discussion Alternate RP server (Updated 5/18/17)

[Shion]

I'd happily do my part in getting Mateus off the ground as a secondary RP server. I just started about a week ago, so I don't have any deep ties to Balmung, or a house or excess money to lose, and my friend who was locked out of transferring to Balmung by this closure (his necessary "character must exist for three days" being during the downtime) would be able to transfer onto there with me so we could play together.

 

$18 is a block but Mateus has my support and very real consideration in hopping over. :thumbsup:

[Rosekitten]

Personally I had already planned to switch my character to Mateus. But if it's being voted for another rp server count my lot into the mix. The little time I've had on the server to meet folks and just the general chatter and being kept informed on the site has been amazing. ^^ They have a nice community there and it'd be nice to see it grow a bit. I just hope there isn't a sudden flood..

 

Off topic question.. anyone have an idea of what servers would be free transfer? That would help if it happened to be either of the serves listed here.

[Koti Nexus]

How uh...endemic is this attitude in Mateus?

 

"What is with you Balmung RPers and being so entitled? There's a pretty healthy RP communnity on Mateus and no one reacts like this. (But please, don't come to Mateus we don't want you here) "

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324942-Transfer-Restrictions-and-Roleplayers?p=4144695&viewfull=1#post4144695

 

Cuz ... as someone who's been in very small rp communities before, once that kind of us vs them attitude starts to grow, it can be extremely difficult for new ideas to take root, and for new kinds of rpers to get settled in if what they want to write goes against the status quo.  Coming into a tight knit rp community can be hard enough without actual resistance growing there before people actually move in.

 

I will state this, I am aware of them. I have already said my peace to them (I'm Koti on the SE Forums). They are not the RPC and they are not at all the face of most of the community on Mateus.

 

I don't know who they are, but when I was shown this by one of the members on the RPC, I was quick to reply. Sadly the SE Forums can be a very toxic place that speak very ill of a community.

It's one person making a characterization of Balmung because someone from Balmung said that Balmung needs to be labeled RP server and essentially force out everyone else who isn't an RPer off the world.

 

Is that what started it all...

Gods.... I feel like bring out my rocking chair now with my cane and going "I remember back in 1.0 on Besaid... We didn't worry about no fuddle duddle RP tags. If you were looking for RP, you just had to go searching for it... with the lag and sometimes zones trying to eat your computer. Mmhm."

 

That, and the official forum's general populace posting has always been a "Balmung's issues are created by Balmung itself." No matter if people were there because of the Besaid merger etc.

 

Just don't let the official forums' posters represent a sample of who you will see in-game. They're just another example of a vocal minority.

 

Does Mateus' RP community have any representation on tumblr? Or Faerie's? Other's? I know Balmung's RP community is barely represented in part by those here on RPC (hydaelyn roleplayers coalition, this site here). I know there's a sizeable portion of Balmung roleplayers on tumblr.

 

Would it be possible to gather some of those communities to come and speak about themselves here?

 

My knowledge, given I created the RPC, we are here on Hydaelyn forums and we have a discord. That is the scope of US. I don't really do social medias and I hate facebook. When we spoke about doing a facebook, it was discouraged by the community early on because we have Discord.

 

Discord is our major HUB for-- everything.

[Shion]

Off topic question.. anyone have an idea of what servers would be free transfer? That would help if it happened to be either of the serves listed here.

I don't think a list has been given yet.

[ShoggMommy]

Discord is our major HUB for-- everything.

 

Given the nature of Discord and the fact that it has been hacked a number of times as of late; I'd highly suggest not putting eggs into one basket. That's with anything really. If folks have a tumblr tag in addition that probably would help things.

[EliBallard]

I've been a Balmung poster on Tumblr up until now but I'll likely start dropping some Mateus stuff in the weeks to come. Only have a couple hundred followers but meh.

[TK Hikaru]

Throwing in my vote for Mateus. There's a small cluster of us, but we're trying our damned hardest to create a thriving roleplay community.

[Koti Nexus]

I've been a Balmung poster on Tumblr up until now but I'll likely start dropping some Mateus stuff in the weeks to come. Only have a couple hundred followers but meh.

 

You and I probably should talk about this tumblr thing.

[Cassandra]

For those curious, the unofficial census does allow us to speculate which servers will likely receive these supposed benefits. Currently, the respective populations of the servers mentioned are:

 

Fareie: 11,513

Siren: 7,649

Maeteus: 4,423

 

It's a damn near certainty Maeteus will be first in line to become a "bonus" server given it has the lowest population outside Japan. So if the idea is looking at whichever servers may have free transfer options. Maeteus looks to be a prime candidate. While I, too, am a bit cautious suddenly labeling anything the new secondary roleplay server right now, I also feel one has to be chosen at some point because a major issue with roleplay outside Balmung has always been splitting the community too thin. Even shifting over an alt might do wonders to boost any one of these servers and give them much needed promotion.

