Yeah... considering there has always been favoritism towards Japanese players, and that most JP look down upon non JP players...since most assume non jp are a bunch of botters, RMT and total assholes. I really don't see this game lasting very long once 2014 (loool gedit??) rolls around.
Even IF they did merge what difference would it make? 800~ or so where more then half are afk bazzaring, bots, RMT, or Japanese players who refuse non Japanese-- it'll still be just as dead as it is now.
Why else I agree about what if XI goes Jp only is because, well look at XIV's reviews! they got SO MANY NA/EU players, the servers on those sides quickly filled up so they had to add more servers to fit the mass amount of NA/EU players so much that error after error due to loads of people trying to log in. I think November's update is going to be the final test, because even with RME updates whats gonna happen? people will go back on update their RME (IF they didn't pitch them) get the new weapons and gear that made the previous ones insta obsolete then /shutdown and cancel their accounts again, I would say more missions but sadly next to no one cares about the story anymore.