I already posted my feelings on this in the last thread, but I had several friends who were scattered across other servers until I said I was playing on Balmung. All of them had chosen servers based purely on their names, like Cactuar and Ultros. They were very recognizable things from FF, so it was a snap decision.
And all of my friends from those servers, to a man, remarked on how Balmung had significantly fewer people with names like "Kitty Mewmewmew" or "Siton Miface". Yeah, it has its share of those names, plus Strifes and Leonhearts, but apparently there was enough of a difference that they were shocked by all the "real names" on Balmung.
My fear is that any server named after a recognizable villain, monster, or whatever, is going to draw a lot more people who go for "lulzy" names and griefing RPers. Gilgamesh has appeared in several Final Fantasy games, and may even appear in XIV given all his dimension hopping, so its a pretty recognizable name. Balmung, being a weapon that's not named Excalibur or Masamune, isn't.
Yeah, I know you're gonna have people stripping naked and dancing in front of you no matter which server you're on, but my friends hadn't even looked at Balmung until I told them I was playing there. You might think this will negatively impact the server's population, but the 1.0 players who are gonna transfer have transferred, and all that remains are new players.
When you google "FFXIV roleplay", this is the first site that pops up, and then you see Balmung is the primary RP server. So really that's more wheat for the server as a whole, so to speak, and less chaff with Lalafell named "Pedo Bait."
I'm also really glad character gen randomizes the list of servers it suggests, as that also rules out people just picking the server at the top of the list. That was a problem when Secret World's first RP server was renamed from Faerie (after many complaints about the implications) to Arcadia, as the server quickly filled up thanks to people just picking the top choice.
And all of my friends from those servers, to a man, remarked on how Balmung had significantly fewer people with names like "Kitty Mewmewmew" or "Siton Miface". Yeah, it has its share of those names, plus Strifes and Leonhearts, but apparently there was enough of a difference that they were shocked by all the "real names" on Balmung.
My fear is that any server named after a recognizable villain, monster, or whatever, is going to draw a lot more people who go for "lulzy" names and griefing RPers. Gilgamesh has appeared in several Final Fantasy games, and may even appear in XIV given all his dimension hopping, so its a pretty recognizable name. Balmung, being a weapon that's not named Excalibur or Masamune, isn't.
Yeah, I know you're gonna have people stripping naked and dancing in front of you no matter which server you're on, but my friends hadn't even looked at Balmung until I told them I was playing there. You might think this will negatively impact the server's population, but the 1.0 players who are gonna transfer have transferred, and all that remains are new players.
When you google "FFXIV roleplay", this is the first site that pops up, and then you see Balmung is the primary RP server. So really that's more wheat for the server as a whole, so to speak, and less chaff with Lalafell named "Pedo Bait."
I'm also really glad character gen randomizes the list of servers it suggests, as that also rules out people just picking the server at the top of the list. That was a problem when Secret World's first RP server was renamed from Faerie (after many complaints about the implications) to Arcadia, as the server quickly filled up thanks to people just picking the top choice.
