They announced how worlds would be shuffled.

[Hestzhyen]

How will this benefit the majority? They are pissing off a majority of their fanbase. Have you even looked around Reddit and these forums? What would have been "better" is creating a brand new datacenter and creating mass incentives, perhaps discounts off of housing for those that can't get any housing on the limited supply right now; and free gil for transferring; and FC housing movement keeping furniture intact; and maybe exclusive glam gear that isn't too enticing but enough to be something to convince people that want a fresh start to move; and perhaps longterm gathering/crafting/exp buffs for the first number of weeks after you transfer. They can lock all brand new accounts (first-time-players) to only being able to play on the new datacenter at first with their leaf character. With enough incentives, I believe a number of people would move of their own will to these servers, especially since housing is so scarce now.

I know 3+ people each in like 5 different communities already today that are pissed because they often raid with their friends from other worlds on the Aether datacenter that are now having those connections severed. And to make matters worse, we have 2 months to figure this out, in which some people may not even renew their 60 day pass at that point, because their friends have been severed from them in multiple directions.

There would never be enough incentives to get people to uproot their social communities unless it was something so extreme it would be a huge imbalance to the game itself. Like 100% guaranteed housing of your choice, free sub for x months, free item from the MogShop, extra retainer at no cost... look at all the pain in this thread. They've been trying for years to get people to redistribute themselves by offering the Road to 60 buff with free transfer to low-pop worlds but it hasn't been enough. Now they have to forcibly shuffle players around if they want to stabilize the datacenters (for all those people saying they'd rather go through Raubhan EX again... no, you don't really want to do that).

This situation sucks and it's terrible to see so much hurt from the community. I really feel for the people who have to choose between friends, statics, houses, and FCs. But it's happening because we didn't self-sort and everyone in Aether is tired of the weight of Balmung, Gilgamesh, and Mateus risking a meltdown when the next expac hits. It's all in the name of stability and performance and (hopefully) future feature improvements.

If SE had been clearer about the future benefits instead of saying "oh btw this is happening, use the remaining time wisely", there might be a little less fear and outrage. They should absolutely do better about telling us why this is happening and what this action will allow the devs to do for us further down the line. For now though I hope people can take the time to make the hard decisions once the shock wears off.