Server Selection (Prelude)

[Aveline]

It's one of the fire gang, from the best film to come out of the 80's.

 

P.S. I really hope no one is freaking out about this server selection thing. >_> Save your stress management techniques for when the game starts and we all have to start actively managing our shells haha. :mrgreen:

[Shamadconde]

Do tell.

[Boots]

Point goes to Mythis for picking up the muppet from Jim Henson's "Labyrinth."

[Shamadconde]

Oic.

[ArmachiA]

^ Dude you've never seen Labyrinth? Go watch and a be in awe at David Bowie's Cod peice.

 

Dance, magic, dance..

[Eeam]

Labyrinth gave me nightmares...

 

 

Anyway, on the case of servers... I have no 0pinion, as long as it's not Sephiroth. (I'd really like to see us on Garland, or maybe Shadowlord...) Medium population would be cool, although Phoenix, which was a fairly large server, was getting incredibly boring seeing as it had NO RP community whatsoever, which was odd to me considering how populated it was. I just figured FFXI never had RPers, so I left.

[Kylin]

Phoenix actually did have a RP group. Its main one was called LightsTemplar, which was around for several years. After it disbanded, most of its members trickled to Leviathan I think. Another RP shell, Epic, was formed but it never really took off. But I digress (yay for having extensive knowledge on RP communities on every server :lol: )

 

We're going to keep Crystal's other server selection thread updated as much as possible in the coming month. Its purpose will serve as a guide in case SE throws us an unexpected surprise regarding server selection. That way, instead of panicking, we'll just look to the guide and say "oh, this is how we planned to handle that issue."

 

Probably going to shift this discussion to part III in a few days (community). But feel free to continue expressing any fears or concerns relating to this delicate issue.

 

Also, I say no to a Sephiroth/Cloud server if there is one as well >.>;

[Shamadconde]

^ Dude you've never seen Labyrinth? Go watch and a be in awe at David Bowie's Cod piece.

 

Dance, magic, dance..

I started to after hearing the Film Sack episode but I completely lost interest after that weird dude started singing nonsensically.

[Boots]

^ Dude you've never seen Labyrinth? Go watch and a be in awe at David Bowie's Cod piece.

 

Dance, magic, dance..

I started to after hearing the Film Sack episode but I completely lost interest after that weird dude started singing nonsensically.

 

Thats, like, the whole movie...

[Shamadconde]

Exactly....

[Aveline]

I started to after hearing the Film Sack episode but I completely lost interest after that weird dude started singing nonsensically.

 

 

I say GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR!

[Hiname]

While Im hoping we get a list so we can vote early and set things up before its too late..

 

The whole diea of an international server somehow doesnt quite sit with me. Im kinda worried for engaging players that dont speak *peeeep* bit of english. Im not native to it myself, but.. geez, that could proove very confusing in RP when someone of your own race and clanapproaches you and you dont understand a single word of whatever she/he says.

 

Not to mention the lag. Ugh..

[Satrina]

While Im hoping we get a list so we can vote early and set things up before its too late..

 

The whole diea of an international server somehow doesnt quite sit with me. Im kinda worried for engaging players that dont speak *peeeep* bit of english. Im not native to it myself, but.. geez, that could proove very confusing in RP when someone of your own race and clanapproaches you and you dont understand a single word of whatever she/he says.

 

Not to mention the lag. Ugh..

 

 

I'm guessing you didn't play FFXI? We had preset words lined up to be able to communicate to Japanese people. Also tools came out later on that would convert whatever you were saying into japanese script, granted it wouldn't make sense at times due to how different our languages are with articles and such, but it was a good tool to have. Roleplaying-wise, why beat your head against a wall, if you don't speak the language and they don't know a lick of yours...don't bother. Just be polite and tell them "Good day".

 

Other then the xenophobic nature of the Japanese, (NA TOO WEAK) I enjoyed my international server. We had a lot of chinese and japanese players on it and I used to run Dynamis with a full chinese linkshell (Even got the first Dynamis Lord kill with them).

[ArmachiA]

Yeah I actually prefer the servers being international, that way there's usually always a peak time and I don't have to worry about being on at a certain time to get anything done.

