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RP Servers: A Discussion (mods please read before locking..)


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Let's focus more on what's going to help resolve this issue. People seem to be more concerned with what's concerning people about the Balmung server, rather than trying to resolve anything, as I have been trying and failing to.

 

People will have their beliefs on the way they want to spend their time/money, so leave it at that.

 

I think a second server is a fair condition for all parties, and is no way binding for anyone to join one or the other but rather gives more options to those who seek them, and would be looked at as a measure to help secure the community rather than sever it.

 

I agree you with you we are an RP forum and should support all forms of Roleplay.

 

Edit: seems like some people are going to Moogle (Eu)

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Hmm, I totally understand the plights of the new players - and speaking realistically, RP cliques do and did exist in FFXIV 1.0 and will most likely continue to exist in 2.0. (This was not to accuse anyone of anything, just my own personal opinion.) To expand, most RPing communities have cliques, that is, RPers have certain people they like to RP with.

 

While more established RPers on Balmung are willing to accept new players, more likely then not, you will have to create characters based on their rules or critiques, lest you get ignored by these RPers and their cliques. 

 

Most will agree that this is a common and acceptable part of conformity. In order to join a group, you'll have to sacrifice a little of yourself to fit in. In this case, it would be your creative mindset. Not all of it of course, but your ideas will get cropped here and there to "fit" with the popular interpretations of lore.

 

Others may say this doesn't have to happen. But I have seen it happen, and it has happened to me on FFXIV and dozens of other MMORPG RPing communities I have joined. I warn the new players to be prepared to make concessions with their creative outlets if you decide to join Balmung.

 

On the other hand, if new RPers want to completely start fresh without too many established RPers setting the boundaries on their creativity, I suggest they roll on a new server. In order to give the new RPers this option, I am in support of Vee's suggestion: Poll for a second server for players to gather in. This becomes much more important to address if the Devs create an official RP server that is not Balmung.

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Unfortunately I can't agree that a second server would be fair for everyone. This problem appears to have no solutions that are fair for everyone. Either the RPC refuses to support a second server and ostracizes some new players who aren't willing to give it a chance and could have contributed to the community, or the RPC segregates the community and players are inevitably forced to choose favorites among their friends, or make friends with a forum goer only to realize that you can't play with them unless you remake your character for use in a parallel universe. Community events will have to be segregated as well, and will not include the entire community unless the organizer is willing to put in twice the amount of effort. Even then, we will not be one community, and that I think is at the heart of the issue here.

 

I don't like seeing people go when they could stay, but if you're so intent on going to another server, I think perhaps it's for the best that you try to start a community of your own.

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I guess I'm surprised this has become an issue. I missed the initial discussion today while I was at work, but reading this one has me a little put-off.

 

While I understand joining an established server with an established economy can be daunting, asking the RPC (where the majority of RPers, if not all of us, are currently placed on Balmung) to relocate to a new server is even more daunting. We don't even know that Legacy characters will be allowed to transfer to new servers yet.

 

It's a K.I.S.S. situation to me, more than anything. Many of the new RPers have chimed in that they're perfectly fine with making their character on the established Legacy server to join the existing RP community there. If we were to move, in order to keep the community together, to a new server.. it would be a massive undertaking. Not all RPers on Balmung regularly visit this website. What if they were to log in, unaware that we had moved (if we even can), and discovered everyone had left for a new server based on a vote they hadn't even known existed? I'm sure many RPers on other servers (they did exist, after all) in 1.0 felt slighted that we had chosen Besaid back in the day and they did not know it..

 

At the present time, when we do not know if SE will be designating a new server for RPers, or if Legacy characters are able to transfer (please correct me if they did tell us), I don't understand why this is being debated on.. :(

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I understand how it can be intimidating to enter a server where there are people who've already hit max or just a lead start in general. I sincerely hope that doesn't turn off many new players from joining because there are some legitimately welcoming people in Balmung.

