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+--- Thread: Pros and Cons of Balmung (/showthread.php?tid=15178)
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Tiergan - 02-07-2016
(02-07-2016, 10:20 PM)Calliope Cloverbloom Wrote: It costs $18 to transfer onto the server, but this is somewhat mitigated by the fee being flat-rate for up to 8 characters, provided those characters came from the same origin server. If you think you might ever possibly want to play an alt, it therefore behooves you to pre-make 8 characters and transfer them as a batch. That way if you want to play a new alt, you have seven of them already waiting for you to come up with a personality and story to give to the name and appearance.
Whoa! I didn't know that! Even though I'm maxed out on alts, this is really good info to know.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Caspar - 02-07-2016
Pros: It's big and full of people. There are RPers of every kind. It is the most supported RP server, for better or for worse, and others will most likely never get the same degree of population and organization that Balmung does. In addition, if you are interested in PVE, there are enough RPers versed at playing the game that they can get you through the easy non-raid content for the most part if queues are unforgiving. (In general I feel the queues are slower for me on Bal than on Hyp, oddly enough.)
Cons: It's big and full of people. It's easy to get lost in the crowd. Although you have plenty of options to RP with, a sense of "water everywhere and not a drop to drink" can emerge where you hesitate to play with groups because they seem so firmly established. While there definitely are some vigorously insular players who only interact with small subsets of the community, they are the minority and in any case will still probably let you RP with them if you are earnest and apply yourself. Definitely some degree of learning to make yourself stand out or being insistent without being pushy will benefit you should you choose to transfer here.
(02-07-2016, 09:35 PM)Askier Wrote: Pro's: Pretty much rp everywhere you look. It's cool. And, overall, people are open to rp if you poke them OOC first.This hyperbole is pretty common on here. I mean both that in the sense of how you phrased the Cons and the idea of a secret RP Illuminati.
Cons: People assume there is a "cool kids" club or a secret rp Illuminati. Just clicks that, honestly, have zero power over all and wont keep you from finding rp.
On one hand there definitely does seem to be an inner group of veteran players who get more attention than others, even when inactive. On the other hand, the people who try to discourage certain kinds of RP or generate drama usually don't seem to me to be those people. On one hand they definitely are insular and make no active attempt to add people to their fold. On the other they're much smaller and less influential than they appear. It's a very complex matter, but it's clearly real enough that the idea emerges in many places outside of the RPC, and yet the RPC is always perceived to be at the center of the matter because of its visibility.
I find usually that, specifically in the context of that discussion topic, people invoking the idea of an "RP Illuminati" are generally veterans using it to deflect blame when they feel falsely accused of elitism. In this way the exaggeration is perpetuated, but is tagged on the accusers rather than the accused. It's not an organized group and it does exist. It's the natural result of people gatekeeping a community in tiers of involvement, which forms organically and without any conscious intention on the part of anyone involved.
Not to say that's what you're doing since you just posed an example. In most cases, when I see people talk about a secret RP mafia, they're doing it in a very "Woe is Me" context where they've been accused of discouraging certain types of RP and leveraging their visibility in the community to do so. Often times that's an unfair accusation, because if they're doing it, it's totally unconscious, and a natural result of them sharing how they perceive the canon and what good RP is in a social setting, combined with their naturally accrued reputation.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Valence - 02-08-2016
(02-07-2016, 10:20 PM)Calliope Cloverbloom Wrote: If you have a social anxiety disorder which makes it difficult for you to interact with new people and you have had difficulties breaking into RP groups in the past as a result of this, Balmung's high population and extensive community is not a magical cure for your disorder. Plenty of people who have such conditions have come to Balmung looking for RP and still have felt unable to become involved. That said, if that's a condition which is applicable to you, the higher population does at least increase the likelihood of encountering players with similar struggles or who will be willing to work with yours.
