For those who played DaoC you may remember that the first thing you did before creating your first character on a server you had to choose the realm you picked for the server. I was thinking if they went this route for ESO that first you would pick a faction and than it would come up with a list of realms to choose between with the ones needing that faction the most at the top and decending, and realms that the faction has hit 40% it doesn't list it at all. There could be a petition button to unlock it for you that is never refused for those that happen to want to play with a friend or a guild and the faction on that server is already over populated. By not showing a server choice for a faction most people won't try and join them unless they specifically know about the server from a friend or guild members. Also human nature tends to pick the server at the top of the list all other things being equal, again unless you already have a paticular server in mind.

Anyways the whole idea here is to help naturally balance realm populations, but not preventing guilds or friends from grouping together as that would be bad. Obviously other things ontop of this could be added to help balance sides but this helps start it that way.

If the petition to choose our own server is never denied I don't really see a point in Zenimax doing all the extra coding necessary to hide those servers in the first place.

Because most people won't wait or even look for that unless they really want to play on a certain faction on a certain server. Player balance is pretty important for a pvp faction based game so any aids they can provide are important, and the coding isn't that much since most of it is going to be coded up anyways for selecting servers etc. Every game pretty much already tends to order server selects and the like to try and get those regular players to pick certain servers, like trying to get people to play on underpopulated servers etc. And the reason I said always approved as its not good to try and prevent guild members or friends from playing together, but discouraging or encouraging others to naturally balance the game is. If you don't see a server listed at server select your more than likely going to go with one that is there. The petition could be as simple as a 15 minute wait or something, doesn't even require a person at the company to do anything, but would discourage regular folks from picking those servers, and more for those that really are looking for a certain faction and server because of friends or guildies. The idea is to direct population flows but not control players overall choice if they absolutely want a certain server and faction.

I think sorting servers which are relatively underpopulated for a certain faction is a great idea, I think disallowing the choice of servers entirely is not.

The traditional solution has, of course, been in-game bonuses for underpopulated realms (+%xp, +%gold drops, etc...). In DAoC, these bonuses had to be substantial to counter the effect of relics, which were usually owned by the most populous realm. Depending on what sorts of bonuses holding the Imperial City will confer, the degree of incentive to join underpopulated factions could vary significantly.

Either way, the good news is that 3 faction systems work naturally to counteract the effects of population imbalance over time.