Balmung Restriction Discussion

[Naunet]

and I can't think of a single instance where anyone was actively criticized for having more than one, here in XIV or there in XI.

 

You don't pay very much attention to the official forums, then.

[Verranicus]

and I can't think of a single instance where anyone was actively criticized for having more than one, here in XIV or there in XI.

 

You don't pay very much attention to the official forums, then.

That's kind of wrong. I'm on the official boards every day and have yet to see anyone being outright hostile regarding alts. You only see people even getting close when someone starts the monthly "open Balmung plz" thread over there and people are just sick of seeing it.

[SessionZero]

and I can't think of a single instance where anyone was actively criticized for having more than one, here in XIV or there in XI.

 

You don't pay very much attention to the official forums, then.

That's kind of wrong. I'm on the official boards every day and have yet to see anyone being outright hostile regarding alts. You only see people even getting close when someone starts the monthly "open Balmung plz" thread over there and people are just sick of seeing it.

 

Shit, I'm sick of seeing it and I don't even visit the official boards.

[Verranicus]

and I can't think of a single instance where anyone was actively criticized for having more than one, here in XIV or there in XI.

 

You don't pay very much attention to the official forums, then.

That's kind of wrong. I'm on the official boards every day and have yet to see anyone being outright hostile regarding alts. You only see people even getting close when someone starts the monthly "open Balmung plz" thread over there and people are just sick of seeing it.

 

Shit, I'm sick of seeing it and I don't even visit the official boards.

I mean, I can understand being frustrated by the server lockout. My friend was a bit annoyed at having to stay up til 7AM to get on, and I have another friend getting the game who's probably gonna have to wait til just before/after maintenance in a couple days to get on.

 

However!

 

People treat this like it's S-E twirling their mustaches as they watch the poor, disenfranchised roleplayers wail for deliverance. Or that S-E is just withholding server space to be evil. It's not, it's just a matter of their (albeit somewhat lacking) server infrastructure. There has to be limits on it or those of us on the server would be dealing with lag/crashes and there would be even more whining.

 

You can't even compare it to WoW as Naunet seems to love doing, because not only is this game more advanced (and thus takes up way more storage space right from the get-go than cartoony and rapidly more dated looking WoW), but each class/job on our single character takes up the equivalent of a whole character on WoW or any other standard MMO. So while I may only have Yehn'za here, the fact that I've levelled every class to 50 means I'm actually using the space of 12+ characters right there.

 

Anyway, like I said. If you want the alt that badly, there are ways to do it. It doesn't matter if you have to pay 10 bucks, or get up an hour earlier in the morning, there exist ways to do what you want to do. If you refuse to use the avenues available to you, you clearly didn't want/need that alt as badly as you thought.

[allgivenover]

The amount of salt over it is rather tiresome.

[allgivenover]

You can't even compare it to WoW as Naunet seems to love doing, because not only is this game more advanced (and thus takes up way more storage space right from the get-go than cartoony and rapidly more dated looking WoW), but each class/job on our single character takes up the equivalent of a whole character on WoW or any other standard MMO. So while I may only have Yehn'za here, the fact that I've levelled every class to 50 means I'm actually using the space of 12+ characters right there.

 

Anyway, like I said. If you want the alt that badly, there are ways to do it. It doesn't matter if you have to pay 10 bucks, or get up an hour earlier in the morning, there exist ways to do what you want to do. If you refuse to use the avenues available to you, you clearly didn't want/need that alt as badly as you thought.

 

Your sound reasoning is wasted here, Naunet will parse whatever she needs to parse to keep her rage machine going. SE is somehow simultaneously an evil mastermind bent on screwing its players over and an incredibly incompetent derp-machine that's incapable of doing anything right. There's no reasoning with that sort of tautology, and I honestly think keeping herself enraged is a primary motivation in her life.

 

T-minus [insert seconds here] until Naunet sees this post, reports it, and sicks her group to do the same while harassing the poor mods about doing their "job" and getting it removed as soon as possible.

[Xenedra]

Time to cool the back and forth a little. We like discussion, we don't like pointing fingers and insults.

[Khoure]

er, I'm sorry if I contributed to this argument with my post ;-; I know in WoW you basically needed alts, but I meant that also no one would look twice at an excessive amount of alts. And I understand seeing the 'open balmung' threads as annoying, since there are (albeit inconvenient) ways around it. In addition, I can acknowledge that some of the posts by hopeful RPers can sound a little dramatic, heck I felt a little dramatic when I was first trying to get into Balmung.

 

The posts I was specifically referring to are more mean spirited than I think plain annoyance should excuse though, and often have the idea behind them that an alt's character data, even when not being played has the same server drain as a person actually logged on a character. Near the end of the thread, it gets quite hostile when if they were only annoyed at seeing the thread, you would think they would just ignore and let it die.

