I'll explain a few of the reasons I chose Balmung. While I respect the optimism and ambition a lot of the Gilgamesh players are showing, I don't share it. I do, however, wish them the best of luck, as I consider it a tragedy when any RP community suffers hardship. We're all part of the same greater roleplaying community.
I'm a returning player from 1.0, but I only played it for about two months. In two weekends on the beta, I managed to surpass my original character in every class that was available, and that's before I learned about the NPCs who would auto-level you to 15. Leveling in this game will be substantially easier than it was in the original, assuming the curve wasn't accelerated in the beta. Within a month, you're going to see plenty of level 50s on Gilgamesh. If what you're really looking for is the best possible roleplaying opportunities, level should be inconsequential. In my mind, it's all about the community, and different players will have different needs or desires in that regard.
Personally, I'm resurrecting my character on Balmung, and that's always been my plan. I don't know or remember anyone from three years ago, but I've had ample opportunities to meet people. I have yet to find anyone from the Balmung community that fits this fearful notion of the spiteful Legacy player lording themselves over new-comers. Based on the behavior I've seen from the Legacy players I've met, if such a person did appear, they'd be fervently and immediately rebuffed by most of the other Legacy players. Even when there was a call from some of the non-Legacy players for a split, they accommodated it in an effort to foster a greater roleplaying community for all players. They truly wish to be inclusive for all roleplayers, even those they won't be playing with on other servers (all servers, including Gilgamesh, Behemoth, Leviathon, etc.).
As for the trolling and the griefers, I'll relate my experience of it on the beta on Gilgamesh. I found a couple people I had roleplayed an event with the previous night being griefed by a couple of guys from one of the "official" Reddit groups <No Touching>. I decided to join the RP and see what happened. Over the course of the next hour, six to eight members of <NoT> appeared to join in the griefing. They did emote spam, AoE spell spam, danced on the table where we were sitting, sat or positioned on top of our characters so we couldn't easily target one another, and mocked everything we said. Different <NoT> members rotated in and out, but by the time I left over an hour later, they were still griefing. As far as I can tell, not a single one of the roleplayers did anything to even acknowledge they existed.
I can't say how this will play out when the game goes live. Maybe the trolls will get tired, but only if absolutely no one feeds them, which is unlikely once Gilgamesh becomes an open community rather than a beta. Some people just can't resist the bait. There's lots of optimism floating around that it won't be an issue or that they'll even be able to reform the griefers and bring them into the fold. I even saw someone say they'll produce a hybrid RP, calling it "RP for bros." Personally, I think that sounds terrible, as I'm not going to compromise my RP to accommodate someone who actively despises my hobby.
Whichever server you choose, I wish you the best of luck. I fully expect that after the hurdles of the first 2-3 months, the difference between the two servers in terms of RP will be barely noticeable.
I'm a returning player from 1.0, but I only played it for about two months. In two weekends on the beta, I managed to surpass my original character in every class that was available, and that's before I learned about the NPCs who would auto-level you to 15. Leveling in this game will be substantially easier than it was in the original, assuming the curve wasn't accelerated in the beta. Within a month, you're going to see plenty of level 50s on Gilgamesh. If what you're really looking for is the best possible roleplaying opportunities, level should be inconsequential. In my mind, it's all about the community, and different players will have different needs or desires in that regard.
Personally, I'm resurrecting my character on Balmung, and that's always been my plan. I don't know or remember anyone from three years ago, but I've had ample opportunities to meet people. I have yet to find anyone from the Balmung community that fits this fearful notion of the spiteful Legacy player lording themselves over new-comers. Based on the behavior I've seen from the Legacy players I've met, if such a person did appear, they'd be fervently and immediately rebuffed by most of the other Legacy players. Even when there was a call from some of the non-Legacy players for a split, they accommodated it in an effort to foster a greater roleplaying community for all players. They truly wish to be inclusive for all roleplayers, even those they won't be playing with on other servers (all servers, including Gilgamesh, Behemoth, Leviathon, etc.).
As for the trolling and the griefers, I'll relate my experience of it on the beta on Gilgamesh. I found a couple people I had roleplayed an event with the previous night being griefed by a couple of guys from one of the "official" Reddit groups <No Touching>. I decided to join the RP and see what happened. Over the course of the next hour, six to eight members of <NoT> appeared to join in the griefing. They did emote spam, AoE spell spam, danced on the table where we were sitting, sat or positioned on top of our characters so we couldn't easily target one another, and mocked everything we said. Different <NoT> members rotated in and out, but by the time I left over an hour later, they were still griefing. As far as I can tell, not a single one of the roleplayers did anything to even acknowledge they existed.
I can't say how this will play out when the game goes live. Maybe the trolls will get tired, but only if absolutely no one feeds them, which is unlikely once Gilgamesh becomes an open community rather than a beta. Some people just can't resist the bait. There's lots of optimism floating around that it won't be an issue or that they'll even be able to reform the griefers and bring them into the fold. I even saw someone say they'll produce a hybrid RP, calling it "RP for bros." Personally, I think that sounds terrible, as I'm not going to compromise my RP to accommodate someone who actively despises my hobby.
Whichever server you choose, I wish you the best of luck. I fully expect that after the hurdles of the first 2-3 months, the difference between the two servers in terms of RP will be barely noticeable.
I'm a tinker! Tinkerer? Hrm.... I'm an artificer! - Myxie Tryxle | Impressions and Memories
