I haven't really been following this too closely, and I'm happy to know that the EU players in my guild won't be affected, but from gaging other's opinions this is *yet another* terrible decision in a near infitely long string of terrible decisions that SoE continues to make. Congratulations.
One person said it best:
Lempo of Everfrost wrote:
SOE and PSS.1 have just created a digital wall to divide the playerbase in a game where the playerbase is not big enough.
Thinking about the bigger playerbase picture, I'm not sure what makes either of these companies think that they can afford to split the playerbase / bring in new blood to make this an even halfly worthwhile move.
Another potential downfall I see is say one of my EU guildies gets a friend interested in the game, it will be impossible for them to play together...