(12-01-2017, 02:50 AM)AkhutaiAngura Wrote: Now, this is mostly due to me of course - I'm pretty reclusive, quiet, I like to watch and I don't come out of my shell very often. My problems, not the servers problems.Â
I quit FFXIV for several months, twice. I dropped prior to HW, came back and played through 3.0, then left again due to no social ties keeping me here. Again, I'd failed to come out of my shell and make friends, which is what really will keep me coming back to a game like this.
Now, I'm back again - And at this point, after having been gone so long, I would almost consider myself 'new blood' to the server. I'm definitely not new to RPing, but I don't know who /anyone/ is, and am effectively new to literally every RP clique/group/whatever here... And honestly? It's overwhelming. It's scary. I know just about every RPer and every FC and every LS and every everything in the history of things says that they're open and inclusive and stuff.. But from the outside looking in, its very cliqueish. Everything thats here already is.. Here. IT's established. Storylines have been playing out for months, for years, and it's incredibly overwhelming trying to find something that you can just jump into the middle of and not be washed away in the flood of things.. And this fear, this overwhelming quality, might push a lot of returning players off of Balmung to MAteus or somesuch where the RP is more fresh, where storylines might seem 'new' and less.. Aged?Â
What I'm saying, I guess, is that I think there is a definite need for new blood, if only because of other new blood. I think it would be easier for me, if I could meet someone else in a similar situation.. Someone else who was 'new' to the server, whether due to returning to the game after a long hiatus or being actually new to the server.. Then that person and I would be in the same boat, and we'd be able to find that 'new' RP in each other. Begin to establish our own stories, that we could then begin to work our way into something else.Â
Take from that what you will.
Actually, I'm in a very similar situation where I would practically be considered new blood as well and it's why I've just been reading this thread instead of posting an opinion. I started playing FFXIV when Heavensward dropped and squeezed a character on Balmung maybe a year ago. At first I tried to find linkshells but didn't really do anything and quickly fell out of it for several months. Then Stormblood hit and I saw new roleplaying opportunities so I came back here and tried being active. The whole time I've had this character I've RPed like...3 times. My schedule gets weird, I get terrified and don't message people to set up RP when I should, I'm intimidated by in game RP due to my poor typing skills and focus problems, and, just like the post I'm quoting, the established RPers and plotlines seem like an impenetrable wall to us newbies.
Honestly though? I'm pretty sure 80-90% of those problems are me and not the lock or the server at all. I don't think the lock is a terrible thing either. It sucks and it's causing problems but I'm not really sure if there's much else that could be done about the issue. I also really doubt it's going to be the end of the RP community on Balmung anytime soon. The longer it goes the more RPers might thin out but there will always be returners, people rerolling old characters into new ones, and shy recluses, like me, hiding on the sidelines.