 

I also understand how difficult it is to mesh with an existing community that feels really tight-nit. When I was in 1.0 it felt like that for a while but you sorta find your way around into a group and so forth. I'm actually quite excited to see a lot of new faces, as I know many of the RPC is as well.

 

Man I just wish the RP server was Cactuar, haha. :lol:

:cactuar:

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We don't even know that Legacy characters will be allowed to transfer to new servers yet.

 

 

I'm just stepping in to clarify this. Legacy characters, 1.0 or otherwise. Will be unable to transfer to non-legacy servers.

 

 

Outside of that, I'm not really going to touch this topic as I will certainly come off as a jerk and that's not going to help.

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We don't even know that Legacy characters will be allowed to transfer to new servers yet.

 

 

I'm just stepping in to clarify this. Legacy characters, 1.0 or otherwise. Will be unable to transfer to non-legacy servers.

 

Aaaand.. that's a huge problem for the majority of the RPC, then. I personally cannot make a version of Aysun for the potential new server just to RP on it. I often do other things while waiting for RP, such as leveling and crafting.. So it's not that I'm attached to Balmung, but we're unable to transfer.

 

I just hope that as many new RPers as possible join us on Balmung, and if the server is full we will have to explore other options when the time comes.

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While I understand joining an established server with an established economy can be daunting, asking the RPC (where the majority of RPers, if not all of us, are currently placed on Balmung) to relocate to a new server is even more daunting. We don't even know that Legacy characters will be allowed to transfer to new servers yet.

 

Literally NO ONE has asked this.

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I definitely want to be in the same server as the rest of the RPC community, but I just had a thought. Isn't it possible for servers to become full so that you can't join them? I would think the Legacy servers would be much closer to being 'full' than the new servers... Should we all have a backup server in mind, just in case when we try to join, we're told it's full and we can't?

 

I know this isn't a problem for Legacy members who are already part of Balmung, but it might be a problem if you're creating extra new characters.

 

Anyway, just a thought!

 

This was something that we were faced with back when the game initially launched, or rather, something that was discussed. In the end, everyone who wanted to get on Balmung was able to, and there weren't really ever any issues with this. And there were a lot of RPers those days.

 

With the servers supposedly being much better this time around, I think that its probably unlikely that anyone who wants to be on Balmung would not be able to.

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While I understand joining an established server with an established economy can be daunting, asking the RPC (where the majority of RPers, if not all of us, are currently placed on Balmung) to relocate to a new server is even more daunting. We don't even know that Legacy characters will be allowed to transfer to new servers yet.

 

Literally NO ONE has asked this.

 

Then I must be missing what is being asked...? Please clarify for me, I've been at work all day. x_x

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This was something that we were faced with back when the game initially launched, or rather, something that was discussed. In the end, everyone who wanted to get on Balmung was able to, and there weren't really ever any issues with this. And there were a lot of RPers those days.

 

With the servers supposedly being much better this time around, I think that its probably unlikely that anyone who wants to be on Balmung would not be able to.

 

That's good to know! But I was speaking more on a "just in case" level. I'm just the kind of person who loves to have a backup plan, lol. So that I dont suddenly find myself unable to join the server I want to without any clue where to go instead, you know? Nothing wrong with making plans.

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I knew this would happen~ Now that I got the "I told you so" out of the way... :P

 

There's not much I can add to what's already been said. So I'll focus on some different things that need to be said.

 

First, I'll repeat what I said just a bit ago on the skype chat room. If you're going to make/use a second account to help strengthen your side of the argument (regardless of which side of the argument), you've already shot yourself in the foot and hurt your entire position due to using manipulation tactics. I'll say no more on the matter, as the guilty party surely knows who they are and I have no desire to directly call him/her out by name.

 

Next, it seems people have already made their decisions before this discussion even began. It makes me wonder why even bother talking about it anymore if the decisions are all final?

