I understand where you're coming from, but Chicago is a pretty central location for North America, which is why most servers are hosted there. I'd love to have the server in Montreal, and I'm sure all the Occitan and Chevalier guys would love it too, but people from Texas might decide not to play if they get 80+ ping. It's about getting the best ping for the biggest slice of players.
I don't think the actual data would back you up there. Dallas gets just as good a ping for just as many players, but for a different geographically located group of players. In point of fact, 3 of the 4 largest states in the Union get better ping to Dallas. (California, Texas, and Florida). That's 26% of the U.S. population in
those 3 states alone. That doesn't include the rest of the Southeast and Southwest that all get better pings to Dallas. Draw a line from the Georgia/South Carolina border up to the middle of Montana and everything south and west of that line gets a better ping to Dallas. The rest just north of that line wouldn't see much of a difference in their ping at all, except Chicago of course, and the Northeast would get the same ping that California currently does to Chicago. (the
largest state in the union with as many people as Texas and Illinois combined or more than the entire population of Canada)
Seriously, if the guy who owns the server is in Chicago, well obviously that's where he wants it. But don't try spreading this false premise that "more people get better ping to Chicago". Facts get in your way of that. Yes, I know all about routing != physical distance. Dallas is just as much of a major hub as Chicago and the routing goes there from those states as it does to Chicago and the connections follow.
And oh yeah, we already have servers in Chicago, so it isn't a matter of who gets the pie and who doesn't. Its a matter of who already has pie and is now getting MORE pie.
