Fotix Posted January 5, 2015 Share #1 Posted January 5, 2015 I'm creating this thread out of necessity since I don't want to continue to clog up the "Balmung is open" thread. Basically, for the last several days, I've been getting up early to try to make a character on Balmung. It's my impression that Balmung is supposed to be the best RP/Community there is for FFXIV. However, one morning Gilgamesh opened up. I made a character there while I could. And I've found that there are nice and friendly folks there. So, I can either stay on Gilgamesh, or wait til Wednesday and transfer to Balmung (tired of waiting in mornings). Going to Balmung means leaving behind the handful of people that have simply been nice and social to me just because I was new. Staying on Gilgamesh means leaving behind this forum basically and forever wondering if Balmung would've been a better decision with a much better community. It's not an easy decision, since I don't have much to base my decision on. Therefore, I bring it to the best FFXIV forum I know out there. YOU GUYS!! :thumbsup: 1 Link to comment
Gegenji Posted January 5, 2015 Share #2 Posted January 5, 2015 I mentioned this on the Balmung is Open thread, but I'll reiterate it here in case someone else comes looking at it for advice. While I'm biased to Balmung, there's really no straight answer to give. I would like to believe that both servers are great for RP. Balmung is apparently "more popular" and has larger numbers, while Gilgamesh has a smaller, more tight-knit group from my understanding. Both had their strengths and their weaknesses, so I can only recommend this: check them both out. In your case, you have a character on Gilgamesh and you're found some friendly folk there. I wouldn't give that up right away just because there's so much talk about Balmung being "better." Instead, keep working on and leveling your Gilgamesh guy while you sneak an alt onto Balmung. With the alt, you can look around at how the RP is there and see how you feel about it. If you're happy with Gilgamesh, then you can keep your guy there and will have saved yourself the money that would've been spent on the transfer. If you like Balmung better, you will have made friends who will be ready to greet you when you transfer you main guy over. If you like both? Well, what do you know? You have a guy on both! ... That's my feeling, anyway. 1 Link to comment
Kage Posted January 5, 2015 Share #3 Posted January 5, 2015 The best thing I can say is that you can make another new character (if outside of trial or such and paying sub already) that you may eventually want to throw into Balmung. You can make it purely for RP purposes, perhaps leveling it on Gilgamesh before throwing into Balmung.... Or simply wait it out while enjoying the PVE game. You certainly do not need to commit to having only one character. While on Gilgamesh and waiting you may find that you are simply content with the Gilgamesh group. While the RP sounds like it isn't as open (you may not find it in open spots as you would on balmung), perhaps you don't need it and are fine with the RP on Gilgamesh. Or perhaps the Gilgamesh alt to Balmung may show you what you're in for. If you start using the alt as you have your "main" you won't feel too bad about putting too much 'effort' into one character just yet? Link to comment
Perth Posted January 5, 2015 Share #4 Posted January 5, 2015 *deep breath for wall of text* I would dare to say that I believe folks on Balmung to be just as friendly as I hear the folks on Gilgamesh to be since every time I've run along on a new character, folks ask me if I'm a new player or an alt and if I need a Free Company or any help at all, so I think it's really the FFXIV:ARR community that does that as a whole! I would further dare to say that the difference between Balmung and Gilgamesh does indeed come down to the concentration of roleplay, and so, your decision depends almost entirely upon what kind of roleplay you most often find yourself doing and what you enjoy about roleplaying. If you enjoy tavern roleplay, Balmung is crammed with it! You can't jump twice without falling on top of someone, and at prime-time, this is literal. If that interests you, I suggest poking your head in around the inn in Ul'dah (which is quite often the most concentrated spots of random roleplay) and decide if what you're seeing is what you want. However, if you're less interested in random tavern roleplay and instead find yourself looking more into to Free Company or Linkshell related roleplay, I'd advise asking around in the shout channels of Ul'dah to see what you can find! I'm certain people in Gilgamesh would answer you in a heartbeat and tug you on in and you'd have no problem at all finding that sort of roleplay. The difference between the two servers really does come down to the concentration of roleplay, and if that's a very key element to your enjoyment of the game or its roleplay, then these are the things to be considered! Link to comment