 

Third, I will consider holding an unofficial poll. Notice that term "unofficial?" It would not necessarily be considered a "final decision" by any means and be meant to better gauge where the community's thoughts rest. However, should one option win by a massive landslide, that would probably be pretty indicative of what the community wants. Should the results be close, the situation would obviously warrant further discussion and compromise.

 

Forth, the RPC staff will be getting in touch with our contacts ASAP in order to hopefully get a response directly from Square Enix in regards to their plans (if any) for an official RP server. SE's decision (or lack thereof) could very well be a game changer for all.

 

Fifth, let's not even discuss server population. That is almost never an issue. It was a waste of time to discuss it at 1.0's launch. While servers may fill up and get locked, they generally get unlocked again within hours (at most, a few days). Considering XIV's niche crowd, it's not bound to have millions of players. We named an "overflow" server in 1.0 (Lindblum) that was never even needed. And XIV had a huge surge of new members at initial launch (prior to people knowing about its myriad of problems).

 

Finally, we all have to understand a couple of things. This kind of 'drama' crops up in every single MMO when it comes time for server selection in any RP community. It is not uncommon. So please, nobody needs to freak out too much. This is natural. At the end of it all, the majority always unites and lives (mostly) happily ever after. In addition, like in any community (gaming or real life), we have to realize that it is not possible to please everyone. Back in 1.0, there were a small number of RPers who did not like the server choice of Besaid (Balmung's original server name). They didn't join the majority and tried to go their own way (sadly, their groups didn't survive long, though this could have easily just been a result of the game's poor launch). This can't be helped and will be bound to happen. So while the majority will surely unite at the end of this all, everyone should still be prepared that the entire RP community will not likely unite.

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While I understand joining an established server with an established economy can be daunting, asking the RPC (where the majority of RPers, if not all of us, are currently placed on Balmung) to relocate to a new server is even more daunting. We don't even know that Legacy characters will be allowed to transfer to new servers yet.

 

Literally NO ONE has asked this.

 

Then I must be missing what is being asked...? Please clarify for me, I've been at work all day. x_x

 

New players want an alternative RP server so we don't have to deal with all the issues legacy servers have. We have a moderator telling us to go start our own community now at this point, though, so I guess there's no reason to even discuss it anymore.

 

Kylin: No one here wants people to not have Balmung. No one advocating for a new server for new players is or has said that to any degree whatsoever. We want a secondary server so we don't have to deal with a lot of the legacy issues. That. Is. All.

 

This isn't about not being able to unite on a same server because of friends or something. That's bound to happen. This is something unique to this launch.

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That's good to know! But I was speaking more on a "just in case" level. I'm just the kind of person who loves to have a backup plan, lol. So that I dont suddenly find myself unable to join the server I want to without any clue where to go instead, you know? Nothing wrong with making plans.

 

What I imagine will probably happen is that since Phase 4 is sort of an 'early rolling' prior to the game's release, and all legacy accounts as well as many new player accounts will be activated during that time, we'll take a look and see how Balmung is doing in terms of server population. If at that stage its looking like fitting people on one server, other options would be explored.

 

That would be my guess as to how it would be handled at least.

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That's good to know! But I was speaking more on a "just in case" level. I'm just the kind of person who loves to have a backup plan, lol. So that I dont suddenly find myself unable to join the server I want to without any clue where to go instead, you know? Nothing wrong with making plans.

 

What I imagine will probably happen is that since Phase 4 is sort of an 'early rolling' prior to the game's release, and all legacy accounts as well as many new player accounts will be activated during that time, we'll take a look and see how Balmung is doing in terms of server population. If at that stage its looking like fitting people on one server, other options would be explored.

 

That would be my guess as to how it would be handled at least.

 

Okay! I just read Kylin's post too and if y'all are so confident about it then I won't worry. I'm just not as familiar to the inner workings of MMO games so I'm not always 100% sure on these things.

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The only possible problem that could lead to some server congestion that I'm foreseeing is how SE could handle their early start.

 

MMO's that have had early/head starts have often only had a small selection of servers available for such things. This means the headstart servers get bombarded with everyone trying to get in, and then when the game launches a few days later, they open the other servers. 

