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+--- Thread: [Discussion] The State of Balmung's Lockdown (/showthread.php?tid=20964)
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Oyuu - 11-19-2017
When my FC was actively recruiting after the lockout, we were still getting a decent number of apps - probably one of our better campaigns tbh. I still have a really long list of people I would like to RP with, and meet new people on tumblr, the RPC, and in-game everyday. I filled all eight character slots before it was closed, so I've never felt the need to make new characters on different servers.Â
So to answer your questions, I've not been heavily affected by the Balmung lockdown at all. All my friends stayed on the server and I've not been struggling to find roleplay, nor do I feel the community's activity has dropped at any noticeable rate (granted, I don't hang around the QS all that often, but new FCs and LSs spring up all the time.) I won't drop RP activity unless my RL situation affects it. And I can't give an opinion on how SE should deal with it because I am not educated enough on server capacity and the like.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Maril - 11-19-2017
My main concern when it comes to the lockdown is that whilst Balmung has a heck of a lot of RP'ers, there's only a chunk of those who create events or "content" if you would on a larger basis (outside of FC's), and that chunk of people are prone to burnouts. I'm not saying that we can't get new proactive people from the chunk of people who do not usually create events, it just doesn't really seem to be something that happens a whole lot? I have noticed that there's less new events sprouting up, there's recurring events shutting down that are not getting naturally replaced by something else, and attendance at the regular events - both from my experience and what I've heard - has been on the decline. Getting new blood is absolutely vital to recurring events, because once people have attended something a few times the interest will just naturally drop unless the event is very very good at re-inventing and branding itself. I'm not saying that we don't have enough stuff going on, I am just worried that as we go on being in this lockdown, the proactive people will become fewer and fewer and that we might lose even more of the fantastic open event culture we've got on Balmung.Â
So whilst I am not starved for people to RP with, sometimes I end up being starved of things to bring people to. Whilst at the same time hosting events that is getting less and less attention, putting a larger demand on re-invention, proactively seeking people out for them instead of relying on advertising, and going above and beyond which isn't a bad thing it's just not very sustainable.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - maoilmhin - 11-19-2017
What are your thoughts as a Balmung player about the Lockdown?Â
I wish SE would get it over with and do a forced split.  I've been wanting to recruit friends to the game, but can't. I know I won't be able to play with them, and they'll miss out on the RP that prompted me to invite them.  As large as the Balmung RP community is, it seems most primarily RP with their FCs and linkshells.  Public / Event RP is the fall back plan. For me, this is because of my wild work schedule. I pop and grab the first RP I can get, which is usually guild RP. Â
Do you feel like at some point you might just drop RP activity until they open the gates?Â
No. I try to get RP whenever / wherever I can.  The lockdown has definitely limited my possibilities.
Do you think Square should just update their server capacity already to accommodate more than 50k characters?
Eventually, adding hardware reaches a point of diminishing returns. It is possible we are already there. Distributing Balmung players across other servers new/existing is likely more effective.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - ArmachiA - 11-19-2017
(11-19-2017, 10:30 AM)Maril Wrote: My main concern when it comes to the lockdown is that whilst Balmung has a heck of a lot of RP'ers, there's only a chunk of those who create events or "content" if you would on a larger basis (outside of FC's), and that chunk of people are prone to burnouts.
The truthiest truth to ever truth. This really has nothing to do with the thread, just agreeing that's something I've noticed a whole lot in 4 years.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Nebbs - 11-19-2017
(11-19-2017, 12:58 PM)ArmachiA Wrote:(11-19-2017, 10:30 AM)Maril Wrote: My main concern when it comes to the lockdown is that whilst Balmung has a heck of a lot of RP'ers, there's only a chunk of those who create events or "content" if you would on a larger basis (outside of FC's), and that chunk of people are prone to burnouts.
The truthiest truth to ever truth. This really has nothing to do with the thread, just agreeing that's something I've noticed a whole lot in 4 years.
Alas I suspect the 1:9:90 rule applies
1% are active creators of RP situations and events
9% will engage and contribute to these
90% will just expect to turn up and be served
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Lydia Lightfoot - 11-19-2017
I'll echo some of the others - there's a big enough pool of roleplayers that there's literally never been a day where if I went to one of the major cities and ran through I didn't pass by total strangers who were RP tagged or in a <##-RP> FC.Â
I think the problem isn't a lack of newcomers, the problems are instead:
1. Lack of support for content providers by non-providers. What Maril said is true - the players who are content providers will feel discouraged and lose enthusiasm if they begin to feel as if their effort to host activities for others isn't appreciated. That doesn't mean they want a bunch of praise and ass-kissing, it just means that it becomes the responsibility of the non-providers to either find the time - make the time - to show up at some of those activities, or, provide feedback to the content provider as to why their activity isn't drawing their interest. Else, the inevitable outcome would be that the content provider may feel as if they're wasting their time putting effort into things people don't seem to care about, and then... maybe they stop.