Steel Wolf Posted January 5, 2015 Share #5 Posted January 5, 2015 Ultimately it's what makes you happy...and while it's always a little :c to see someone walk from the RPC, the way this game's server structure has worked itself out, I can honestly not blame anyone for taking the path of least resistance. Further, you've found some friendlies there! That's what it's all about, honestly. That you've got friends or potential friends to play alongside and RP with. Perhaps those are your "in", so to speak. I'll parrot Gegenji's advice to play in both servers and see which community is more to your liking, but would bookend by saying that finding a community is the point, not size of said community. Link to comment
Fotix Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share #6 Posted January 5, 2015 I think I'll play my Gilgamesh character and see where it leads me until a few days from now when he's able to transfer. Then I will make my decision. If I haven't had a fulfilling community experience and/or haven't found any roleplay by then, I will transfer to Balmung. But, please continue this thread, keep it alive. I still want to hear all thoughts. And I'm sure there are others out there who will look to this thread for guidance. :tonberry: Link to comment
Austratus Posted January 6, 2015 Share #7 Posted January 6, 2015 Staying on Gilgamesh doesn't mean you have to stop posting or being active altogether on the RPC-- that's a very bad misconception you need to get rid of right away! It's just a sad fact that few of us "Gregs" end up being active here (whether it be percieved "Balmung domination" or the presence of another forum). There's more than enough tools to use out there. I'm somewhat attached to the RPC myself. Too many websites for me to remember as it is. If you haven't already, see if you can get invited to the Adventurer's Guild linkshell on our server, it's a pretty good OOC shell for RPers and can help you get connected. I can't give you an in myself, but if you try talking to someone like Adolar Stone, he might be able to help you. EDIT: Post #100! Link to comment
Dravus Posted January 6, 2015 Share #8 Posted January 6, 2015 If you've already made a handful of friends in Gilgamesh then I'd suggest sticking with them instead of rushing to transfer over to Balmung at the first opportunity that arises. Both servers have their perks and drawbacks but it's very, very easy to feel 'lost' on Balmung. I've been playing on and off since the re-launch and still only know a handful of people so if you've already forged a few friendships on Gilgamesh then I'd definitely suggest sticking it out and tightening those bonds further! Link to comment
No Longer Exists Posted January 6, 2015 Share #9 Posted January 6, 2015 *Appears from under a hat on the floor like something from a Miyazaki film* The ever present quandary of Gilgamesh and Balmung.... Truth be told, Balmung's roleplaying community is large and in charge, though it still shares its server with PvEers. From personal experience, one can find and link into RP on Balmung -very- easily. However, Balmung is constantly filled to the gills so finding an opportunity to get a character registered to that world is a chore unless you like being up at 5am EST. That's the window I found and it's very brief. Gilgamesh has a decent community, albeit insular and (I mean no disrespect) pointless. Many of the "open" events are simply bar crawls which may be just what you're looking for as a casual player. The community on Gilgamesh IS friendly and can be very welcoming, but it lacks a great deal of depth for a lot of more intense roleplayers. Gilgamesh rarely caps though, so it is far easier to get on that world than Balmung. Summary? There isn't one. Neither World is superior to the other, they each offer something the other doesn't. Cheers! *Twirls around and disappears back under the hat* (Posted here as well as it's original place in another thread asking the same question) Link to comment
Seriphyn Posted January 6, 2015 Share #10 Posted January 6, 2015 I went to the Quicksand during NA uptime on Gilgamesh. Empty. Contrast to Quicksand during the same time on Balmung. Full to the brim. Sure, Quicksand might not be an RP hub on Gilgamesh, but I thought I'd fine at least a FEW RPers. Link to comment
