Thread Closed
Firstly, thank all of you who take the time to read this. I know it's coming from a new user here, and among lots of debate and discussion on the matter. I just felt like I wanted to put my thoughts out there, in a clear and concise manner, and somewhere that isn't buried in twenty-some pages of back and forth.
When I refer to the Balmung Problem, I don't mean necessarily that the server or it's community is a problem. Certainly the server is crowded, full beyond any hope of making a character, and has been since launch. For me that has been the biggest discouragement to get into this game since I initially purchased A Realm Reborn all those years ago. The community had found it's default roleplaying home before the game was even out, and from day one I couldn't get a character on the server. So I went back to Warcraft, where I didn't have that problem.
Two years later, I tried again, running into the same wall. Still I couldn't get a character on the home of the bulk of roleplayers. Being someone who has roleplayed for years at this point, and someone who had attempted to help start a server back up from the ground in Warcraft, I was again discouraged. Having a thriving, large community had always been so important. From Shadow Council, to Steamwheedle Cartel, Sisters of Elune, Moon Guard, and Wyrmrest Accord. all of the roleplaying servers Warcraft offered had one thing in common. Their community was large. Stable. They'd dug their heels in and built something. Even as some of these servers died the groups moved to new servers, usually with free transfers offered, in bulk.
Granted, Warcraft doesn't have housing. There's nothing so invested in a server, if a community is given the opportunity to move as a whole. Even in other games moving a character across servers is far less dangerous, despite housing, as that housing is typically a player instance that can move with you. FFXIV poses a bit of an obstacle this way.
It also poses an obstacle to new roleplayers, old roleplayers who are just new here, or wanted to be new here at some point and gave up. Even in the discussions about moving there are large amounts of established people on Balmung who have been very forthcoming in stating "We aren't going anywhere.", leaving this other section of the community, small as they are, to squabble about where to go. Scattered and cut off, with no large group to provide gravity, there is no real consensus about what the next step is in attempting a new server.
Warcraft at least, despite all the dead servers, has two things going for it. Moon Guard, the old standard, having stood the test of time even despite it's poor reputation, labelled only for a single inn. On the other end, Wyrmrest Accord, home to the masses of other servers that fell apart, communities that crumbled over time, and now standing as the other pillar of the RP community among a large number of servers that are RP in name only.
Balmung is the Moon Guard of this game. I mean that as a compliment, naturally. You are the old guard. You have stood the test of time. You are so full it's ridiculous. The community you provide, then, is incredibly attractive and simultaneously entirely inaccessible. From the polls I've seen elsewhere debating what server might be able to stand as the Wyrmrest of this game, there's no one server with more than just over a hundred votes. The rest pale in comparison. Compared to thousands upon thousands of you, heels dug in, standing firm that this is where your friends and relationships are. This is where you've invested your time. That's great, it really is. It just sucks for those on the fringes, looking in, unable to build something new for one very simple reason.
They don't have you to support them.
The problem with Balmung is how successful you've been, despite the unending barrier to entry. Even when transfers open they are discouraged, because it just locks the realm down again. Making a character there is impossible. Now the burden of building a second community is left on the few, trying to have any hope of achieving a sliver of what you already have, and had before the realm was reborn in the first place thanks to this very site. This is not an easy thing. It will not be an easy thing. People don't want to spend money to move, for one. And those on the smaller servers, and in the smaller communities, risk wasting that money by making the jump only to watch a small community flounder and fail, rather than joining (or dreaming of joining) a community that is already strong.
Yes, clearly, there needs to be incentive to leave Balmung for one thing. Incentive that is hard to provide, even with free transfers. Those who have houses won't accept reimbursement as an aid, thanks to the questionable house flipping that occurs for outrageous amounts of money, a problem that has no easy solution. Still, if no one makes that sacrifice, if no free companies or other groups take that plunge, this will not get better. It will not improve. No second community will spring up.
Because Balmung already has everything we want, and the people there know it.
/endrant
When I refer to the Balmung Problem, I don't mean necessarily that the server or it's community is a problem. Certainly the server is crowded, full beyond any hope of making a character, and has been since launch. For me that has been the biggest discouragement to get into this game since I initially purchased A Realm Reborn all those years ago. The community had found it's default roleplaying home before the game was even out, and from day one I couldn't get a character on the server. So I went back to Warcraft, where I didn't have that problem.
Two years later, I tried again, running into the same wall. Still I couldn't get a character on the home of the bulk of roleplayers. Being someone who has roleplayed for years at this point, and someone who had attempted to help start a server back up from the ground in Warcraft, I was again discouraged. Having a thriving, large community had always been so important. From Shadow Council, to Steamwheedle Cartel, Sisters of Elune, Moon Guard, and Wyrmrest Accord. all of the roleplaying servers Warcraft offered had one thing in common. Their community was large. Stable. They'd dug their heels in and built something. Even as some of these servers died the groups moved to new servers, usually with free transfers offered, in bulk.
Granted, Warcraft doesn't have housing. There's nothing so invested in a server, if a community is given the opportunity to move as a whole. Even in other games moving a character across servers is far less dangerous, despite housing, as that housing is typically a player instance that can move with you. FFXIV poses a bit of an obstacle this way.
It also poses an obstacle to new roleplayers, old roleplayers who are just new here, or wanted to be new here at some point and gave up. Even in the discussions about moving there are large amounts of established people on Balmung who have been very forthcoming in stating "We aren't going anywhere.", leaving this other section of the community, small as they are, to squabble about where to go. Scattered and cut off, with no large group to provide gravity, there is no real consensus about what the next step is in attempting a new server.
Warcraft at least, despite all the dead servers, has two things going for it. Moon Guard, the old standard, having stood the test of time even despite it's poor reputation, labelled only for a single inn. On the other end, Wyrmrest Accord, home to the masses of other servers that fell apart, communities that crumbled over time, and now standing as the other pillar of the RP community among a large number of servers that are RP in name only.
Balmung is the Moon Guard of this game. I mean that as a compliment, naturally. You are the old guard. You have stood the test of time. You are so full it's ridiculous. The community you provide, then, is incredibly attractive and simultaneously entirely inaccessible. From the polls I've seen elsewhere debating what server might be able to stand as the Wyrmrest of this game, there's no one server with more than just over a hundred votes. The rest pale in comparison. Compared to thousands upon thousands of you, heels dug in, standing firm that this is where your friends and relationships are. This is where you've invested your time. That's great, it really is. It just sucks for those on the fringes, looking in, unable to build something new for one very simple reason.
They don't have you to support them.
The problem with Balmung is how successful you've been, despite the unending barrier to entry. Even when transfers open they are discouraged, because it just locks the realm down again. Making a character there is impossible. Now the burden of building a second community is left on the few, trying to have any hope of achieving a sliver of what you already have, and had before the realm was reborn in the first place thanks to this very site. This is not an easy thing. It will not be an easy thing. People don't want to spend money to move, for one. And those on the smaller servers, and in the smaller communities, risk wasting that money by making the jump only to watch a small community flounder and fail, rather than joining (or dreaming of joining) a community that is already strong.
Yes, clearly, there needs to be incentive to leave Balmung for one thing. Incentive that is hard to provide, even with free transfers. Those who have houses won't accept reimbursement as an aid, thanks to the questionable house flipping that occurs for outrageous amounts of money, a problem that has no easy solution. Still, if no one makes that sacrifice, if no free companies or other groups take that plunge, this will not get better. It will not improve. No second community will spring up.
Because Balmung already has everything we want, and the people there know it.
/endrant