Era Zero would exist before classic. Era Zero would allow character creation but no zones* would exist. Classic zones would be the next era so when you tried to zone into a starter city it would automatically put you into an in-era zone. *The only in-era zone for Era Zero would be Shadowrest. Maybe you have to disable /duel, skilling up, chat functions and guild invites for Era Zero --the key is you can't do anything except roll the character and be in Shadowrest. You don't want people sitting around with something to do (i.e., foraging) before the server launches for real. The point of Era Zero is it means any new server could be put up a week early to allow people to get names, set UI and be ready. This removes the rush of people that don't really care if they play the first day of the server, but want names. The new server could be taken down and locked for the 12 hours (or day, whatever) needed prior to the true launch in classic or whatever era was the true start. This example of concept is using as much already in-game things as possible. Maybe it is easier to create an out-of-game character creation or marketplace name-saver. Not sure. But I think something like this is worth doing now so next time at least this one issue is less.
So basically this would allow you to do what, save your name? You realize that in character creation over to the right of the screen there's drop downs for deity and starting city under the class selection right? This wouldn't help at all on opening day really
You'd create the complete character: name, deity, starting city, appearance, advanced. You'd click enter world and it would put you in Shadowrest. There you could set up your UI, socials and such. They could limit it to one character per account (or not). As said in the OP... this opens early, before you can play on the server. It would separate the "I want a name and have to login early" from "I must play at the very start". Some people are both, but some aren't --and anything that drops a server load a bit the first day is a good thing. Plus, alleviating the name drama is good customer service.
You'd still clobber the world server. Wouldn't it make more sense to allow a 2 week or so in advance, character name registration. 1 per active account that would let you reserve a name for launch?
You would still get hit with a crazy number of people trying to login at the same time to reserve their name. Its the login servers that are taking most of the beating. I would pay to reserve a name, but i'm sure that would upset more people than not.
You could send an email to each EQ account, in batches of 100 based off of their age. (Or any #) The email would have a specific link that allowed you to register 1 toon race/diety/stats ahead of server launch. You cycle through this, giving each 100 accounts 1 day before the next batch goes out. Longer tenure accounts (loyalty proven) have priority on attempting to secure their name... This could also bring back some older inactive accounts
