I usually try to avoid getting involved in these threads... not because I don't have an opinion, or out of contempt, but most of the time (MOST... sometime my Trolly urges overwhelm... aheheh lockedthread) I just don't want to inflame a situation, or drag on an argument or whatever. But, I feel like I wanna comment here.
I'm not gonna bother covering economy or endgame or whatever. People have hashed that out pretty well. No, I'm gonna go the old curmudgeon roleplayer route, and tell a story, and talk about how I feel about all this.
To start with... I regret the Gilgamesh/Balmung split. I don't hold a grudge against Gilgamesh players, or refute any of their reasons, because they're wholly valid. But I regret it. I'm sad that so many of you I will never get to meet in character. I'm sad that your ideas and adventures will be happening off over there, in some parallel world, separate from ours. Sure I could make an alt, but that would just cut me off from my friends here, and the story I already have here. So, Gilgamesh players, I selfishly regret the loss of your stories and your selves, and what you could have added to what is already here. I am sad to see you go.
My first experience with this sort of thing was back in FFXI. There was no RP server back then, official or unofficial, and rp was basically little pockets across various servers. We were on Sylph, which had a decent rp community, but it had declined in recent years.
Well, at one point, some of my friends in the RP community decided to leave for Asura. They all had various reasons, but they were galvanized together by one person, who would become the RPLS leader on Asura when they moved. A significant chunk of the rp community on Sylph up and left, all at once.
Sylph rp continued, but many plotlines ground to a halt. We had come up with an rp explanation of them leaving, but there was still a huge hole. RP declined, and due to my own stupidity I got sucked into a pile of ugly drama. So I decided to leave as well, to join my friends on Asura. I left behind a number of friends too, and... it hurt. Because there was really no way to be with them both like I once was. But the embarrassment of the drama, and the encouragement of those on Asura had me make the jump.
It was good for a while, until our LS leader on Asura suffered a huge real life issue, and essentially stopped playing. RP simply STOPPED at that point. Asura had great endgame, but... I was suddenly an RPer without a community. I eventually packed up, and went back to Sylph.
Sylph was not much better. So many rpers leaving for Asura had really ripped the guts out of the community, and while I was away, it had slowly bled to death, people leaving and no new blood returning. We didn't have an RPC back then, and the forums we used to use to recruit and guide new rpers to us had turned nasty and trollish.
So, I stumped along for a while. Most rpers gave up, went on to focus on endgame, or move to a new game. I followed as best I could, but... in a lot of cases I simply couldn't follow them where they went. I would log into the game, and spend hours on meaningless tasks... grinding jobs or crafts in some sort of vain hope that people would start to return, that there would be a shout for a new rpls in Jeuno, or that a friend would drag me aside to tell me about a new rp community. I checked forums and looked around, but... there didn't seem to be much, and I have trouble making new connections, and certainly it's difficult to remake ones that deep and profound. Eventually, regretfully, I left FFXI. The magic it once had was dead, and while it was still a huge, beautiful world full of memories for me... I knew I was never going to make memories like that there again.
FFXIV was what reunited so many of us, and thanks to Kylin and his RPC, we started off on a good footing. We picked a server, and by and large rpers went there.
The effect was so different from Sylph! There were so many rpers, they would just rp out in the open, in /say... random people would join in. The game had precious little context in those days, so we gave it our own, and as broken as the game was, that experience was incredible. The occasional troll would show up... and be laughed off the server, because we knew, for once, we were not a mocked and marginalized minority.
It didn't stay that way forever, of course. People left the game because they had better things to do that fight with an unfinished product, other players came in, and we ended up the minority again... but we were always accepted. There was a kind of peace between rpers and non-rpers. There was still rp in the open, and though our numbers fell, it never felt like it was dying like it did on Sylph.
I left my first RPLS... I floated, I had trouble fitting in as I do... but it didn't feel as lonely as it did in FFXI. There were always rpers around the corner, always a friend logging in to talk to. There was a larger community surrounding the linkshells, and even as individual linkshells failed, the community remained.
I don't think this would have happened if the community wasn't so large and concentrated. If we had been spread out like in FFXI, I'm sure the initial population die-off would have killed us. But the community in FFXIV felt strong. It felt like... it would outlast me in the game. And indeed it outlasted the game. Seeing something wither and die is never a good experience. I watched an endgame LS I helped build, a couple of roleplay linkshells, and roleplay itself on my server in FFXI, and in the end, I was still left there with nothing but emptiness. And there are only so many times you can rebuild it from the dirt.
This is why... I wish there wasn't this need to split. Servers are big places, and you don't have to roleplay with someone you don't want to. Yes, we will always be a contentious lot, and conflict with each other, but in the end, we have more in common with each other than we ever will with the 4channers or Endgamers. I wish we could just pick an end of the server, but stay together, so that in three months, or two years, or however long it takes for all this Legacy nonsense to become meaningless, we'll still have each other.
But the reality is, it's there. We're split, and we're weakened, so I WILL say this: Balmung or Gilgamesh, stay together. Even if you don't like an RPer, add them to your friends list. You don't have to talk to them, but if times get dark, you will need each other. Don't abandon the RPC. Gilgamesh is going to be a smaller community, and it will be under siege, and if you let what split us apart split it further, rp on that server will not survive. I don't want anyone else going through what I felt, so if you all must leave for Gilgamesh, the last thing I want for you is to fail.
And... don't forget this place. Share your stories now and then. And maybe, someday, we can figure out a way to put all this back together.
Sorry for rambling.