Titor Posted January 6, 2015 Share #11 Posted January 6, 2015 Gilgamesh is/was the unofficial reddit server, take that as you will. Link to comment
No Longer Exists Posted January 6, 2015 Share #12 Posted January 6, 2015 I went to the Quicksand during NA uptime on Gilgamesh. Empty. Contrast to Quicksand during the same time on Balmung. Full to the brim. Sure, Quicksand might not be an RP hub on Gilgamesh, but I thought I'd fine at least a FEW RPers. Incorrect. Gilgamesh RPers do not generally RP in the open, preferring their neighborhoods in the private housing areas. There have been a few, brief, open RP moments but they last no longer than thirty minutes and seem to happen in passing. Link to comment
Fotix Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share #13 Posted January 6, 2015 As soon as my character that's sitting on a different server has existed long enough, I'm paying for transfer to Balmung. Last several days of trying early in the morning has been fruitless. Hopefully, I should be joining you all sometime Wednesday evening. Link to comment
Austratus Posted January 6, 2015 Share #14 Posted January 6, 2015 As soon as my character that's sitting on a different server has existed long enough, I'm paying for transfer to Balmung. Last several days of trying early in the morning has been fruitless. Hopefully, I should be joining you all sometime Wednesday evening. Is this one different from your Gilgamesh character, then? Or have we lost you? Link to comment
Faye Posted January 6, 2015 Share #15 Posted January 6, 2015 Balmuuuung! \o/ Just keep a character on Gilgamesh to pop in and keep in touch with your friends! Link to comment
Tiergan Posted January 6, 2015 Share #16 Posted January 6, 2015 Why do people think that they have to leave the RPC forums if they're on Gligamesh? o_O I thought this forum was for everybody? Link to comment
Melkire Posted January 6, 2015 Share #17 Posted January 6, 2015 Why do people think that they have to leave the RPC forums if they're on Gligamesh? o_O I thought this forum was for everybody? Very common misconception. I'm guessing it went/goes something like this. 1. Prevalence of Balmung roleplayers here on RPC, which has been compounded by... 2. Gilgamesh roleplayers feeling they're unwelcome/unwanted here, which was a result of... 3. A history of controversial forum topics that devolved from debates into pissing contests, e.g. "my server is better than your server!", that mostly arose from... 4. A smaller population on Gilgamesh from the get-go, compared to Balmung's legacy status (see: Fabul and Besaid server merger). Link to comment
Shizuka Posted January 6, 2015 Share #18 Posted January 6, 2015 I went to the Quicksand during NA uptime on Gilgamesh. Empty. Contrast to Quicksand during the same time on Balmung. Full to the brim. Sure, Quicksand might not be an RP hub on Gilgamesh, but I thought I'd fine at least a FEW RPers. Incorrect. Gilgamesh RPers do not generally RP in the open, preferring their neighborhoods in the private housing areas. There have been a few, brief, open RP moments but they last no longer than thirty minutes and seem to happen in passing. I'd find this kind of debatable, to a degree. While it's true that there's a lot of neighborhood RP (we have nearly an entire ward of LB dedicated to RP!), I've also seen quite a bit just wandering around the cities. The difficulty, of course, comes in that it doesn't seem to be centralized. There's not a specific hub so much as there are just people going around and RPing as they do their own things. That also means I've found RP just sort of out and about in the world too, not just in the main cities. The weekly events are a little...monotonous to me; too many open bar nights for my tastes. But we've recently had several very NOT bar nights that were fun to participate in. One of the most fun I've been to in a while was a Starlight party in Ul'dah, in which we passed out gifts and food to refugees. Mind you, this took place outside of the Quicksand, not really inside of it. All in all, I've played on both servers. I'd personally agree with the earlier sentiment that it feels easier to get 'lost' on Balmung. Both servers have their goods and bads, and it's really up to personal preference as to which one suits your needs as an individual. Link to comment