[Faust]

I'd still like to find out if the JP RP the way we do, and if they plan to have unofficial RP servers as well. Even though we can't really RP with them, it'd be nice to be one community in that way.

[Siben]

I'd still like to find out if the JP RP the way we do' date=' and if they plan to have unofficial RP servers as well. Even though we can't really RP with them, it'd be nice to be one community in that way.[/quote']

 

MPK train the tavern so their RP LS can gain claim while we wipe?

[Kylin]

If you have any more worst-case scenarios that you think the role-players should be prepared for, please post them in Crystalâs other server selection thread. Iâm going to (eventually) organize everything into an official guide that we can look to in case SE surprises us with any of the aforementioned issues. For now though, letsâ move on to part three of the discussion: Community (which some people are already getting to anyway >.>.

 

III. Community

 

We may not really have a choice when it comes to what kind of community we integrate ourselves into. Itâll ultimately depend on how much time we have to evaluate everything before official launch. However, if the choice does present itself, we should at least hash out the details now.

 

1. Population size: This has come up a couple times already. Everyone seems to be afraid of getting on an under-populated server. I think we should also be concerned with an over-populated server as well. For those not familiar, there was at least one server in FFXI that was so over-populated that it got locked down. And when I say locked down, I don't mean for a few hours or days. It was much more long term (over a year). That is to say, nobody was allowed in. I think nobody was even able to make new alts. If I remember correctly, it was Bahamut server (someone correct me if I got it wrong). This is an issue Rpers canât afford to deal with. Role-players rely on a continuous flow of new Rpers and without that, many linkshells will fade more quickly than usual. And I donât think anyone would be happy not being able to ever create another RP character either if they get bored with their main.

 

Youâre probably thinking, âhow can we tell which server will be low/high populated to begin with?â Two ways. Everquest, as an example, put it right up on the server list. So youâd have the server name and then in parenthesis next to it, it would say low, medium, or high for population. Granted, if they did do this we likely wouldnât have enough time to actually evaluate it since choosing a server would have to come quickly.

 

Another way is just looking at other fansites. If Core, for instance, tries to organize a ton of their users onto the same server, itâs possible that said server will be extremely high in populationâ¦perhaps -too- high. Thus, that would be a server to potentially avoid.

 

Ultimately what Iâm getting at is that I think it would be in our best interest to choose a medium-sized server in terms of population if we have the luxury of such an option.

 

2. Non-English Community: This has also come up. It would be very interesting to know whatâs going on, if anything, with the Japanese RP community (if there is one). In addition, we should consider other languages (Spanish, German, etc). If anyone here is fluent in any such languages, weâd love if you could do some research and find out if RP communities exist for the non-English speaking community. Even if most of us have no way of understanding them and vice-versa, Iâd personally still love seeing someone speaking in another language and thinking that there was a large possibility that they were Rping.

 

3. Griefers: Weâll have to deal with them no matter what from time to time. But even moreso since the entire RP community will be on the same server. There will be people who join the server for the sole purpose of causing grief for the RP community. I think we should come up with a guide of sorts on how to handle them as a community to help alleviate the issue as much as humanly possible.

[Hiname]

Well, me being quite fluent in german, will have a look around.

 

I mostly looked for a english speaking community so i could play with a friend of mine, who issnt very familiar with the german language.

[Satrina]

I'd still like to find out if the JP RP the way we do' date=' and if they plan to have unofficial RP servers as well. Even though we can't really RP with them, it'd be nice to be one community in that way.[/quote']

 

MPK train the tavern so their RP LS can gain claim while we wipe?

 

 

They use RP claim bots. Claim all the best RP before we even see it come. :frustrated:

 

1) An over populated server can be rather annoying, from being able to log on and not have a queue to pve type environment where all the monsters and such are being camped by 10+ people. A medium population server will give all of us what we want I believe. But that said, I don't really want a medium population server where 90% of the population is just RPers who tavern sit haha. It's nice to have a server with layers: The hardcore pve types, the layed back pve types who RP on the side and the RP types who only pve to maybe get a piece of town gear they want. A server with a good majority of the middle ground would be good imo.

