Balmung Transfer Restriction Megathread

[Kage]

Any decisions should probably be held off until further announcements about how many and where in regards to Worlds transfers unless the congestion really isn't as bad as some people believe. EU is due for some additional worlds so I assume that some may want to even try for those, irregardless of whether or not I think that is really a good decision or not as you won't be able to see what the health of the world is like.

[EliBallard]

Moving to a totally new server, especially an EU one when this problem is as much a thing for NA players as well, seems like the worst possible move.

[Aegir]

Honestly, this was definitely needed. There's a difference between being "crowded" and "overcrowded." Balmung is the latter. The RP community has grown too large to sustain itself in a healthy manner. It's unfortunate that SE had to walk the path of total lockdown to get things back on track, but it's a necessary evil at this point. Up to this point, everyone has continued to keep urging new RPers to come to Balmung every single time. There has been minimal encouragement to move them elsewhere to help our stability.

 

I do hope and continue to believe that cross-world play is still on its way since SE has already mentioned cross-world tells, friend lists, linkshells, and FCs being in the works. It's just probably a ways off. In the meantime, it's our responsibility to see to it that RP is capable of continuing to grow, rather than be stifled by Balmung's unhealthy devouring of every single RPer. I see this as a 'forced diet,' and it's definitely needed.

 

That said, it's up to the other servers to up their game to ensure every new RPer gets the solid experience they deserve. I've been to Siren and Mateus both. Siren has a lot of work to do. A LOT. Mateus is in better shape, but also needs to up its game considerably with more varied event types, more open world RP, and less strict policies that needlessly stifle growth. It's essentially doing what we did here with the  RPC Council/Charter type of deal, which does not work in coalition environments like this. Gilgamesh was born out of contempt for Balmung/Besaid, and I personally would never consider it for that reason alone. However, it does have the name recognition and really needs to work on its internal issues and presence in the larger community. The forced cutoff may be what they need to accomplish that and become a force to be reckoned with again. Basically, it's up to these communities to seize this moment and run with it, and we should be as supportive as possible through it all.

 

What does "the RP community has grown too large to sustain itself in a healthy manner" mean? Is there something wrong with too much RP happening on one server?

[Kage]

Moving to a totally new server, especially an EU one when this problem is as much a thing for NA players as well, seems like the worst possible move.

Oh, indeed. In the space of getting an EU hub as well as an NA secondary, I don't think choosing a totally new space would be a good idea but it's always something to take into consideration.

[Iron Bride]

Yeah I'm not sure I'd agree with the idea of the roleplay community having gotten "too big" as this is the kind of hobby that only gets better with more people.   The server itself is having issues with overcrowding, but the reality is that Balmung is not 100% roleplayers.  A rather large percentage are roleplayers, for a non-official RP server, but there's still no small amount of people that don't roleplay that might be just as happy someplace else if they didn't have to give up their stuff and pay real life money for the privilege. 

 

Balmung as a server could probably really benefit from free transfers off of it, especially with relaxed caps on moving gil and whatnot.   I think if this were offered for 3-6 months, the population would probably start to balance out much better.

[ExAtomos]

Moving to a totally new server, especially an EU one when this problem is as much a thing for NA players as well, seems like the worst possible move.

 

It makes sense to me to have a viable RP community on the EU DC somewhere so EU players don't have to fight against high ping since they are playing the game as well as RPing.

 

In a way, I do wish SE would offer these crazy incentives for people to move off Balmung and designate the server as RP. Gonna happen? Doubt it. Can dream though. Heck, if there was a new server officially designated as RP, I'd move. We'd have space for more people either way.

[Erah'sae]

Every night there are 3-8 publicized RP events; this isn't counting FC/LS events that aren't put on the calendar. 

 

Yup, there are 37 weekly recurring events on my calendar, that isn't counting the monthly, bi-weekly, or one offs which we seem to have 3-10 of every week.

