Many reasons (basically what the above comments state), but at a high level, people were just not prepared/expecting that, and the (nearby) player poll wasn't t

Many reasons (basically what the above comments state), but at a high level, people were just not prepared/expecting that, and the (nearby) player poll wasn't that big to allow that. The world wasn't ready. I personally think it was the right decision. I enjoyed going to the same server over and over again through a period of years and usually seeing the same people. I learned to recognize them. Some would steamroll over me, some I could dominate, some were a nice challenge. I could pick my battles.