI days but sometimes things have to be done for the game as a whole and unfortunately there will be players negatively affected. The alternative is to do nothing and let things break which makes everyone unhappy.

I assume the problems they're having stem from the fact that Aether is getting too populated for the servers to handle, as this infographic posted on reddit shows.

I think one way to ease that is to actually make official Role Playing servers and spread them out among the data centers. Right now both of the major role playing hotspots are on Aether: Balmung and Maetus. Both have the highest active player population in Aether in the information I could find, with 19k and 13k. I would suggest that this isn't likely a coincidence. Every new player in North America who is interested in RP is getting channeled to Aether because the players choose those servers as their RP hub. Square could instead start channeling those RPers to other data centers with the creation of officially backed RP servers.

Beyond that, incentivize moving or creating characters on a low population server in more meaningful ways than they have now. A friend of mine recently started playing with me and was actually annoyed by the Road to 60 buff he got as it sped up the leveling process, which he enjoys, to an unnatural pace--like being level 35 but only at the level 25 main story. To me, that isn't as widely desired as a unique piece of glamour gear or a unique mount would be as an incentive, but I'm sure there are lots of ways to do it.

[Wobi]

(Stuff about official RP servers)

Beyond that, incentivize moving or creating characters on a low population server in more meaningful ways than they have now. A friend of mine recently started playing with me and was actually annoyed by the Road to 60 buff he got as it sped up the leveling process, which he enjoys, to an unnatural pace--like being level 35 but only at the level 25 main story. To me, that isn't as widely desired as a unique piece of glamour gear or a unique mount would be as an incentive, but I'm sure there are lots of ways to do it.

They are never going to designate official RP servers and over if the did if they picked any other servers than the ones the player base already created it would be a complete dumpster fire as the community would be outraged. As for your idea on low-pop server incentives most people are big fans of the Road to 60 buff, but I’d support a toggle to remove it if the player does not want it. Adding exclusive mounts/glamours would not work as the older players would have no way of obtaining it, and would of course be very upset with SE. The buff hurts no one, so it’s not a bad move on their part. No matter what they decide to do someone will be upset at them, I cannot say I blame them for playing it safe and doing what will benefit the majority of the players.

[Vaer]

I feel like increased capacity would just be a band aid since our region likes to pile on high population servers and leave all the other ones dead. They tried a timeframe to see how many would voluntarily move with preferred server benefits and I guess they are now forcing the issue by splitting the servers up themselves.

On the bright side, it adds another set of instances to mitigate the Raubaun EX issue and more recently the Omega solo instance overcrowding they had in SB.

They should probably fix the housing issue though, it just repeatedly comes back to bite them.

Cross datacenter would have solved a lot of the issues here. Just NA>NA, EU>EU, JP>JP, nothing crazy like NA>JP.