I don't know which I'd prefer as I've only played 2 MMOGs more than a week: CoH/CoV and Champions Online
Both handle them differently, and honestly I don't know which one I like more.
CoX has what I guess is the more traditional method. Upon creating a character you would select from maybe a dozen servers and that server would be your home. But then you're not really meeting people from the other servers so if you choose poorly you're SOL. Though they eventually let you migrate your toon.
Champions has what I guess are best called as shards? For each map (or zone) there are umpteen versions currently handling up to 100 players a piece.
So when you want to zone to Millenium City it will either
- Prompt you which instance you want, showing you a list which labels which one has team membes and friends
- If you disabled that option it will automatically send you to the "best" one. Either the one with your current team or the one with the most free space.
For Champions, you can change instances on-the-fly, and there are various valid reasons to do so. But then your coordinates are reset to the zone's entry/edit point. It's useful if you want to meet a friend on another instance or the open mission you want hasn't spawned yet and you want to try elsewhere.
ALSO, it makes zone-traveling a breeze. You're on one side of Millenum City and you want to go to Canada? Instead of flying across MC for a couple of minutes to the exit point just change instances, which sets you at the entrance/exit point. Then take the exit point to Canada :-)
I don't know which I prefer. I don't minding the Champions method even with the current 100-cap. I'm not running into THAT many players unless I'm in a major area like the entrance/exit, mission contact, while in CoX I would always be running into players. Both scenarios were good and bad. Too many players meant better teaming but a lot of competition for open missions (kill x helions) while too few means harder teaming but little competition.
This comment was edited on Oct 5, 2009, 13:35.
"Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you."
-Fry, Futurama