Datacenters: A Plea For Community Building, Not Fracturing

[SomeRandomHuman]

As I have said in another thread regarding the third NA DC:

This wouldn't have happened if the balmung population wasn't so stubborn about staying on their server despite all of SE's attempts to balance out the population.

Also the fact that players on balmung of all places are the ones complaining is hilarious. It and Mateus will be in Crystal together anyway.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

As I have said in another thread regarding the third NA DC:

This wouldn't have happened if the balmung population wasn't so stubborn about staying on their server despite all of SE's attempts to balance out the population.

Also the fact that players on balmung of all places are the ones complaining is hilarious. It and Mateus will be in Crystal together anyway.

And Balmung wouldn't have become so congested if Square Enix didn't happily pocket $18 per transfer for the better part of four years. It also wouldn't have happened if they designated official Roleplayer servers (not the plural) like WoW did. When SE finally did wise up and realize their mistake, people had long formed connections that weren't willing to lose, especially when it meant giving up a house they likely wouldn't get again or losing their FC. Putting fault on Balmung conveniently ignores SE did literally nothing to prevent it until the situation reached critical mass.

[xbahax92]

And Balmung wouldn't have become so congested if Square Enix didn't happily pocket $18 per transfer for the better part of four years.

No offense but, didnt they close transfers and the creation of new characters on Balmung for a good amount of time during the release of Stormblood?
And was it not like that playeres here started qq'ing, whining, offending, flaming, stopping their subs (showing it off here), and even started a petition to reopen the "gates"? Or was that all just a illusion?
I mean, ok they might be open right now, but that is cause the population dropped during the last patches. But what to do after people see the next news about upcoming expac and rejoin the game again?

[Sheriyana]

No offense but, didnt they close transfers and the creation of new characters on Balmung for a good amount of time during the release of Stormblood?
And was it not like that playeres here started qq'ing, whining, offending, flaming, stopping their subs (showing it off here), and even started a petition to reopen the "gates"? Or was that all just a illusion?
I mean, ok they might be open right now, but that is cause the population dropped during the last patches. But what to do after people see the next news about upcoming expac and rejoin the game again?

Balmung was open for transfers until that point, letting the server get as bloated as it got was absolutely SE's fault. And of course players complained about closing it, Balmung was established as the RP server at that point with no alternatives, until the community turned Mateus into one. Balmung has been closed for a little while again too.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

No offense but, didnt they close transfers and the creation of new characters on Balmung for a good amount of time during the release of Stormblood?
And was it not like that playeres here started qq'ing, whining, offending, flaming, stopping their subs (showing it off here), and even started a petition to reopen the "gates"? Or was that all just a illusion?
I mean, ok they might be open right now, but that is cause the population dropped during the last patches. But what to do after people see the next news about upcoming expac and rejoin the game again?

Why would I take offense?

Regardless, yes, they closed Balmung prior to Stormblood's launch. That occurred precisely because they allowed Balmung to balloon in the first place. In essence, SE proved reactionary once again—waiting until the problem slapped them in the face before actually doing anything to prevent it. Did people complain? Some did, but nowhere near as much as people are complaining now.

As for what they'll do when people return? Unlike other servers, Balmung doesn't see nearly the same drop off during droughts. Therefore, little will change from now and June 2019. In fact, it will likely be smaller than Stormblood's launch because there's a second RP server, thus splitting up Balmung's population. For reference sake, Mateus—at the time of Stormblood's launch—had a paltry 5,300 active characters according to Lucky Bancho. It currently boasts roughly three times that number. Funny how when they finally locked Balmung, the problem stopped. Whether you agree with their decision regarding Crystal is another matter entirely. Blaming the playerbase for congestion issues that could have been mitigated ages ago simply comes across disingenuous. This was a SE created problem, not a Balmung one.

[SomeRandomHuman]

And Balmung wouldn't have become so congested if Square Enix didn't happily pocket $18 per transfer for the better part of four years. It also wouldn't have happened if they designated official Roleplayer servers (not the plural) like WoW did. When SE finally did wise up and realize their mistake, people had long formed connections that weren't willing to lose, especially when it meant giving up a house they likely wouldn't get again or losing their FC. Putting fault on Balmung conveniently ignores SE did literally nothing to prevent it until the situation reached critical mass.