2. Loss-paranoia among FC leaders. Every FC leader out there is going to be concerned about other FCs trying to recruit from them, since the existing players are our pool of players. I run an RP activity group which is open to anybody from any FC (or no FC), and while we have an FC structurally at our core, I make a point never to solicit anybody to join said FC (and participation is open to anyone, so there's no "incentive", either). However, nearly every effort I've made to try and coax interest in getting involved with the group, out of leaders of FCs, has been met with this... fear I guess is the best way to describe it, and at worst they've outright declined to become involved, and in the best case I get indifference. Guys, you're going to have to not be insular if you want your FC to thrive in the current conditions.Â
3. Sentimental attachment: I've seen this one kill more players than anything else. This is where an FC is clearly dying or dead, but the individuals in said FC cling tenaciously to their continued existence in said FC. They even acknowledge that it's going nowhere. Its time has passed, the leaders aren't around, there's no activities going on, etc. Arguably, from an exterior point of view, they're getting literally nothing out of continuing to be a part of it, and they certainly seem unhappy. Their own enthusiasm for the game and RP in the game is waning because their friends in the current group have been dropping off... and yet they won't branch out. They won't consider that there's dozens of other FCs that are active that they could join. The current one might become active again, they'll say. The leader claims they're going to be coming back soon, they'll say. So-and-so and this-other-person are just a little busy with RL and they'll be active again in a few weeks, they'll say. Yet time and again, I've witnessed this to turn out that the ones who are gone don't come back, and the ones clutching to that hope end up just eventually fading away themselves. Players, do yourselves a favor - cut the sentimentality, for your own good. If your FC isn't making you happy, find a different one. Remember! Being in a different FC from your old friends doesn't mean you can't still also RP with those old friends too. I roleplay regularly with people from a dozen FCs. You can too.
4. People transferring off of Balmung even today: Stop it. Stop it right now. By all appearances, that's a one-way trip forever and there are players out there who would love to be able to play on Balmung and literally can't (and likely won't ever). If you really want to quit the server, that's okay, but please, please, please consider the option of not transferring, and instead consider the option of trying to reach out to the community to find out if there's somebody who has a friend who wants to play on Balmung who can't, who might be interested in trading accounts with you. We have the means now, for cashbux, to bypass most leveling and most of the story. There might be a player out there who's interested enough in Balmung that they'd be willing to get you a brand new account with a character who has an MSQ pass and several level 60 jobs. They might be willing to buy said character Mog Station outfits and emotes and so forth. Yep, it'd cost them quite a chunk of money to do that, but for some players who just want to be able to play with their friends, that might be worth it.Â
All of that said, I will point out:
We are almost certainly heading for a server split. They did it in FF11, so they have precedent. Stats on Balmung have shown that although the active population has lowered, we're still nearly double their volume for an unlocked server - and the majority of those who transferred off did so during the queue and 90k woes immediately following the launch of Stormblood, and they had incentives for transfer. Transfers off are basically a trickle now. There's no logical outcome for us at this point but a split. Do yourselves a favor and don't pretend that it's not going to happen. Avoid being surprised by it. Expect it. Plan for it. Stay tuned to the community so you can be aware of the general consensus as to which server the other roleplayers are going to once the split comes.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Suko'to - 11-19-2017
I'd like to throw my two cents in here.
First off, while I would agree with a lot of people that 'new blood' isn't a problem that will cause RP on this server to stagnate, I will say the RP community compared to the Non-RPers of this server may also not be as high as we all believe. Although, it's most definitely higher than that of other servers, I can say with confidence. If more than 10,000 active players are on Balmung at any given time, how many of those players can we actually say are RPers, how many PvEers, how many PvPers? This server's been around well before it was unofficially established a major RP hub for the game. It -is-, after all, a legacy server, so RPers aren't the only contributing factor here to its large population I think.
Does this mean there's a chance that population will even out enough for transfers (at least paid ones)Â to open back up? Maybe, maybe not.
My other thought I'd like to contribute goes into character creation as a whole, and not just on Balmung, but on all servers, and I think the idea would be a pretty decent solution for those afraid of stagnation. I don't get why, if you have a character/presence already generated on a server, you can't generate new characters on said server if it's considered a congested server. Having more characters on the server and having the ability to delete unwanted characters then starting fresh with a new character doesn't really change the amount of active accounts on the server. One thing WoW had over this game is that, if you already had a character on a congested server, you were still able to create a new one because Blizzard understood this fact.
