would cutting down to 2 game servers (primary & alliance), cause less player dilution? or do the same people play across each server?

no it would cause alot of people to quit. i personally wont play primary and if alliance was the only other server i would just quit the game most likely. i suspect that would be the case for quite a few players.

what servers do you play?

many play only at 1 or 2 servers and neither of those you suggested is on list.

I'm only playing Express and Tourney right now since I missed the first week of Primary. I would not play if Primary and Alliance were the only options.

playing style is very different on each of non-alliance server so if 2 were gone then many would leave too.

i war on alliance and net on express.

that's a lie, imagger can't net.

I think that the only possible contraction would be tournament and primary. I do think tho that it would be better for future players coming to the game in a way if there were fewer options.

Fewer options is a bad thing.

Look at team server, I remember telling people that it would lead to players leaving and I ended up being right. The server lost 200 + players after the old 1a server equivalent was shut down.

Specifically I remember telling h4axor wanger that player declines would occur if the old 1a in alliance server was shut down. He said that player count would jump. Fast forward....

NeoFed was at 30 to 40 players. After moving to the main council server, they lost 2/3s of their players after being farmed and membership moral because of the different style in place. Same story with Ely. Both alliances now cease to exist and some of their members stopped playing completely. MKR still exists but that is a product of their decision to stand firm and not move to alliance server.

Reducing options seems like a stupid idea to me. Also like Zarcon says, more servers gives people more of a chance to try something different. People in war alliances get more chances to net on the other servers, and vice versa.

I think it might be relevant to mention the idea of a training server for new players (preferably mandatory) to help new players determine which style of play they want and how they fit into the game.

I agree w/ the rest that removing options at this point isn't a great idea. There's been a lot of work to add new dimension to the game, and servers with widely varying dynamics seems to be doing alright for player retention atm.

I would probably give up on the game if Alliance and Primary (aka Alliance jr.) were the only options. Neither of those holds great interest for me.

When did neofed get farmed? I remember them netting their first four sets in a row.