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World Merge and Character Transfers (02/09/2012)
AmbrosiaAmor
Member Posts: 915
In order to improve the player experience, we will be merging Worlds on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. After the merge is completed, there will be a total of ten Worlds, down from the current eighteen.
To ensure that the World merge is fair for all players, character transfers will be required for all existing characters. Players must select a new post-merge World for their characters, and will be reassigned automatically should they not do so by the established deadline. We urge you all to review the World Merge Summary and the Notes Regarding the World Merge.
This World merge is intended to improve the player experience during the period up to the launch of FFXIV Version 2.0. New Worlds may be added in the future, for example after the relaunch or when player numbers increase.
[World Merge Summary]
Key Dates
March 1 (Thursday) to March 19 (Monday), 2012: Character transfer selection period. *
March 27 (Tuesday), 2012: World merge maintenance to be carried out.
Information regarding the time required for the merge maintenance process and other details will be released at a later date.
* The character transfer selection period will consist of two stages. For details, see Selecting a Transfer Destination below.
Details of the Merge
The current eighteen Worlds will be reorganized into ten, and existing characters will be transferred into the ten new Worlds.
New World 10 is recommended for German and French-speaking players. German and French-speakers form a minority within the total player population, and this should improve their playing experience and make it easier for them to get together and form parties. However, it is a recommendation only. The World will not be restricted to German and French speakers, and players from other regions are free to transfer to the World.
* The new Worlds shall inherit the names of the ten most popular current Worlds. Name assignments will be announced after the transfer selection period has ended.
Selecting a Transfer Destination
During the transfer selection period indicated below, players will be able to select a destination World on the World Transfer Application Page. Players who do not select a destination World during this period will be automatically distributed across the Worlds.
* The World Transfer Application Page is scheduled to be available from March 1.
Transfer destination selection period: From 0:00 a.m. PST, March 1 (Thursday) to 0:59 a.m. PDT, March 19 (Monday), 2012.
* Transfer selection period will consist of a first and second stage.
First Stage: From 0:00 a.m. PST, March 1 (Thursday) to 0:59 a.m. PDT, March 12 (Monday), 2012.
- Players will still be able to change their destinations, even after making a selection.
* Players will not be able to select Worlds that have already been filled. Players can, however, move from Worlds that have been filled to other Worlds.
Second Stage: From 1:00 a.m. PDT, March 12 (Monday) to 0:59 PDT, March 19 (Monday), 2012.
- Worlds that have been filled will be locked, and players in these Worlds will not be able to transfer to other Worlds.
Restrictions on selecting a destination
To select a destination, an existing playable character must be associated with a player’s service account. As long as a player has at least one usable character, a destination World may be chosen for all characters in the service account, including characters that have not yet been paid for.
* To view and change your subscription details, visit the Square Enix Account Management System and click Select Service on the left-hand menu, and then select FINAL FANTASY XIV.
Notes Regarding the World Merge
All character details will be transferred, with the exceptions described below.
Character Names
After the merge, if two or more characters with the same first and last name exist in the same World, only one character can keep the name, based on the order of priority below.
1. Characters that are playable on both March 26 (Monday) and March 27 (Tuesday), 2012.
2. Characters that were created first.
If your character name must be changed because another character's name takes priority, please do so by following the on-screen instructions when you first log in after the World merge.
* After you enter a new name for the character, the change will also be reflected on the Lodestone.
With this World merge, all character names that were kept after participation in the previous Open Beta test will be deleted.
Retainer Names
If retainers with the same name exist in the same World, only one of the retainers can continue using the name, based on the same conditions described above for player characers.
If you are required to change the name, please do so by following the on-screen instructions when you first log in after the World merge.
About Linkshells
Linkshells will not be carried over to the new World. They will be deleted automatically during the merge
* Linkshell community pages on the Lodestone will no longer be accessible after the merge.
Because linkshells will be deleted, you may lose contact with linkshell members. However, your Lodestone follow list will survive the World merge unchanged, so we recommend that players who want to stay in touch follow each other before the merge takes place.
* The "follow" will persist even if the character's name is changed.
* You can follow characters through the linkshell list or via each character's own page.
?Players will be able to follow characters through the linkshell list starting today, February 9.
Friend List/Blacklist
All friend list and blacklist data will be deleted during the merge.
Character Info on the Lodestone
The World name displayed in character pages, diaries, and histories (including finished histories) will change to the new World name after the merge. If the character name changes, that will also be updated.
New Subscriptions during the World Merge
Players are free to create new FINAL FANTASY XIV Service Accounts and new characters during the merge period. However, depending on the timing of the new subscription/new character creation, players may not be able to select a destination World.
1. Until 0:59 a.m. PDT, March 19 (Tuesday), 2012
After subscribing and creating a new character, follow the steps above to apply for a transfer to a World. If you do not apply for a transfer, the character will be automatically allocated to a World.