 

So yeah, I agree with Xenedra. I really didn't mean to add ammunition, making you guys upset with each other.

[SessionZero]

er, I'm sorry if I contributed to this argument with my post ;-; I know in WoW you basically needed alts, but I meant that also no one would look twice at an excessive amount of alts. And I understand seeing the 'open balmung' threads as annoying, since there are (albeit inconvenient) ways around it. In addition, I can acknowledge that some of the posts by hopeful RPers can sound a little dramatic, heck I felt a little dramatic when I was first trying to get into Balmung.

 

The posts I was specifically referring to are more mean spirited than I think plain annoyance should excuse though, and often have the idea behind them that an alt's character data, even when not being played has the same server drain as a person actually logged on a character. Near the end of the thread, it gets quite hostile when if they were only annoyed at seeing the thread, you would think they would just ignore and let it die.

 

So yeah, I agree with Xenedra. I really didn't mean to add ammunition, making you guys upset with each other.

 

It's not so much that they're annoying because there are ways to circumvent the lock, it's annoying because there are just so many of them. It's hard to take two steps on the forums or in-game without someone mentioning it. After awhile, all that can be said about it has been said, and at this point we're beating a dead horse that has already decayed and become just a skeleton.

[V'aleera]

If you don't like "Open Balmung" posts, kindly ask the person holding a gun to your head to reconsider his demand that you read them.

[Verranicus]

If you don't like "Open Balmung" posts, kindly ask the person holding a gun to your head to reconsider his demand that you read them.

Or, you know, people could stop posting them every day and get on the server like many have before them.

[Hihimi]

If you don't like "Open Balmung" posts, kindly ask the person holding a gun to your head to reconsider his demand that you read them.

*Witty agreement*

[Dravus]

If you don't like "Open Balmung" posts, kindly ask the person holding a gun to your head to reconsider his demand that you read them.

Or, you know, people could stop posting them every day and get on the server like many have before them.

 

Where's the harm in people discussing a known issue? At the end of the day if you're bored of a particular point of discussion nobody is forcing you to participate. I don't really care for the legions of threads posted throughout this site that amount to 'wank off the above poster' but I don't begrudge those who enjoy posting in those threads day in, day out.

 

Furthermore not everybody is in a position to make use of the 'solutions' to the Balmung restriction issue. For starters, some people are in a completely different time zone to when the character creation window opens. Others actually have real life commitments to attend to and so they can't afford to lose precious sleep just so they can get online right before or after a period of server maintenance. Of course you may counter with the suggestion of paying for a transfer but some people don't want the extra expense or wish to avoid doing so out of principle. 

 

As for me? I only have one character and intend to keep it that way but I sympathise with those who want to create more or actually get onto Balmung in the first place. Square Enix have done many great things with this game, that doesn't mean nobody should be highlighting known issues or pushing for them to be resolved when they've existed for month after month.

[Naunet]

You can't even compare it to WoW as Naunet seems to love doing, because not only is this game more advanced (and thus takes up way more storage space right from the get-go than cartoony and rapidly more dated looking WoW), but each class/job on our single character takes up the equivalent of a whole character on WoW or any other standard MMO. So while I may only have Yehn'za here, the fact that I've levelled every class to 50 means I'm actually using the space of 12+ characters right there.

 

Oh boy. It's not just WoW, you know that, right? (Though you seem to think I have some sort of love affair with that game... I haven't played it in... 3+ years.) Every other MMO I've touched out there manages to run their servers better such that any creation restrictions that may ever come up are not nearly so obnoxious and pervasive.

 

That you think XIV is so very much more "advanced" than WoW (or any other MMO... many of which are much "bigger" than XIV) is rather funny, though. This game doesn't even have high resolution textures, and it's certainly not the only MMO out there with smooth, realistic models.

 

You're not using the "space" of 12+ characters, though. You have a bunch of gear in your inventory. That is NO different than someone in any other MMO who keeps a bunch of gear in their inventory. Are you concerned about the storage space of, what, your spells? Say hi to Rift!

 

There's really no reason to try and excuse SE. They've got crappy servers. That's pretty much it. They need to invest in better ones.

[Y'lani]

Let's keep this civil. The second this becomes a flame was is the second I will ask for this thread to be locked, and it is growing dangerously close to shifting from a debate to an argument.

 

This thread was made to serve the purpose of talking about the restriction on Balmung. While I do encourage sharing ways to help make it better, discussing server capacity and what games are superior with their capacities is a different debate entirely, so with that, I'd like for us to stay on topic as well.

[Dravus]

Even if the thread does end up getting locked - which would be unfortunate - there's been a lot of posts throughout the site regarding the restrictions and so it's very likely that another thread would rise up in its place.

