SmokeJumper on Server Merges

SmokeJumper has posted a message regarding Server Merges:

Hey, folks,

We’ve been posting information about the downtimes, and Rothgar has been pretty cool about talking about the issues and such, but we haven’t made an official posting. So here goes:

1) The pain is short-term. The merges are being done to make the EQII Live gaming experiences better. I think most folks agree that higher populations make better gaming, so we’re doing the merges for that reason. And we’re working hard to get most of them done *before* the holiday break.

2) Unfortunately, when we do merges, the chat system has to be brought down…for *all* servers for the duration of the merge process. This means that almost all chat, except the most basic forms (like /tell, /say, /group and such) are crippled while we do the merges. This also includes in-game email.

3) In addition, our Platform group has been doing some year-end maintenance stuff that unfortunately compounded the issue by creating a couple extra outages in the midst of our various merges. That was unfortunate, but unavoidable…but it should also be done now.

4) The good news: We only have a couple more of these merges to do and Platform is done with most of their stuff. We’re planning on doing two more merges Wed night/Thurs morning, and then two more again on Sun night/Mon morning. After that, we’re finished until 2011!

There will be no merge madness from Dec 23 – Jan 3, and the only merges we’ll have remaining in 2011 will be the international server merges. (North American servers will be all done before the break.)

I hope this makes sense to you all. If not, please go ahead and fire off questions and I’ll check in on this thread periodically.