 

Currently over 100 discord servers (I don't really know his this related to FCs, some are linkshell based) have the RP Calendar discord bot broadcasting events of the day.  Balmung has grown well beyond what most games call RP servers and taken on a life of it's own.  Communities have subcommunities, which have groups inside of those.  

 

It's kind of awesome to watch.

 

 

What another server really needs is about 100 or so highly active RPers to seed a community. That's about the minimum I'd go for any sort of sustainability.  In my experience once you go below that you start to experience problems due to players being a scarce  resource.  Even 100 is pretty small, all things considered, but it's enough to get a solid foothold going. That's bout 5 decent sized groups to interact.  To maintain any sort of inertia they need infrastructure (groups need to be able to find each other easily and to communicate) and people pushing the social side.  You also need your movers and shakers who spend their night coming up with events and helping to facilitate those of others.

 

I'm personally too old and don't have the desire to push any of that on my own, but for those looking to establish a new community on another server, I think that's about what it would take for another RP server to get a solid foothold and survive long term.

 

(edit: I am the lord of typos.)

[Kylin]

What does "the RP community has grown too large to sustain itself in a healthy manner" mean? Is there something wrong with too much RP happening on one server?

 

Yes. It's an endless sea that is impossible for some to navigate. There are so many RPers out there that get frustrated daily because they struggle to find what they're looking for. They're 'lost as sea' so to speak. They go to events, public RP hot spots, and so on, but still can't get what they're looking for. They either get anxiety from there being too many people or they in some cases get outright ignored (not necessarily on purpose, mind you). That's not healthy. When Rpers get frustrated to a certain point, they just give up. They either leave the game or just leave RP and just 'exist' in the background doing other game things. And nobody really seems to care because they have their own ship with their own crew, so they're good to go. And they see plenty of other ships out there, so 'everything must be good' in the grand scheme. But there's another picture people are quick to disregard or ignore. Just because there are 'a ton of ships out there' doesn't mean they're all doing well and it certainly doesn't take into account the tons of other ships that sank without so much of another ship coming to their aid.

 

Think of it like an all you can eat buffet. That's what Balmung is right now. And people are so excited about that because it sounds great on the surface. But in reality, everyone is so engrossed in their own plate that they're not realizing what's actually happening to the larger buffet behind them. People have so many options that they don't even touch some of the food, even if the food is actually really good. A lot of the food goes to waste and gets tossed out. And if nobody ever eats the mac and cheese, then the chefs eventually stop making mac and cheese altogether.

 

Balmung has actually hemorrhaged a lot of good RPers over time. People just don't notice it because they're engrossed in their own 'plate' of food. And there's still so much more coming to the buffet table so it's even less noticeable. With the lockout now, there's nothing more coming to the buffet table now. You have to eat what you can get or leave the restaurant (Balmung) for a restaurant that no doubt offers less.

 

Talking about what SE should have or could have done is pointless. They deemed the overpopulation a problem and made a decision. There's nothing we can do to change that. Until Balmung stabilizes (if it does), it will remain locked out just as character creation has remained locked for as long as it has. Thus, people need to look internally to keep RP going instead of relying on the vast amount of transfers that have been coming in to keep it sustained. That's the point I'm trying to make. There's a huge buffet table of food already on the table. We need to pay attention to it and stop gorging on the same plates of food. We used to have things like our own internal mentor program for the RPC that helped get these 'just existing' RPers out into the open more. Lately, we've done little in this department. Balmung's hemorrhaging is going to be much more noticeable now without the newbie transfers to hide it...

 

I know my thoughts are probably all over the place. But as the person who initiated the RPC and has watched it grow since its inception, it frustrates me to watch people be completely oblivious to the reality of the many RPers we've actually quietly lost and just keep using the argument that 'people are constantly coming to Balmung so everything must be okay!' People are just too engorged in their individual plates of food to see the reality around them. And eventually, it's going to hit a breaking point and the buffet is going to disappear without notice (or the options are going to greatly diminish without notice).

