ArmachiA

Real talk, why do you keep talking down to people?

I have to ask, have you ever played another MMO? If so, which? WoW had multiple vibrant RP hubs, Moonguard was well known, but Wyrmcrest also eventually became well known. My server, Emerald Dream, had a big RP community, there was RP everywhere and I was on Horde. Silvermoon was so, so crowded with RPers. Since mine was an RP-PVP server we had less RPers than the first two, but it was still vibrant, I ran into RPers ALL. THE. TIME. I don't think any RP server wanted for RP? I've also seen the inverse. In Aion, we had to designate one RP server, as foreign games tend not to make RP tags on server, when we did, the population was still rather small. That having to Kowtow to the server thing was pretty prevalent there and it was the only option for RPers. It wasn't a huge community, but it was the only community and you had to fall in line. Balmung really is a completely different monster than anything we've ever seen.

Because I disagree with the presumption that it is unreasonable for us to expect SE will make an RP server, and I haven't heard a valid argument for why SE would not make a dedicated RP server if the community advocated for it enough. There have been a TON of valid arguments, though? Talking about server resources from Unnamed Mercenary, people constantly saying SE hasn't listened to a big grassroots project before, people saying that this isn't going to help them now and they have no where to go, charts about how full Balmung actually is, talks about how Balmung crashed an entire datacenter (One time Balmung caused an Electrical blowout, Balmung was down for like 24 hours). There are plenty of valid arguments. Yeah at this point there's no point in even trying to carry on the conversation. They didn't come here to debate. They came here to preach. The OP specifically just said, even is the quote you posted, that at this point they are talking about an RP Server designation, which Armi just advocated for a page ago. The whole Balmung thing is a dead horse yes, doesn't matter how much someone wants Balmung to be the only centralized RP hub, it simply won't fly in a situation where the server is closed for however long the devs like, or if they are waiting for numbers to drop, probably for at least a year or two. If people don't want to help out, that is fine, but telling others not to help makes no sense, that is what I was responding to. I am absolutely advocating to try, Nero did and was the only one to step up so far. I'm not advocating that people tell people that this is a done deal if we just try hard enough, though. And I am definitely not advocating leaving people in limbo on something no one can guarantee.

Because I disagree with the presumption that it is unreasonable for us to expect SE will make an RP server, and I haven't heard a valid argument for why SE would not make a dedicated RP server if the community advocated for it enough. There have been a TON of valid arguments, though? Talking about server resources from Unnamed Mercenary, people constantly saying SE hasn't listened to a big grassroots project before, people saying that this isn't going to help them now and they have no where to go, charts about how full Balmung actually is, talks about how Balmung crashed an entire datacenter (One time Balmung caused an Electrical blowout, Balmung was down for like 24 hours). There are plenty of valid arguments.

The OP told us it's completely reasonable to expect SE to make an RP server. Honestly, he's not listening to anyone with a counterarguments at this point. We're just talking to a wall. For future reference if you want people to rally behind you for a cause, it's best not to dismiss good arguments from people who are just trying to find the best compromise. Just gonna turn them against you. I.E this thread.

There's nothing wrong with trying. Let me repeat that: There's nothing wrong with trying. The problem is your arguing it as FACT that if we're loud enough we WILL get a server and that's just untrue. You're saying we need to plan for it happening and no one should do anything and that's damaging to the people who don't know what to do right now.

Asking isn't unreasonable, expecting is. We need to come up with a plan that's not "Let's wait and see" and if they do decide to make an RP server we then change direction. Waiting and seeing is not helping those people who are stuck right now.

Yo I hate to tell you but "precedent"- which is "an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent similar circumstances." - is admissible in the court of law so I would say I have some evidence to stand on here. I can sight precedent, you can sight a wing and a prayer.

I know because we've done it before. We actually got word to the higher ups about an RP server from some of the connections we had back then. Their response was "We want the community to decide what is or what isn't" How do you know they'll listen? Because all of us at the RPC at the time threw our weight into that. I have evidence they won't, you have no evidence they will.

SE is going to do neither. There is no "convincing" here. We tried to get an RP server designated when 2.0 was launching and they said they would consider it and decided against it. In fact I remember them saying they wanted the community to decide and I doubt they'll change their stance on that. We can TRY, I know Nero did in fact put that suggestion on the official forums. There was no word from SE. We need to hope for the best, but EXPECT that they won't, and therefore need a plan.

True, Balmung isn't dying within the next 3-4 months. It does suck that new players who are starting because Stormblood is coming won't be able to join us on Balmung, but with the release of the expansion we are going to be OVERFULL for a few months. Worrying about Balmung's future doesn't change the fact that currently, presently, there are a bunch of people with no where to go.

