New poll about US servers

Hiya dudes. After reading some recent posts on the Codemasters DDO EU forum, I've started to wonder if any members of the guild would consider migrating to a US server (probably Thelanis), should DDO Europe become a desolate place.
Although I have no intention of leaving Devourer at this point, I have to admit that I have not seen many new players since the launch of DDO: Unlimited in the US, except a short period after the release of Module 9. It seems that even European newbies are attracted by the Free to Play (F2P) option that DDO Unlimited offers and - whether I like it or not - the DDO Store as well. The american servers seem to have a much bigger population, too.

My point of view: I honestly don't like the idea of DDO Store and I like playing with European people on a European server, even though it's a small one. I love The New Blood and its members. However, one can't help but think that Codemasters don't have much interest in DDO Europe anymore, even though they claim otherwise. Whether or not it's their fault or whether Turbine are helping it is another discussion, nevertheless, it seems that things are not going to get much better in the foreseeable future, unless Free to Play is introduced in Europe, and the population of Devourer is going to either stagnate or slowly decrease. As it stands, there is no word on if and when F2P will make it to Europe and it might be that Turbine doesn't want it to happen at all, even though Codemasters are keen on the idea. Who knows? As there's no communication from either of the parties involved, we are left to speculate.
Every now and then, somebody I know disappears and quite a few people who still play on Keeper or Devourer have alts on US servers as well, "just in case" Europe is closed down. Quite a few people have made it clear that they're only staying in Europe because they can't face re-grinding all their precious loot.
My plan is to play on Devourer for as long as it's fun. It's where it all started for me. I've been here for 3 years, my friends and my guild are here and I will stay faithful as long as it makes sense. Patience might pay off and chances are Devourer will see better days again. Some people have left but others have come back and I've even heard about US dudes who have come to play in the EU because they couldn't face the hordes of clueless newbies attracted by Free to Play: :p If things continue getting worse - most notably if there are no new players on the server - I will consider moving the guild to the US, if the game will still be attractive enough for me at that point.

I'd love to know what you people's opinion is on this. Please use the poll on the left and feel free to post comments to this entry. We can also start a thread on the guild forum if anybody would like to discuss things in more detail.

Thank you,

Micron :)