This is a pretty pointless discussion, for a couple of reasons.
People who want to roleplay in the most active community will find a way to roleplay in the most active community. Trying to guide people "away" from Balmung and Gilgamesh is like planting a series of neon arrows pointing away from a casino that says "GAMBLING IN THIS DIRECTION", or putting down signs on Interstate 78 that says "OTHER MANHATTAN BEHIND YOU". These are central hubs, and nothing short of the game shutting down or Yoshida spilling his morning coffee in the server room is going to change that.
While it makes sense on paper to sympathize with the new people who'll have to pay for transfers, Square Enix's server capacity issues aren't up to roleplayers to solve. I don't speak for anyone, but I, at least, am not here to save other people money to get them something that they're not going to get anyway. If they want an active roleplaying community in FFXIV, they'll go to Balmung first. Period. Nobody who's new to the scene really wants to be lumped onto a "tertiary" server. Nobody who's new to the scene wants to be on Gilgamesh, either, not unless they've got friends there. They want to be on Balmung. It's the most active. It's the largest. It has the biggest community of like-minded people. And if they're okay with settling for less than Balmung? Then it doesn't matter. They'll go to Gilgamesh. Or they'll look on Jenova. If all they want is to RP, and not RP on the server with the most RPers, they'll find a way. It's not up to us to cater to them. And hey, that's a good thing. If enough roleplayers don't care about being on the largest server, then they'll propagate their own presence over time to turn into other "unofficial" RP servers.
Putting a sign and some cheap slot machines inside a Qwik Stop doesn't turn it into a desireable casino. Painting the buildings to look like Wall Street isn't going to turn Staten Island into Manhattan.
Does it suck to have to write off new RPers if they want to play in-game but can't get the character creation window, or don't want to pay the $18 transfer for whatever reason? Yeah, it sucks. New people are, typically, always welcome. I'm not about to cater to them with a subpar experience though. I'm not about to shuffle them off to Brynhildr and say "There's no space, but here's your RP playpen!" And I'm not about to try to convince other people to shuffle off to Brynhildr to try to convince that new person into staying.
And yeah, it sucks that people have to pay money to get onto Balmung to do the hobby they want: RPing in FFXIV.
That's Square Enix's issue with server capacities, though. And character restrictions. Ideally one would be allowed to "queue" a character creation, limit one per account per world. Ideally.
I don't think roleplayers should be in the business of trying to save other people money. If they want in, they'll transfer. Does it suck? Yeah. Is it at all the RP community's problem? I don't think so. We're just here to roleplay.
People who want to roleplay in the most active community will find a way to roleplay in the most active community. Trying to guide people "away" from Balmung and Gilgamesh is like planting a series of neon arrows pointing away from a casino that says "GAMBLING IN THIS DIRECTION", or putting down signs on Interstate 78 that says "OTHER MANHATTAN BEHIND YOU". These are central hubs, and nothing short of the game shutting down or Yoshida spilling his morning coffee in the server room is going to change that.
While it makes sense on paper to sympathize with the new people who'll have to pay for transfers, Square Enix's server capacity issues aren't up to roleplayers to solve. I don't speak for anyone, but I, at least, am not here to save other people money to get them something that they're not going to get anyway. If they want an active roleplaying community in FFXIV, they'll go to Balmung first. Period. Nobody who's new to the scene really wants to be lumped onto a "tertiary" server. Nobody who's new to the scene wants to be on Gilgamesh, either, not unless they've got friends there. They want to be on Balmung. It's the most active. It's the largest. It has the biggest community of like-minded people. And if they're okay with settling for less than Balmung? Then it doesn't matter. They'll go to Gilgamesh. Or they'll look on Jenova. If all they want is to RP, and not RP on the server with the most RPers, they'll find a way. It's not up to us to cater to them. And hey, that's a good thing. If enough roleplayers don't care about being on the largest server, then they'll propagate their own presence over time to turn into other "unofficial" RP servers.
Putting a sign and some cheap slot machines inside a Qwik Stop doesn't turn it into a desireable casino. Painting the buildings to look like Wall Street isn't going to turn Staten Island into Manhattan.
Does it suck to have to write off new RPers if they want to play in-game but can't get the character creation window, or don't want to pay the $18 transfer for whatever reason? Yeah, it sucks. New people are, typically, always welcome. I'm not about to cater to them with a subpar experience though. I'm not about to shuffle them off to Brynhildr and say "There's no space, but here's your RP playpen!" And I'm not about to try to convince other people to shuffle off to Brynhildr to try to convince that new person into staying.
And yeah, it sucks that people have to pay money to get onto Balmung to do the hobby they want: RPing in FFXIV.
That's Square Enix's issue with server capacities, though. And character restrictions. Ideally one would be allowed to "queue" a character creation, limit one per account per world. Ideally.
I don't think roleplayers should be in the business of trying to save other people money. If they want in, they'll transfer. Does it suck? Yeah. Is it at all the RP community's problem? I don't think so. We're just here to roleplay.