2. From 1:00 a.m. PDT, March 19 (Tuesday), 2012, until the World merge maintenance is completed
Because the World transfer application period is over, you will not be able to select a destination World. Characters created during this period will be automatically allocated to one of the new Worlds. If you wish to avoid being automatially assigned to a new World, we suggest that you create your character after the World merge maintenance is completed.
Comments
Since I think he took JP population as a priority (to reach the acceptable number of log ins), I can probably tell you which servers will make the list. (This is just from population trends - highest to lowest -from the past couple of weeks).
Most likely scenario:
Staying:
Selbina
Gysahl
Cornelia
Figaro
Mysidia
Lindblum
Kashuan
Trabia
Saronia
Fabul
Axed:
Besaid
Istory
Palamecia
Melmond
Rabanastre
Wutai
Bodhum
Karnak
Bay just made a recent translated post by Naoki Yoshida (Very long!):
"Hello! This is Producer/Director Yoshida.
Thank you for the large amount of feedback in regards to the world merge.
I’ve been reading through each of your posts (as well as Twitter) and I’m sorry my post is really late. A world merge at this current point in time, as well as being something of great magnitude for all of you players, it is at the same time something of great magnitude on the development and operations side.
I would like to follow up on the released specifications for the world merge.
Intent of the World Merge
I believe that MMORPGs are made up of large connections between the entire game community and the communities within each world. For MMORPGs, there are a lot of instances where you form parties and play, so because of this the community requires the proper number of players to be able to accomplish this. As we head toward 2.0, we began billing and we had a pretty good grasp on the number of people that would play the game. We predicted that conditions would arise on worlds where it would be difficult to establish a community, which is why we proceeded with the preparations for a world merge.
Of all of the comments that were against this world merge, the one comment seen most often was “don’t destroy the community!” However, just the same as all of you, the development and operations team and I consider “community” to be the highest priority. This is how we engaged in a discussion about the world merge specifications.
With that said, first let me say that our underlying feelings are in the same place.
Especially with this merge, we felt very strongly to make it so everyone from the EU region can play together in the same time zone.
(By the way, there seems to have been some conjectures about financial aspects and what not; however, we had already been operating with 18 worlds, meaning that the game server hardware and database servers we already purchased. By stopping 8 worlds, there is a near zero affect and there is not a single motive having to do with cost, so please don’t think this is the case.)
Reasoning for the Announcement of the Specifications
A large reason why we announced the specifications early was to be able to see your feedback once we released the development and operation team’s specifications. World merges are an extremely delicate topic and we need to flesh out the specific details of the specifications, so we decided it wasn’t suitable for a survey and put a stop to the idea. (It would be near impossible to gather the appropriate responses by offering a survey with methods like: A, A1, A2, B, B1, B2)
Due to this, we released the specifications early to give ourselves time to make adjustments based on feedback. I am very sorry that I was so late to follow up on this as I crashed from a high fever until this evening.
There have been comments from Foxclon, but even internally there have been heated debates about the world merge between the development, operations, and QA teams. I will be honest in saying that up until the last minute there was no plan that everyone agreed on. (The reason for this being that every plan had its own set of pros and cons)
The 4 plans that stayed prominent throughout the discussions are the 4 listed below.
(A=World with high population of players, B=World with low population of players, C=New World, X=Different World)
?A + B⇒A World to merge with B World
?A + B - X ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose a different World
?A + B - C ⇒A World to merge with B World, except people that would like to move are able to choose to go to C World
?Prepare 10 Worlds, set a limit, and give everyone the power to move their characters to a World of their choice.
There were many others as well but I eliminated them.
Of these, after thinking very carefully, we decided to prepare an announcement for ?.
The Intentions of Going with Option ?
After weighing the pros and cons of each option day and night, I finally decided to go with option ?. The biggest deciding factor for this decision was me believing in the strong bond within the community.
We thought that by giving the community plenty of time before the application period, each community would come together and discuss their destinations.
Of course, we considered the players who do not login as often as others.
Discuss Period + Selection Period A (Decision Can be Changed) + Selection Period B (Decision Can Not be Changed)
With the long time frame that was provided, I believed it was enough time for a majority of the communities to agree on a World. Another reason we decided to not reveal the World names is because we wanted everyone to decide on a World purely based on what the community wants instead of having the World name getting in the way of making that decision.
We knew that the World names will be a huge factor in deciding what World you will be going to. By hiding the World names, we thought that we would be able to avoid flooding specific Worlds and provide each community a chance to spread out without losing anyone. (I assume this is one of the reasons why the community complains that the devs always makes the wrong decision…)
We also provided a World recommended for German/French-speaking players in order to make it easy for the German/French community to gather together.
Furthermore, no matter what option we decide to go with, we knew we weren’t able to satisfy every customer. If that was the case, we thought it would be the best way to go if we gave the players the freedom to choose. Because there were no World Merges like this in the past, we had a really difficult time finalizing the specifications of the merge. On a side note, we also have plans to implement a system within The Lodestone wherein players will be able to track what players transferred to what Worlds (as Foxclon mentioned before).
