Hydaelyn Role-Players
Balmung Restriction Discussion - Printable Version

+- Hydaelyn Role-Players (https://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/mybb18)
+-- Forum: Final Fantasy 14 (https://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/mybb18/forumdisplay.php?fid=41)
+--- Forum: FFXIV Discussion (https://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/mybb18/forumdisplay.php?fid=12)
+--- Thread: Balmung Restriction Discussion (/showthread.php?tid=9805)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - K'nahli - 02-15-2015

(02-15-2015, 05:27 PM)Fai Wrote: Hi guys. I wanted to offer the same as I've offered in the other thread! It might help a bit. 

Try using World-alerts.com

If you put in your email and pick a server, it will email you literally the very second the world becomes open. (Had to do this to make an alt on Excalibur)


(I apologize, that's all I have to offer and not an actual discussion ;n;  Wanted to help!)

Apparently this uses the Lodestone to determine if a server is locked and that page updates every 4-5 hours so this would be next to useless for Balmung I imagine, unfortunately.

Thank you for the link in any case, it's certainly a nice fan-feature ^^


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Gurren Dai - 02-16-2015

So, I managed to get a character transfer to balmung. It said the transfer could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. I did it just a minute ago, so I dunno if It'll take too long. I'm sorry if this is a bit unrelated to the main chat, but I figured I'd ask here instead of going to make my own thread.

Wish I could have made a character on Balmung normally,but this works too.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Vulture - 02-16-2015

(02-15-2015, 08:13 PM)Vanyris Wrote:
(02-15-2015, 02:24 AM)Vulture Wrote: I like how hard it is to get on Balmung. It keeps non-RPers out because you have to be dedicated to get yourself on. The first time I got on Gilgamesh I noticed 60% of the people had names like Taco Supreme & Awesome Mcgee and the entire time I was there I never overheard two people speaking ICly.
Without things like difficulty getting in or bad reps (a la Moon Guard) RP servers quickly get overrun by *BLEEP* *BLEEP*ing *BLEEP*ers that "come for the community" and end up watering down if not outright destroying that community with their sheer numbers.
That's not a very healthy outlook to have on it. RPers having to crawl up a nigh-insurmountable wall is not going to help the server as a whole. I've had friends who wanted to use the trial to test the waters in RP on FFXIV, and haven't ended up getting the game because they were not able to get into Balmung for the entirety of it.

You use Moon Guard as an example. Despite Goldshire being a hub of ERP and bad roleplay, Moon Guard has an active, thriving roleplay community while still being a massive server with a fair amount of non-roleplayers. A server being large does not diminish the roleplay community, and maintaining exclusivity is going to end up excluding just as many (if not more) future roleplayers as it does non-roleplayers.

Fai's website is a good suggestion, though! Highly recommend that.

Call me an elitist but this is what kills RP servers. Not the non-RPers but the blind acceptance of non-RPers by RPers. You're the character at the beginning of every alien invasion movie that sees their menacing warship and says "maybe they come in peace", nope they see your planet/server is nice and they want it no matter the cost to the natives. Just replace iron/water/air/brains/etc with "community".
Non-RPers are parasites, I don't mean this as an insult but in the literal sense: Parasitism is a non-mutual symbiotic relationship between species, where one species, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host.

Why do you think RPers want to get into Balmung so bad? Gilgamesh is a lot easier to get into right? The second question is its own answer, Gilgamesh is easier to get into...

...for everyone.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Kinono - 02-16-2015

As an aside, but aren't RP server in WoW official, and labelled as such? It's been a long time since I've played WoW (a long, long, long time) but I remember reading when the menu first came up to pick a server that lore-abiding names were expected and not having one would actually get you a talking-to by a GM. Was that not the case?


More to-topic:
There's a big difference between an official RP server and Balmung, an unofficial one, which might I add wasn't even an RP server to begin with. It was just a plain ol' regular server that got merged with the server that happened to be the other unofficial RP server in 1.0.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Kage - 02-16-2015

As far as I know Balmung did not exist in 1.0. Besaid and some other one was made Balmung. I belive a lot of the old RPERS were on Besaid so Balmung naturally became its home.


And honestly I find the notion that "non-RPers" being blindly accepted is what kills RP servers is just... I can't even hide my disgust against that idea.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Vanyris - 02-16-2015

(02-16-2015, 04:29 AM)Kinono Wrote: As an aside, but aren't RP server in WoW official, and labelled as such? It's been a long time since I've played WoW (a long, long, long time) but I remember reading when the menu first came up to pick a server that lore-abiding names were expected and not having one would actually get you a talking-to by a GM. Was that not the case?