 

The issue isn't really affecting me, as mentioned earlier but I can certainly understand why a lot of people are frustrated. Heck, my partner only dabbles in this game due to a busy work schedule and he hasn't been able to make a character on Balmung for ages due to not being around during the rare windows that arise where it's possible to create a new character.

[Kailia]

You can't even compare it to WoW as Naunet seems to love doing, because not only is this game more advanced (and thus takes up way more storage space right from the get-go than cartoony and rapidly more dated looking WoW), but each class/job on our single character takes up the equivalent of a whole character on WoW or any other standard MMO. So while I may only have Yehn'za here, the fact that I've levelled every class to 50 means I'm actually using the space of 12+ characters right there.

 

Oh boy. It's not just WoW, you know that, right? (Though you seem to think I have some sort of love affair with that game... I haven't played it in... 3+ years.) Every other MMO I've touched out there manages to run their servers better such that any creation restrictions that may ever come up are not nearly so obnoxious and pervasive.

 

That you think XIV is so very much more "advanced" than WoW (or any other MMO... many of which are much "bigger" than XIV) is rather funny, though. This game doesn't even have high resolution textures, and it's certainly not the only MMO out there with smooth, realistic models.

 

You're not using the "space" of 12+ characters, though. You have a bunch of gear in your inventory. That is NO different than someone in any other MMO who keeps a bunch of gear in their inventory. Are you concerned about the storage space of, what, your spells? Say hi to Rift!

 

There's really no reason to try and excuse SE. They've got crappy servers. That's pretty much it. They need to invest in better ones.

 

Well honestly, out of all the MMO's out there, FFXIV, and SE, have proven themselves to be the best in my opinion. And honestly, you do often come off as pretty hateful of SE. There are plenty of developers out there that deserve a lot of harsh criticism, such as EA, who has been making a habit of nickel and dimming their customers and releasing extremely buggy, half baked piles of dodo feces. 

 

And Activision-Blizzard, who have dumbed down their one MMO to the point of laughability, and for the price of 3 expansions, you can bypass all the other content to be near the end goal. In fact as a whole, the gaming industry is heading for a crash on a scale like the 80's. But I feel Square-Enix, will be just fine. Games like WoW are hemorrhaging subscribers. ESO is shifting into a Free to Play as have many other american based MMO's. But FFXIV? We seem to be getting pretty popular, and as the worlds fill up, we end up with these restrictions.

 

SE isn't perfect. Their handling for example, of the hundreds of black mage bot squads is a good example of a failure. And it is them bots, that is contributing the most to server restrictions. But still, they are not as bad as many American based developers, and it quite frankly, is American based game developers that are dragging the gaming industry towards the inevitable crash.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I seem to also remember (but am having a harder time searching through the past year of updates) that new worlds were to be created, in response to the existing ones getting full, back when 2.0 was launched.

 

As an action on SE's part to mitigate full servers, it's a valid action. To people who want to get on a full server, it's not. I would stress that again, this isn't some Mean Girls "YOU CAN'T SIT WITH US!!!!" situation going on. This is SE saying "hey, this server's really full, our logs show it's really full RIGHT NOW, and we're not going to let it get even more full when there are characters already made who could login and make it hit that point". 

 

Unless they completely locked out already-made characters from logging in to make room for new ones (which I think we would agree would be an absolutely terrible decision to return to the old 2.0 days of "the world is full" and watch the game log you out), this is the "best" we can get it. 

 

If someone (or a group of people) don't like it, there are so many other servers they can be a part of. RP isn't restricted to Balmung. That's a group-imposed belief. 

 

TLDR: The following image is NOT what SE's doing.

 

[Khoure]

Well honestly, out of all the MMO's out there, FFXIV, and SE, have proven themselves to be the best in my opinion. And honestly, you do often come off as pretty hateful of SE. There are plenty of developers out there that deserve a lot of harsh criticism, such as EA, who has been making a habit of nickel and dimming their customers and releasing extremely buggy, half baked piles of dodo feces. 

 

And Activision-Blizzard, who have dumbed down their one MMO to the point of laughability, and for the price of 3 expansions, you can bypass all the other content to be near the end goal. In fact as a whole, the gaming industry is heading for a crash on a scale like the 80's. But I feel Square-Enix, will be just fine. Games like WoW are hemorrhaging subscribers. ESO is shifting into a Free to Play as have many other american based MMO's. But FFXIV? We seem to be getting pretty popular, and as the worlds fill up, we end up with these restrictions.

 

SE isn't perfect. Their handling for example, of the hundreds of black mage bot squads is a good example of a failure. And it is them bots, that is contributing the most to server restrictions. But still, they are not as bad as many American based developers, and it quite frankly, is American based game developers that are dragging the gaming industry towards the inevitable crash.

 

that's unfortunately neither here nor there. The problems of the gaming industry are many and varied, and really a subject for its own thread as I can see it getting intensely debated. Right off the bat, you sound a little incendiary about the topic yourself. Besides, at the absolute least you're forgetting about Ubisoft.