 

This provides a problem in that the headstart servers have strong populations, and they're players who have progressed however far in those 3 days. Then these servers get slammed with more people, friends/guilds etc. that didn't have all members in the headstart.

 

 

So, it could still potentially be a problem, but there's lots of variables. Ideally we would hope SE would have all these servers up from the headstart, and I'm sure they will. Still, it's a possibility they won't.

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The only possible problem that could lead to some server congestion that I'm foreseeing is how SE could handle their early start.

 

MMO's that have had early/head starts have often only had a small selection of servers available for such things. This means the headstart servers get bombarded with everyone trying to get in, and then when the game launches a few days later, they open the other servers. 

 

This provides a problem in that the headstart servers have strong populations, and they're players who have progressed however far in those 3 days. Then these servers get slammed with more people, friends/guilds etc. that didn't have all members in the headstart.

 

 

So, it could still potentially be a problem, but there's lots of variables. Ideally we would hope SE would have all these servers up from the headstart, and I'm sure they will. Still, it's a possibility they won't.

 

I can't imagine that they'd announce all these servers now and then not have them all available at launch.

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Just a quick update. Square Enix rep responded extremely quickly to the issue of a RP server:

 

"The devs are still looking into this for now and there isn't any new news but he's (the rep) going to poke them again about it. "

 

Edit: I should clarify that the above was gathered from Wint at Zam. He shot an email on my behalf to Zam's SE representative.

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I can't speak for others in the community, but I can speak for me, and I've been around here for a while.

 

I have never, in my entire life, discriminated or been reluctant to roleplay with someone due to their level. Nor can I say that I've ever witnessed someone else in Final Fantasy XIV think less of another player due to their level, relative experience, or anything else. Several members of the RPC welcomed myself and my wife with open arms when we started playing Final Fantasy XI as miserably low-level characters post-Wings of the Goddess, with people going out of their way to help us get up to speed. People will generally raise an eyebrow if you're a level 1 mage claiming to be a master caster, but that is the absolute extent of it.

 

While I can understand concerns about everything being set in stone by launch, the fact of the matter is that doesn't seem to be the case. Communities will be somewhat established, but a lot of the game's dynamics will be in flux because the game itself is in flux. Between level sync, new mechanics, and a completely different content flow, I don't think new players will be walking into a clubhouse with complete strangers.

 

Designating a "new" server for people who don't want to play on Balmung honestly seems like the sort of thing more likely to cause issues than avoid them. It'll help people who are worried about the existing server community, but it'll make everything else more complicated, especially with establishing linkshells and setting up community events. It's splitting the community, and considering how hard the community has fought to stay together, it's a bad idea.

 

Ultimately, I think the best approach is to stay the course. If something needs to change, we'll address it as it happens as a group.

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I suppose if new players come to Balmung, they could just start stories together and have a "fresh start" that way. That way, new players can start new storylines together and technically everyone is still all in the same place, for conveniences sake. (This is if you ignore how daunting it would be for new players to enter a world full of mostly level caped peers, but that's a whole 'nother debate.)

 

However, would it really be that troublesome to have a "just in case secondary side" server for newer players? It sounds like most people are going to go to Balmung anyway, and the people who would go to the newer server know that. They know what and who they would be missing out on. If they still choose the other server while knowing that, then they have no right to complain when they can't go to Balmung specific events. What's wrong with wanting to be a part of this community, just in a different place than the older players?

 

To use an example that I have seen worked in the past, I'm currently part of a rather large regional community. Most of it is based in a certain city on the mainland, but it also accepts members from the rest of mainland and those from a nearby island. 

 

There's also a small sub-community that I'm a part of that primarily includes those who live on the island. It's still part of the bigge community, but it is also a seperate community in itself.

 

There are events that are scheduled for just the island members, and events that are scheduled for just the mainland members. Sometimes, the events mirror each other (ie: the island community will have an "island version" of a bigger event happening on the mainland), but sometimes we have island or mainland specific events. 