More to-topic:
There's a big difference between an official RP server and Balmung, an unofficial one, which might I add wasn't even an RP server to begin with. It was just a plain ol' regular server that got merged with the server that happened to be the other unofficial RP server in 1.0.
Yes and no. Roleplay servers are official, but most aren't filled with roleplayers. Most are filled with players that happened to get stuck there because the game suggested it for them based on population/proximity to the server's location/timezone. Back in vanilla they sorta-kinda used to care about lore-abiding names in theory, but that was ten years and several expansions ago.

Now you can have any ol' name you like as long as it's not an outright offensive word. Even on the large, popular roleplay servers like Moon Guard you have a sizeable population of non-RPers. There are some that come there because RPers are nice folks to be around and the ambiance of roleplay is pleasant, or because their friends play there, or perhaps they just get recommended by the game to play there.

As to Vulture, I wasn't aware I was discussing role play with one of Gotham's finest super villains.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - QueenFrejyalen - 02-16-2015

Judging people and wanting them to stay out of your "super awesome RPers-only fort" is a bit much.

Elitist attitude is not something to be proud of; it is a harmful ideology that you belong on a pedestal and others are not valued as high as you or your friends are.  Someone can't contribute as much to the RP community as you, so you think they should be barred entirely or thrown out because that makes them a "parasite"?

It is the patience, understanding, and cooperation of a community that makes it strong - we do not live in times that require a "thinning the herd" mentality, especially in regards to an extra curricular in a game.

We are not blindly accepting non-RPers, we are rightfully accepting them.  This server and this game were not made for RPers only, and if you're willing to bar "non-RPers", then I assume that attitude will extend to "bad RPers" and "RPers I don't like".

A slippery slope, indeed.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Naunet - 02-16-2015

(02-16-2015, 04:13 AM)Vulture Wrote: Why do you think RPers want to get into Balmung so bad? Gilgamesh is a lot easier to get into right? They second question is it's own answer, Gilgamesh is easier to get into...

...for everyone.

You're finding causation when there's only correlation. Balmung is a legacy server and when ARR launched had the benefit of retaining its 1.0 RP community. Gilgamesh had to start from scratch. It makes perfect sense then that Balmung has a larger, more entrenched RP community and is thus seen as the more desirable server to be on from a roleplayer perspective.

The creation restrictions hurt everyone, not just non-RPers. Potential roleplayers and current roleplayers who desperately want to make alts are all harmed by the policy, and that's just not a good thing.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Cato - 02-16-2015

Elitism isn't always a harmful thing. Sometimes it's a necessity, especially if it ensures that some people maintain base standards. You'd be surprised at what certain individuals let slide as acceptable within role-play communities these days. Though like with so many terms such as 'troll' it's essentially become a buzzword thrown around at the drop of the hat. I've been labelled an 'elitist' for not wanting to have my character sleep with someone else's character within a few minutes of them meeting.

Putting that aside, however, we're not an official role-playing server and even if we were I'd much prefer to have non role-players around as they benefit the server as a whole in terms of PvE/PvP and the economy.

Honestly, most of the problems role-players face on Balmung don't come from non role-players at all. They're just made into convenient scapegoats. Most of the trolling, harassment and other nastiness stems from role-players themselves. It's something that I've seen happen in every MMO with a strong unofficial or official community of role-players.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Flickering Ember - 02-16-2015

So, what is the alternative to the character restrictions? Yeah, the restrictions suck but they are there for a reason. Capped servers are...well...capped and they depend on restrictions to avoid things like 2 hour long wait times or server crashes. 

Previous MMOs had different but similar restrictions that IMO were not better than ffxiv's. Moon Guard would be locked several times. While old members could make alts freely, no new people to the server could roll there. Though, WoW servers probably have a higher cap overall.

Simply increasing server capacity is ideal but unrealistic and probably not going to happen since they built ffxiv on dated tech.

Interested to hear from you guys: What alternatives are there? Realistic alternatives.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Telluride - 02-16-2015

(02-16-2015, 04:42 AM)Kage Wrote: As far as I know Balmung did not exist in 1.0. Besaid and some other one was made Balmung. I belive a lot of the old RPERS were on Besaid so Balmung naturally became its home.

