100669-why-server-mergers-are-not-a-sign-of-panic

== Content ==
			I think we can all agree the population on servers is much less then at launch, as to be expected.  That being said Carbine rolled out additional servers because all unexpected demand for the game.  Now that our playerbase is stabilising, Carbine should really look into merging some of the low pop servers together sooner then later to get that mmo feeling again.  No one likes a dead server, and with such a simple fix I am not sure why companies wait so long to do something like this.  Carbine please don't listen to people who will say merging servers is hitting the panic button and the game is dead because of it.  Because when it comes down to it, if you are doing something that will make the game much more enjoyable for the mass population of players that is what should matter.  	
----
			I'm for server merges, only if they acutally are needed. My server is doing fine though so I can't really say if they are. I'm afraid of what might happen with server transfers and name resevations. Remeber how mad everyone got when they couldn't reserve their name? Think about forced server merges and those same people. 	
----
			
Valid points, even if its been said a million and a half times by everyone, and then their mothers this week. I do bet that they are at least thinking about it, since theres so much chatter about it, im sure it would be difficult to not have it on their minds.  I believe what should be done now is wait and see what they elect to do. for the time being, it seems no merges. ok. 
These arent a bunch of 3rd graders running the company, one can assume they may know what theyre doing :)  maybe things will change, if they see the need for it to :)	
----
			
DFJ brought up that, with server sharding being correctly applied, they could put us all on a very small number of "servers" (using that term very loosely).  As in, there could be one PVE, one PVP, and one RP server for each region.  Since our shards, not our server, is dictating our visible population, this could work.
 
Anyone with technical expertise on that subject, I'd love to hear it.  Then, nobody could be on a "lowpop" server anymore.	
----
			The best server merges I ever saw was with Rift.  They allowed players the choice of where to merge to. 	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
The best server merges I ever saw was with Rift.  They allowed players the choice of where to merge to. 
----
			If they have fixed the Attunement then they should keep them as they are. There will be quite a few people returning.  If they haven't then merge away.  You won't be needing the extra space. That is the reality of Carbine's situation. The next patch decides it all. September is not so far away anymore. 	
----
			
Eh, it's a balancing act. On the one, you don't want your current subscribers to feel like they're in a ghost town.
 
On the other, if an MMO is going to do well long term, it will slowly be accumulating accounts over time, after the launch spike. I can imagine wanting to wait at least another month or two, to see what the general trend is before actually consolidating anything.	
----
			Limiting players to 8 abilities is crucial to the way its designed lol. They are stand alone so they they dont rely on each other making the same exact LAS for every person. .....lol though	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I'm for server merges, only if they acutally are needed. My server is doing fine though so I can't really say if they are. I'm afraid of what might happen with server transfers and name resevations. Remeber how mad everyone got when they couldn't reserve their name? Think about forced server merges and those same people. 
----
			Name 5 (subjective) things so I can pick them apart in a mega post. God, just agree to disagree and be done with it.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I am not against forced server merges, but folks do tend to take their names pretty seriously and I can imagine a whole lot of butthurt if a forced server merge causes folks to lose their names.
----
			
A simple solution to merges is, introduce second names. 
 
There, issue with names sorted. 
 
Not all servers need to be merged either. A simple statement such as "while we have a strong community on many of our servers, we admit in being too hasty and opening one too many new servers, so for the newer servers we will be merging them but will be leaving the originals" or something along those lines. There, it shows they are doing something, while also showing that there's a healthy community on other servers. People make mistakes. It's better to sort something right away and hold your hands up saying look, we screwed up" than ponder on it as the situation just gets worse and does more damage.
 
