Well, here I am with my opinion. It's a bit late, so i didn't read whole posts, so I apologize if I say something already said by someone else.
Firstly, i was tempted to answer the first, but then i stopped to think better.
Well I decide to answer the 3rd, but with really not fully convinced. Here is why:
1. as an european player i loved the fact that Arispotle was a whole real world with timezones that matter. After the close of Windermeer, Aris was simply a true world populated at every time. Despite it was a bit painful for the OP wars, this is not a real problem: guild can just mix people from different timezones to cover, at least in a situation with Ryzom well populated.
2. The actual situation impose to have a well populated server at beginning to take a full advantage of a revamp of the game. Servers can be always added later, if needed.
3. The language is not a real problem, except maybe for the quests part and the UI. First, in every game i played, i always found localized fan sites that covered all the needs about the game. I think Ryzom should not be an exception. Second, the ingame communication can simply be solved with local language channels, ie: official language is english for region and help (uni should really return back at it's official role: help channel), faction english, and global languages channels (FR/DE/IT/ES etc...) to speak freely in your native.
Of course, any merge means a reset of the OP, it's not possible to avoid it.
It can be temporary, as said, but the high population would really benefit the game to restart well, as long as the owners got the necessary servers to manage a high population
I don't see useful a partial merge, because or french or german community would complain about the choice of one over the other (maybe not at beginning, cause we all want Ryzom opened soon, but in the long term...)
So, or there is a full merge or nothing at all, leaving the 3 server as they are.
Anyway there a single problem with any kind of merge, the lore (that's why I'm not convinced).
A reset of the OP should be easy and without any pain, but a reset of the whole Temple Event, with the whole Chronicles becoming fast just food for yubos, is a bit different.
Anything the owner decides, i think it should always fit the lore, adding eventually something in the story to justify any decision.
But I really dunno how we could justify the disappear of a whole story of the past.... because a merge need a reset of the Temples too, no other choice.
So, here is my dilemma, so maybe the better thing is to leave everything as is, if the owners can do.