The Cons of Option ?
The reason why I had a hard time choosing Option ? was because of the following factors.
A: Players who belong to multiple communities might end up being torn apart by having to decide which community they will follow.
B: The option will cause stress on all players instead of causing stress on a number of players.
C: Players who decide to come back to the game after the merger will end up on a brand new World and no longer be able to player with friends.
Both the QA team and I though factor A was the biggest problem of them all.
Factor B may not be as bad because we provided everyone the freedom to choose a destination.
Factor C also may not be as bad because we have no idea when these players will return to the game and if they do, it would be most likely with 2.0. With 2.0, we had plans to implement a World Transfer Service so we believed that should be able to address this problem.
Why We Didn't Go With Option ???
Option ? would be the most straight forward option and also it’s also the option that we can execute with the least cost. However, this option was most likely not a viable option for the French/German players. Also, we believed it was too forceful to merge the Worlds based on population as it might also cause a lot of stress for the destination World. Overall, this would be the safest way to go.
With option ?, players will be given the option to transfer to another World. However, if there ends being too many players who would want to transfer over to that World, it might end up going over the set capacity and overflow the World. Since we won’t know the results would be like until the actual we see the actual results, we would end up taking a huge risk.
In addition, if a player belongs to multiple communities, they might end up being torn apart by having to decide which community they will follow (probably not be as bad as ?).
Option ? is a twist on option ?. We put a lot of focus on the French/German players.
However, even this option might end up with not enough players wanting to transfer to the new World or too many non- French/German players that might want to transfer to the new World and prevent some French/German players from moving with their community.
I personally was deciding between option ? and option ? until the last minute and finally decided to go with option ?.
Until the World Merge Occurs
As I mentioned originally, the World Merge will be a huge event for the whole community.
I’m trying my best to be open with you by provide you specifications via topic posts and forum posts, yet it still seems to be not enough. I apologize for not being able to provide a clear explanation for everyone.
We will continue to perform internal discussions based on the feedback we have received. As I mentioned before, we want to perform the World Merge to “Move Forward in FFXIV.” In no way did I have any intentions of breaking the “bond” between you and your friends, nor break the “bond” between you and the development team.
Once again, I would like to apologize for not being able to provide a clear explanation for everyone. The only thing I would like to ask of you is to keep your feedback constructive."
Seriously, either learn to quote, or start your posts with some comment or whatever that shows you copied it from somewhere. The way you post, makes it look like you're claiming to be the producer, or at least one of the staff members. You are neither.
This is at least the second thread you start like that. Learn proper posting to avoid confusion, please.
Yes. They will think a younger female from Miami, FL is Yoshi P.
Pretty sure everyone knows it's just a copy/paste from topics.
On topic, the plan seems to be changing after some forum uproar. The latest quote from Yoshi P:
Hello everyone, Producer/Director Yoshida here.
I’d first like to thank you for all of your posts.
I’ve been looking at the threads across all regions and I’m sorry that this has caused a huge disturbance amongst each of the regions.
Currently, we're seeing a lot of feedback that favors plan 2, and we're considering revisions that use plan 2 as a base while retaining the merits of plan 4. The operations and development teams will continue to gather everyone’s feedback while we investigate further. This is also a technical matter and we also need to confirm schedule timing, so I’m sorry to say that we’ll need some additional time and that this will continue through the weekend and into the start of next week.
For the Topics announcement, we considered temporarily taking it down, but we decided against that as we feared that if players were unable to see the information, you wouldn’t be able to discuss it with the same background knowledge. Therefore, we’ll be keeping the current announcement up as we go into next week.
Just to reiterate, there are a lot of players that are voicing their concerns, and we will strive to find an acceptable balance as much as possible before moving forward. Therefore please keep this in mind and try to understand our reasoning.
Latest on the server merges (just announced today):
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the wealth of feedback you have provided us with following the announcement made on February 9, 2012 (Thursday), regarding the World merge and character transfers. In order to ensure that the most desirable and effective outcome is achieved, we will be reassessing the method of the merger process.
New details on the World merge will be made public as they become available in the Topics section of the Lodestone.
* The original announcement on the World merge and character transfers has been removed.
So they're following the community who would have preffered option 2. The plan they were going to originally do would put all of the players in a pile, letting them pick any of the new unnamed 10 worlds freely. The plan the community wanted was have preferred worlds for merged ones to transfer to, so that the servers won't be split apart, but still allow free movement if they decide to pick another.
This is the new plan, and the new names are named after legendary weapons.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
Linkshells, friends and blacklists staying? That's a nice bonus, considering they were going to break the last time we heard about it.
Thanks for the updates Draron! Ok here is the new translated post from Yioshi made by Camate:
World Merge Specification Changes (Detailed)
?World Merge Specification Overview Details?
The following are the specifics of the World Merge concept and specification overview. There is a lot of text, but I’ve made the explanations in-depth so that you can properly understand all of the information. Please read over everything when offering feedback.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?World Merge Concept ?
The main purpose of the World Merge is largely based on the idea of providing a suitable community size to all active and currently playing players for every bit of content. In other words, the goal is to make each World’s population adequate so that parties can be formed sufficiently in each time zone.
The important factor here is not the total number of active players (= number of characters), it is the amount of people from each time zone that can gather together.
Even if the number of active players is large, FFXIV is operated on global servers, so we need an environment that will allow players from each of the three time zones (Japan, North America, and Europe) to gather together.
(Though the total number of active characters for a world may seem the same, looking at it for each time zone, the number of peak players changes.) The facilitation of making each population the proper size is the main objective of this World Merge.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?World Merge Method ? - Basic consolidation-?
Below I will explain about the basic World Merge using letters. The below is an example.
(A-R?= Existing worlds 1-18)
?A + B?⇒ New World 1
?C + D?⇒ New World 2
?E + F?⇒ New World 3
?G + H ⇒ New World 4
?I + J ⇒ New World 5
?K + L ⇒ New World 6
?M + N ⇒ New World 7
?O + P ⇒ New World 8
?Q + R ⇒ New World 9
?Create New World 10 (*World recommended for those in EU time zones)
By consolidating existing Worlds, each time zone’s community size will be made appropriate. With the consolidation of the existing worlds into 9 Worlds plus the addition of one completely new World, FFXIV will operate with 10 Worlds.
The newly constructed “World 10” will be a totally new World and will be the world that we recommend to the small sized community of EU time zone players. (Of course this is not a world only for the EU time zone and it will be possible for players of other languages and other time zones to choose it.)
How Worlds will be consolidated and which Worlds correspond to the new World will be announced on Topics in the coming days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?World Merge Method ? - Community Preservation - ?
In the case of merging two Worlds together, the problem has been that it was not technically possible to preserve one of the world’s Linkshells, Friend Lists, and Blacklists; however, during tests that took place alongside the exploration of specification adjustments, we gained solid technical proof that it will be possible to completely preserve the communities of both Worlds.
In other words, regardless of the number of currently active characters on the World that is formed after merging 2 or 3 Worlds together, it will be possible to preserve the below community information for every world.
?Current Linkshell information
?Current Friend List information
?Current Blacklist information
With this, those players who elect to do nothing during the World Merge will be able to continue playing within their community as before even after they merge. Also, the same will be true for those players who are not currently subscribed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?World Merge Method ? -Freely select world to transfer to-?
Along with the basic merging of Worlds, all player characters will be given the opportunity to transfer Worlds within a certain time frame. In other words, players will be able to either remain in their current World or apply to transfer to a different World.
Players will be able to request a transfer to any World, not just the newly created World 10.
However, once a World Transfer is requested, players will not be guaranteed the ability to return to their original World. For example, suppose a player decides to try to return to his original world after requesting a transfer, but the number of players in the original world exceeds the limit, that player will not be able to return to their original World.
Also, when a player transfers Worlds, the player will be removed from all Linkshells they were a part of in the original World and will also have their Friend Lists and Blacklists cleared.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?World transfer requests and the world character limit?
World transfer requests will be handled during 2 different periods, in a method similar to the method posted in a previous Topics article.
1. World Transfer Period A (Possible to re-select a new destination World as many times as desired)
2.World Transfer Period B (Players in Worlds that have reached the limit cannot re-select a destination World)
The development and operations teams will determine a maximum number of active users per time zone for each World. This number will represent the total players from a specific time zone, rather than total players overall, and will differ for each World. The extent of player migration in each World will be represented by the following symbols on a special page on the Lodestone:
?= Possible to transfer to
?= Possible to transfer to, but the limit is fast approaching
×= Not possible to transfer to
By setting maximum limits for active users in each World, we would like to even out the populations on each server as best possible. Populations will be monitored by the development and operations teams, and players will be notified whether or not it is possible to transfer to each World.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?The recommended EU time zones server and other special measures?
World 10 will be the recommended EU time zones server, but it is not limited to players in the EU time zones. Players from other time zones, as well as players who speak languages other than French, German and English can still freely transfer to World 10. I would like to make it clear that this server is not set up for players who all speak the same language. Rather, we would like players in Europe to consider joining World 10 in order to be able to play with fellow players from similar time zones.
Since World 10 will be a new World, some players may worry that this world will be severely underpopulated if few players desire a transfer to this world. With that in mind, we decided that as a special measure, we will look into either allowing players to transfer another time or merging underpopulated servers, in the case that there is a significant disparity in the numbers of players on each server. Therefore players should have no worries when considering World 10 as a potential destination.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?Absolute reform of world names?
Until now, Worlds were named after historical towns/cities from the FINAL FANTASY series, but heading towards the release of 2.0, we decided that this World Merge would be a great opportunity to change the names of all Worlds.