That said, I'm on a low pop server, I didn't jump ship it was one of the original ones but I am happy there. It has got a lot worse, and this week seems worse than last week but I think the biggest problem with it, is the community constantly crying how "it's dying!" that, THAT right there is what's causing the issues. There's a couple of idiots on my server (same 2-3) who do nothing but sit outside the AH 24/7 whining how "everyone" has transfered (all 2-3 of their friends "everyone") and constantly moan how it's a dead realm (it's not). It wouldn't be an issue if it was once or twice, but it is ALL day EVERY day. I pass through to the AH many times a day, and to put this in perspective, 11am they were whining about it, 1-2pm they were whining about it, 4pm they were whining about it etc etc...this was _all_ day. Due to the massive distance of /say (PLEASE nerf that!) not only was it getting tedious to hear, it puts a downer on everyone else, makes them think it is, when it isn't (especially with no facts to back it up other than "my friend moved". It looks horrible to any new players and mainly it's just plain depressing. This is all day, every day. Sure, I can ignore them, but that won't stop anyone who's easily influenced by what some random nobody says (which shockingly, seems to be tons of people) 
 
I'm fine with my server, but I'm so bored of this whinging from those who aren't. It's pathetic, it would be great if they could "fix" the servers just to shut them up (a fricken placebo effect would be just as good, hell, swapping the names "high" from "low" would convince 90% of these people that's there's a massive influx of players (and I know carbine won't do this, or should need to) but alas, even if they did fix this for those whiners, they'd just be babies and whine about something else anyway.
 
This is the stamp your feet and throw your toys out the pram era, but I suppose that's all thanks to this generation being born into a world with internet where as with the previous ones we wasn't, not sure there's anything that can be done about that.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
The way STO and CO handle this is, names are allowed to collide.  In those games, your account has a public handle that is appended to the name when necessary to disambiguate, like, "Moe@larry" and "Moe@howard" are both "Moe", but in mail and stuff you can distinguish between them.  I've seen other games append "#" and a string of digits (that again you don't have to use unless you need to disambiguate).  Second Life has surnames.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Truly frightening how many things Rift did right that are being ignored here. Dayum shame.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
No offense but noone cares about what STO did. Only Rift and WoW are acceptable as fodder on these forums.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
What's the theoretical ceiling in allocating people to certain shards from one megaserver?
----
			They need to do something cause on Thunderfoot there are an ass ton of exiles with shit for dominion.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Okay!
 
In some namespaces, WoW appends "#" and a bunch of digits to your name, so the name itself doesn't have to avoid collisions.  (I've seen this with battle.net accounts.)  In other namespaces, WoW combines the name with the server name when necessary for disambiguation (and that could be used in the context of merges by making it "original server name").  (I've seen this with half-merged servers that show people from multiple realms adventuring in the same outdoor zones to make things look crowded.)
 
I've never paid any attention to Rift, and don't even know what kind of game it is, so I can't comment on that one.
----
			
Every mmo loses players after the first couple of months.
 
The longer Carbine delays mergers the more players they will lose.
 
However names are not global so I can see why they are taking so long to merge.	
----
			why have instance mmo with servers, pick one. Just make it a mega server already so I dont have to play a dead game. :D	
----
			
Hey all,
 
I went through and cleaned up some of the off topic posts. Remember to keep it on topic. Thanks!	
----
			 Being on a high pop low pop faction server i wouldn't mind merges.. at least they should allow guesting on other servers like gw2 does.. With 40 man raids and warplots.. i never understood why they didn't just go with a mega server in the first place since most guilds would have issues filling raid rosters.. watering down the community just seems counter productive to me.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 Being on a high pop low pop faction server i wouldn't mind merges.. at least they should allow guesting on other servers like gw2 does.. With 40 man raids and warplots.. i never understood why they didn't just go with a mega server in the first place since most guilds would have issues filling raid rosters.. watering down the community just seems counter productive to me.
----
			
The only Dominion raiding guild on Contagion has now disbanded and moved to other servers as they could not guarantee 20 people on raiding night...
 
A low pop server getting even lower   :(	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I have a feeling cross server guild circles for raiding will become a thing.  
----
			
I dunno man, you make some valid points but I really feel this game is strong enough if they make a few small tweaks and go through the right promotions they can get back a good chunk of the pop. I just hope they explore other options first like free trails, come back weeks etc.
 
But I can't argue your logic in the OP.	
----