EliBallard

Can't say I'm a fan of the new directory thread. It hides the few real RP communities in among a dozen more that don't even have a presence here to show they're actively looking for or are able to support new people. If they're not sending people to us to list information about their communities, I don't think we should include them.

Anyone who thinks S-E is going to forcibly remove anyone already on a server is delusional, by the way.

Not anymore. Thanks for that Need to get my entertainment from somewhere.

Is.. is it over?

How can you disagree with hardware limitations though? These limits exist whether you believe in them or not. The strain on the entire Aether datacenter continues with or without the power of you imagination. People with expertise are telling you on a concrete, material level that sustaining Balmung is physically impossible. Unless you have invented some quantum servers and are ready to roll them out right now (and even then, I don't know). . . Yeah, but.. he disagrees.

oh my god could you not You're not Martin Luther King. You're some guy that's trying to talk about things he obviously has no idea on how they work, both from a common sense point of view and an infrastructure one. "Hey this restriction you have sucks. I need you to lift it.' "But if we do it'll keep breaking things and the economy will continue to be awful." "Yeah well I need you to lift it." "But th---" "I need you to lift it. IT'S FOR THE GOOD OF (ME) THE PEOPLE" Dissenting (and entirely valid) opinions over the internet sometimes attract vitriol. See post above. Honestly, Val -- you're a good roleplayer. I expected more than petty personal attacks. The points raised in the OP are both coherent, achievable, and would benefit RPers the most. It's not the easy option, but it is correct the one that will benefit the overwhelming majority of RPers. The problem with your argument is that you're not listening to anyone's opinion. You're taking what you say as fact and not remotely considering the truths of what anyone else is saying to you. I--and pretty much literally everyone else here--have told you time and time again that while your ideas are great, they cannot be achieved for multiple reasons. And yet, you choose to ignore it with simple responses that more or less boil down to "because i want it to happen". It's not realistic. Expecting them to shit out a new RP server isn't realistic. Thinking that it costs nothing isn't realistic. Personal attacks? No. I have not attacked you personally. I refuse to do so. I will, however, point out how incredibly unrealistic/ridiculous your arguments and responses have become. This isn't some sort of heroic "let's band together friends!!!!" moment. This is real. You have a handful of options. Nothing is going to change. You can try to change it, but expecting it is a fool's errand. People have tried telling you this over and over and over, and yet you bullheadedly rush through and dismiss literally any valid option they're offering, sometimes even going so far as just ignoring it outright. You take whatever common sense they give you, consider it a personal attack (like I assume you're going to do with this), and push past it. And yet, even if we try to tell you "Hey that's not what we mean" it doesn't matter. It's not even an issue with "well this community will break apart." The servers literally can not handle the stress. It's just how it is. That's not even touching on the subject of social and economic issues that Balmung is facing because of the overpopulation, both in RP and PvE. To assume that none of them exist is another issue altogether. You seem to appear to confuse disagreement with the ability to understand and process arguments. I've considered each and every counter argument and disagree. I don't exactly take posts offered by at most 15 people to refute basic, intuitive arguments we all take for granted. Think about this: would we have anywhere near as vibrant, healthy, sustainable, and diverse an RP community if Balmung was not a centralized RP hub? The answer is no. We have enjoyed the benefits of a centralized RP hub for years. Reversing this and fragmenting the community could harm RP for all roleplayers for the reasons stated in the OP. No one is standing in line to transfer from Balmung right now for this very reason; at most people are rolling alts to show support. The vast majority of the FFXIV RP community depends on a centralized RP hub. They may not advocate for this expressly, but it's something most value. I've already pointed out a dozen times how SE could alleviate this problem in a way that would not harm the RP community: reverse the transfer restriction (and implement alternative population control measures) or simply designate an official RP server. Nothing else will work. Uhh, Balmung is vibrant, healthy, sustainable and diverse right now. Which means it doesn't need all the rest of the RPers.

