Looking for a summary of each server

[Shinra]

Just looking to join a server and not sure which to join... So does anyone know the populations of each server or what the overall community is like on them? (ie full of rpers, full of endgame raider, full of noobs etc) Just trying to get a feel for which I'd like to join.

[Feba]

Re: Looking for a summary of each server

Most of them are going to be roughly the same. Some are higher in population (Odin) and some are lower, but in general it's more about who you know than where you are.

If you must choose a server for a reason, pick someone here who seems nice enough and go to their server. I recommend wherever Murphie is now, that way you can bug the crap out of him for me.

[Nuriko]

Re: Looking for a summary of each server

The trouble is that initially, there was no choice in servers, so people couldn't choose according to an intended or perceived theme. Contrast that with games where there's an "RP server" named, so the RPers tend to go there, so the character of the server shifts in that direction...

[Gentoo]

Re: Looking for a summary of each server

There's precious differences between all the servers, and as previously mentioned, early in the game the server you got assigned to was [for all intents and purposes] random. So no one server really got to establish itself as the RP server, or the PvP server, the n00b server. You can expect that all the servers almost identical "cultures."

There are population differences between the servers, and this page can help give you a bump of direction on that:
Database - FFXIAH.com

About the only common theme I've seen across various forums is that older servers tend to have a higher Japanese population, newer servers tend to have more of a European population. This too should be taken with a grain of salt, but at first blush it seems reasonable.

Take a look at this page to determine how long a server has been around:
Category:Servers - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki