Hey all,
I think that most people would love to see 'one' LIF world much like EVE is.
To start that up you would need a setup that would allow you to expand dynamically, so that when more people sign up you can add more servers to the cluster.
But even at a minumum you would need servers for terrain, database clusters, load balancers etc..(maybe hundred physical, that can be spilt up in a few hundred virtual instances)
Now we all know that a MMO only gets one chance to do it right.
If the launch fails the game is pretty much lost.
So...
Why not, to begin with, limit servers to a few thousand players and then start up a new 'world'.
(its a classic scenario for a good reason i think..)
When this is succesful the company has 'proven' itself to the MMO world and more importantly you will have a running product that you can show to investors, together with a solid businessplan to get funding.
If you get funding you can expand your team, optimze code etc and then you can rethink your plan to make one world.
Enough rambling from me for now, just needed to get this out of my head.