Warhammer server distribution puzzler

I’m glad I’m not responsible for the Warhammer servers, because there are forces in play that defy explanation, at least to me.

This morning SE Headstart began. I logged in just to look at the server list. Virtually all the NA Core servers are at Low/Low population this morning…except one (Badlands, iirc…should’ve written this down) which was Full/Full, and one other that was High/High.

What draws so many people to a particular server? Mythic has RP servers and Oceanic servers and other ‘flavors’ of server (I say this because in other games one server will be, for instance, the “Unofficial Roleplay” server and that’ll make it stand out and attract more players). The only thing I can guess is that Badlands is an “Unofficial North American European Server” for players in Europe who don’t want to play on GOA’s (?) servers?

Anyway, my greatest fear is that I’ll come home tonight to find the server my guild is on has become super-populated with long queue times. I have an even greater fear of that happening on the 18th. Nothing to do but wait and see, I guess.

WAR is still coming (Headstart Dates)

I haven’t seen this officially on the NA Warhammer sites, but the European site says that the Warhammer Online Headstart Program starts on Sept. 14th for Collector’s Edition pre-orders, and Sept. 15th for standard orders. Note that the 14th is a Sunday, so (most) CE pre-orders have a full day of headstart over standard buyers.

But this means that Open Beta is at most 7 days. I guess that’s enough time for some stress testing, but I’m not sure its enough time for many fixes to be developed, tested and deployed.