I've run a small survival server for more than two years. The community has never gotten that big, and only so many of the originals still play. Despite that, the server has created an environment that you could never get on a big server. Of course, I love the server since I run the thing, but from what I can tell, other players are having fun in ways they couldn't on a huge super-community. Every player knows at least nearly all the active players, and chat is always very interesting and lively. And as an owner, I'm actually able to talk to and receive feedback directly from the players. Sure, this does lead to a lot of people asking me for favors, but it also allows me to connect with the players enjoying the server I've worked so hard on. That's what the big servers lack. Sure, they have greater potential to create more great features because of the support and amount of donations they get, but they could never create the feeling of a small server. I don't think there are too many servers; there's just too many servers that are copies of others and/or are not well run. On the other hand, there are plenty of great small servers out there. Having too many low quality servers is just the price that is paid for the existence of a lot of nice small servers.