[EliBallard]

It's easy to say "Balmung needed this" when you're on Balmung and not someone who desperately wanted on.

[LiadansWhisper]

Kylin, taking all the food away isn't healthy, either. It's also not going to make finding rp on other servers easier.

 

One of the best things about Balmung is that you don't have to worry that by pissing the wrong person off, you will be cut out from rp entirely. That's a very real, valid fear in a smaller population. I've seen what happens when it's a small community and one or two people are able to create a cult of personality and actively exclude players they don't like.

 

But..sure...having rp available whenever and wherever is a bad thing...

[Gegenji]

... Can't both situations exist? It doesn't seem like one has to deny the existence of the other.

 

Yes, there's a lot of RP potential here and that attracts people who want to get in but can't due to the sheer number of people on Balmung. Conversely, those that do get in looking for RP might get overwhelmed by the sheer number or left on the wayside because there's so many RPers that folks may often just stick with the handful of regular buddies to hang out with.

 

To go back to the buffet allegory (because it's almost lunchtime for me, I'm hungry, and I'm strangely jonesing for some mac and cheese now )... setting up another server as an RP one is more like opening a second buffet. Or at least attempting to - you have to get enough food there and get the word out enough that it becomes popular. That way, you have two buffets to choose from for where you want to eat.

 

So if you (or your friends) like that original buffet more, it's still there to partake from. But if the lines are too long, you can move to the other. And hopefully, eventually, from this talk about cross-server groups and stuff becoming more commonplace.. the two buffets will have a sort of open-air neutral dining area for everyone to hang out in.

[ExAtomos]

Every time I comment on a thread about someone asking about transferring into Balmung, I liken it to moving to the big city. You have to put forth a lot of effort in order to be noticed and to get involved in the RP that's going on. The player won't have a small group of say 15 people all falling over themselves to cater to their whims since there are so few. I won't go so far as to say it's sink-or-swim because I know there ARE many FC/LS groups on Balmung that WILL bend over backwards to help new players. (And heck, I know of some folks who ONLY rp with those in their own FC and never venture out to any public events, in essence making their own 'small community' within the larger. Whatever works for them.) The big city is certainly not for everyone, but there are many who love it (I'm one of them). I don't feel that Balmung is somehow oversaturated with RPers. Heck, I think it needs more. I love big events and being aswim in chat (/p chat is a lifesaver). Our responses to Balmung's RP population is just gonna be really subjective.

[Shion]

This is...disappointing. I have a friend who started the same day as me but couldn't get into Balmung, and was going to transfer once his character was three days old. That third day was during the downtime, and now this. 

[Virella]

I'm not certain how many of you here tried to battle the big guy, when it comes down to roleplay servers. I did on WoW when my old server ended up dying. We ran so many events ourselves, and while I had a blast for months, it was a uphill, losing battle. We gave up and transferred off. I think if I couldn't transfer to that big remaining RP server, I would have simply quit that game. I imagine more new and/or older roleplayers on other servers might end up doing this due to the server lock.

 

Establishing/reviving a RP server is really not as easy as people make it out to be.

[Gegenji]

This is...disappointing. I have a friend who started the same day as me but couldn't get into Balmung, and was going to transfer once his character was three days old. That third day was during the downtime, and now this. 

 

I think that's the biggest downside to all this. Was this lockdown mentioned anywhere so that people could be aware it was coming? Having some heads-up beforehand probably would've helped a lot with this sort of "fallout" for the decision.

[Haven's Fox]

*Quote stuff*

 

I would have to disagree with parts of this here with having been one of those that started over on Gilgamesh in 2.0 and came to Balmung at a much later date.

 

The having such a myriad of options for rp opens is amazing or was amazing at the start of Gilgamesh. You could do anything you wanted and go everywhere just like in Balmung today. But as time progressed and the much smaller Gilgamesh population rp'd on little bits of friction among players would spring up. This is inevitable as it is impossible for everyone to get along. The beauty at the start was that it could be ignored or easily washed out with the flood of other rpers around. If you didn't like what ever might have set you the wrong way you could get past it just like what Balmung offers in spades today.