The World names currently in use may be unfamiliar or difficult to understand for those who are not hardcore players, so we wanted to change these names to be more familiar to casual FINAL FANTASY players, as we approach the release of 2.0. Also, as we look to expand FFXIV, some of our visions for the future, such as releasing content based in Worlds from previous FF titles, will require us to use names previously reserved for Worlds as names of cities and other locations instead. (For example, we feel like Midgar has too powerful of an image associated with it to be used as a name for a World. Also, we would like to reserve the name Gold Saucer for the casino, not a world.)
With that said, we would like to select the names of Worlds from the “Legacy Item List” which represents the history of the FINAL FANTASY series. Here are a few world name candidates:
?Ridill
?Excalibur
?Ragnarok
?Aegis
?Balmung
We understand that there are players who have a deeper connection and attachment with the current World names, but we hope you understand that we decided to change these names with the future development of FFXIV in mind.
We will reveal the new World names along with the Topics announcement for the revised World Merge specifications.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?Clashing of character and Linkshell names due to the World Merge?
With the World Merge, it is possible that characters and linkshells with the same name end up on the same world. Here is how we will be dealing with these cases:
1. Character name overlap
The character that was created earliest (based on creation timestamp) will retain the name. All other characters with the same name will have to choose a new name.
2. Linkshell name overlap
The linkshell with the most active characters at the time of the world merge will retain the name. All other linkshells will be temporarily renamed to have a number (such as “01”) at the end of their current name. Players can then request to have their linkshell renamed through GM support.
We understand that the above issues can cause a severe inconvenience for players, but we will do our best to handle these cases as smoothly as we can.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?Conclusion?
That is all for my explanation of changes to the World Merge specs.
Due to these changes, it is possible that our planned schedule for the World Merge will be pushed back a few days. We will let you know on Topics when we have a finalized schedule.
We are very grateful that we received lots of feedback from players all over the world.
Which is going to be the English Server? I really don't want to play with Japanese people anymore, I got burnt out of that thanks to Final Fantasy XI.
No server is designated for a specific time zone besides #10, only because there's not enough of them to fill there timezone if spread out on other servers.
English-based servers isn't coming until 2.0.
Yeah Draron is correct in that it is impossible (at this moment in time) to separate either the NA or the EU players. Put it this way. EU populations is so low right now that if you were to lace them all together, it wouldn't even reach half capacity... of one server. NA populations are so low right now that if you were to place them all together, it would reach 2 servers and not at full capacity.
Here are the populations from NA EU JP from a couple of days ago (This is usually unprecedented) for the JP community to take in roll calls for all 3 major peak times. Note that the asterisk after the server signifies that the most recent population number for those servers was between February 5th-7th. They used that last number and extrapolated that data since their server population has reached critically low numbers on some servers. This is part why the charts I posted previously have stopped updating. Chances are once the merge is done, they will be able to do daily roll calls instead of only a couple of times a week since 10 servers is much more manageable than 18.
One thing to consider here. The current average of JP log ins during weekday prime time is around 10k, for NA it is around 9k, for EU it is around 6k. Yoshida did say at one point that he wanted 1500-2000 people to be the optimum number of simultaneous log ins. However, if we take the JP population since it is the highest and divide by the "10" new servers that averages out to 1k only. So it seems (at least for now he chose a much more conservative number).
Probably he did this for 2 main reasons. 1. He is hoping that with update 1.21 several folks will return and stay. 2. He didn't want to use 5 servers (which was what I estimated to reach that initial range he gave) because it would of made the merge look much worse than what it is. Going from 18 to 5 is much more harsh than going down to 10. Had he gone with 5 he would of achieved an average within that range. Example: Had he gone with 5 servers (and using the same JP example of 10k) he would of averaged 2000 which would of been the upper limit.
Words Distribution Reference During Weekdays JP
I used a period here to line them up.
ALL? .JP? .EN?.FR?DE?
1035 862 140 40 07 Selbina
.860 740 112 03 02 Gysahl
.741 675 074 01 02 Cornelia
.761 675 092 00 00 Figaro
.676 589 075 11 02 Mysidia
.650 477 139 03 38 Lindblum
.550 429 107 07 03 Kashuan
.510 424 081 05 02 Trabia
.551 424 121 08 03 Saronia
.546 427 133 13 09 Fabul
.541 408 132 04 04 Besaid
.517 462 051 01 05 Istory
.439 365 070 05 03 Palamecia
.393 345 049 01 00 Melmond
.431 298 123 15 06 Rabanastre
.342 201 137 14 05 Wutai
.334 217 109 08 04 Bodhum
.355 319 031 03 02 Karnak
Words Distribution Reference During Weekdays NA
ALL? .JP? .EN?.FR?DE?