[Dravus]

Role-play pretty much is restricted to Balmung. A few pockets of role-players exist on a few other realms but nowhere near as many as can be found on Balmung.

 

I used to play on Argent Dawn (EU) back when I role-played in WoW. It was the biggest role-playing realm out of all the RP and RP-PVP servers over on the EU side of the fence. Did other, smaller role-playing realms exist? Yeah, but over time the bulk of role-players all moved over the Argent Dawn because that was where the bulk of the opportunities could be found.

[Kage]

My only experience with an MMO outside of FFXIV were F2P ones that were perpetuated with lag, login issues, crashes, etc.

 

I once went to play one of the MMOs 2 months after I stopped for a breather and could not login. Ever. Or it'd time out.

 

Comparing apples to oranges, but it just makes me grateful for what I do have. It's consistent for me. I'd rather have to pay for a friend to transfer in than deal with login issues.

[Berrod Armstrong]

I find myself satisfied with enough in FFXIV (The gameplay, the visuals, the music, the story and the community) to make the choice to endure the difficulties and shortcomings they have with their servers. Yes, there are inconveniences and things that are not quite up to scratch, but it is my choice as a consumer to decide that I wish to consume the product anyway. 

 

No other consumer really has any real place telling me that I'm wasting my money, or that there's this, that or the other out there that is better. Just as they may feel entitled to their opinion, I'm quite entitled to disregard it. I'm informed enough, aware enough and individual enough to decide what is worth what to me. When any other consumer starts earning my money for me, then they can stand on that pedestal and dictate what's a waste of what. Otherwise, it's in pretty poor taste.

 

I see they have issues. I see they plan to fix those issues. I am willing to wait and see, while enjoying everything that the rest of the product has to offer in the meantime. That includes both content and social interaction -- which is a big part of it! If it stops being worth it TO ME, then I will stop consuming. It's as simple as that.

 

For anyone who is experiencing enough difficulty to make the product no longer worth it to them, do what you must, express whatever displeasure -- but gosh, don't be indignant and passive-aggressively unpleasant to those who find reason to enjoy it.

[allgivenover]

Balmung is currently open.

[Blue]

Just hopping in because I feel like vouching for the Official Forums a little, as off-topic as this may be, some posts about them give me the idea of an overall misleaded mentality about them.

 

The Official Forums are not all nasty or anti-alts or anti-RP. As you can see in my Requests to the Devs thread, I have made a LOT of RP-focused threads in there, and I think I can safely say that never have I ever received a flaming reaction from the community there. The only time I did, it was when I asked to nerf Titan EX because of my poor ping ratio (and that is not RP-focused).

 

There is the right place for every thread. General Discussion surely receives more eye from the community, and as such it flows quickly.. it is not the right place where to post a thread you want to be on the top page for a while, especially if it concerns only a minority of the playerbase.

 

That is why I made my Balmung Housing Issue thread in the Balmung section.

 

I assure you, the moderators read all sections, and it is them who then point interesting cases at Developers for them to respond (the Developers likely do not browse the English categories themselves, more of the Japanese), so General Discussion is not really a must to make a thread succesful or receive a Developer's attention.

 

Lastly I'd like to stress just one more time of how I'd love if the RPC accepted the Official Forum's support more. It's thanks to them that we are receiving, for example, the City-state specific outfits coming 2.51. I like to think that my thread asking for them on the official boards helped this, and maybe it did, but more probably, someone asked for them on the JP boards :lol: It doesn't matter who did it in the end, but what matters is that I feel happy for asking in those forums.

 

So in the end, please do not think poorly of the Official Forums just because of the mess General Discussion can be sometimes. There are trolls there just as there are people ready for a civil discussion, and they will always have the attention of SE that these boards do not have.

 

TL;DR: The official forums are not evil! You just need to choose carefully the right section and the right topic/wording for your thread!

[Kellach Woods]

Lastly I'd like to stress just one more time of how I'd love if the RPC accepted the Official Forum's support more. It's thanks to them that we are receiving, for example, the City-state specific outfits coming 2.51. I like to think that my thread asking for them on the official boards helped this, and maybe it did, but more probably, someone asked for them on the JP boards :lol: It doesn't matter who did it in the end, but what matters is that I feel happy for asking in those forums.

 

So in the end, please do not think poorly of the Official Forums just because of the mess General Discussion can be sometimes. There are trolls there just as there are people ready for a civil discussion, and they will always have the attention of SE that these boards do not have.

 

TL;DR: The official forums are not evil! You just need to choose carefully the right section and the right topic/wording for your thread!

 

I've yet to see any sort of positive impact from an official forum. All MMOs included, not just this one.

 

MUCH LESS a non-Japanese forum for a Japanese MMO.