Players will not be permanently assigned to shards as the matchmaking system assigns a new shard for the selected region on each login. Early on this will cause a natural distribution, as we'll start with many smaller shards in parallel.

As we start to scale our shards (and therefore shrink the number of parallel shards), this question will become more relevant. We plan to address this with our new matchmaking system.

The new matchmaking system currently in development alongside Server Meshing allows us to match players to shards based on multiple input parameters. Those are used to match players into shards with their friends, or where they left most of their items in the open world. However, it also allows us to use more advanced parameters, such as reputation and other hidden player stats that we track.

This will allow us to try and ensure that every shard has a semi-diverse collection of individuals. For example, we could make sure that we don't inadvertently load a shard up with only lawful players, which might not be very fun if part of what they want to do is hunt criminal players.