If it were a question of resources, I could see it, but character data alone doesn't contribute that much to the usage of resources. SE's already limited character storage, they've already limited housing, I highly doubt they've reached the limit of existing Retainers on the server. I don't know very many people who've hired more than 2 or 3 retainers (maybe a topic for another thread), and I know only one who has maxed out the number you can hire. I myself can have up to 3, which, so far, is all I need. Given this, I don't know how character creation for accounts already on server should be impacted, even if the server is congested.
Edit: Also, wanted to add a little to my first point, since the thought didn't come until after I posted. I think it also would've been a good idea for SE to have done something similar to what WoW and Tera Online did, actually designate servers as RP, PvE, or PvP. I think this would've helped SE out in the long run to even things out a bit more, though, sadly, that ship has sailed.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Suko'to - 11-19-2017
Quote:We are almost certainly heading for a server split. They did it in FF11, so they have precedent. Stats on Balmung have shown that although the active population has lowered, we're still nearly double their volume for an unlocked server - and the majority of those who transferred off did so during the queue and 90k woes immediately following the launch of Stormblood, and they had incentives for transfer. Transfers off are basically a trickle now. There's no logical outcome for us at this point but a split. Do yourselves a favor and don't pretend that it's not going to happen. Avoid being surprised by it. Expect it. Plan for it. Stay tuned to the community so you can be aware of the general consensus as to which server the other roleplayers are going to once the split comes.
First off, it's not really a good idea to compared this game to FFXI in the sense of what can or should happen. This game is completely different in regards to UI, gameplay, and allocation of server resources, and comparisons like that are part of what caused 1.0 to flop. They tried to make it too much like FFXI, and the UI was a dying system that making improvements to was creating more problems than fixing them. ARR was an overhaul, and thus should be handled differently. I think such a drastic measure requires even -more- careful consideration now than ever before because, now, you're not just affecting players' communities, but you're affecting their FCs, their housing, all the money they put into the house/apartment they have, all the money they put into the private chamber they'd be losing by being separated from their FC.
Sure, you can reimburse them, but you can't guarantee they'll get a house on the new server either. It's a more complex system than FFXI was. To my knowledge, you didn't have whole housing communities, just Moghouses. You didn't have FCs, just Linkshells, which were little more than private channels anyway. You didn't have a community you actively contributed to and were rewarded for, other than simply playing the game with others. A splitting of servers was more feasible in FFXI, but not so much for FFXIV.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - LiadansWhisper - 11-19-2017
I'm okay with the server lock except that I have friends I have encountered in other games who desperately want to come play on Balmung and can't. That has sapped my own engagement to an extent.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - ArmachiA - 11-20-2017
(11-19-2017, 03:07 PM)Sukoto Wrote:I CANNOT for the life of me remember which game it was, it's been to long, but FCs actually got to be made early and FCs got to pick which server they'd be placed on before launch (I think it was TOR? Gonna say TOR), if SE could do something like that, where people who care choose which server to go on ahead of time and people who don't care just get thrown on whatever server it would be pretty feasible. Just like TOR though, there would be a cap of how many people could do that. I remember the rush to get to the website when it opened because Bioware said there would be a cap. If the RPers got word they were all going to a certain server, a bunch of PvE's who are convinced Balmung was ruined by them would go to the opposite.Quote:We are almost certainly heading for a server split. They did it in FF11, so they have precedent. Stats on Balmung have shown that although the active population has lowered, we're still nearly double their volume for an unlocked server - and the majority of those who transferred off did so during the queue and 90k woes immediately following the launch of Stormblood, and they had incentives for transfer. Transfers off are basically a trickle now. There's no logical outcome for us at this point but a split. Do yourselves a favor and don't pretend that it's not going to happen. Avoid being surprised by it. Expect it. Plan for it. Stay tuned to the community so you can be aware of the general consensus as to which server the other roleplayers are going to once the split comes.
First off, it's not really a good idea to compared this game to FFXI in the sense of what can or should happen. This game is completely different in regards to UI, gameplay, and allocation of server resources, and comparisons like that are part of what caused 1.0 to flop. They tried to make it too much like FFXI, and the UI was a dying system that making improvements to was creating more problems than fixing them. ARR was an overhaul, and thus should be handled differently. I think such a drastic measure requires even -more- careful consideration now than ever before because, now, you're not just affecting players' communities, but you're affecting their FCs, their housing, all the money they put into the house/apartment they have, all the money they put into the private chamber they'd be losing by being separated from their FC.
