Data Centers? (Yes or No Poll)

[Exn]

I want your magical conneciton of lag-free-ness.

Latency is hardly the only benefit of regional servers.

-most everybody speaks your language
-for the most part, everyone's online when you are
-Easier to find groups, especially if you're not an elitist.

Lag-free would be nice.. yet hardly what I claimed. The minimal lag I've experienced has hardly prevented me from completing any content I've attempted.. which is why I'm using the term minimal. It also hasn't been a bother for ME in cities.. I may wait 2/3 seconds or so for people to load in packed areas but never really considered that annoying or anything. It USED to be horrible about a year or so ago.. but has definitely improved alot for me since launch.

The three points you made. Well the first one is a personal preference of yours. I've already said I personally prefer to see and talk with people from different cultures in different languages.. The second one doesn't even really makes sense when your talking about comparing to GLOBAL servers. By definition there is greater population density across all timezones represented and therefore more opportunity for a higher average population at any given time of the day. While regional servers foster "primetimes" where the population will swell and die at particular times of the day. Ideally, as long as your life schedule falls somewhat akin to the typical NA timezones represented, you should generally find a high healthy pop, however for those people with 'wierd' schedules.. you'll have to choose between playing on what feels like a dead server, or choosing another region that fits your schedule but may provide a language barrier due to the fact that 90%+ of the people don't speak your language (as opposed to global servers which would ideally have a more equal ratio of popular languages represented). And the third, easier to find groups yeah, most likely. If you play during primetime. Global servers do at times create more reasons to exclude others from grouping, simply because it's a more diverse server, but that shouldn't be used as the excuse... for I'd hope obvious reasons..

[Alhanelem]

The minimal lag I've experienced has hardly prevented me

The current lag in the game isnt caused by latency and effects everyone. If you don't have it, you have some kind of magical power.

The three points you made. Well the first one is a personal preference of yours.

It's not a personal preference. It's a benefit. I don't know anyone that would consider ease of communication, by itself, a detriment.

I've already said I personally prefer to see and talk with people from different cultures in different languages.

You are not prevented from doing this. You can:

-stay on your current server, which will largely contain the same mix people as it did when the 1.0 servers shut down
-Move to a server that's not in your region and be immersed in other cultures (though in my not-so-humble opinion, there are lots of better ways of doing this, like visiting that country or using any means other than a video game where you don't ever see the people's faces, the arts/sights/sounds of the country, or most other parts of what I would call culture)
-create characters on the other servers.

All three of these things will result in you having all kinds of people not of your own culture to interact with.

you'll have to choose between playing on what feels like a dead server,

Unless this re-launch fails miserably, the server you play on isn't going to be "dead" on off peak hours. There's a difference between "less busy" and "dead."

And the third, easier to find groups yeah, most likely. If you play during primetime.

Even if you don't play during primetime. Currently, I can't find groups outside of my primetime anyway, unless I happen upon a lucky english shout or am really lucky and find a JP that uses the auto translate and allows NA to play with them. When all of the players are from the same region, your odds are still better of finding a group than they are now on the current servers. I won't say all the time, because sometimes it does work, but all too often I want to join the JP/german/french party but they won't take me. It's actually not as bad as it was in FFXI, but it's still a problem.

[Exn]

The current lag in the game isnt caused by latency and effects everyone. If you don't have it, you have some kind of magical power.

It's not a personal preference. It's a benefit. I don't know anyone that would consider ease of communication, by itself, a detriment.

It is a personal preference.. I don't (and YOU don't believe it or not) need the entire population to speak the same language to progress effectively and enjoyably.. (see XI.. hell see RL..see obvious fact?)

Again, I never said I didn't have lag.. But I appreciate you demonstrating that you clearly aren't reading.. so whatever..

[Alhanelem]

It is a personal preference.. I don't (and YOU don't believe it or not) need the entire population to speak the same language to progress effectively and enjoyably..

It is NOT a personal preference. Ease of communication is always a benefit. it's not an absolute necessity, no. But it is unequivocally a pro and not a con. Nobody does not benefit from being able to communicate effectively with their parties. Unless you can explain to me the benefit of a language barrier on your gameplay.

