This just in: There are other servers than Antonia Bayle. No, really.
I bring this up because it seems that every other player who decides to pick up Everquest II decides to go to Antonia Bayle server. Does anyone actually realize that other servers exist? Oh sure, “AB” might be the most populated server, but does anyone stop to wonder why?
First off, it’s the first server. At least it’s the server which is listed first. For the same reason companies like AAAA Towing tend to get more business than AA Towing, Antonia Bayle seems to get more attention than Butcherblock. People seem to be attracted to the first letter of the alphabet. Why search for a server when you can just tag the first name in a list, right?
Now, some players just want to join a server listed as “roleplay preferred” because they enjoy…well, roleplaying. Great! Well, that is, it’s great till you actually decide to start roleplaying. Because even on Antonia Bayle, roleplaying “correctly” seems to be a matter of distinctly differing opinion (and for some players, that opinion is “not at all”). Then again, it’s not as if Antonia Bayle is the only roleplay preferred server, but I almost never hear about anyone wanting to start up new characters on Lucan d’Lere.
Of course, Antonia Bayle is listed as a “HIGH Population” server. Well, since nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, it seems that players routinely find that they just have to be around lots of other players. There seems to be this perception that because Unrest server is listed only as “MEDIUM Population” that most of the server must be some kind of ghost town. To hear some players talk about it, apparently on Kithicor server, Will Smith is out in the middle of East Freeport wondering if he’s the only man left on Norrath. He’s not, and the other servers are doing just fine for the most part.
If you still feel Antonia Bayle’s high population is where you’ll find the best play experience, I wish you the best of luck. Over a month after the release of Rise of Kunark, players on Antonia Bayle are still complaining about five minute zone times and rolling broker blackouts. So many players hit Antonia Bayle, that the server itself seems to be chronically unstable over the past several weeks, as the basic systems seem simply unable to keep up with the crush of players.
So, it’s not as if Antonia Bayle is the only server available. Feel free to start out on any of the other 24 servers. Well, except for Guk. We’re probably doing just fine without you. 😉
The Kendricke Tracker 
Weather’s still fine on Befallen! 🙂
Seriously, though, when we’re playing in a virtual world, we want to be on the one with our friends. And high pop servers have a better chance of having enough friends playing.
EvE’s single greatest victory was having just one shared world. You can’t make a bad server choice — you’re gonna be in the same world as every one of your friends.
One of the many reasons why I wish that if games must have separate servers, they would let you move freely across them (or at least semi-freely). I know people playing on 3 or 4 separate servers.
For example: I chose AB for all of the reasons I listed in my blog post when I started last week. I haven’t really noticed the issues you’re mentioning related to high population, yet– I just know that there are enough people running around to make it a fun experience.
If I did notice them, they’d probably annoy me to no end, but at this point I have over 10 hours invested in my character. It’s not much, I know, and it’s easy to restart and fast to redo it, but I’ve gotten kind of attached to him at this point and started building wealth and tradeskills.
It’s probably easier for me to just pay the cash for a server transfer when and if it becomes a problem down the line, honestly.
But yeah. The point? Separate servers without transfers are outdated and a direct barrier to bringing people together.
Outdated? Because CCP found a way around it?
What other games are using single server set-ups? Which games allow as many free transfers as you’d like whenever you’d like?
Yes, outdated because there are ways around it. That’s not to say that EQ2 should or could change how they do it, but not being able to play with my friends because we’re on different servers or meeting new people I want to play with and can’t for the same reason are two of my pet peeves about MMOs.
While separate servers can be beneficial to forming tight communities, it’s harmful to individuals who wish to play with new people they meet in real life and creates exactly the issues you’re describing when too many people play on a single server because “everyone is there.”
If you avoid the “stuck on the server” problem by allowing free transfers at fixed intervals, having one large server, or using global instances of zones that cap out at X number of players and let you cross them easily (a la Guild Wars), you manage to avoid overcrowding, avoid having ghost towns, and are able to dynamically add or remove hardware as your population fluctuates in a way that’s transparent to your players.
The fact that not a lot of traditional MMOs have this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have it. Why do you think they offer character transfers at all? It’s because people want them and have legitimate reasons to switch servers.
I think it IS outdated.
More on this:
http://random-battle.com/2007/07/19/why-do-you-hate-friendship-mr-mmo-designer/
[…] not? Isn’t Antonia Bayle the server where dreams come true? It’s the virtual land of milk, honey, and perfect roleplaying. Every street is paved in […]