I'm not going to strike out the possibility of extended shyness and serious social issues (a lot have those on MMOs), but I also think it stems a bit from the game itself. It's really hard to build a network of contacts when you start. It's when it's the hardest. How to contact people when the ingame tools are absolute crap for that (adding offline people as friends, etc?).
Most contacts that you build, you have to keep contacting them to RP with them, and keep the synergy up and alive. Due to the lack of social tools and more importantly, windows on what happens around you besides in your own FC, you get the feeling to be half blind most of the time.
So, it makes reaching out to people twice as important, and it often starts to feel like insisting. Especially when people don't answer, or go into duty where... guess what. Can't /tell anymore.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Juromaro - 02-08-2016
(02-08-2016, 08:39 AM)Valence Wrote:(02-07-2016, 10:20 PM)Calliope Cloverbloom Wrote: If you have a social anxiety disorder which makes it difficult for you to interact with new people and you have had difficulties breaking into RP groups in the past as a result of this, Balmung's high population and extensive community is not a magical cure for your disorder. Plenty of people who have such conditions have come to Balmung looking for RP and still have felt unable to become involved. That said, if that's a condition which is applicable to you, the higher population does at least increase the likelihood of encountering players with similar struggles or who will be willing to work with yours.
I'm not going to strike out the possibility of extended shyness and serious social issues (a lot have those on MMOs), but I also think it stems a bit from the game itself. It's really hard to build a network of contacts when you start. It's when it's the hardest. How to contact people when the ingame tools are absolute crap for that (adding offline people as friends, etc?).
Most contacts that you build, you have to keep contacting them to RP with them, and keep the synergy up and alive. Due to the lack of social tools and more importantly, windows on what happens around you besides in your own FC, you get the feeling to be half blind most of the time.
So, it makes reaching out to people twice as important, and it often starts to feel like insisting. Especially when people don't answer, or go into duty where... guess what. Can't /tell anymore.
My wife suffers from extreme S.A.D, she can barely talk to her own mom over the phone without going into a panic attack. I tried to get her to RP with me on Gilgamesh, even tried to get her to join The Adventurer's Guild LS that Adolar Stone gave me, but she was unable to and ended up just focusing on crafting. She plays healer classes (WHM mainly) and we can barely do dungeons together as I'd have to tank otherwise she zones out and misses boss timers, big pulls. Which ends up getting her yelled at by impatient people, which in turn causes her to go into a panic attack.
So when I tried to get her to join me in an RP event at the Quicksand or one of the Taverns in the Goblet she'd panic because she gets it into her head that the other people involved thinks she is stupid or says something stupid. She has an easier time if the game just came out and the community isn't as established as a game that would be out for 4 years or more.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Burd - 02-08-2016
Pros: People. People everywhere. Lots of RP to be had. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the ONLY servers where you'll find guaranteed RP are Balmung and Gilgamesh. I have alts on other servers and I feel like I never see any RP. So if RP is a must-have, you want to be on these two servers. And yeah, high population means there are almost always people to play with.
Cons: So. Many. People. Housing's all gone (but that's a common game-wide problem). You've got to jump through a couple of hoops to roll a character on Balmung.
And I've come to accept that "RP illuminatti" is just a term used by certain people to describe cliques, and it is not at all limited to FFXIV. In every MMO with an RP community, you're bound to run into RP cliques - it's just a given. It might be a group of close friends who just happen to prefer RPing with each other over players they don't know, or maybe it is a group of people who enjoy the feeling of being exclusive, in which case, lawl. So don't let that deter you at all. In my experience, this is one of the more inclusive RP communities out there right now.
A lot of this has already been said much better by the folks preceding me, but I think it's important to note that all cons aside, if you want to RP with a big community, you need to be on either of these servers.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Juromaro - 02-08-2016
(02-08-2016, 05:46 PM)Burd Wrote: Pros: People. People everywhere. Lots of RP to be had. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the ONLY servers where you'll find guaranteed RP are Balmung and Gilgamesh. I have alts on other servers and I feel like I never see any RP. So if RP is a must-have, you want to be on these two servers. And yeah, high population means there are almost always people to play with.
