This article is that AoC will merge their servers drastically was echoed all over the internet. Google alerts have held fast under the, news blips, and internet posts, barrage of blogs each attempting to slam one more nail in the coffin of a game that hasn't been live a year yet. 

Why the net wide freak out?

It sounds like a fairly doom and gloom sort of announcement, In fact, aoc gold is closing out over half their servers.
The vast array of server choices were necessary at launch after an encouraging initial sale of the game but once the shiny newness wore off, many were headed back to older games or off to check out the new ones and this left AoC server populations looking more than just a little grim. A staggering 48 servers, spanning across regions, were all open for business and yet it seemed like no one was around and this panicked a lot of players and made the game feel a lot more isolated than it actually was. Who wants to play a massively multi-player game that no one else is playing?

Tortage is actually seeing some action again!

I haven't yet played a MMORPG that has never merged servers at some point and yet the term seems to hold a stigma that convinces us that this surely is the beginning of the end. Mythic dodged this stigma somewhat with Warhammer Online by "encouraging" free character transfers to selected servers. While the cunning herding of characters eased the fears of some players, others still saw it as a sign that WAR was also doing badly. People start hearing about declining populations and safety measures being put in place to protect what is left, and they get worried and companies frantically start reassuring.

Server merges are very common. It's not at all unexpected after a game launch. MMOGs generally experience a burst of excitement and high head counts at their release and for the first couple of months after. Not being overly prepared for this would be a sin in the eyes of the community so of course developers are going to make sure there is plenty of room for everyone. Inevitably, subscriptions will decline and this leaves servers with lightened loads scaring off more players who are unwilling to ride the wave of gaming ups and downs. To keep the server communities healthy for both the players and the marketplace, merges are needed.