 

What really starts becoming a issue is when those types start creating drama about 'ABC' conflict to other rpers. You get people who just don't want to deal with it and move on. Some will just blacklist the rabble rousers and continue on with their rp. While others will just ignore it at the time and hope it's a limited one time issue. In the smaller communities it is hard to get away or around issues like this. Then you get people fed up and wanting to move to the bigger rp server to once again have the sense of easily ignoring a problem person. This is why Gilgamesh has for the most part died down to a very tiny fraction of what it was compared to the start of 2.0 ARR. Other factors did happen over it's past but things like this were big reasons why a lot of us are now on Balmung.

 

Taking this back to the buffet analogy. Just because there is a ton of food in front of you it doesn't mean you need to try and eat it all at once. The RPC here has some amazing options for finding like minded rp ideas, events, players, and FCs. Take a look and see what you like then dig in or sample a little of each.

[Erah'sae]

I see your point Kylin and yes, larger communities are more difficult to find that 'perfect place'  This is why infrastructure like we have here is required.  It's not entirely unlike trying to find a place to hang out when moving to a new major city in the real world.

 

There's a certain balance needed between actually having a choice and choice paralysis.  The latter I believe is what you are describing.  I actually suffer from the latter.  I'm not (and haven't ever been) in an RP FC  (or even a real FC on Balmung, everyone in my FC is my and my spouses alts).  Just can't sort out where I'd actually fit in despite the number of opportunities available.

 

As far as people leaving, there is always churn, and that is something that does concern me about the lock.  Even assuming the (non existent) perfectly functioning community, there are always players that move out of it due to various reasons (work, new game, new RL constraints, social issues, death, etc), while it's been noticed (FC events going away, taverns being delisted) I've kind of come to expect this in any community.   We're a bit far from perfect due to the simple nature of being human.

 

Maybe this behooves us, as a community, to get the previously mentioned mentoring program going again.  

Maybe we need a better searchable FC / LS list to assist people in finding what they need beyond the simple "Making Connections" forum here.  Perhaps something on the official forums as well?

 

Perhaps someone will step up and start any of those initiatives?  If so, regardless of the lock persisting the community will be in a better place.

[Kage]

 

Establishing/reviving a RP server is really not as easy as people make it out to be.

 

It's essentially a job and requires more than just a few tens of people. It also can't rely on just a few because the basics of a community can be found in the basics of an FC which not all FCs thrive and survive.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

*looks over here*

 

Kind of shitty they did this so suddenly without warning.

 

They've been telling us to not transfer to fill world's for a really long time. They just weren't actually enforcing their words. It sucks, but this is also the perfect chance to foster some larger RP communities on other servers. (I can almost hear Mateus server people screaming!)

 

 

And why would we be screaming?

Just curious actually.

 

Given the reason I generated the RPC on Mateus was to actually prepare for this very thing. To grow a location that was extremely low pop to help bleed off what was going to be Balmung (formly Besaid) mass size being locked.

 

I can't help but since a little aggression from that, though I do know some people on Mateus have not been very.... well behaved. Though such behavior is out of my hands, sadly. Given there is now a growing mix culture on the server.. And even I plan to step away from the RPC I started and formulate something else to continue to foster some growth.

 

Edit Note:

You guys can either help with this or not. Maybe even look at other low pop servers, but I was part of the team that helped make Balmung what it is today and back then-- we never dreamed it would get this large. It sucks, yes, but it is also not the end of the world.

