[Bluecewe]

I've commented on population issues in the past by predicting that like other MMOs there will be an initial boom in player numbers resulting from mainstream attention. Following this, mainstream players will begin to drop off, heading to other games, leaving many servers with half-empty populations, or worse.

If SOE are careful, and put the same amount of planning into server deployment as BioWare did with Star Wars: The Old Republic, we should be okay. If not, it is likely that we'll see some server mergers.

Going on a slight tangent, this is why I wish someone would take a long look at how a single-shard open world ground-based MMO can work. A massive persistent open world dynamically generated before the game is launched with areas being fenced off as separate but unique instances having transport instances bridging the gaps and dynamic resource allocation which distributes players around the game world in a stable manner would be my approach to that issue.