I generally loathe reading 'testimonial' type posts, but feel compelled to speak up on this particular subject matter. As one of founders of the RPC and a strong advocate of Balmung's RP foundation, I want to make it crystal clear that I am in no way anti-Balmung. I believe and hope that it will prosper for a very long time. However, I also feel it has reached a 'peak' of sorts when it comes to growth. On a personal level, I also came to the realization that there was nothing more I had to offer the Balmung community. In addition, I always felt like I was swimming in too vast an ocean with Balmung. It's basically like the Chicago/New York City of the RP community in that it's overcrowded, has a high cost of living (particularly housing), and finding a parking spot is nigh impossible. Now don't get me wrong, some people love big city culture. It has its charming points for sure. I've never really liked huge cities myself and fancy myself a smaller town type of guy. Though FFXIV 1.0 was a mess of a game to start, the community itself was perfect. There were 5-10 active RP groups who all did their own thing but everyone still knew everyone else's name and could come together on a constant basis.
So I turned my attention elsewhere, looking into other servers and the potential for another vibrant RP community that would fit me more appropriately. I admit that I first passed Mateus up once I saw how much of a ghost town it was. I walked through Ul'dah without seeing a single soul (but those housing slots, wow!). I looked into other servers but wasn't too sold. I didn't feel the passion, cohesiveness, and dedication that I felt from the Mateus RPers. And that's what ultimately drew me back to give it a second chance. It's the very same type of passion and devotion that gave birth to Besaid/Balmung so many years ago. And the best part of it? It wasn't born out of some fear or hatred for Balmung, like I feel certain other RP communities were bred from. It was born simply from a yearning to make something different and add options to an otherwise predictable option pallet.
I look forward to seeing where this community goes, and being part of its growth. Ul'dah is no longer a ghost town. I see people everywhere already, though obviously to a lesser extent than Balmung. The market isn't oversaturated and can actually make you profit (as of now). There are plenty of houses of all sizes still available. But most important of all, the RP community is growing and prospering. There appears to be approximately 5-6 RP groups, the OOC community linkshell has a very active roster and is sitting at a count of over 70 (up from the like 20 or so when I first looked at it). Private/public events seem plentiful. It's a very good time to begin recognizing Mateus as a future powerhouse of the RP community. I personally believe it's on a path to easily surpass Gilgamesh as a secondary RP server before long.
In addition to the above, I also am of the opinion that servers will soon be a thing of the past anyway (though I could be mistaken...). SE has already implemented cross world blacklist and party finder, and has expressed their desire to implement cross world friend lists, tells, linkshells, and free companies. Think about that for a moment. Cross world linkshells/free companies. I'm surprised at how little attention people have given this announcement. It's basically one step away from the 'mega server' concept. The only thing that's lacking at that point would be cross-server markets and actual sharing zones with cross-server people, technology that technically already exists and can probably be implemented via instancing/zoning (Ul'dah 1, Ul'dah 2, etc like seen in some other MMOs). Given this gradual trend toward cross-server play, it's only logical to expand the RP community's horizons in the world of Hydaelyn and reap the benefits of smaller servers before this all becomes reality (if it indeed does), while setting up a strong foundation for the overall RP community at large a the same time.
Again, looking forward to seeing where this goes and how it'll benefit the RP community at large in the long run. Cheers to the rising star/underdog, Mateus~
So I turned my attention elsewhere, looking into other servers and the potential for another vibrant RP community that would fit me more appropriately. I admit that I first passed Mateus up once I saw how much of a ghost town it was. I walked through Ul'dah without seeing a single soul (but those housing slots, wow!). I looked into other servers but wasn't too sold. I didn't feel the passion, cohesiveness, and dedication that I felt from the Mateus RPers. And that's what ultimately drew me back to give it a second chance. It's the very same type of passion and devotion that gave birth to Besaid/Balmung so many years ago. And the best part of it? It wasn't born out of some fear or hatred for Balmung, like I feel certain other RP communities were bred from. It was born simply from a yearning to make something different and add options to an otherwise predictable option pallet.
I look forward to seeing where this community goes, and being part of its growth. Ul'dah is no longer a ghost town. I see people everywhere already, though obviously to a lesser extent than Balmung. The market isn't oversaturated and can actually make you profit (as of now). There are plenty of houses of all sizes still available. But most important of all, the RP community is growing and prospering. There appears to be approximately 5-6 RP groups, the OOC community linkshell has a very active roster and is sitting at a count of over 70 (up from the like 20 or so when I first looked at it). Private/public events seem plentiful. It's a very good time to begin recognizing Mateus as a future powerhouse of the RP community. I personally believe it's on a path to easily surpass Gilgamesh as a secondary RP server before long.
In addition to the above, I also am of the opinion that servers will soon be a thing of the past anyway (though I could be mistaken...). SE has already implemented cross world blacklist and party finder, and has expressed their desire to implement cross world friend lists, tells, linkshells, and free companies. Think about that for a moment. Cross world linkshells/free companies. I'm surprised at how little attention people have given this announcement. It's basically one step away from the 'mega server' concept. The only thing that's lacking at that point would be cross-server markets and actual sharing zones with cross-server people, technology that technically already exists and can probably be implemented via instancing/zoning (Ul'dah 1, Ul'dah 2, etc like seen in some other MMOs). Given this gradual trend toward cross-server play, it's only logical to expand the RP community's horizons in the world of Hydaelyn and reap the benefits of smaller servers before this all becomes reality (if it indeed does), while setting up a strong foundation for the overall RP community at large a the same time.
Again, looking forward to seeing where this goes and how it'll benefit the RP community at large in the long run. Cheers to the rising star/underdog, Mateus~