[Widow1987]

Hello, 

 

I would like to respectfully put forth the server of Faerie. Not as a replacement Balmung but as an alternative  for those looking for rp but cannot join Balmung at this time. The rp community is still in its growing phases on Faerie but it is showing promise and proving to be a warm place. Multiple FC's have already begun networking and hosting open events for all to join and create a community. They have formed an enjin page to coordinate and have an rp community wide linkshell and discord for furter community and coordination. Also many FCs have created entire fc housing dedicated to open acess to rpers looking for a tavern setting with live tenders and lively conversation. 

 

Long story short. The promise and community on Faerie is there for any willing to come take a look. 

 

You may contact myself, Widow Hakumei or Lynaea Flores for invites to the linkshell and various FCs once you arrive. 

 

Happy hunting all

[Maril]

I am just going to throw in one of the ideas that have surfaced on the discord that has been working to gather information about the other communities thus far, and then I will give you the information we have gotten as well. 

 

One of the big things I have seen, which people seem to support as well, is to have stunt doubles of your existing characters on various servers. Several server reps (FC leads etc.) have stated they'd be willing to host events which would be easily accessible by e.g a level 15 character. Even going so far as to provide rides on 2 person mounts to get people to locations that it would be risky and lengthy to run to. I think this is a great way to ease up on the fact that the community is otherwise very scattered. Obviously mains have to be somewhere, but even to that end, rolling alts to check out various communities may help ease that choice - and building a culture where the server you play on isn't going to restrict you from some events is only beneficial, in my eyes. 

 

Presently I know there are RP communities on;

Jenova 

Coeurl 

Lamia 

Mateus

Cerberus 

Cactuar 

Ultros 

Leviathan 

Hyperion

Midgardsomr 

Gilgamesh

Famfrit

 

These are either organised in linkshells or guilds. Not all of them have websites. Size wise, a lot of them seem equal. 

I do not think that having a mentality of "Bigger is better" is going to be very helpful when looking for RP outside of Balmung. 

http://jenovacasualcorner.tumblr.com/ - Jenova 

http://rec-u.enjin.com/ - Jenova 

http://koto-ffxiv.shivtr.com/ - Jenova 

http://www.gilgamesh-rp.com/ - Gilgamesh 

 

Awoken Wanderers on Leviathan, Arche Koeln on Lamia, Tantalus Threatre LS on Lamia, The Hearth LS on Leviathan.. And more to come. We will eventually get the names and links of everywhere. I hope you can use some of this info for your list.

[Skae]

If there are going to be a "second" RP server in addition to Balmung I think one of the first things to be considered is making an EU-based RP server. That there exists interest in such a server is undeniable - if there is enough interest is less obvious.

 

 

That of course does not preclude adding another US-based RP server as well - assuming the RP population is large enough to support it.

 

(Talking about a second RP server is a bit misleading since there historically has been a second un-official RP server: Gilgamesh. RP there appears to have died down over the years though.)

 

One problem with creating an alternate US-based RP server is that it will compete with Balmung (assuming Balmung opens up again eventually) and many RPers will choose to move to the largest one for obvious reasons.

 

An EU server would have less problem with this since then people would choose largely based on timezone.

[Mercer]

If there are going to be a "second" RP server in addition to Balmung I think one of the first things to be considered is making an EU-based RP server.   That there exists interest in such a server is undeniable - if there is enough interest is less obvious.

 

 

That of course does not preclude adding another US-based RP server as well - assuming the RP population is large enough to support it.

 

(Talking about a second RP server is a bit misleading since there historically has been a second un-official RP server: Gilgamesh.   RP there appears to have died down over the years though.)

 

One problem with creating an alternate US-based RP server is that it will compete with Balmung (assuming Balmung opens up again eventually) and many RPers will choose to move to the largest one for obvious reasons.

 

An EU server would have less problem with this since then people would choose largely based on timezone.

 

Thanks for the feedback, Skae. There is already a growing discussion on an EU specific RP server going on just a few threads down!

 

On the subject of Gilgamesh, it is no longer a viable alternative since it is under the same character creation and transfer restrictions that Balmung is. It has also dwindled down slowly as Balmung lured it's players away with promises of a community that didn't actively grief them. The smaller servers seem to not have the same issues given... that they are really small and any population boost would be a boon.