 

Everyone still talks and plans and chats with each other. We're still all more or less part of the same community, although we do live pretty far from each other. What binds us is a mutual interest that we share and actively take part in.

 

So what I am getting at is that it is completely possible to have two separate sub-communities within one bigger community and have the same (or different) events happen within them and have it not create any kind of schism between the people within the sub-communities. 

 

Just my two cents on the matter based on my personal experience, I guess. I think a poll (which has already been suggested) is at the very least a step in the right direction towards a fair and equal compromise.

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I agree with Aysun and Ty here with everything they said.  Kylin is exactly right in that there are groups within this group by as he said that is all games.  As someone myself who has been on the game since day 1 I was when cast out of these groups but as roughed it out and as others said here I gave a little of myself to get more.  Konner was not my first character.

 

 Also I am not level 50 on any class nor have I unlocked any jobs.  I knew the game was gonna change so I waited it out and RPed mostly in case there were to be level requirements at the start of AAR for quests.

 

All that being said and now I am sure I appear as a Legacy Elitist I have mostly been speaking with new people to work with when the game goes live.   I wanna RP and level with new people and help anyway I can.  I think I am at level 30 gladiator and have like maybe 20k in gil that I have no prob in sharing gil to those in need.

 

We are what we are whether we are vets or not.  However I like being a poor weak vet and will gladly help new peeps anyway I can.  Talk to me if you have concerns ideas or thoughts on anything.  In RL all I do is work on peeps problems and concerns.  Its what I do and like doing it.

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I think the overall goal should be to try and convince as many Rpers to join in one server as we can to increase the population plus to give more chances to meeting up and creating spur of the moment RP. Keeping people together and adding in new people to the community will only build it up I would hope/think.

 

However, this obviously won't please everyone so sorry if this post isn't really adding or doing anything. >< 

 

Side note: Bhav will be my 100% RP character, therefore when I log into him I would like to RP. :) So unless the majority is going somewhere else I will be creating him on Balmung.

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While I understand joining an established server with an established economy can be daunting, asking the RPC (where the majority of RPers, if not all of us, are currently placed on Balmung) to relocate to a new server is even more daunting. We don't even know that Legacy characters will be allowed to transfer to new servers yet.

 

Literally NO ONE has asked this.

 

Then I must be missing what is being asked...? Please clarify for me, I've been at work all day. x_x

 

New players want an alternative RP server so we don't have to deal with all the issues legacy servers have. We have a moderator telling us to go start our own community now at this point, though, so I guess there's no reason to even discuss it anymore.

 

Kylin: No one here wants people to not have Balmung. No one advocating for a new server for new players is or has said that to any degree whatsoever. We want a secondary server so we don't have to deal with a lot of the legacy issues. That. Is. All.

 

This isn't about not being able to unite on a same server because of friends or something. That's bound to happen. This is something unique to this launch.

 

I just don't know why a new player who wants to RP would want to join a server that most the community is not on. :( I guess I'll just be greatful that the majority of new RPers are okay with dealing with the "issues" the Legacy servers have and are willing to join and RP with us on Balmung.

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Quite a few RPers have no intention on joining a forum. I know I'll be taking about 6 other people wherever I go. I've discussed it with them, and none of them want to be on a legacy server. There is already an unrelated free company that doesn't want to be on a legacy server. There are several others here who don't.

 

If we're snagging 30ish people, we'll end up making our own RP community, and the RP communities really will be completely separate if that ends up happening. This also isn't accounting for a bunch of new players that'll be coming in closer to release, and who knows where they'll go. Some might enjoy the option of going to a place with an established community, but I'm imagining quite a few want to help establish one. And people tend to really enjoy new servers.

 

Will it be as large? No, it probably won't be. I'm actually positive it won't be, but the whole legacy server only attitude with several people not even entertaining the idea of a new server for new people who would want to join it is pretty weird, don't you think?

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