I'm Conflicted On Which Server To Pick

In Closed Beta, I picked Shadowlord, thinking that most people that had played FFXI would recognize that and maybe pick it, too, and I'd find FFXI veterans on the server

In Open Beta, I ended up picking Mysidia, because FF4 is my second fav solo FF game (FF7 being the first, but I don't want to pick a fanboy server with potential cloned character names). But now I've read on multiple forums that Mysidia has been designated as "the JP server." While I don't quite entirely understand that, and think "well they have a completely different time zone than EST so, when I play, I'd still be playing during the normal waking hours of US, so there would presumably be English speaking players online at that time," it still gives me pause and makes me question my server choice.

So I started looking at other popular ones (popular by high post counts in server forums on FFXIVCore and other FF14 sites).

I don't want to go Besaid, because of the RP designation. I like the idea of it, to be sure, but I eventually want my girlfriend to join me in March and she scoffed at the very notion of RP. I know it won't be EVERYBODY on Besaid doing it, but it's official designation is enough for me to cross it off my shortlist.

I saw someone on GameFAQs here post about Trabia, and even was already accepted to his Linkshell, but I hated FF8 and don't much like the name either. I also worry (and no offense to anyone) about the abundance of "elites" and overall elitism that proliferated FFXI if a lot of FFXI players (and GFAQs posters, who tend to share that play style) were to end up on Trabia. With FF14 purportedly designed to be more "casual," I don't want to necessarily worry about "why the hell aren't you wearing (insert HQ item I don't have here)?" "Cuz I don't have / can't afford it..." "Then go make money until you can and stop exping until then" "But I'd rather just exp..." "GIMP!" encounters. I understand that this will probably happen eventually anyways, and I'm not endorsing being a gimp, but I will say that I notice criticism of things like that moreso on GFAQs than I have in-game. So that's a concern of mine (and same for my gf, who will definitely be casual-style).

Then I've thought about Selbina, for the original reason I picked Shadlowlord (FFXI recognition) -- although that seems to fly in the face of my concern of FFXI elitism as well.

So yeah, I'm not really sure right now. :/

The majority of us from AH are on Trabia.. I've not really run into any elitism problems with our LS nor other players either.. I don't know what other servers are like, but I can definitely recommend coming to our server.

You can check people, but it's irrelevant at this point.

I'm sure once people start hitting LV20ish in the full retail release, there will be elitism, but you're lying to yourself if you're saying that you don't think it will exist on all servers.

As far as actual servers, I organized that all FFXIAH players should head to Trabia, and we have about 50 people over there in the beta (55 I think were in our linkshell, as of last count). If you want to be around people you'll be able to relate to, it's your best bet.

"Unofficial" servers thread on ZAM.

As for me, Lindblum. Haven't found any problems yet, nice mix of English and JP players (both friendly too).

I got a PM from someone on Eorzeapedia suggesting Fabul, so I might do that. Leaning towards that or Selbina, with Trabia still in question...

Good luck keeping that elitism down, I just hope someone's favorite job doesn't turn into those "lol" jobs and be barred from enjoying the game as a whole.