895 563 324 25 04 Selbina
651 550 103 00 00 Gysahl
620 502 122 01 00 Cornelia
700 486 208 03 00 Figaro
590 444 152 02 01 Mysidia
528 274 244 03 13 Lindblum*
482 310 177 02 00 Kashuan
479 296 176 03 02 TrabiA
565 321 243 06 03 Saronia
485 257 222 05 04 Fabul
580 248 337 02 02 Besaid
398 273 122 01 07 Istory
350 203 149 03 02 Palamecia*
313 217 098 01 01 Melmond*
465 166 300 12 06 Rabanastre*
400 142 258 03 01 Wutai*
324 165 146 10 02 Bodhum*
269 202 063 04 02 Karnak
Words Distribution Reference During Weekdays EU
ALL?.JP?.EN?.FR?DE
644 276 282 85 12 Selbina
289 181 108 02 02 Gysahl
291 175 101 14 02 Cornelia
305 171 130 04 03 Figaro
390 191 178 20 04 Mysidia
518 167 277 05 85 Lindblum*
369 145 197 15 09 Kashuan
287 114 156 13 07 Trabia
392 145 215 21 14 Saronia
366 117 220 14 16 Fabul
430 107 320 06 09 Besaid
234 126 100 05 09 Istory
206 067 124 12 03 Palamecia*
205 100 100 03 03 Melmond*
377 080 263 30 10 Rabanastre*
350 048 279 26 10 Wutai*
272 062 195 10 03 Bodhum*
173 101 065 07 03 Karnak
EDIT: Sorry about the ? it seems that when I copy paste from the JP sites it somehow "translate" their space between the numbers into a ?. Fixing it now!
Here is a new interview with Naoki Yoshida from a couple of days ago. There were some things that stood out and I will be talking about them here. (I will break up this post in 3 parts):
http://www.videogamer.com/pc/ff14/news/how_final_fantasy_xiv_plans_to_win_back_its_audience.html
Granted I am sure they are double and triple timing on Version 2.0. But I think (at least their financial division) have already started doing some extensive forecasting in case Version 2.0 does not survive the fallout. Remember there are many critical components/areas that are needed for the version to succeed. I will cover only on 2.
I.
Version 2.0 has to be released in an immaculate/pristine state and has to be well received overall. This isn't 2002 where it only came out in Japan (in reference to XI) when news traveled much slower. These days with the various forms of communication and how things are translated within 48 hours or less (regardless if it is German, Korean, Japanese, etc.) news will get out quickly on how well or how poorly it did. Average will not cut it. Above average will not cut it.
II.
The community. This is a key component on why almost every MMORPG fails to almost never been able to gather a substantial amount of returning players and keep them for the long run (directly connected to a bad release/launch). Remember on all the fan sites as well as when the official forums opened its doors and how many frustrated players were told to go back to WOW or told to go back to FFXI. Well guess what even if the white knights consider them as "undesirables" or "mouth breathers" etc. the company needs them and they (those players that left) are heavily centralized as to why this Version was done. In part to be able to sustain the P2P model: there is no other way. The diehard fans alone cannot sustain this flagship title. As unforgiving the MMO community is even amongst the fans, there will have to be substantial evidence that Square Enix can show that this is the game you want to play and eventually pay.
III.
The 2 questions (referring to the free to play comment)
Q: We're seeing so many free-to-play titles do well after adopting the model. What is the incentive behind returning to the subscription model?
"I do think creating a hybrid from different business models is an interesting proposition, and this may be something we investigate further down the line."
Q: Would you ever consider embracing a non-subscription model in the future or is that not feasible now?
"Of course I am very interested in F2P as an alternative business plan, and I will continue to look into it. However adopting a F2P model means changing certain aspects of the game design in order to fit to the model since the prices customers have to pay for F2P are different to those they pay for subscription-based games. Therefore, if we do decide to change the business model in the future, it will also be necessary for us to adjust the game design so that it works accordingly."
Chances are if Version 2.0 only ends up being average or above average it probably won't make the cut. According to Wada for FFXI they had over "200,000 subscribers to Final Fantasy XI, allowing the company to break even and start making a profit." Chances are FFXIV will need 250k or 300k minimum to break that even point. They may end up using various degrees of the F2P model if things don't pan out 6 months after Version 2.0's release.
Funny how from the April 2011 interview with Gama Sutra Yoshida said "And when the money stops flowing, the development teams have to make their development team sizes smaller, which means they can't get enough content for the fixes, or they have to go to a different payment model like free-to-play." This was in regards to the question on why western developers cannot recover from a bad launch.
If Version 2.0 fails there is no 1. Time traveling device 2. There will be no expansion pack 3. There will be no "Do not pass Go! Do not collect 200 dollars!" card 4. There will be no Version 3.0.
The ball is in your court Square Enix. And from the recent population numbers from all 3 major peak times, they have quite a few people to convince to come back.
Interesting to see that if 2.0 fails, the house of cards comes down... Puts incentive on the developers at least to get things right or get out.