I've had better with less page count. Correct ideas are not always popular. oh my god could you not You're not Martin Luther King. You're some guy that's trying to talk about things he obviously has no idea on how they work, both from a common sense point of view and an infrastructure one. "Hey this restriction you have sucks. I need you to lift it.' "But if we do it'll keep breaking things and the economy will continue to be awful." "Yeah well I need you to lift it." "But th---" "I need you to lift it. IT'S FOR THE GOOD OF (ME) THE PEOPLE" Dissenting (and entirely valid) opinions over the internet sometimes attract vitriol. See post above. The points raised in the OP are both coherent, achievable, and would benefit RPers the most. It's not the easy option, but it is correct the one that will benefit the overwhelming majority of RPers. You don't just get to decide your idea is "the best" when you're literally being shouted down by everyone you tell it to. That's called being a crazy person.

Genuinely wondering if we're being trolled at this point. What's lame is that people who don't know better may actually listen to this and be deterred from joining a very real community on Mateus because of it. That makes me pretty ornery.

I was going to offer to give you an answer when you manage to draft a post that isn't inflammatory, but I'm feeling generous (and believe that drafting such a post would prove difficult). I've mentioned the answer numerous time -- if you physically can't access Balmung, select whatever alternative RP community best suits your tastes, and transfer to the central RP hub [balmung or official RP server if designated] the first opportunity you get. There are communities to pick from on numerous servers (Maetus, Farie, Lich, etc.). Don't split the party. Stick together. For reasons why, see OP. And most of all, you're welcome (insert Moana music here). So, can we expect you to reimburse us the cost of the transfer and lost assets in-game? That' very generous of you.

You presuppose the state of FFXIV if Balmung did not exist and there was no centralized RP hub. If there were no such hub, FFXIV roleplay would either be dead, minute in scale, or based entirely around isolated 20-40 person cliques. There are dearths of "lighter stuff" that gets RPed on Balmung every day. The same can't be said for smaller servers. Balmung is already the RP hub, and it should continue being that hub until SE designated an official RP server. Still waiting to hear what the people who need a server now should do in your fantasy world. You keep skirting around the issue of them. Please note that "play on another server now and transfer in 3-6-9-12 months when/if the retriction is ever lifted is not an appropriate answer unless you're going to pay for all of their subs between now and then, as well as refund all the gil they'd lose making the trip in houses, etc. More observations made on short time: (1) I've addressed most counterpoints made in recent replies before. The one thing I haven't seen addressed is how this attempt to designate a second unofficial RP server will result in anything more than a 50-100 person community scattered across 3-5 FCs (all offering their own brand of homogenized RP) that eventually goes the way of the dodo, like all others before it. I really don't want to see that happen to great RPers who decide to RP on the alternative server, and Balmung itself would be at a loss [transfers will open up one day]. (2) Thankfully, Nero made an excellent post on the official forums about designating the RP server, and we should all be doing our part to support it. (3) Some posters who perceive of the views discussed in the OP as crack-pot-esque are so accustomed to the quality and size of the Balmung RP community that they have not given consideration of the consequences of fragmenting the RP community. I don't see how anyone could really dispute the possible detriments that could happen as a result of the server restriction. I hope these concerns are eventually unfounded after SE opens transfers in 1-3 months. (4) For all of the, "what do we do - an alternative unofficial RP is necessary to help new RPers" -- the highest and best use of our time is advocating for either the restrictions end or an official designation. In the meantime, existing small RP communities should open their arms to new RPers until we can transition back to a central RP hub. So yes, "play on another server now and transfer in 3-6-9-12 months when/if the restriction is ever lifted" is an appropriate answer. The reality is most will transfer because most realize the value of a central RP hub, as demonstrated by Balmung's size. We need to be doing whatever we can to convince SE to lift the restrictions sooner than later, or finally designate an RP server. It's very unfortunate that an extremely basic proposition - a small community should remain together to ensure that it remains vibrant, diverse, and active can draw such division. But some are apparently content to live with the chaos SE has created. Unfortunate. Still waiting for your answer! Also, maybe if you didn't act like you were the smart guy trying to convince us poor, blind sheep of the truth we'd be more receptive to your arguments. Makes you think.

