/agree with your points on ip locking and account security.
With regard to servers, all we as leaders can do is explain the risks that the server may fill up. If players choose to take a flyer on there being room after the first few days, then that is their call, and not something we have control over.
We already have legacy players who made the commitment to transfer to Excalibur some time ago. We do not consider it fair to let those players down and switch servers. The risk is very easily mitigated by new players making the effort to log on. But in the end it is up to them.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, just like it was in GW2 when we organised the pre-launch and A-net named a server in memory of Roger. At first, we had no worries and thought we would have a quiet little server with little interest. Over time, interest snowballed and resulted in SOR eventually being locked for new players for several weeks. It ended up being a very popular server.
Excalibur initially was averagely popular, with interest being more focused on Hyperion. There was also a real backlash against legacy servers, and new players rolling on them. So we figured that as the server was nowhere near capacity, and new players had shown little interest in legacy servers, we would be fine. Fast forward to the past few weeks and suddenly every new player and his dog is posting about rolling on Excalibur.
Our legacy players have no "undo transfer" button, so all we can do is encourage our new players to avoid the potential lock out and get their place on the server early.
I remember very well Fog having to post early on in GW2 and explain that SOR was locked, and it was not a pleasant experience, knowing that some people were left out. In that situation, the server was unlocked in a few weeks, but for those left out in the cold those few weeks sucked, and they missed out on all the initial events and fun. I am doing my damnedest to make sure that does not happen here.
I would rather be the person who was over-cautious and had 100% of players in the free company, and everyone laughing about it afterwards, than the officer who ignored the warning signs and said nothing. (You can all laugh at me later!!!)
Leave it to chance and hope SE magically fixes the situation, or exercise caution and guarantee yourself a spot?
Hmmm....the choice for me is very obvious, hopefully other people wanting to play with us can see the logic and benefits for themselves and get in early! /overthinking post over !
» Edited on: 2013-08-13 17:00:18