TL;DR Izzy is being sappy and pointless.
I'm not gonna bother covering economy or endgame or whatever. People have hashed that out pretty well. No, I'm gonna go the old curmudgeon roleplayer route, and tell a story, and talk about how I feel about all this.
To start with... I regret the Gilgamesh/Balmung split. I don't hold a grudge against Gilgamesh players, or refute any of their reasons, because they're wholly valid. But I regret it. I'm sad that so many of you I will never get to meet in character. I'm sad that your ideas and adventures will be happening off over there, in some parallel world, separate from ours. Sure I could make an alt, but that would just cut me off from my friends here, and the story I already have here. So, Gilgamesh players, I selfishly regret the loss of your stories and your selves, and what you could have added to what is already here. I am sad to see you go.
My first experience with this sort of thing was back in FFXI. There was no RP server back then, official or unofficial, and rp was basically little pockets across various servers. We were on Sylph, which had a decent rp community, but it had declined in recent years.
Well, at one point, some of my friends in the RP community decided to leave for Asura. They all had various reasons, but they were galvanized together by one person, who would become the RPLS leader on Asura when they moved. A significant chunk of the rp community on Sylph up and left, all at once.
Sylph rp continued, but many plotlines ground to a halt. We had come up with an rp explanation of them leaving, but there was still a huge hole. RP declined, and due to my own stupidity I got sucked into a pile of ugly drama. So I decided to leave as well, to join my friends on Asura. I left behind a number of friends too, and... it hurt. Because there was really no way to be with them both like I once was. But the embarrassment of the drama, and the encouragement of those on Asura had me make the jump.
It was good for a while, until our LS leader on Asura suffered a huge real life issue, and essentially stopped playing. RP simply STOPPED at that point. Asura had great endgame, but... I was suddenly an RPer without a community. I eventually packed up, and went back to Sylph.
Sylph was not much better. So many rpers leaving for Asura had really ripped the guts out of the community, and while I was away, it had slowly bled to death, people leaving and no new blood returning. We didn't have an RPC back then, and the forums we used to use to recruit and guide new rpers to us had turned nasty and trollish.
So, I stumped along for a while. Most rpers gave up, went on to focus on endgame, or move to a new game. I followed as best I could, but... in a lot of cases I simply couldn't follow them where they went. I would log into the game, and spend hours on meaningless tasks... grinding jobs or crafts in some sort of vain hope that people would start to return, that there would be a shout for a new rpls in Jeuno, or that a friend would drag me aside to tell me about a new rp community. I checked forums and looked around, but... there didn't seem to be much, and I have trouble making new connections, and certainly it's difficult to remake ones that deep and profound. Eventually, regretfully, I left FFXI. The magic it once had was dead, and while it was still a huge, beautiful world full of memories for me... I knew I was never going to make memories like that there again.
FFXIV was what reunited so many of us, and thanks to Kylin and his RPC, we started off on a good footing. We picked a server, and by and large rpers went there.
The effect was so different from Sylph! There were so many rpers, they would just rp out in the open, in /say... random people would join in. The game had precious little context in those days, so we gave it our own, and as broken as the game was, that experience was incredible. The occasional troll would show up... and be laughed off the server, because we knew, for once, we were not a mocked and marginalized minority.
It didn't stay that way forever, of course. People left the game because they had better things to do that fight with an unfinished product, other players came in, and we ended up the minority again... but we were always accepted. There was a kind of peace between rpers and non-rpers. There was still rp in the open, and though our numbers fell, it never felt like it was dying like it did on Sylph.
I left my first RPLS... I floated, I had trouble fitting in as I do... but it didn't feel as lonely as it did in FFXI. There were always rpers around the corner, always a friend logging in to talk to. There was a larger community surrounding the linkshells, and even as individual linkshells failed, the community remained.
I don't think this would have happened if the community wasn't so large and concentrated. If we had been spread out like in FFXI, I'm sure the initial population die-off would have killed us. But the community in FFXIV felt strong. It felt like... it would outlast me in the game. And indeed it outlasted the game. Seeing something wither and die is never a good experience. I watched an endgame LS I helped build, a couple of roleplay linkshells, and roleplay itself on my server in FFXI, and in the end, I was still left there with nothing but emptiness. And there are only so many times you can rebuild it from the dirt.
This is why... I wish there wasn't this need to split. Servers are big places, and you don't have to roleplay with someone you don't want to. Yes, we will always be a contentious lot, and conflict with each other, but in the end, we have more in common with each other than we ever will with the 4channers or Endgamers. I wish we could just pick an end of the server, but stay together, so that in three months, or two years, or however long it takes for all this Legacy nonsense to become meaningless, we'll still have each other.
But the reality is, it's there. We're split, and we're weakened, so I WILL say this: Balmung or Gilgamesh, stay together. Even if you don't like an RPer, add them to your friends list. You don't have to talk to them, but if times get dark, you will need each other. Don't abandon the RPC. Gilgamesh is going to be a smaller community, and it will be under siege, and if you let what split us apart split it further, rp on that server will not survive. I don't want anyone else going through what I felt, so if you all must leave for Gilgamesh, the last thing I want for you is to fail.
And... don't forget this place. Share your stories now and then. And maybe, someday, we can figure out a way to put all this back together.
Sorry for rambling.
TL;DR Izzy is being sappy and pointless.
![[Image: Newsig.jpg]](http://s13.photobucket.com/user/Polenicus/media/Signatures%20and%20Avatars/Newsig.jpg.html)
