Yak's Bend: What Makes a Server Home?

I've been looking around at the many servers available in Guild Wars 2 before free transfers finally close, trying to find a good fit for me that Desolation (EU) just didn't seem to be. While I think I've found my new home on Yak's Bend (America), it made me think about what it is that makes a server home to me.

Part of it is definitely the atmosphere. Even though the /map chat in Lion's Arch on Yak's Bend still had it's fair share of Trolls and Nerfers (those complaining about or whining for) it was overall helpful in nature. No one attacked or trolled the random person asking about a Roleplaying guild which can be a big "kick me" sign, much like asking a question like I did where it's clear I'm not from that server originally. In any other game and on certain other servers, these things would invite trolls like vultures on a dead body.

I found that the helpfulness extended well beyond large cities and into /map chats in the world where people talked more and offered to group up for jump puzzles. People called out events more consistently and it just seemed to me that most on Yak's Bend had embraced the community building that GW2 facilitates and it's that atmosphere of community and friendliness that I look for now.

I've been playing MMOs since Everquest 1 and I've played many since. I've been a competitive bitch - stealing nodes, kills, whatever - because if I didn't the other person would. That's the way I was trained to think, that I was against the other players. They were there to hinder and inconvenience me at every turn. Even in raiding with my guild, I wasn't working with them, I was cutting corners and doing all I could to be the best on the parser to prove that I deserved the loot more than the others in line behind me.

I've never acted like that in real life. I was never an overly competitive person, let alone enough to do the things I did for loot that was just going to be replaced in a few months in a never-ending treadmill grind. To be able to step off that treadmill and not be afraid of being screwed over at every turn by other players has been amazing but I still feel the old learned emotions rise up when I see other people coming to the same gathering node I'm at, that knee-jerk territorial reaction and adrenaline that I have to get to it first. It's going to take awhile to unlearn that but with the right game, and the right server, I think I can.

So what's the other part of it? This was a lot harder for me to answer, in fact, I don't think I really know. I have friends on Yak's Bend already, friends from other games, whereas Desolation had been a completely fresh start. I knew no one there but the people I brought with me. While moving to Yak's Bend is also a fresh start in that I have no guild on the server yet, it feels less isolated with others that I know and I think that has played a major factor in my decision to move and to stay on Yak's Bend.

So what is it that makes a server home to you? What do you look for or does it even matter what the server is like? Do you form an attachment or sense of loyalty to the server you play on over time? What are some of your experiences with MMOs or the atmosphere of your server? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.