Cons: So. Many. People. Housing's all gone (but that's a common game-wide problem). You've got to jump through a couple of hoops to roll a character on Balmung.
And I've come to accept that "RP illuminatti" is just a term used by certain people to describe cliques, and it is not at all limited to FFXIV. In every MMO with an RP community, you're bound to run into RP cliques - it's just a given. It might be a group of close friends who just happen to prefer RPing with each other over players they don't know, or maybe it is a group of people who enjoy the feeling of being exclusive, in which case, lawl. So don't let that deter you at all. In my experience, this is one of the more inclusive RP communities out there right now.
A lot of this has already been said much better by the folks preceding me, but I think it's important to note that all cons aside, if you want to RP with a big community, you need to be on either of these servers.
Well back when I came to ARR in '14 I created a character on Balmung first before going to Gilgamesh, I tried to RP and jump in to some open events, but I was told by someone that Balmung was mainly for Legacy roleplayers and I should go to Gilgamesh to find RP I kinda felt put off on the server and made the switch to Gilga(she said it in kind of a rude context), it wasn't until after I had already quit playing that I found out the majority of the community was welcoming to new roleplayers and my experience was just wrong place wrong crowd.
That's not to say I haven't experienced many groups like that in other games, but when it's a new roleplayer or inexperienced roleplayer who's first contact is with people like that it tends to push them away and into the arms of a less desired gaming role I.E: PvE/Solo/PvP focus. From my experience at least, I can no way claim that to be the reaction of all new roleplayers.
I mean you can even look at these forums in the same light, It's daunting for someone like me to get involved in threads that are already well underway, reading posts and seeing everyone know each other while you/I are standing on the outside looking in. My advice to the OP, jump right in to Balmung, you may not get in with the "cliches" but I can promise you'd find a group you mesh well with.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Burd - 02-08-2016
(02-08-2016, 11:38 PM)Juromaro Wrote:(02-08-2016, 05:46 PM)Burd Wrote: Pros: People. People everywhere. Lots of RP to be had. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the ONLY servers where you'll find guaranteed RP are Balmung and Gilgamesh. I have alts on other servers and I feel like I never see any RP. So if RP is a must-have, you want to be on these two servers. And yeah, high population means there are almost always people to play with.
Cons: So. Many. People. Housing's all gone (but that's a common game-wide problem). You've got to jump through a couple of hoops to roll a character on Balmung.
And I've come to accept that "RP illuminatti" is just a term used by certain people to describe cliques, and it is not at all limited to FFXIV. In every MMO with an RP community, you're bound to run into RP cliques - it's just a given. It might be a group of close friends who just happen to prefer RPing with each other over players they don't know, or maybe it is a group of people who enjoy the feeling of being exclusive, in which case, lawl. So don't let that deter you at all. In my experience, this is one of the more inclusive RP communities out there right now.
A lot of this has already been said much better by the folks preceding me, but I think it's important to note that all cons aside, if you want to RP with a big community, you need to be on either of these servers.
Well back when I came to ARR in '14 I created a character on Balmung first before going to Gilgamesh, I tried to RP and jump in to some open events, but I was told by someone that Balmung was mainly for Legacy roleplayers and I should go to Gilgamesh to find RP I kinda felt put off on the server and made the switch to Gilga(she said it in kind of a rude context), it wasn't until after I had already quit playing that I found out the majority of the community was welcoming to new roleplayers and my experience was just wrong place wrong crowd.
That's not to say I haven't experienced many groups like that in other games, but when it's a new roleplayer or inexperienced roleplayer who's first contact is with people like that it tends to push them away and into the arms of a less desired gaming role I.E: PvE/Solo/PvP focus. From my experience at least, I can no way claim that to be the reaction of all new roleplayers.
