I didn't want to write about other games. Yes, I can quit at any time and leave... it is not the point.
Till January I played Rift. Devs there were ready to transfer chars right away servs started to die out.
It was of course free transfer and it was possible to transfer char several times from one server to another.
The thing Im most surprised is Bioware's some kind of arrogance. Were they thinking that this game will be some kind of "messaiah" among games and nobody will leave during first year?
Or maybe it is included in the costs that some players from dying servers will leave...
I remember situation of dying servers in Warhammer... it was very frustraiting to play on empty servers (especially during open world pvp). I remember players swearing, leaving game and making bad PR on forums.
I think that it was one of main problems that causes WH to die. People can much easier swallow bugs in game (and WH was full of bugs) than take on their chest empty servers in MULTIPLAYER ONLINE game.
As for me there should be "user transparent" server merges. I log to serv1, somebody else logs to serv2 but all in all we play on the same merged_serv_12. Since player database isn't connected with www there shouldn't be many problems.