 

The EU Server discussion!

http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=19399

[ExAtomos]

I'm just gonna put this out there... being reluctant to use as many forms of social media as you can get your gaming hands on is not conducive to advertising and building your group. With careful planning and successful advertising, I was able to grow an FC on a backwater JP server from a carcass of only a few active players (but damn stubborn and willing to help) to a thriving international group of about 200. I've been there and it ain't easy work. Confidence, determination, cooperation, and flexibility will get you where you want to be.

 

I too have heard of a good handful of servers offering themselves as alternatives (Jenova, Siren, Mateus, Faerie, Ultros). Is there a good reason to keep yourselves separated between so many different servers?

[Maril]

I too have heard of a good handful of servers offering themselves as alternatives (Jenova, Siren, Mateus, Faerie, Ultros). Is there a good reason to keep yourselves separated between so many different servers?

 

I think the lack of people grouping up on one server has come from the fact that there hasn't been a very clearly advertised and unified initiative- The attitude has been "You can just transfer in". Gilgamesh was a good attempt but there were several factors along with that server also exploding with people which made it more obscure and harder to find. As you also said, not wanting to use every platform available isn't a good thing, fostering a "Us vs. them" feeling just because Balmung is bigger and more people from Balmung use a certain platform isn't going to help anyone at the end of the day. 

So it's lead to a situation where people are scattered, and right now what is holding people in this scattered form is the fact that people have now worked hard on their own community bubbles for 1+ years, so they don't immediately want to uproot. This is where I hope NA will eventually see similar benefits to transferring as the EU are sported to get. People do seem to agree with the notion that they have to come together more, so I still think there's plenty of good possibilities to get more unification going even if it means people wont transfer anywhere right this second.

[Flynn Bladebreaker]

Like the EU thread going on, I would strongly suggest a vote. My opinion that if you should choose a sister to Balmung, choose a server that is (or will be) new, or very low on population, and all come together on that instead of popping in to say "Hey, we're doing fine, come here". 

 

You won't be getting much fights with the non-RPers over who owns what (I dunno why some think that's a thing but ah well).

[Kailani]

I kind of agree on getting the ball rolling with a vote since there has been quite a lot of feedback already. Seems there has been a good amount of people who have started playing the game in the last few weeks who will not want to spend money to transfer, so it is really just putting off their game play at this time I know some want to hold off until they find out which server has perks, but you have no idea when that will happen and people could be two or three weeks into that character by then and won't want to move

 

I really do hope that an alternate server is created and it flourishes. My only true concern with it is that when Balmung re-opens its gates, how many people will throw in the towel and just transfer. My only other suggestion as well is not to consider that any single person or free company is the "leader" or figurehead of a community. The community will only thrive if multiple people and groups help make that happen. The last thing the server needs is to start out with a king of the hill mentality. You don't need cliques before things have even started

[Kage]

Consider this example (all of these are hypotheticals):

 

Right now Mateus has pretty high odds of being absolutely considered for free world transfers. Other options being Faerie and Siren.

 

Faerie and Siren don't get the free world transfer. Faerie has 100 more roleplayers than Siren which has 50 more than Mateus. There are multiple completely free housing wards on Mateus that are completely untouched. Faerie and Siren's housing wards are 3/4ths full. Of the roleplayers in Faerie, not many Raid but those on Siren do as well as those on Mateus.

 

So overall, the roleplayer population on Faerie and Siren each is more than Mateus. But, Mateus has more housing open. Faerie has the most population but now more of them have access to more raid groups and houses too.

 

There may be a net gain for those groups to consolidate on Mateus because of the incentives. Some portion of your housing costs are liquidated to provide you with more housing options that weren't available. The money cost is waived which eases the highly likely disgruntlement of whichever community ends up needing to transfer.

 

Having multiple groups come together is most likely a better option then doing what has been done before which is sending people to the various communities. It's also highly unfair to the other communities to just choose a place to send people to.

[Mercer]

I would like to give the thread another day or two to develop. Yes, there has been a good amount of feedback, but as it has been show there are many RP communities out there. I would like to give those other small communities some time before I put a poll out there.

[FallenFedora]

I'd definitely have to toss my vote out in favor of Mateus - I'm seeing a lot of love for the server, and it looks to have a steady foundation of RPers already upon which to build from.

[Redariesye]

Jenova is still alive here, still kicking for 2+ years. We are currently getting our linkshell in order due to people vanishing and going inactive and being way too full. Hopefully soon we can get all the info in order to post them in FC and Linkshell stuff, currently I believe there are two or three FCs that rp, but recently a few more showed up so we shall see.

[EliBallard]

I am just going to throw in one of the ideas that have surfaced on the discord that has been working to gather information about the other communities thus far, and then I will give you the information we have gotten as well. 

 

One of the big things I have seen, which people seem to support as well, is to have stunt doubles of your existing characters on various servers. Several server reps (FC leads etc.) have stated they'd be willing to host events which would be easily accessible by e.g a level 15 character. Even going so far as to provide rides on 2 person mounts to get people to locations that it would be risky and lengthy to run to. I think this is a great way to ease up on the fact that the community is otherwise very scattered. Obviously mains have to be somewhere, but even to that end, rolling alts to check out various communities may help ease that choice - and building a culture where the server you play on isn't going to restrict you from some events is only beneficial, in my eyes. 

 

Presently I know there are RP communities on;

Jenova 

Coeurl 

Lamia 

Mateus

Cerberus 

Cactuar 

Ultros 

Leviathan 

Hyperion

Midgardsomr 

Gilgamesh

Famfrit

 

These are either organised in linkshells or guilds. Not all of them have websites. Size wise, a lot of them seem equal. 

I do not think that having a mentality of "Bigger is better" is going to be very helpful when looking for RP outside of Balmung. 

http://jenovacasualcorner.tumblr.com/ - Jenova 

http://rec-u.enjin.com/ - Jenova 

http://koto-ffxiv.shivtr.com/ - Jenova 

http://www.gilgamesh-rp.com/ - Gilgamesh 

 

Awoken Wanderers on Leviathan, Arche Koeln on Lamia, Tantalus Threatre LS on Lamia, The Hearth LS on Leviathan.. And more to come. We will eventually get the names and links of everywhere. I hope you can use some of this info for your list.

Most people don't have time to play on more than one server, let alone 12. That Discord server was a nice idea, but for a real new RP server that has a chance at growing (and now is the best chance to do it with SE making Balmung no longer an option) one or MAYBE two servers need to be chosen and named unofficial RP servers by us in the community.

 

This means some peoples feelings are gonna be hurt when their 3 person LS on Famfrit that RPs isn't on the same level as, say, Mateus and Siren with their actual multiple FCs and roaming RPers. You can't make everyone happy here and trying while shushing anyone who says something negative is futile and the sort of behaviour best left to Tumblr.

[Mercer]

From the feedback I've seen here and around the forums people are starting to get a good idea of what alternative server they would like. Please continue giving feedback because it greatly helps the new players that are coming in find a home!

 

Tomorrow I will be starting a new thread with a poll so we can start making some decisions as a community.

 

I please ask the community of servers to not be bitter or angry at any results that come out of the poll. This is a chaotic time and throwing shade will not help the situation. If and when a server is chosen it is not invalidating your choice and effort but rather what players feel like is the most secure and safe avenue for the future.

[Ellmida]

Didn't someone mention a few months ago that there was also a small rp community on Sargentas?

[Maril]

 

Most people don't have time to play on more than one server, let alone 12. That Discord server was a nice idea, but for a real new RP server that has a chance at growing (and now is the best chance to do it with SE making Balmung no longer an option) one or MAYBE two servers need to be chosen and named unofficial RP servers by us in the community.

 

This means some peoples feelings are gonna be hurt when their 3 person LS on Famfrit that RPs isn't on the same level as, say, Mateus and Siren with their actual multiple FCs and roaming RPers. You can't make everyone happy here and trying while shushing anyone who says something negative is futile and the sort of behaviour best left to Tumblr.

 

I do not think anyone is asking to commit to 12 servers or even fulltime alts? It takes about an hour or two to get a character to level 15 that you an go to events with. It's not a huge tradeoff for the chance of new lasting connections. Regular players and roleplayers alike, we tend to want to be where our friends are. You don't make new friends by not reaching out.

 

And whilst I am sure a lot of people would wish we could just snap our fingers and go we're going -here-, that is not going to be how it happens. It will be a slow process if anything, and the only thing that can speed it up is if Squeenix decides to make transfer incentives for the US as well. It needs steady work from a lot of firesouls, and I think calling people out on not wanting to move is very disrespectful to those who are doing something for their server and have done so for a long time. Even if there's "only" two guilds to move, that is still a lot of people who need to have the means for it, it is a huge undertaking and I do not envy those who decide to spearhead it if at one point the opinions in the community changes in favor of a move. This is sowing a lot of seeds, people are getting to know each other & now it "only" takes persistence to get the rest of the way. Who knows, maybe people will all end up on Mateus- it's just not gonna happen by tomorrow.