All right, let’s start with what seems to be a pretty clear statement: The easier it is for people to play together and not have to deal with arcane nonsense about figuring out what server everyone is on to see if you even can play together in an MMO, the better. Some games make this easy, some don’t. But a lot of games still have individual servers, and therein lies the dreaded server merge, where existing servers are mashed together to form one bigger server. This is a good thing, as it means more people can play together!
This is also a bad thing, as it usually means that not enough people are playing on the individual servers to justify having them be separate, which can be a sign of an ailing game or at least one no longer at the peak of health. It’s one of the reasons a lot of games have tried to find ways around classic mergers when possible or tried to frame the situation as focused on the former change rather than the latter cause. So do server merges make you worried or happy for an MMO? Are there games that really need some merges or ones where the merges should never have happened?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