I mean you can even look at these forums in the same light, It's daunting for someone like me to get involved in threads that are already well underway, reading posts and seeing everyone know each other while you/I are standing on the outside looking in. My advice to the OP, jump right in to Balmung, you may not get in with the "cliches" but I can promise you'd find a group you mesh well with.
After getting a response like that, I don't blame you - I never heard anything like that about Balmung when I was first getting a sense for where to go as a new player looking for RP. Might have been some RP elitism in action, there.
But +1 to your advice!
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - LiadansWhisper - 02-09-2016
(02-08-2016, 11:38 PM)Juromaro Wrote:(02-08-2016, 05:46 PM)Burd Wrote: Pros: People. People everywhere. Lots of RP to be had. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the ONLY servers where you'll find guaranteed RP are Balmung and Gilgamesh. I have alts on other servers and I feel like I never see any RP. So if RP is a must-have, you want to be on these two servers. And yeah, high population means there are almost always people to play with.
Cons: So. Many. People. Housing's all gone (but that's a common game-wide problem). You've got to jump through a couple of hoops to roll a character on Balmung.
And I've come to accept that "RP illuminatti" is just a term used by certain people to describe cliques, and it is not at all limited to FFXIV. In every MMO with an RP community, you're bound to run into RP cliques - it's just a given. It might be a group of close friends who just happen to prefer RPing with each other over players they don't know, or maybe it is a group of people who enjoy the feeling of being exclusive, in which case, lawl. So don't let that deter you at all. In my experience, this is one of the more inclusive RP communities out there right now.
A lot of this has already been said much better by the folks preceding me, but I think it's important to note that all cons aside, if you want to RP with a big community, you need to be on either of these servers.
Well back when I came to ARR in '14 I created a character on Balmung first before going to Gilgamesh, I tried to RP and jump in to some open events, but I was told by someone that Balmung was mainly for Legacy roleplayers and I should go to Gilgamesh to find RP I kinda felt put off on the server and made the switch to Gilga(she said it in kind of a rude context), it wasn't until after I had already quit playing that I found out the majority of the community was welcoming to new roleplayers and my experience was just wrong place wrong crowd.
That's not to say I haven't experienced many groups like that in other games, but when it's a new roleplayer or inexperienced roleplayer who's first contact is with people like that it tends to push them away and into the arms of a less desired gaming role I.E: PvE/Solo/PvP focus. From my experience at least, I can no way claim that to be the reaction of all new roleplayers.
I mean you can even look at these forums in the same light, It's daunting for someone like me to get involved in threads that are already well underway, reading posts and seeing everyone know each other while you/I are standing on the outside looking in. My advice to the OP, jump right in to Balmung, you may not get in with the "cliches" but I can promise you'd find a group you mesh well with.
I have to say, this is completely nuts. I came to Balmung with 2.0, having never played the game beforehand except in the Beta for ARR. The overwhelming majority of my interactions have been positive.
There's always going to be assholes on any server, but I can attest that the vast, really overwhelming majority of players that I've encountered have not been raging douches.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - McBeefâ„¢ - 02-09-2016
I'd never RP'd ever until Balmung. I just started fucking with RPers and they were nice to me and eventually I was drawn in.
It's a pretty wonderful community, despite a few bad apples (like me).
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Juromaro - 02-09-2016
(02-08-2016, 11:48 PM)Burd Wrote: After getting a response like that, I don't blame you - I never heard anything like that about Balmung when I was first getting a sense for where to go as a new player looking for RP. Might have been some RP elitism in action, there.
But +1 to your advice!
I tend to be an Observer now, I'll sit back and watch people in open RP and gauge if they are approachable or not. I'm still a very shy roleplayer, I'm no good with lore(though I tend to remember everything from the story if I'm actively playing), I'm a terrible story writer, I also tend to project myself in my characters meaning when I roleplay I talk as a normally do. Thing is I first started playing RP servers cause I got tired of how the community was in PvE and PvP servers, My MMO career started back in 04 when I bought FFXI on the ps2 and at the time I had no idea what the difference between playstyles were. As a matter of fact I always thought of RP as a bunch of people taking each others wizard robes off and hiding in the basement afraid of daylight.
