RP: that Halfling Ranger of mine already has a character sheet of sorts with a small back story and personality...quirks. If Terminus had a pharmaceutical industry that little fellow would be a major revenue generator, but it doesn't so he's going to be unpredictable folks.
PvE, and if there is an RP server and RP is ENFORCED then i'll be there.
The RP people are normally the best in the community, but if the server isn't enforced RP then all the trolls will be there trying to ruin everyone's good times.
Else, whatever PvE server I can find with no or the least amount of streamers. Because they always attract their viewers, and Streamer viewers are the worst kind of toxic.
I intend to Roleplay on a standard PvE server. I did not get a whole lot out of a few months on the Roleplaying Server for EQ1, and I am not sure I really get the point.
My characters will have goals, and will enlist others to fulfill them. I won't personally break character except as necessary for real life.
Third choice - pvp. But under no circumstances unless it is faction-based or very similar. I have no desire to kill other players for ratings or loot - that is what mobs are for. For a cause .... yes.
Second choice - normal pve.
First choice RP but only if there are some rules and some enforcement. Even if these are limited to names. Having many lore-friendly names around and few truly awful ones actually matters to me.
But there will be many other considerations. In other games servers often got unofficially designated as encouraged places for people in certain time zones for example. Or guilds formed (yes I know we have quite a few here) and picked a server to start on.
PVP, unless they implement a bunch of "pvp templates", pvp scaling or things like that (or special pvp gear that eliminates pve loot from the pvp equation), then I guess I'll just go PVE.
Also I don't know what kind of PVP server(s) there will potentially be but I think I'd pick an FFA one rather than a faction one if that was a choice.
I agree that we need enough people to make grouping feasible - unlike most MMOs if you cannot get a group there will not be much useful to do other than crafting. Given time zones - we will need a much larger population than the minimum during peak hours to assure that enough people are on at other times.
The two countervailing constraints are not trivial, however. There may be sizes after which lag becomes a greater and greater issue. Less technically, the smaller the size the more the sense of community and the greater the pressure on people not to troll too much or be otherwise too unpleasant less they run out of people to group with.
PVE. I would prefer some light RP meaning, able to bounce out when panicing in game-play. I have been lucky to have been exposed for a period of time to some great RP'ers and fairly decent gamers and that was thrilling, alot of down time in that time was spent talking so it was awkward to get into their rythym at first (probably drinking going on- heh) when I wanted to adventure or kill stuff.
I wouldn't mind a server that had a draconian loot rule set, and a draconian character limit.