Bringing you the Planetside news that no-one else can be bothered to, I found this in my inbox just now:
Greetings Soldiers of Auraxis!
With the goal of maintaining a high level of battle between the three Empires of PlanetSide, the two North American servers, Markov and Emerald, will be merged into one server, Gemini, on May 20, 2008.
Starting today, as a part of a select group of past PlanetSide players, you will be able to log in for free until May 21, 2008.
Preserve your Legacy! After the merge, many character names will be duplicated and priority will be given to players who have logged in most recently and to those who created their names first. (See below for name change details.)
As an added bonus, special merits will be given to native Markov and Emerald players to represent your loyalty to your past server. Characters will receive their merits upon logging into Gemini for the first time after the server merger is complete.
If you haven’t played in a while come check out what’s new in PlanetSide! Experience elevated battles and more competitive play!
[plus more about renaming specifics...]
No mention of Werner (The EU Server) up there, but that'll be next I imagine. Planetside is a game where ping actually matters a damn, so forcing all the EU folks to suck up an average additional 100ms will probably kill off Werner for good. This move brings the game down to two servers, out of an original five, and given the typical duplicate name troubles this kind of thing can cause, they're giving past players a chance to pop back in for free. Those that do so, will get first priority on keeping their name after the merge.
I'd imagine that they also hope some of us will stay and pay them some money too. I suspect I already know the answer to that, in my own case, but I'm not too proud to install up and dip in over the next fortnight, assuming the above applies to Werner also. Don't know if it's a blanket offer or just to me cos I'm speshal; check your own inboxes if you hope to take advantage of it all.
Always a distressing thing for any game, and no matter how you talk it up, a server merge is never a good sign. It can be good for the existing players of course - increased density and so on, but it still says that the game has more spare server capacity than was desired or designed. Mind you, by the time the Server Merge becomes an option, the damage is likely to have already been done, and this kind of thing is more often a kindness than a time to panic; an amputation, of sorts.
Time for (yet another) last look at a fond past stomping ground. I just hope Tabula Rasa hasn't made me soft!