I didn't join an RP server until Rift came out when I decided to give it a try as I heard the community was more mature and patient(by this time WoW had poisoned my view of people in MMO's), got tired of hearing "L2P Noob" when someone was new and asked a question, or didn't know how to play. Got tired of having to rush through dungeons because people just wanted to get their daily done. Needless to say I started a guild on Faeblight that ended up becoming one of the top 5 guilds on the server at the time but we focused more on the PvE side(couldn't get alot of members that wanted to RP), and during a move I left my Co-leader in charge while I was away and when I got back she had taken my guild, forums and vent from me, kicked out all my officers that didn't agree with it and moved the guild to a PvE server. So I ended up going back to WoW jumping on the pve train again until I went to Tera and started Heavens Protectorate on Celestial Hills and tried to get into RP again, it failed half my members wanted RP the other have wanted PvE and I kinda grew bored of the game within a month and left it. Went back to WoW until ToR came out and I loved ToR, Star Wars nerd like no other, so I was in my element, comfortable with my character/lore but still afraid to RP cause I spent all that time on RP servers but never RP'd.
Long story short I'm hoping when I finally come back to FFXIV and I give RP another try I can actually do it this time, but the only way I can change is if I make the change myself.
(02-09-2016, 01:54 AM)LiadansWhisper Wrote: I have to say, this is completely nuts. Â I came to Balmung with 2.0, having never played the game beforehand except in the Beta for ARR. Â The overwhelming majority of my interactions have been positive.
There's always going to be assholes on any server, but I can attest that the vast, really overwhelming majority of players that I've encountered have not been raging douches.
Yeah when I went to Gilgamesh and mentioned the story to people(I think it was Adolar and the Adventures Guild) that told me I just had a freak experience, but by that time I had already established a group of friends, a FC house in the Goblet plot 10 Ward 3, and leveled all but 2 combat classes to 50 and all the crafting/gathering jobs to 40/50 so I stayed on Gilgamesh. Still never RP'd I tried once with Adolar and the Adventures guild but I was terrible, took me forever to think of something to say, became a nervous wreck and ended up sitting in a chair for an hour or so talking about how pretty the Miqote waitress was.
(02-09-2016, 03:19 AM)Edgar Wrote: <snip>
Exactly how RP feels to me when I join an already established server....high school
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Rowe - 02-09-2016
I've been on the server roughly four days now and I have not had a single bad interaction with any RP'ers yet. One person /told me my character's armor looked cool, another one /slapped me repeatedly and then we went off leveling together and one kind soul even helped me find the next NPC I needed to talk to in order to continue the main story line. Definitely one of the nicer communities I've been in! I haven't ran into any cons of Balmung yet but I am completely new so I probably just haven't been around long enough. The futas sound troubling.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Warren Castille - 02-09-2016
Pro: Balmung has been an established RP spot since the game launched.
Con: Balmung has been an established RP spot since the game launched.
To echo what a lot of people have said already, Balmung's got RP in spades. With a pretty diverse population of EU and NA, and spread across many timelines therein, you can probably find roleplay somewhere in the world nearly around the clock.
...it also means that there are more than a handful of characters who have been roleplaying here for years. Balmung is a Legacy server, so not only do you have some people who've been RPing here since the relaunch in 2013, but there are some still roleplaying the same characters from the 1.0 release. There's a lot of history here; Friendships and rivalries, events and happening. Lots of longstanding stuff.
The comparison to high school is somewhat accurate, if only because starting here fresh is the equivalent to transferring into new classes mid-semester. It's not necessarily going to be comfortable, smooth or pretty.
Consider that we're all here for the same reason, though. People roleplaying in public are more often than not open to people joining them. If you're not so bold as to waltz into a scene, try asking in tells first. The many events on the calendar aren't listed there to show anyone what they're missing: Event hosts want people to attend! That's why they get hosted.