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
You should maybe edit your post to make it clear that those are your words, and not quoted from Yoshida.
He certainly never bashed the community calling them white knights, all he said about recapturing people was:
: Do you feel you need to win your audience back or are users passionate enough about the Final Fantasy brand alone to return?
NY: Well, we think it is essential to recapture players that we lost at the initial launch of the game and, in order to do that, we do not really want to take advantage of the FF brand. We'll certainly not shy away from the great Final Fantasy heritage if it will be of benefit to the game, but first and foremost we need to ensure that FFXIV in itself is providing an exciting game experience for the players. Therefore, myself and the Dev team want to create a MMO title which is both fun to play and capable of attracting and entertaining large numbers of players. This is the basic position that we also share with our services team. Our goal for the game is simple: we want to ensure that every player who tries out the finished version will be left thinking "wow, version 2.0 is simply mind blowing".
FFXIV has a great community.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
Oh that was her words? Yargh...
I hope they succeed with 2.0 anyway. They might be better served if they do a large advertising campaign with 2.0 Like how Eve Online is all over the internet, and Rift. The usual "one big trailer = win" that Square Enix does just isn't good enough anymore...
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
There is no need for me to edit anything. I think you may need to read it again or look closer. Under the 2 questions (which I bolded) I took out of the interview I did use " " on both questions. Everything else does not. As far as FFXIV having a wonderful community my point still stands on what I said. On the forums (to be more specific): FFXIV official forums, FFXIV BG, FFXIV Pro, FFXIV Core, FFXIV MMORPG sub forums, FFXIV ZAM, FFXIV GamerScape: When the game came out and when the official forums opened its gates, the white knights did get together and told everyone (even in some cases with players who had constructive criticism) to return to FFXI or even WOW(even though that wasn't even applicable to a good portion of them). Include with that all the vile insults that were thrown out; well the picture was not pretty on any forum at the time.
I even said on top that I was going to break the post in 3 parts. I even went further and said on the various areas in making Version 2.0 successful I was going to break that into 2 parts. I am not sure if you are trolling but where is it where I said Yoshida was bashing people? I clearly separated my post in 3 distinctive parts? On top of that I said that part 3 was related to the questions, which I clearly wrote.
"Here is a new interview with Naoki Yoshida from a couple of days ago. There were some things that stood out and I will be talking about them here. (I will break up this post in 3 parts):"
Made it sound like you were summarizing the interview. Every public forum is vitriolic, not even just ones dealing with gaming. That has nothing to do with the community of XIV.
Anyways no need to get defensive, I wasn't the only one confused. I just wanted to clear that up for anyone not clicking the link.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
Ok here is the summary from the Lodestone posted earlier today (includes the new World Names):
In order to improve the player experience, we will be merging Worlds on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.
We have reevaluated the World merge system based on the large amount of user feedback we received in response to the World Merge and Character Transfers update of February 9. Now that the details of the new World merge system have been decided, we recommend that all players review the World Merge Summary and Notes Regarding the World Merge and World Transfer.
This World merge is intended to improve the player experience during the period up to the launch of FFXIV Version 2.0. New Worlds may be added in the future, for example after the relaunch or when player numbers increase.
[World Merge Summary]
Key Dates
March 1 (Thursday) to March 19 (Monday), 2012: World transfer application period. *
March 27 (Tuesday), 2012: World merge maintenance to be carried out.
Information regarding the time required for the merge maintenance process and other details will be released at a later date.
* The World transfer application period will consist of two stages. For details, see World Transfer Application below.
Merge Details
The Worlds will be merged according to the system below. The new Worlds will be named after the merge has taken place.
Current Worlds
New Worlds
Selbina
->
Ridill
Wutai
+
Gysahl
->
Masamune
Rabanastre
+
Cornelia
->
Durandal
Melmond
+
Figaro
->
Aegis
Istory
+
Mysidia
->
Gungnir
Saronia
+
Lindblum
->
Sargatanas
Fabul
+
Besaid
->
Balmung
Trabia
+
Kashuan
->
Hyperion
Karnak
+
Palamecia
+
Bodhum
->
Excalibur
Ragnarok *
* Recommended for European time zone players.
Ragnarok will be recommended for players in the European time zones. This should improve the playing experience for European players, who form a small minority scattered across the Worlds, and make it easier for them to get together and form parties. However, this is a recommendation only. The World will not be restricted to European players, and players from other regions will be free to transfer to the World.
Please note that if we determine that the new Ragnarok does not attract enough players to deliver a satisfying game experience, we will consider options such as reopening World transfer applications or merging with another World. We therefore encourage players to keep it in mind as one of the options.
World Transfer Application
During the World transfer application period indicated below, players will be able to select a destination World on the World Transfer Application Page.
* The World Transfer Application Page is scheduled to be available from March 1.
World transfer application period: From 0:00 a.m. PST, March 1 (Thursday) to 0:59 a.m. PDT, March 19 (Monday), 2012.
