The ramblings of a EQer

Only issue I could see is that in 6 months you end up with 2 empty instances of every zone ? I guess there is a balance between catering to those that want that particular camp when they get home from work (or else they are going to rant or quit) and those that want to see other people in the game.

I'm somewhere in the middle. If all I am going to see is what I am seeing now, I would go with my own private instance for all the interaction I get with some of these folks.

Well, I don't entirely mean that there's 2 instances running 24/7 which are potentially not even populated (hogging server resources). I may have mistyped my thoughts. I meant more along the lines of having the base instance be the FFA one (undoubtedly the most populated by default), but anyone who zones in causes the server a algorithmic check to see if they are level appropriate. If they are, punt them to the 'leveling instance A or B'. And just in case they want to chill with their friend who's 50. They still have /pick available.

I feel there's not a lot of refining needed to this concept to make it fit perfectly and seamlessly into what we currently have. And honestly I can't imagine a downside.

I would gladly donate some of my game time and volunteer as a GM. Where do I sign up?

Mensa, because you'd need to be that intelligent to handle situations appropriately and without bias.

AKA the reason why the guide system no longer exists. Too many colossally mishandled issues. I got banned via a guide's actions once for training people in PoTactics. I guess my name was too similar to someone else's because I hadn't even logged in for the 4 days prior to the ban.

This information was supplied to me, along with 30 days of extra playtime out of courtesy for screwing me by the GM whom I spoke to about remedying the situation.

Sounds like a good compromise to me.. If you want to travel through low level content or PL, you have that ability and for those of the zone level range - they still have the option of the ffa experience or somewhere they can level in a more natural way

I always like the old FV rule set, 1 or 2 char limit and trivial loot code worked wonders for this exact problem. Too high a player gets involved and the mobs drop nothing worthwhile.
No surprise it was abandoned but it worked.

The 3minimum instance is a good idea. I too was looking to get some WK ogre drops, but there was only 1 instance. It was camped by the same person for a week straight. By the time I got an open slot, the mobs were grey, and now I was the high level further repeating the cycle of denying newbies items.

Stuff like that is why I didn't vote for 6month unlock. The later expansions give you more content for high and low levels, even for casual play.