And honestly I find the notion that "non-RPers" being blindly accepted is what kills RP servers is just... I can't even hide my disgust against that idea.

There's a big difference between "Non-RPers"....

...who are perfectly fine people, and who may once have been RPers. I've still got contacts who still play, but put aside RP because of RL concerns, or lack of time, or changes in life experiences. Then, there are those who might be RPers later. I welcome good and mature players - more people = faster queues, more buyers in the market.

.... and those who actively cause problems for RPers. We know who they are, and we know that many of them cluster in groups and, lets be honest, probably deserve steel-toed boots up their rectums. For every troll - like the Miqo'te who was jumping from occupied table to occupied table last night, just because he was apparently bored and didnt' have sufficient functioning brain power to find something else to do - there are a dozen to a score of people who just want to play the game and enjoy it.

And I have to agree with Graeham - there are people who RP who are every bit as much of a problem.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Telluride - 02-16-2015

(02-16-2015, 02:02 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: Interested to hear from you guys: What alternatives are there? Realistic alternatives.

Frankly, rather than alternatives, I'd simply like the current restrictions to MEAN MORE, specifically regarding Bots. I would be much, much more accepting of the restrictions if I could see more evidence of SE really choking down on the bot population. Yes, it's not as bad in FFXIV as in some other games, but then, I have never been on a server as tough to get into as Balmung, either, not counting ones that were just completely, totally closed.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Y'lani - 02-16-2015

(02-16-2015, 02:02 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: So, what is the alternative to the character restrictions? Yeah, the restrictions suck but they are there for a reason. Capped servers are...well...capped and they depend on restrictions to avoid things like 2 hour long wait times or server crashes. 

Previous MMOs had different but similar restrictions that IMO were not better than ffxiv's. Moon Guard would be locked several times. While old members could make alts freely, no new people to the server could roll there. Though, WoW servers probably have a higher cap overall.

Simply increasing server capacity is ideal but unrealistic and probably not going to happen since they built ffxiv on dated tech.

Interested to hear from you guys: What alternatives are there? Realistic alternatives.

This is some good food for thought. Sticks to the topic, as well.

Let's not delve too deep into the ethics of the restriction, guys. This thread was made to serve the purpose of talking about the restriction itself, not about calling the non-roleplayers on Balmung "parasites". We have to remember that Balmung does not only belong to roleplayers, and whether that impedes on the roleplay community or not does not concern us. We cannot control it, nor do we have the right to.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Naunet - 02-16-2015

(02-16-2015, 02:02 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: Simply increasing server capacity is ideal but unrealistic and probably not going to happen since they built ffxiv on dated tech.

They need to bite the bullet and invest in architecture appropriate for the level of popularity their game has garnished. They're in for a world of hurt come the expac if they don't do this. (edit: Though on second thought, with how easily people just toss money at SE to buy server transfers to get around the restriction, perhaps they'll just languish in their outdated architecture because people are freaking stupid. -_-)

At the very least, they need to let players who already have characters on a server to freely make alts.


RE: Balmung Restriction Discussion - Unnamed Mercenary - 02-16-2015

(02-16-2015, 02:11 PM)Y Wrote: This is some good food for thought. Sticks to the topic, as well.

Let's not delve too deep into the ethics of the restriction, guys. This thread was made to serve the purpose of talking about the restriction itself, not about calling the non-roleplayers on Balmung "parasites". We have to remember that Balmung does not only belong to roleplayers, and whether that impedes on the roleplay community or not does not concern us. We cannot control it, nor do we have the right to.

This, exactly! Way, way, way back when Balmung didn't even exist, I joined the Besaid server in 1.0 for the PvE (I didn't know better...). People flocked there because it was the "unofficial English-speaking server", because every server was in the Japanese data center. When Besaid merged with another server and became Balmung, we all stayed, despite transfers being offered, I think. When 2.0 launched all the old players were given another transfer opportunity. I'm sure few used it, but many stayed because Balmung was where their friends were. I know I did. RP wasn't even on my radar until about.....April-May-ish post 2.1. Sure, we have couple RP trolls, and a LOT of people who don't RP, but it was their server too. If SE ever opened an "official" RP server, I don't know if I would leave, even if there were free transfers to it for RPers. I'm on Balmung for both communities.

...it would be nice to see restrictions open more often, and for bots to be killed more often, but I am also under the opinion SE is doing a pretty good job with the resources thye have. ...perhaps they need to expand more on that part.