Hey primetide (and everyone else reading this thread). I have been wondering how you are going to handle the servers: Will there be different servers for players to choose from? Will there be regional servers? Since JA:O is very close to betastage now, I guess you already thought about it in detail at least for JA:O. The difference is that in JA:O you have mostly premade chars that players can choose between and you already stated that it would be possible for two Ivans to meet on the battlefield. Now, I think it might get more complicated for a RPG: The number of charnames might not be the problems, since you already (I think) announced we would be able to pick a first- as well as a family name plus a char name. That makes it pretty flexible. However, of course if there is just one global server (which I would greatly prefer) there could be, in the end, 20 Sangiuses, which might be a bit inconvenient. On the other hand there is nothing in the P&P game keeping you from picking the same name on several chars / the one of other famous runners. That might be weird for your street-cred but it would be possible (and it creates funny RPG aspects at times too).
The delay, that usually is a pro for regional servers, doesn't matter so much in a turn-based game I suppose. And, of course, maintaining servers in different regions of the world demands much more organizational effort, than having several at a central spot.