lol sorry this became huge wall of text, was sleep when half the pages went threw and i'm just adding my thing about most of them.
there's only 2 reasons i can think of that it wouldn't happen with newer mmo's. 1. the devs know that the mmo's they release are mediocre compared to the ones they used to provide us even 10years ago. or 2. it's not that the servers will be empty, personally i think they will succeed and the reality is the normal servers will die out faster. when you take the players willing to play in slower progression servers out the equation your left with basically the players that no matter how easy or quick the game play is they wait for others to put things together for them.
either way the idea that dividing us is bad as a community is buttkis, reality check they are still doing this. it's called the game is going f2p and half or more of the community quit the mmo all together. everyone is looking for a game to play long term or they are just locus just running threw it and will quit anyway. choices only give a mmo more people to satisfy and more subs to gain from. your diluted in mind if you think a server that has even half my suggested changes wouldn't be a full server. those ideas are basically the soul of what ffxi was. they don't need to be all or any of those but i think SE as a company would know what type of players play mmo's and what they want right? or do they? or do they care? the difference in creating a mmo with and without this idea is keeping tons of players. who is to say witch type of servers would do the best? obviously the devs keep making games that go f2p so obviously they don't. and it's the players that keep leaving though they are getting exactly what they want, so they don't either. and lol that is another side thought. if ffxiv fails the mmo world finally knows for a fact that people on these forums don't know what they want or what they are talking about and devs should never listen to them as much as they did here. lol. oh lastly on segregation, how does having to play a mmo for years rather then quit in 6months segregate rather then build. ffxi had the best community i have ever ever had in any mmo and ffxiv comes second to that.
how can people say only the RP server is needed? why would you get what you want? lol, also check any pvp thread and every other person says this, as long as pvp doesn't effect me. and yes in ffxiv pvp won't effect you, but in a lot of mmo's it could and they separate servers "just for you!". you don't want to die while you solo or whatever, i don't want to solo, period, i don't want fast progression, period. why not a server that adds this? there is no reason to not less you think it will change your game play. and that is just selfish. what is the worst that happens they have to close half the servers? lol "oh wait" that is every mmo anyway.
and it doesn't necessarily need to segregate us, longer progression servers can still autogroup with other servers for content if wanted. and as for not being able to transfer your account to those from easier server type that just means it probably took you what a month to level. it shouldn't be a problem to have 2 accounts ..they can give us 1 free account on all servers. what have you. either way what do you think all solo play does? it segragates, auto grouping also ruins lots of guilds/linkshell community grouping up together but that's there too. it's mentality here folks not that anything i have suggested is wrong or bad idea.
also i do agree, no servers is better then many. i love the idea of 1 mega server for mmo's and freely going to any of them. but it won't destroy my game play and enjoyment less it's regional division. "ohh wait" ... also i dunno about others but i'd pay an extra few bucks a month to play on a dedicated server, so this can be a way to try this out and make a few bucks too. though that is just me.
though your all right i don't even think something like this will happen, but as every mmo for "another" 10 years fails and goes f2p then i can sit on my high horse and say i told you so. there is a reason why tv shows get canceled every other minute, they aren't a quick 2hour movie. you have to watch every week(aka our subs) and you can't please the numbers they want for them cause we are all different ...and yeah they can keep making the quick bucks off the majority but it will never be a successful mmo that way. in reality the devs are probably only on one true mission right now and that is to get as many people and as much of the rmt cash flow into there pockets.
they don't care about nitch mmo's or the people they have pushed to the side. there are mmo's being made at kickstarter.com ..there is one that made almost 4million dollars in donations http://eternity.obsidian.net/ 73.986 backers in a few months to make that 4.3 million to create a mmo type that isn't being made any more these days. though it's not quit what i was looking for (ffxi'ish) it just shows how many are out there that want what we are not getting. so in the end, weather this can be an option for a mmo company or not, it's not cause there isn't the people that support it.