FreelanceWizard Posted January 7, 2015 Share #19 Posted January 7, 2015 Why do people think that they have to leave the RPC forums if they're on Gligamesh? o_O I thought this forum was for everybody? I figure I should chime in here... For what it's worth, in my mind, the RPC is for all RPers on XIV; we just only have forums for two servers, Balmung and Gilgamesh, because they were the ones voted on by the RPC community around the 2.x Beta 3 timeframe as the unofficial RP servers, and it'd be infeasible to have more forums. In the pre-AWS days, that was because we were already maxing out our host; in our new AWS world, it's a matter of having an approachable UI and not making other servers feel like they're unwelcome or have less approachable RP because their forums here are less active. It's not my intention to eliminate the Gilgamesh forums here even though they have a RP community site for the server now (http://www.gilgamesh-rp.com, for those wondering ). Discussions of merging the Events and Directory forums in the past were to help people find things more effectively via filtering by thread tag and to minimize any "server versus server" feel, not a way to squelch one server in favor of another. At any rate, the community didn't like that proposal (it was roundly voted down), so the forums remain. Yes, there were some very acrimonious arguments over servers Back In The Day, but now, the RPC is open to any roleplayer on XIV, regardless of server. Our forum focus is on Balmung and Gilgamesh, yes, but many of the forums are useful regardless of your server, and the wiki is, IMO, one of the best resources available for RPers. #magicAdminHat Link to comment
No Longer Exists Posted January 7, 2015 Share #20 Posted January 7, 2015 *Covets that magicAdminHat, for it is far shinier than his old black one* Freelance is quite correct. From what I've witnessed here on the RPC and in conversation with Gilgamesh RPers, there is no animosity involved anymore. There had been a brief history of poo-flinging, but most have forgotten all about it. What it boils down to is, like so many other things, preference becoming the norm. Gilgameshians decided to coordinate amongst themselves rather than use the RPC for more than the wiki and an occasional recruitment drive for FCs. Some decided on a dedicated forum for Gilgamesh itself and it has now become the main forum much like the RPC has for Balmung and other servers. What you find on the RPC with such lovely folk like Miss Lalah, The Bridgeguard Roe, and Myself is an inkling of the friendliness and openness. Some folks see the "segregation" of Gilgamesh as snobbish and I'd really like to make certain that it's clear this is not the case. As Miss Lalah mentioned, it really depends upon your preference in RP. There can be arguments made for and against the concept of "RP Neighborhoods" and a distinct lack of Open World RP, as there have been time and time again. I have made some of them myself, frankly, and even expressed my disdain for the gilgamesh-centric forum because of my own personal preferences and yet I point new RPers to it when I come across them. A community is only as good as its people and its people are only as good as the community they associate with. I hope this helps clear up the mystery, because silence only leads to rumors and conjecture and since many Gilgameshian's have stepped away from the RPC, there's less likelihood of a response to these questions unless one of us hanger-ons takes note of it. Cheers! Link to comment
Austratus Posted January 7, 2015 Share #22 Posted January 7, 2015 Seems like he's made his decision. Good luck on your new server! Link to comment
Fotix Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share #23 Posted January 7, 2015 Seems like he's made his decision. Good luck on your new server! Thank you! But, please, don't let my decision deflate this thread. There may be others who come along with the same question. Link to comment
Velaena Posted January 9, 2015 Share #24 Posted January 9, 2015 I'm currently having this same issue, though it may be that I'm a european player with a lot of free time, so it's pretty empty in Gilgamesh when I log on about midday. I was considering transferring my alt to Balmung, so I had one on each server. Then I could see how it was and maybe transfer my main after a while. Overall it just seems like the Balmung community is far more active and open. Contrarywise, I also read in a thread that as Balmung is a legacy server there are far more people that have played 1.0, and since I haven't I don't know if it would make a difference or not. Link to comment
No Longer Exists Posted January 9, 2015 Share #25 Posted January 9, 2015 *Peeks out from under his hat* Your knowledge of the lore (be it 1.0 or 2.0 lore) will have very little impact on your involvement in RP so long as you keep an open, friendly, and communicative mind. It's not so much about what you know as how you socialize, we're all quite friendly. *Pulls the hat back down* Link to comment
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