Why no regional servers?

[Rane]

FFXIV's inclusive global server system is wonderful. Not only does it allow us to play with people from around the world, but it also makes it so that there are several peak playing times.

Would response times be faster if the servers were located in your country? Sure, but you probably wouldn't even notice it. I lived in Japan for seven years, and during that time I played WoW for a bit with a friend of mine back in the U.S. We played on a U.S. server. When we bothered to check latency his was always somewhat better than mine, but when actually playing the game we noticed no difference. Response times for me were just fine. FFXIV has big problems with lag, but it's not due to the servers being located in Japan. I guarantee you that gamers get the same crappy lag over there as well. (FFXI was certainly no zippier for me when I played it over there.)