There were server mergers relatively recently reducing to 5 US and 5 EU "surviving" servers. These were basically sized to the population "as was" and as a result there are no ghost towns.
Note: there are no restrictions on which servers you play on, EU folk play on US, US play on EU and lots of people have "alts" on other servers.
Also worth noting is that LotR is not "a rush to the end game" and that is it. The nature of LotR's payment model means that lower-level characters are common.
Unless a server is locked (as full) you will be able to create a character on each to get a feel if you wish. Brandywine might still be locked; Arkenstone might be.
As for guilds you can check here http://crickhollowkins.tumblr.com/ for one of the other US servers. There are other guilds on the server but its a good starting point. I always found Second Breakfast members very friendly - disclaimer: I was never a member but have done lots of events with them. Helping others - because you want them to stick around and become "engaged" - is what LotR players have been doing for a while. In that sense its a very social game fully aware that it doesn't have "millions" of players and that newcomers have to be nurtured. In general anyway.
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Note: there are no restrictions on which servers you play on, EU folk play on US, US play on EU and lots of people have "alts" on other servers.
Also worth noting is that LotR is not "a rush to the end game" and that is it. The nature of LotR's payment model means that lower-level characters are common.
Unless a server is locked (as full) you will be able to create a character on each to get a feel if you wish. Brandywine might still be locked; Arkenstone might be.
As for guilds you can check here http://crickhollowkins.tumblr.com/ for one of the other US servers. There are other guilds on the server but its a good starting point. I always found Second Breakfast members very friendly - disclaimer: I was never a member but have done lots of events with them. Helping others - because you want them to stick around and become "engaged" - is what LotR players have been doing for a while. In that sense its a very social game fully aware that it doesn't have "millions" of players and that newcomers have to be nurtured. In general anyway.