I am copy pasting this idea I added to a recent thread so perhaps it can get some feedback. I have no idea if this idea is feasible but if so it would seem to potentially solve server balance for pvp servers. Hell, the reservation system could be dynamic software they could lease or sell and make money off of much like game engines to other games, who knows?
Perhaps a automated reservation system needs to be developed for this to work, one that would be transparent and available to the player base so you could try and join certain servers and factions as guilds, groups or individuals. Maybe it could give you a choice, which faction do you choose and if you do not get that choice, will you accept the alternative?
If your criteria is not met, you continue gaming on your current server or perhaps enter a queue for the next released server. If the server criteria is not met, ie balanced reserved population, then others servers are not released. If this can be programmed successfully, you would think more would be open to accepting their second choice when needed based on the fact that the servers should be balanced.
There should also be discussion about server rule sets for these servers, such as x-realm or could it be an open world pvp only w/o bg’s at all. Perhaps some sort of modified honor system where honor was not awarded in bg’s, you could still do them for faction rewards and of course fun. Maybe the server has a different release schedule of phases then what is currently offered, etc.
Everquest is keeping their franchise alive with time lapse progression servers. There is no reason to think that ActiBlizz could not profit from doing something similar and hopefully better with #more options as we have a much larger player base.
It is obvious we do, we only hope they do not continue to drop the ball. With the popularity of Classic, I can not see how they can not justify allocating funds to support classic and perhaps beyond, hopefully with more variety in rule sets and a legit way to balance pvp factions for pvp servers.