Sure, you can reimburse them, but you can't guarantee they'll get a house on the new server either. It's a more complex system than FFXI was. To my knowledge, you didn't have whole housing communities, just Moghouses. You didn't have FCs, just Linkshells, which were little more than private channels anyway. You didn't have a community you actively contributed to and were rewarded for, other than simply playing the game with others. A splitting of servers was more feasible in FFXI, but not so much for FFXIV.
Housing is really the only difficult thing in this scenario. I'm going to keep an eye out for how they fix it in 4.2 and maybe whatever they do will make people feel more comfortable leaving.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Skae - 11-20-2017
(11-19-2017, 11:59 AM)maoilmhin Wrote:  As large as the Balmung RP community is, it seems most primarily RP with their FCs and linkshells. Â
This is the case with pretty much all RP communities everywhere. People primarily RP with their circle of friends.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - ExAtomos - 11-20-2017
Yeah, I haven't even met 1% of the active players on the server yet. There are tons of events going on (there were 11 listed on the discord RP calendar bot for last night. This obviously doesn't include any small group RP going on or groups that don't use the calendar bot). I'm constantly updating the RP Themes thread as people move around and create new groups. Plus, people are always bringing in new characters with fantasias.
Right now, imo there is no problem. Ask again in two years if we're still locked down.
re: the burn out problem. Now, that IS a problem. What we can hope for is that people who weren't content-providers in the past find their courage and start, so they can take over for anyone who needs a break.
eta: Ok, I'm kinda wondering if those who are most sore at the prolonged closure are those with friends who can't be with them on Balmung. This is a non-issue for me, so I don't have to endure that specific pain.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - JudicialHunter - 11-20-2017
Honestly, I got lucky that I got into FFXIV when I did. I got in back when you could wait until 4-5AM and get new characters on the server, and also when transfers were still allowed. However, my play schedule is inconsistent at best -- if I had tried to join now, when I've gotten into the game again, I'd be screwed. Several close IRL friends play on Balmung, and I'd lose out on being able to RP with them unless we managed to add one another.
To be honest, I think we should split the server, and give people a chance to sign on to other servers to go to. FCs/linkshells/friend groups can stay together. OR, we should open up servers to be fully cross-realm, like WoW does, where you have an account-wide login that lets you see who's playing what character on any realm.
It'd be a better system than the current one, IMO.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Zhavi - 11-20-2017
I'm with ExAtomos -- not a problem now, but will become one in the future if this lock goes on for years.
I do miss seeing new players (whether they're rpers or not), but I wouldn't say it's affected my rp at all. I still hold firm to the notion that this is good for the overall rp community; by the time the lock comes back off, there will be entrenched and populated rp communities on Mateus and hopefully elsewhere who will not be tempted to transfer to Balmung.
I have noticed some attitudes towards Balmung from people who left (of the good riddance it's locked and hopefully it'll stay locked forever variety) that worry me a little bit; Balmung has always had something of a reputation -- for good or ill -- but the lock kinda...I dunno, it feels like it crystallizes it, in some ways. Having a hard time putting words to it, but basically I just never want to see server vs server animosity. I like that different servers have different feels to them! Multiple server rp communities are great to me. Barring the sour grapes who always exist, I just want the overall community to stay supportive of each other, no matter who goes where.
RE: The State of Balmung's Lockdown - Unnamed Mercenary - 11-20-2017
Off topic:
One of the major issues with WoW's "phase" system is that you have no control over which servers are melded in or which zone you'll end up being displayed on. AFAIK, this gets more complicated when parties of people with at different parts of WoW's MSQ group together as their maps are instanced, but instead of having the NPCs generated client-side like FFXIV does, all NPCs in WoW are server-side and a cross-realm group will only get one map, some of which will not be correctly up to date for the players.
Basically, it'd be just as messy as when SE turns on FFXIV's zone instances, but then people may not even be able to play the game correctly. A cross-realm setup like WoW's would effectively make events like the Grindstone impossible, where there's a larger amount of players on a zone than typical. Or, knowing SE, we'd have characters from other servers getting phased into RP sections and vice-versa, effectively killing open-world RP.
If SE were to split the servers, which could be beneficial, it'd need to be much better planned or they'd need to allow players to decide which of the splits they want to play on. Either way, friend groups would still be separated, even if cross-world friends list could keep them partially together. A setup allowing players to transfer freely (and with in-game interfaces) to any particular server in their datacenter could possibly be a better solution, but that discussion is even further off-topic for this thread.
On Topic:
Given the current cross-world capabilities, can our friends not already play the game with us? Yes, we cannot help them do FATEs or Levequests, but any instanced content is still viable as well as chatting, hopefully better improved in 4.2 with cross-world chat groups.