Don't feel too uncomfortable. Everyone was new once.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - ɴᴘᴄ - 02-10-2016
(02-07-2016, 07:38 PM)Minevato Wrote: Hello everyone! I know that obviously this is a very Balmung and Gilgamesh-focused website since those are the main RP servers, however I was wondering what your Pros and Cons for Balmung would be? I am considering making an alt to transfer there but I just want to basically know a little of what to expect before I spend the money. Any input is appreciated! Thanks in advance!
I ended up moving and deleting my RP characters from Balmung, leaving just an old legacy character. The main reason was a lack of diversity. All FFXIV Worlds are skewed against certain races, but Balmung takes the NA average and completely inverts it. Based on December Lodestone data, 32% of all characters >Lv20 are either Miqo'te or Au Ra females. That's one in three... among almost 30000 characters.
While I grant it's a fantasy game not fully tailored to Western sensibilities, and it's a flawed game that is nonetheless fun to play in many respects, the demographics of Balmung made no sense in the context of Eorzea's lore and were so boring to me that I tired of seeking out the kind of content I wanted.
Judging by your avatar, this is not a problem for you, but it is a point some may want to consider.
In any case, best of luck to you.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - Unnamed Mercenary - 02-10-2016
(02-10-2016, 12:41 PM)Cosma Wrote:(02-07-2016, 07:38 PM)Minevato Wrote: Hello everyone! I know that obviously this is a very Balmung and Gilgamesh-focused website since those are the main RP servers, however I was wondering what your Pros and Cons for Balmung would be? I am considering making an alt to transfer there but I just want to basically know a little of what to expect before I spend the money. Any input is appreciated! Thanks in advance!
I ended up moving and deleting my RP characters from Balmung, leaving just an old legacy character. The main reason was a lack of diversity. All FFXIV Worlds are skewed against certain races, but Balmung takes the NA average and completely inverts it. Based on December Lodestone data, 32% of all characters >Lv20 are either Miqo'te or Au Ra females. That's one in three... among almost 30000 characters.
While I grant it's a fantasy game not fully tailored to Western sensibilities, and it's a flawed game that is nonetheless fun to play in many respects, the demographics of Balmung made no sense in the context of Eorzea's lore and were so boring to me that I tired of seeking out the kind of content I wanted.
Judging by your avatar, this is not a problem for you, but it is a point some may want to consider.
In any case, best of luck to you.
There's an issue with those statistics.
They report on characters created. Not characters logged in. Or characters most actively used.
When 2.0 came out, nearly everyone I knew had a male Miqo'te because that was the shiny new thing. (Female Roegadyn too, but people wanted cutesy races :< ). Just like now, we've got a mass surge of Au Ra from 3.0. If additional races are added, you can sure as bet good money there will be a huge influx of people who fantasia over to it.
At the same time, people should be able to play the race/gender they want. The game lore gives us what the world expects, but that can't adjust what the players want.
RE: Pros and Cons of Balmung - LiadansWhisper - 02-10-2016
(02-10-2016, 12:41 PM)Cosma Wrote: I ended up moving and deleting my RP characters from Balmung, leaving just an old legacy character. The main reason was a lack of diversity. All FFXIV Worlds are skewed against certain races, but Balmung takes the NA average and completely inverts it. Based on December Lodestone data, 32% of all characters >Lv20 are either Miqo'te or Au Ra females. That's one in three... among almost 30000 characters.
While I grant it's a fantasy game not fully tailored to Western sensibilities, and it's a flawed game that is nonetheless fun to play in many respects, the demographics of Balmung made no sense in the context of Eorzea's lore and were so boring to me that I tired of seeking out the kind of content I wanted.
Judging by your avatar, this is not a problem for you, but it is a point some may want to consider.
In any case, best of luck to you.
So...what you're saying is...Miqo'te and Auri girls ruin your immersion?