 

3) I still don't think there will be THAT big of an issue for griefing towards RPers. FFXIV will have no pvp, so that narrows the crowd down and eliminates a lot of those type of people. It's also not WoW...which thank god eliminates another handful of people who don't want to actually work towards progression and just want things handed to them. Dealing with griefers would be a 2 step problem imo. First if they are part of a linkshell, talk to their leader in that linkshell, see what's up with his crew and their issues towards RP. 9 times out of 10 a linkshell leader will not stand for their members coming off as total jackasses to a server, ESPECIALLY in FFXIV or FFXI, where reputation is a bigger deal then in WoW where you could just name change/faction change/server change every 3 days. Step 2: If the person is not in a linkshell, or their leader is a prick as well would be to just ignore them. People that grief get very frustrated when no attention is paid to them at all. Trolls love flames, and if you don't feed them fuel they wither and die.

[Aveline]

Yeah I'm wondering where the griefing was happening before and in what circumstances. On Asura we saw very little animosity towards RPers. I have heard a couple of times some clown would interrupt RP being done in /say in a crowded space, but that happens to every conversation done in /say in a public game space, I think. Anyway I don't think it will be much of a problem either.

[Keir]

We never had much of a problem with Griefing on Leviathan either. Most people were actually curious or wanted to pitch in when we had guild events in public.

 

On the other hand, and I usually bring this up with my own guild-mates... using a long RP emote macroed into your abilities can get really annoying for a party. Trust me, I was guilty of it too until it was pointed out to me how annoying it was. Just something to keep in mind.

[Trizzip]

I decent deal of griefing went on in Quetz in XI. It was never a big deal to me, as I don't care how folks percieve me. I enjoy RP'ing and nobody is going to take that joy away from me. Plus, if it ever got too bad, I'd just '/blist' the player. Although, most RP'ers on Quetz just stuck to RP'ing only in /party chat and refused to RP in /say. Didn't bother me, although when I was out on my own, I'd still go ahead and RP in /say just to see if there would be any unknown RP'er who would get interested and join in.

[Hiname]

Weeeeell, currently things look like this:

 

Either, I am not looking well enough or the persons offered to help me are lazy, but it seems that the germans dont "have" a centered RP-Community. Kinda pitty, buuut...

 

I was asked if it would be possible to open up a "Non-English Sub-Forum" here on this board, with some designated persons that speak both english and [Other language XY], watching over the needs and wants of the people posting there and making sure that everything RP-Coalition related is brought over correctly.

 

What should I tell them?

[Mamina]

I know I'm new, but I just thought that I'd offer my two cents. (:

 

Population-wise, I personally prefer some kind of middle ground. I like there to be bits of everything there; people who rp, people who don't, serious players, casual players and players of all nationalities. Like everyone's already said, I'd like to be able to play with people who don't rp as well. I don't think there's really a way to prevent over/under-population though, especially when you're picking a server as soon as the game opens. I guess you can go around other forums doing a sweep of what servers people plan to use for a general idea? I just say don't pick the one at the top of the list. >__> /former Alexander player.

 

On the subject of griefing, I think it's inevitable at some stage. It doesn't really matter what server or whether or not there's PvP, there's going to be people out there who think rpers are stupid (or, apparently, creepers trying to be something they're not, bleh). But without the PvP aspect there'll be a little less animosity, I guess. You have to put up with a bit of griefing wherever you rp, though. One of the main forums I used to use for advertising rps always got attacked by the General Discussion of that forum just for enjoying rp, and we had otherwise no contact with them. Some folks just don't like it.

 

As for international rpers, there are definitely people who speak other languages who rp. I don't know about MMOs specifically but for some reason there's a pretty large Swedish play-by-post rp community. I'm trying to find out if there are a lot of Japanese rpers atm, but I have NO idea how 'role play' translates in Japanese. .__.;

[Gavriel]

Just throwing in a few copper.

 

I will obviously go wherever the community ends up going. I really hope that everyone feels the same way. Wherever we choose to go I hope to be part of a guild that will foster RP across the entire server and make sure that the RP community will survive in the long term.