Please don't imply my connections are somehow toxic. I love the connections I've made on this server thank you, and some of those people I've known over 10 years. And the void actually does have meaningful conversation, it isn't all trolling. You think anecdotal evidence isn't evidence but then use your own anecdotes to try to prove everyone wrong.

If Balmung remains locked longer than a month or two, Balmung will start to die off, so I understand the concern but it isn't going to happen anytime soon. I'm even concerned about Balmung future (from an player standpoint and from a server stability standpoint) but we need to put that aside right now and help the new folk. We can kick and scream into the aether all day, Balmung ain't opening and there are people who feel stuck because they wanted a home there and have no other option to run to.

There are people who find Balmung disappointing as well. We can't pretend it's some RP Utopia and expect people to not be disappointed when they get on the server. Better to be realistic so people set their expectations a little lower. I can list a lot of merits about Balmung - I obviously like the server I've been here since it was called Besaid - but I think it's misleading to tell new rpers that yes Balmung is the place to go and will have everything you are looking for in RP. It's simply not true.

Except I can probably guarantee most people here have had an experience like that. I'd put money on it because I actually communicate with these people - here, on the game, and on Tumblr. Go to the Void and you'll see people constantly talking about all of these things and their experiences. Does this mean Balmung is a bad server? Of course not. But don't invalidate these things just because it's an uncomfortable reality. When you have that many people on one server, you bring the bad with the good.

I think it's pretty cool, I made an alt on Gilgamesh when they started out, I may make one on Mateus as well.

Remember when Balmung crashed the Aether datacenter? Peppridge Farm remembers.

Pointing out flaws of Balmung is not "bashing the server" wow. Acknowledging the faults of the server is making sure you stay realistic with the server. I myself have a lot of stories of cliques, stalkers, erp hounds. I'm not a lurker, I've been here since 1.0. Are you going to tell me my experiences are invalid?

I'm not going to tell people who want to play the game a certain way that they, in fact, can't play it that way until they get to a server that's locked - and could be locked for a long, long while. I'm never going to tell people how they should play the game. And saying "We all need to be on Balmung, don't make a second server" is in fact telling them that. They pay 15 a month, they deserve to be able to roleplay as well. Balmung's rp community won't die for a while yet, We can afford to help build a community on Mataeus or wherever we're throwing our support. We should be worried if it gets into 4 or 5 months (A legit concern) but Balmung will not go down in flames come Stormblood's launch without new folk. WE'RE FINE for a little while. We can take those few months of "fine" and help newer rpers get what they want out of the game. We have our connections and our houses and our friends and our community, and the new players can't join that. Telling them they have no other option and shrugging our shoulders at them going "Whelp too bad, wait for Balmung" is something I, personally, refuse to do. I know how frustrating it can be to not play where you want to play (I started on a PVP server with my friends in WoW, I hated every minute of it because I wanted to be on an RP server... I eventually moved anyway) and how you want to play.

True. And RPC numbers aren't really accurate either, since we had a huge influx of people from 1.0 and before 2.0 sign up. My initial statement was 10% - which was 2600 people - and I don't think I'm that far off. Still, I can concede is could be closer to 15%, maayybbe 20%. I still don't think Rpers are the majority of the server, or even near it. Even in WoW, with the notable exception of the one RP server everyone talks about all the time, RPers weren't even the majority on RP servers. It's actually kind of impossible for a guesstimate. a few hundred RPERS (Not people, RPers) migrating to a different world - 500 would be 10% of the rpers - would be enough to really have a decent community (Not that that's a lot of people compared to Balmung but it's a good START). If that many transferred said they were transferring off, it's enough to give some sort of pause. A thousand and you may see people consider their stance on staying.

26k for the whole server seems about right. Considering most servers in any mmo I've been in are comfortable in the 5-8k range, Balmung being at 20k+ makes sense if it's in dire straights. I'm not convinced even 10% are RPers though, feel free to prove me wrong

There is no way there's even close to that as RPers on this server though. It's niche, it's a big server for RPers but it ain't that big.

Maybe, leaning toward "yes". There's a lot of factors that would go into my decision (someone mentioned a token system for housing which is brilliant) but mostly it would be who actually goes. If it's only like 50 people from Balmung who would go, probably not. But if a bunch of RPers - in the hundreds or so - went "Yes, lets go there." I'd definitely consider, especially if my FC voted they'd consider it too. At the very least, housing wouldn't be as horrible to grab as it is on Balmung. Jesus H. Christ.

IIRC you dropped all your linkshells when it happened. There were no guilds so it wasn't the biggest deal. I'm not sure if that's correct, I wasn't on the biggest server, I got all my info second hand.

It's a real possibility, we can only hope they give us some choice as to where we end up when we split.