* The World transfer application period will consist of a first and second stage.
First Stage: From 0:00 a.m. PST, March 1 (Thursday) to 0:59 a.m. PDT, March 12 (Monday), 2012.
- Players will still be able to change Worlds even after applying for a World transfer.
* Players will not be able to select Worlds that are already populated with the maximum number of characters, but players will be able to move from such Worlds to other Worlds. Note that if a player leaves one World to transfer to another World, and in the interim the first World is filled with the maximum number of characters, the player will no longer be able to transfer back to the original World.
* It is possible that some Worlds will reach the population limit very soon after World transfer applications begin.
Second Stage: From 1:00 a.m. PDT, March 12 (Monday) to 0:59 PDT, March 19 (Monday), 2012.
- Worlds that are populated with the maximum allowable characters will be fixed and locked.
- Locked Worlds cannot be selected as a transfer destination.
- As well, all players in locked Worlds will no longer be able to apply for World transfers.
?For this reason, we recommend that players complete their World transfer applications in the First Stage.
(Example)
If Hyperion becomes populated with the maximum allowable number of characters:
- Players cannot apply to transfer to New Hyperion.
- Characters who have already applied for Hyperion can no longer select another World to transfer to.
- All characters in Trabia and Kashuan who have not already applied for a transfer to another World can no longer do so.
Conditions Required to Apply for a World Transfer
To apply for a World transfer, an existing playable character must be associated with a player's service account. As long as a player has at least one usable character, a destination World may be chosen for all characters in the service account, including characters that have not yet been paid for.
* To view and change subscription details, visit the Square Enix Account Management System and click Select Service on the left-hand menu, and then select FINAL FANTASY XIV.
Notes Regarding the World Merge and World Transfer
All character data will be transferred, with the exceptions described below.
Character Names
After the merge and transfer, if two or more characters with the same first and last name exist in the same World, only one character can keep the name, based on the order of priority below.
1. Characters that are playable on both March 26 (Monday) and March 27 (Tuesday), 2012.
2. Characters that were created first.
If your character name must be changed because another character's name takes priority, please enter a new name by following the on-screen instructions when you first log in after the World merge maintenance has taken place.
* After you enter a new name for the character, the change will also be reflected on the Lodestone.
With this World merge, all character names reserved for use from the Open Beta that have not yet been assigned to characters in the release version will be deleted, and thus no longer able to be carried over.
Retainer Names
If retainers with the same name exist in the same World, only one of the retainers can continue using the name, based on the same conditions described above for player characers.
If you are required to change the name, please do so by following the on-screen instructions when you first log in after the World merge.
About Linkshells
Carrying over linkshells
All linkshells shall be carried over to the new merged Worlds.
* The Lodestone linkshell pages will also be carried over.
* Players who transfer from the new merged World to a different World will be removed automatically from all linkshells in the current World.
* If the linkshell master leaves the merged World and transfers to a different World, the master will no longer be a linkshell member, but the linkshell itself will continue to exist in the merged World.
Linkshell names
If two or more linkshells end up sharing the same name in a merged World, the linkshell with the most active characters will keep its name. For linkshell names that must be changed, the game will automatically add numbers such as "01" and "02" after the name.
In this case only, players may use a GM call to change the linkshell name after the World merge maintenance is completed. Because linkshell names may be rejected due to the use of forbidden words or other reasons, players should submit multiple candidates when making the GM call.
* Only masters can change linkshell names.
Friend Lists/Blacklists
Friend lists and blacklists can be carried over after the merge, but players who leave the merged World to transfer to another World will lose their friend lists and blacklists.
Character Info on the Lodestone
The World name displayed in character pages, diaries, and histories (including finished histories) will change to the new World name after the merge. If the character name changes, that will also be updated.
The first stage of the World server transfer has begun. From the "World Transfer Applications Begin" thread in the official forums its seems that several servers are already locked out or full. I will place the list here, maybe someone who has an active account can verify. It seems some folks are frustrated over the fact that the options for transfer seems very limited. This is probably due to the fact that Yioshi changed his simultaneous log ins from the original 1500-2000 range to 1100-1200 (for the most part for JP prime time evening log ins).
Aside from Ragnarok, there are still 1 server that you can transfer to but they seem to going up and may close soon. So if you or your shell wanted to change to one of those servers make sure you do so soon! Obviously there are those happy where they will be going but this is more for those that wanted to transfer.
World for Transfer Availability
Hyperion X
Sargatanas X
Excalibur X
Balmung X
Masamune X
Aegis X
Durandal X
Gungnir X
Ridill ?
Ragnarok O
EDIT: It seems Aegis got full several minutes ago!
EDIT2: Durandal is now locked/full.
EDIT3: Gungnir is now locked/full.
The servers are updated many times throughout the day.
No servers are locked permanently. They are just trying to encourage people to evenly distribute but you can still get in your desired server with some patience.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan