A crazy idea that might alleviate Balmung population: Make it an official RP Server

[Abriael]

I know, it may sound a little crazy, but hear me out. 

 

I feel that if Square Enix officially labeled Balmung as an RP server, it could actually make it less desirable for non-roleplayers, causing a rather sharp drop in population, and leaving it open for other RPers to join.

 

If you want the full long version, I have a post on the den of scum and villany... ahem... the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/326971-Suggestion-Turn-Balmung-into-an-Official-RP-Server

 

feel free to support. or to throw rotten oranges, because those always come.

[Parth Makeo]

It's already too late to give servers their own type of flag considering none of them have the typical "PVP/PVE" label to note what is encourage. And with Balmung being on Aether, what about the other servers? If we were to allow Balmung to have an RP tag then what would be the RP realm of each server? 

 

I ask because 1: Gilgamesh and Balmung are already server locked. Hence why we're trying to find alternatives and judging from the population chart...it's REALLY BAD.

and 2: even with an RP tag it won't stop non-rpers at all. Balmung has so many people that pve and raiding still thrives because most RPers (shock of all shock) actually do Savage content.

 

Lables don't mean anything in MMO games as much as you think. An RP server flag is merely saying "By the way this server might have people toggling walk and not typing in broken English" to other players.

 

P.S: truth be told, Final Fantasy 14 would benefit better by just merging smaller servers but that is another topic for another thread.

[Mercer]

Yeah, we're about four years too late for that. Even if Balmung does get labeled as the RP server, there is an extensive population already invested in the server. Friends, Companies, housing, etc that makes it difficult to leave because of the simple fact it's the RP server.

 

The free transfers away with perks and housing reimbursement that SE is going to give out eventually is a better incentive. And combined with the RP server flag, would likely put a dent into the population. However, there is an overwhelming amount of people on Balmung. It needs to lose over 8,000 players at least to become "stable" by the amount of people SE has deemed to be a large server.

[Kage]

People aren't going to leave. Hell, people aren't leaving now. I spoke with PvE raider friends and they don't have any plans to leave.

 

If anything, Nero's suggestion of a new / very low-population world being designated the RP server is far more likely to both happen as well as succeed.

[Erah'sae]

Honestly, I think it'll do absolutely nothing, regardless of what gets flagged an "official" RP server.  It's not like the server flag will actually do much.  There are already TOS entries for inappropriate/trademarked names and any other name can be explained away as an 'alias'. 

 

Disruptive behavior is already against the TOS as well.  

 

The community already knows Balmung is an "unofficial" RP server and they haven't run off anyway.  Even if another server got flagged, Balmung is already the "unofficial" RP server and I doubt you'd see any sort of exodus.  There's too much Balmung centric baggage. 

 

I also doubt another server will get flaged as an 'official rp server' without Balmung also getting tagged because at that point you're giving the community's already existing efforts the finger more or less.

[Athil]

The distinctive challenge of transporting a community off of Balmung is housing. Characters, assets, even FCs and Linkshells can be migrated, but the artificial housing scarcity will always prevent major groups from leaving Balmung. The only way to alleviate this would be for Sony to guarantee replacement housing for server transfers, and I just don't see that happening.

[Faye]

I think it's unlikely to happen, seeing as people have pushed for it before, but it would definitely be helpful.

[Valde]

Roleplayers are the minority, even here on the Balmung server. Being generous and giving us a third of the stake on the server, that's maybe 8000-9000 players out of 26k. Trying to shift 15000+ players to another server by labeling the biggest one as an RP server rather than taking a few of the smallest and attempting to spread the niche players there is pretty backwards, imo.

 

You're not going to shift people easily. SE has made it so moving is disincentivized due to the cost and opportunity cost of housing. SE has generated half this problem themselves, and they'll need to create heavy incentives for Non-RPers to shift off (Which they are doing, thankfully).

[Flynn Bladebreaker]

If SE would tag any server for RP, it would be an entirely new one. Tagging an existing one, the most popular one in fact, would be incredibly unfair to non-RPers, and RPers currently locked out. No one should be made to leave, they gotta be motivated like SE is doing by offering free transfers and perks to the new EU servers.

[Athil]

It's somewhat of a no-win scenario for Sony.

 

1. Make Balmung an RP server, and alienate a crowd of people who cannot get access to it.

2. Designate a different server as the "RP Server" and now people on Balmung have to make a tough decision.

3. Start a new server to designate as the RP, transfer assets/housing/etc. I've still got plenty of non-RPers who I enjoy playing the game with on Balmung. Not to mention, how big will the new server be? Do people self select to go?

[Desu Nee]

Clear the choice is to purge Balmung of all life.

 

 

And all the other servers too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:v

[Cassandra]

I believe I said this already in your thread on the official forums, but I shall post here too. This solution only works with a brand new server, on a temporary restriction that allows only Balmung players to transfer initially. Those with houses would be given a token allowing them to repurchase the exact same house once relocated. 

 

That is never going to happen.

 

Designating Balmung the official roleplay server now accomplishes nothing. Plenty PvErs fancy being on it due to the high population whilst others have called it home since 1.x and feel a sort of attachment despite not roleplaying themselves. Established PvE FCs like Ward and Highborn have no intention of moving and they boast over 100 members each. 

 

Therefore, we either accept Balmung may not see new recruits for however long or it's the roleplayers who move because we're more of a community than our PvE counterparts and could facilitate something like that. I suspect the former will happen.

[Erah'sae]

Stuff about tagging a server.

 

Eh, just because you make one server an RP server doesn't mean you can't tag others.

 

Tag Balmung (because not doing so would be disingenuous) tag a couple of others.  

Instant community choice.

Balmung is full, but it's still a RP server (among other things), and there's direction for where else to go.

 

I really don't get the all or nothing thought on this.

[Briggs]

Curious, but why lock an ongoing discussion spanning several pages in favor of this one? 

 

They're the same topic.

 

Anyway, adding a tag won't do much. The masses have already settled.

[Crystal Chronicler]

I doubt it would change much. Many of the non-rpers on Balmung are Legacy players and have long since settled down. They aren't likely to move just because SE added a new label to the server.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Curious, but why lock an ongoing discussion spanning several pages in favor of this one? 

 

They're the same topic.

 

Anyway, adding a tag won't do much. The masses have already settled.

 

So far, the only thread that's been locked related to all the server things has been one at the request of that thread's original poster. There are a variety of similar and related threads, but most haven't been duplicates or reposts. However, when a thread starts to devolve into people making petty insults, shitposts and the like, the staff may just lock it to prevent further derailing as well. Should that happen, one of the staff will leave a message stating it's ok to branch that thread to continue in a separate discussion.

[Y'raya]

Curious, but why lock an ongoing discussion spanning several pages in favor of this one? 

 

They're the same topic.

 

Anyway, adding a tag won't do much. The masses have already settled.

I had them lock my thread because it had stopped being a discussion before the second page was full.

[Askier]

We locked a thread because it was getting a little heated. Opening another, while Nobel, is probably futile on this topic.

 

Official designation will not solve the issue. Why would people already on a server want to leave. They have friends on their servers. Plus Not everyone has free money lying around to pay for the transfers.

[Crystal Chronicler]

The new incentives that SE is providing might help with building RP outside Balmung since it encourages migration to less populated servers. Several people from Balmung on this site have already expressed a desire to transfer or at least create an alt, so I wouldn't worry to much on this topic. Mateus may see a RP bloom here shortly. Maybe.