"Any server mergers make the game look worse and worse to potential new players."

How do you figure? Server mergers group the players closer to a density the developers originally designed the game having. New players cant do any of the group quests when the population is spread too thin.

And enough with the free to play, it is by no means a cure all for a flagging mmo.

How does server merges look bad to potential new players?

There a ton of MMOs out there to choose from, and when comparing one MMO to another, a new player is going to want to spend their $ and time wisely.

If you had to pick between a MMO that has server merges 3-4 times a year, to another MMO that is brand new, and isn't having problem (yet), which MMO would you choose? Easy, the brand new one.

Gameplay can speak for itself, but if people are scared to devote time to a MMO that may be dead within less than a year, that gameplay won't be seen.

So, in the process of closing servers, in order to boost population #s, it actually has a negative affect on how potential new players see the game's worth.

Sure you could look at server mergers as a positive in the way that it takes players from low population realms to form higher population realms but, the fact that they need to merge these servers to form high population realms is the negative. Server mergers in this case indicate the game losing customers, because I can tell you first hand they haven't increased the capabilities of their game servers to support more players.

Played at launch (played 3 months) and just canceled after my second go around (1.3.2 brought me back) and I'm dumping this into the trash bin. Seeing server mergers is the nail in the coffin for me.

I went back for a look myself having played to level 36.5 before bailing of boredom and frustration with T4. What I noticed most is that I still loved T1 and the idea of PQs. However, the same issues that were present before - bad targeting, inconsistent mob pathing and hit-n-miss RVR still exists. And after having played Aion since versus having gone mostly from WOW to WAR, the graphics and combat seem very lacking. Before I felt the tone/mood of the regions and combat offset sluggish combat behavior but having been in a game with smooth combat and better graphics twice (AOC and Aion), I now find those failings unacceptable.