Again, there's fault on both sides. SE waited so long partly due to the sense of community. And then when they finally did, it took mere seconds for people to start having a fit. SE gave them what they wanted, and the whole DC suffers from it. So yes, please excuse the hate from the rest of the DC when Balmung costs up Sub time because of their congestion.

As for housing yes its a total mess and SE doesn't seem to want to fix it. I'm lucky to have both mine and my FC's house. If I lose them I can just find another place that's quiet and easy to access to afk and enjoy some quiet ambiance.

People are quick to blame the product, but the people are equally guilty here sadly. Just because you can go to the server doesn't mean you should. SE enabled yes, but ultimately the people that went for it are what are causing the problem.

The reason for the overpopulation isn't the issue, the server crashing an entire DC and taking all the other servers with it is the issue.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Again, there's fault on both sides. SE waited so long partly due to the sense of community. And then when they finally did, it took mere seconds for people to start having a fit. SE gave them what they wanted, and the whole DC suffers from it. So yes, please excuse the hate from the rest of the DC when Balmung costs up Sub time because of their congestion.

As for housing yes its a total mess and SE doesn't seem to want to fix it. I'm lucky to have both mine and my FC's house. If I lose them I can just find another place that's quiet and easy to access to afk and enjoy some quiet ambiance.

People are quick to blame the product, but the people are equally guilty here sadly. Just because you can go to the server doesn't mean you should. SE enabled yes, but ultimately the people that went for it are what are causing the problem.

The reason for the overpopulation isn't the issue, the server crashing an entire DC and taking all the other servers with it is the issue.

No they didn't. They waited because it was profitable. Balmung's uneven population totals were evident before Heavensward even launched. They had years to address it and did absolutely nothing. SE didn't give them anything as the server stayed locked despite what amounted to only a handful of complaints. And we're once again back to this congestion nonsense. You know what caused the DC to implode? The devs put an instance roughly ten quests into the MSQ, thereby making it inevitable virtually every single player would all attempt to queue at nearly the same time. If it were merely a Balmung issue, why did Primal and Chaos also explode? NEST even posted a mock video where Drak waited two days to access Duty Finder. Going a step further, this exact issue occurred again during Deltascape. Why? They put another instance almost immediately into the quest chain. Yoshida even admitted outright that caused the servers to crash.

The other issue is their auto log-off system is laughably easy to exploit. Target a market board, craft, summon your retainer; the list goes on. This rendered it useless since people were sharing how to get around being logged out even in-game. Now yes, Balmung obviously had a larger volume but every server had people doing this. The queue times subsided when they implemented a forced log out. Even Balmung had queues less than ten minutes afterwards.

Good for you? While you may not harbor attachments, others do. And once settled into their communities, they had little incentive to leave. A free transfer to only preferred worlds certainly wasn't going to motivate them.

As for going to the server. Many people were entirely unaware. I used to be on Balmung myself; transferring three days after my free trial ran out because I had friends on the server who sold me on the game and roleplaying. They, themselves, were also relatively new and simply went to Balmung because it had been deemed the unofficial RP server. I wager most players had similar experiences to me. Meanwhile, FFXIV's closest competitor avoided this problem by actually locking overcrowded servers and not taking extra money to get around it.

People blame the product because the product is at fault. You can't ignore a problem for almost four years than point the finger at the playerbase for not fixing the very problem you created.

[Cleanse]

Just because you can go to the server doesn't mean you should. SE enabled yes, but ultimately the people that went for it are what are causing the problem.

The reason for the overpopulation isn't the issue, the server crashing an entire DC and taking all the other servers with it is the issue.

If the server is unlocked and/or accepting paid transfers, how is it the player's fault?

In a pay to play game (with a cash shop on top), SE should feel that investing in modern server technology is well worth the expenditure. They have had a few years to plan for an overhaul. Tacking another datacenter on and calling it a day is a bit silly. There is a reason people congregate to a bigger server, people to play with. MMOs are more fun on populated servers.