You presuppose the state of FFXIV if Balmung did not exist and there was no centralized RP hub. If there were no such hub, FFXIV roleplay would either be dead, minute in scale, or based entirely around isolated 20-40 person cliques. There are dearths of "lighter stuff" that gets RPed on Balmung every day. The same can't be said for smaller servers. Balmung is already the RP hub, and it should continue being that hub until SE designated an official RP server. Still waiting to hear what the people who need a server now should do in your fantasy world. You keep skirting around the issue of them. Please note that "play on another server now and transfer in 3-6-9-12 months when/if the retriction is ever lifted is not an appropriate answer unless you're going to pay for all of their subs between now and then, as well as refund all the gil they'd lose making the trip in houses, etc.

Overlooking inflammatory language again (try omitting it sometime). The real solution to help new RPers locked out lies in one of the following: (1) Convincing SE to lift the server transfer restriction; or (2) Convincing SE to designate an official RP server. We're not helping new RPers by creating yet another fragmented "unofficial" RP server that will never obtain a population capable of sustaining a diverse community (this has failed countless times before for the reasons stated in the OP). Players on the smaller servers should welcome the newcomers, but migrating to the central RP hub (wherever it will be) should be in the end game. So, while we're 'convincing Square Enix' the people who want to RP now are fucked. No, that's not a solution. You need to stop and listen to reason because you're just ignoring anyone who doesn't agree with you.

Nothing will "kill Balmung" and that isn't the issue people should be focusing on. In fact, it's people coming in here to whine about that that takes away from the actual problem with the server lock, which is the people outside Balmung. Please stop making this about Balmung, nothing will happen, it will not die. A new community is a good thing, if you're arguing that people are hurting the community by not all forcing themselves onto Balmung (while forcing them to pay money to do so) is ignorant and selfish. Please consider the people locked out and actually affected by this and don't turn it into a stupid "BALMUNG IS DYING" thread.

I genuinely don't understand why the OP has such a bizarre stake in this, while still managing to be so completely misguided in everything they say. I don't want to do a whole big thing because I could systematically take apart everything they've said and I just don't want to waste my time, so here are some key points. 1. Other MMOs have multiple RP servers and they thrive. As long as the communities make an effort to let people know they are RP servers when the MMO itself doesn't label them, they thrive and grow together. 2. Telling new players who want to join and RP now that they should wait for an arbitrary time (will get into this in the next point) so they can join what you consider the one true RP server, essentially meaning they shouldn't play at all in the meantime, is beyond ignorant and ridiculous to sya while you sit comfortably on the server in question already. RPers and MMO players in general are fickle and unlikely to wait around before they give up and go back to their old game or something else. I had a group of people I know eager to get on Balmung and they almost cancelled playing the game entirely until I convinced them to go to Mateus. It's worked out great despite people like you trying to sabotage the efforts. 3. They closed Balmung temporarily with Heavensward and reopened it, yes. Difference being this time they explicitly said the server was going to be closed until the populations evened out. Balmung has over 2x as many people as any other server, it is going to take a long time for the populations to even out. Unless you have explicit proof of when the restriction will be lifted you have zero right to tell people they're damaging the RP community by not waiting around in limbo. 4. Expecting everyone on Mateus to shell out 20 dollars to move to another server because you think that's what's best for the community is ridiculous and doesn't even need discussed. Unless you're going to pay for everyone to transfer, just stop. I don't know you beyond the negative posts you've been dropping in basically every thread regarding this debacle, but so far it just seems like you're worried you won't have access to ALL THE RP on Balmung if some people decide they want to be elsewhere. You come off as selfish. Please think about others, particularly the new players. Mateus has almost doubled in size over the last few days with cities being noticeably more crowded and our RP linkshell filling to the point of needing a new one. We have a good community here now and I hope to see it continue to grow despite you making this crusade against it.

Thank you. I feel for people considering transferring off Balmung, but this situation isn't about you and it's the people who are looking for a home -now- that need to be considered.