Here's my take on the lock.
Yes, it sucks that we can't have new friends join the server.
However, Balmung is still large enough to where you can't possibly know everyone. There's always new groups to explore, no people to meet, even without new players coming into the server.
Sometimes it just means taking a plunge into a new group to find new connections, or hitting an event you wouldn't otherwise have gone to. Bring friends, make new ones, there's still a ton of people out there you haven't met yet. (10,000 active character is insane.)
There are 35 recurring events each week on the calendar. It is literally impossible to hit all of them every week. Â
If new blood is needed, one can just do something different. Maybe even fantasia / rename an alt and go for the all new clean experience?
On other bits that have come up:
I don't see there being a server split on FFXIV. I can't see them doing it without an unmitigated disaster happening. I don't really see the need either. The only times we have server issues is on expansion release date. The only split I see is maybe a datacenter split for Aether since even smaller servers hit the same issues we did on the expansion launch. (read: balance cluster population between two smaller clusters)
My one comment on the automatic CRZ function of WoW. It was single highhandedly the worst thing Blizzard could have done for open world RP that ever happened to that game. I think it was even worse then the whole zone phasing they started doing before then.
Yes, it sucks that we can't have new friends join the server.
However, Balmung is still large enough to where you can't possibly know everyone. There's always new groups to explore, no people to meet, even without new players coming into the server.
Sometimes it just means taking a plunge into a new group to find new connections, or hitting an event you wouldn't otherwise have gone to. Bring friends, make new ones, there's still a ton of people out there you haven't met yet. (10,000 active character is insane.)
There are 35 recurring events each week on the calendar. It is literally impossible to hit all of them every week. Â
If new blood is needed, one can just do something different. Maybe even fantasia / rename an alt and go for the all new clean experience?
On other bits that have come up:
I don't see there being a server split on FFXIV. I can't see them doing it without an unmitigated disaster happening. I don't really see the need either. The only times we have server issues is on expansion release date. The only split I see is maybe a datacenter split for Aether since even smaller servers hit the same issues we did on the expansion launch. (read: balance cluster population between two smaller clusters)
My one comment on the automatic CRZ function of WoW. It was single highhandedly the worst thing Blizzard could have done for open world RP that ever happened to that game. I think it was even worse then the whole zone phasing they started doing before then.