 

PS - could also be miss reading the aggression levels. It is late and running on lack of sleep. Go text context missing! *does a go go gadget dragoon! ... Right off the Titan platform*

 

Moonlit's reply after was basically what I meant. No aggression. We just received a fair number of feedback from Mateus users, which was good! (I meant yelling as in like excitement, cheering, etc.) ...I was also awake 3 hours later than normal, listening to a variety of in-the-house-yelling and watching the panic on the Offical Forums. ...not my best moments to write a post. I shoulda at least said "Mateus people screaming 'come to our server!' "

 

--

 

The thing that makes this so tricky is that the RPC strives to be server-neutral. ...which didn't really happen when everyone kept going to Balmung because it was established. I don't personally think it's "our" (the staff's) place to just arbitrarily tell people which server to pick. I always saw that as something that rested on the user base of the game. (Not gonna say community because I don't think servers have a single community, we have many, some of which overlap and interlink).

 

Now, for other servers, I would suggest NA people mostly try to focus on the Aether datacenter, since we can at least foster cross-world RP whether that's in parties or instances. SE is working on expanded cross-world interaction, so it seems like a good fit. And hey, we can help each other level up and clear content too!

 

As far as a dedicated EU RP server goes, I think there are similar concerns to what's happening in NA. It'd be cool if there was a designated place, but building up enough active people to make it sustainable and somewhere a new person would want to go is really tough. Especially if the EU servers are getting closed during primetime like Balmung and others had.

[Virella]

Uuuh. Didn't Gilgamesh RP sort of low key failed due to (knowingly) going to the unofficial Reddit server? Non-RPers tend to bully RPers after all. That's the reason why I heard that Gilgamesh flopped.

[Shion]

This is...disappointing. I have a friend who started the same day as me but couldn't get into Balmung, and was going to transfer once his character was three days old. That third day was during the downtime, and now this. 

 

I think that's the biggest downside to all this. Was this lockdown mentioned anywhere so that people could be aware it was coming? Having some heads-up beforehand probably would've helped a lot with this sort of "fallout" for the decision.

I didn't hear a peep about it.

[TheLastCandle]

Uh. Well, looks like my unhappy ass might be going to Faerie, so that I can better assist my RL friends who are about to start playing with making them gear and such. Kind of sucks that it's come to this. They really should've provided incentives for people to transfer off much sooner.

[Iron Bride]

Now, for other servers, I would suggest NA people mostly try to focus on the Aether datacenter, since we can at least foster cross-world RP whether that's in parties or instances. SE is working on expanded cross-world interaction, so it seems like a good fit. And hey, we can help each other level up and clear content too!

 

The point about the Aether datacenter is a good one.  I think eventually SE may make cross-datacenter possible, but being able to do cross-world RP in parties in the present is better than waiting on future game development to come.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Uuuh. Didn't Gilgamesh sort of low key failed due to (knowingly) going to the unofficial Reddit server? Non-RPers tend to bully RPers after all. That's the reason why I heard that Gilgamesh flopped.

 

It's generally never a single reason. Gilgamesh had it's own conflicts, became the reddit server, became the raiding server, and probably had all sorts of other designations placed on it.

 

Similar to how Balmung was labeled for just ERP, stupid fanfest/liveletter questions, etc. THe markers really don't have any meaning beyond gossip.

[Tarra]

Hi there.  

 

I was one of those players waiting for the 2-day maintenance to end to do a transfer to Balmung. I've been enjoying the gameplay of FFXIV so much, that I've decided to stay put where I am and invest in the budding RP community there. 

 

I've been playing on Fairie with another friend that intended to transfer as well. She's more outgoing than I am, and started wearing the RP tag, and sending whispers to everyone she found in search wearing the RP tag. 

 

Through those connections, she found a couple of guilds and various individuals interested in growing the RP community. They established a website and a discord, and hosted two RP events last week to bring players together that wanted to connect for RP. I don't know if there's other pockets of RPers floating about as I'm still new, but I'll leave this information here in case anyone else got shut out of Balmung like we did. I figure worst case scenario is help grow the community and if it doesn't work out, then maybe Balmung will be available for transfers down the road and we can try to get in then.

 

https://ffxiv-faerie-rp.enjin.com