It's kind of like voice chat. It's always beneficial to have, but some people say "I don't need that." That doesn't mean it's not a benefit to have, they simply choose not to utilize that benefit.

Again, I never said I didn't have lag.. But I appreciate you demonstrating that you clearly aren't reading.. so whatever..

I read the whole thing. But I appreciate you insulting me nonetheless. I didn't say you didn't have lag. But you're claiming it doesn't affect you, when it does affect everyone. the principal reason for the lag is not specifically tied to regional servers, but that doesn't mean you should be making dubious claims. have you ever done ifrit? You can be off of a crack for like a whole second or more and still get hit by it. If that's never happened to you, then the only explanation is you've never done content where it is a serious issue.

[Exn]

It is NOT a personal preference. Ease of communication is always a benefit. it's not an absolute necessity, no. But it is unequivocally a pro and not a con. Nobody does not benefit from being able to communicate effectively with their parties.

Who said it was a con?

In response to your edit:
I agree with the problem you listed about regional servers and in fact already said the same thing in my previous post. As I said, a NA server is the obvious only viable option for me unless I want to be drastically outnumbered or immersed (I used 90%+ as the general figure) by the predominant culture's language/timezone.

There is a definite difference between "less busy" and "dead", but that is all relative to whatever that gamer is looking for. The point was that there will be a much more distinct peak and valley of the population on a regional vs. global server. If playing during high pop times is a preference of yours, hopefully your schedule will allow you to avoid the much larger valley created on a regional server. However, you could argue the same for a global server if you choose to exclude those outside your region (or are being excluded by them).

I do not have the same issues you experience with global players. I've pug'd alot with JP/EU, possibly just because I had a crazy schedule and had the opportunity to. There's obviously a language issue sometimes but you've already weeded out the players who don't want to be bothered with it by joining a multi-lingual pt in the first place. I've got alot of stuff done.. moreso in XI actually. I may be a little more proactive than you and actually request an invite to a pt shout in JP, but it doesn't bother me if they aint interested. I get it, to each his own. I'd get it done w/ the next group, as we always do..

I prefer global servers, but I get that they going to change that. Both work, I just had my preference and made my vote... I'll play on the NA regional data center with ARR because I want to play during a high pop time, and the only time I can play is when I'm off work and not sleeping.. I work typical govt hours and therefore sleep typical hours for NA EST.. my best shot at even being able to hit primetime is obviously the NA regional data center.

[Shougun]

I want data centers, but if feasible leaving a line up and a server designated global could alleviate some peoples issues.

[Exn]

But I appreciate you insulting me nonetheless. I didn't say you didn't have lag.

I want your magical conneciton of lag-free-ness.

The current lag in the game isnt caused by latency and effects everyone. If you don't have it, you have some kind of magical power.

I didn't insult you.. I'm just not sure how else to possibly interpret that..

And now your claiming I must not have even done Ifrit...? K. I'm done.
(For the record that was 'NO' again to the vote.)

[Alhanelem]

You did insult me- you said "obviously you didn't read" when I did in fact read it, or I wouldn't have posted a response.

(For the record that was 'NO' again to the vote.)

Is this supposed to be some kind of punishment or something? lol... It's not like this is a binding poll, its just a fellow forumer looking for opinions.

And now your claiming I must not have even done Ifrit...? K. I'm done.

Quite simply- I don't see how anyone can have done fights like this and not notice the server response issues (this is about the server, not your ping) the game has right now. you have to understand how this just doesn't add up from the perspective of someone who's seen the issue affect many people. If there's one thing everyone can generally agree on, is that the 1.0 server system is horrible and slows response times down a lot more than it should.

[Huginn]

I just hope everyone enjoys their whopping 70-150ms speedup in communication latency. what will they complain about when they get hit by cracks at ifrit when they are on a regional server?

[Alhanelem]

I just hope everyone enjoys their whopping 70-150ms speedup in communication latency. what will they complain about when they get hit by cracks at ifrit when they are on a regional server?

At that point, it means they're bad by any definition.