Guild Wars 2's overflow servers

Although many players are adamant that having multiple servers creates unique communities within the game, I am a firm believer that if the technology allowed it we should all be playing on one server. After all MMOs are supposed to be massive, and why play with thousands of players if I could play with tens or hundreds of thousands. Furthermore how many times have you found that a friend plays the same game as you just to discover they are on a different server and can never raid with you.

I believe that one day we will no longer be playing on a single server but rather a pool of servers that will allow us to make use play with all our friends while seamlessly transferring us between different resources in the server pool.

This is why I found the Server Overflow feature in Guild Wars 2 so interesting. This is how it works; you try to log into your server, it is full. In all other MMOs you wait for people to log out of the server before you can play, however in Guild Wars 2 you don’t have to do that. You are automatically taken to the overflow server, where you can enjoy the game with your selected character, however when your primary server is free you are get a choice to transfer back to your primary server so you can play with your friends and guildies. All the experience and progress you have made in the overflow server is saved.

To me this is a brilliant use of technology to solve login queues; however it is also a hint of what gaming companies can do, and should do in the future. Why should I have to select any server at all? Why not simply transfer me to a server that is least used, and allow my friends to join me. I believe this is the future of Massively Multiplayer Online games, and Guild Wars 2 just made and excellent step towards that direction.