Why have more than one server?

[Risvertasashi]

So, in talking to people and browsing the new player forums, it seems there are about 5 populated servers, and the rest are barren wastelands, devoid of anyone except the occasional unfortunate soul who made a character without checking the forum first.

Take a look at any thread on servers, and you'll see everyone wants to be on the bigger server. No exceptions. They don't care if they have to wait until 4 AM to log in, they want those server numbers.

If everyone is just going to cram into the highest population server anyway, why bother having other servers?

Well, I've made the suggestion in the past (more than once) that SE allow

1. Guesting on to other servers
2. Cross server /tells
3. Cross server party finders.

etc. Basically, let people play with their friends even if on a different server.

However, despite the DF being cross server, we are stuck with an archaic server model and the only way to play with people you know is to be on the same server. Participation with other populations is near impossible, and where possible, completely random.

So, here we are. Even without friends specifically, the high population servers are like living in the upbeat parts of a city. Lots of people to meet, lots of activities to attend, and so on.

[Morzy]

So you want the servers to be even more congested.. uh huh.

[Whiteroom]

I like my barren wasteland. It's quiet, and most peolpe are nice.

[Risvertasashi]

I like my barren wasteland. It's quiet, and most peolpe are nice.

That last bit isn't exclusive to small servers. And small servers do have their charm... But it can be kind of hard to get much done on them, if a given player is interested in completing content.

[Catwho]

Our server (Lamia) went from barren wasteland to one of most highly populated servers over the course of the last year, and we're still not sure why.

It's been nice, it's cut down on RMT tells a bit in the last few weeks. Server opens up for character creation at night, and as long as we log out or /busy, we tend not to get RMT tells or friends requests as much during the day. (Just checked, haven't gotten one in the last few hours.)

[BreathlessTao]

Note: which server the people who post on the forums reside on is not necessarily representative of the distribution of the population in general. So the ratios you see here might be quite different than that of the whole picture's.

[AskaRay]

I like my server. It's just the right size. I have an alt on Balmung and if I log in at like, any time besides about three AM I can barely move because of all the people around...
my poor computer...it's ok...

[Dante_V]

As someone who is on one of the lowest pop servers in the game it's far from a barren wasteland and their are many benefits to it. For one I won't be sitting in a queue on Friday morning, I'll be playing heavensward. Like when the Gold Saucer was dropped people on Gilga had to wait to queue into the area due to it reaching max capacity. On my server no such thing happened and it was still packed.
And another is that while there are less people there is much more opportunity in everything including things like server firsts, crafting, markets, housing and so on. There is also a tighter sense of community on smaller servers.

More people =/= better for everyone. Better is an opinion. I personally prefer a less populated server but I can see why some would prefer a larger one. It's all preference.

[lvlagmarink]

Take a look at any thread on servers, and you'll see everyone wants to be on the bigger server. No exceptions. They don't care if they have to wait until 4 AM to log in, they want those server numbers.

If everyone is just going to cram into the highest population server anyway, why bother having other servers?

Count me out on this, I actually chose moogle as my server simply because it's a moogle because i like mini mog card from ffviii despite the fact that i have worse latency compared from JP datacenter.. As much as i never created any character in legacy server, i'd think moogle is quite lively server

[Anarnee]

Never understood the draw of servers like Balmung and Gilgamesh. I have alts there and honestly is no better than my home server Siren. Its a case of the grass looking greener on the other side.